Chapter
11
If This Were a Dream, What
Would It Mean?
Learning to Read Yourself Like a Book
A woman working long hours for months was feeling persistently unwell. She had repeated dreams in which the car she was driving had brakes that didn’t work, so that no matter what she did, the car wouldn’t stop. Eventually she figured out the useful symbolism of these dreams: the breaks she took from her job only led to more work in the form of endless chores and projects at home. Because she couldn’t get herself to stop moving, the "breaks didn’t work" to provide her the rest she needed.
Investigating and interpreting the symbolism of unwanted symptoms leads to exploring your life as though it were an artist's creation--a painting, a play, a movie, or a book. Important themes and hidden meaning can be found in all aspects of your life--in the messages of dreams, habitual verbal expressions, family history, and everyday situations.
Illness is a universally sanctioned symbol of innocent vulnerability and incapacity--a "get out of anything guilt free" card. Our symptoms can get sympathetic attention for us at times when we might be facing censure at work or home. Illness can be a way to be taken care of without having to admit to feeling needy. Sickness can permit us to take a break from work when we don’t think we should allow ourselves time off. It can make us the center of attention or excuse us from effort in social situations. Because illness is so commonly linked with hidden agendas and what psychology calls "secondary gains," exploring the meaning of symptoms and their connection to the events of our lives, like investigating the symbolism in any story, can uncover practical information about resolving physical problems.
Your personal symbolic associations are
too individual to submit to the generic interpretations found in books
on dream symbolism. Instead, using a playful and persistent creativity,
you can become fluent in the language of your symbols. Learning to
interpret the meaning behind the stories of your life can lead you to
find ways to get what you want directly rather than through the indirect
agency of illness, giving you the option of creating happier endings.