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Appendix Two – The Methodology in Action - Page A2-15
A dream, together with some associations and comments:
My wife, my son and I were staying at what seemed to be House B (former home from
1978-1983).
Associations include going back, to our first home as a married
couple, and the first house we owned. Oddly, my son was present, even
though he was not born until several years later.
It was and it was not quite House B, and it was now the home of L (former colleague of
partner’s) and T (former nanny).
I think the uncertainty about whether it was or wasn’t House B, for
example, is a phenomenon of many dreams, and conveys the plasticity
of meaning in this medium. These two (L and T) have never been a
couple before. I think L and T, a likeable rogue and a nanny, stand for G
and J, a man and a woman about to staff the immediately imminent
course and hence to take over the house.
I was wandering around, trying to get people to be concerned about making the dinner,
but without success.
A feeling of frustration, an attempt to marshal energy at a challenging
point in the day. Focussing on what seemed essential, but experiencing
being left alone in this by others. The Hakanoa Group 6 comes to mind –
is this a representation of my relationship with them?
I became anxious that I didn’t know where my son was.
A dramatic representation of a very basic anxiety. Also, it seems as
if I have sustained a loss (and indeed, maybe occasioned one) in the
course of being left alone with a task. Loss in the pursuit of a quest.
I went upstairs. The staircase was a cross between that in House B (former home from
1978-1983) and that in House A (former home from 1973-1974), (i.e. turning right at
the top).
A merger between the means of ascent in two different places, in
different ways both setting-out places. Getting upstairs led to
simultaneous contact with experiences from different times. In this part,
House A (and all it stands for) has intruded into the dream.
I went on up - I had to go through someone’s room on the ground floor, that of a rather
shifty young man with long black hair, and to open a semi-sealed up entrance (‘So they
don’t use this way anymore?’).
6 The Hakanoa Group is a group of seven of which I am a member, formed to provide professional
development opportunities in group work, for its members and for others. It is the group that has initiated
the training course which is about to start. At the time of the dream, five of its members are due to take
part in the course as students, whilst I am on the staff group, together with one other member of the
Hakanoa Group.