Dream maps: Dream analysis using psychoanalytic and gestalt methods

Abstract

Dream maps allude to four prolific analytical and psychotherapeutic approaches of interpreting and working with dream content: Freud’s, Bion’s, Jung’s and Perls’. From the theoretical onset the research proceeds with the series of dreams of a young African man. The paper presents qualitative interpretative research of a series of anxious dreams, dreamt by the research subject shortly after undergoing a months-long immigration journey from the Gambia, Africa, to Empoli, Italy. Each of the dreams puts an emphasis on the emotional connotations and all the dreams were interpreted and worked on by using psychoanalytic and gestalt psychotherapy methodology. The research focuses on the interviews conducted to observe the emotional effects that the two different dream methodologies have on the research subject and to understand if one causes less emotional reactivity than the other. The results show slight differences in the variety of emotions expressed after the interviews.