What Were My Dreams Trying to Tell Me?
To make sense of my deepest experiences, I needed a new way of talking about the soul.
TL;DR
- The author experienced a profound and growing internal emptiness in his early twenties.
- This sensation was accompanied by increased susceptibility to others' opinions, recklessness, and despair.
- Disturbing dreams of disaster and disappearance plagued his sleep.
- A friend recommended Thomas Merton's 'The Seven Storey Mountain,' which resonated with his feelings of emptiness but not its theistic solution.
- His parents arranged for him to see a psychiatrist, which indirectly led him to Freud's 'The Interpretation of Dreams.'
- Studying Freud's work and diligently logging his dreams helped him develop a form of relationship with his inner experiences.
- A teacher's suggestion to keep a detailed dream log further aided his process of recalling and understanding his dreams.
- The vividness and paradoxical imagery of his dreams provided a sense of 'interior riches' and potential for something better.