Dreams and Creating Metaphors

"When, in a dream, we select an image out of the virtually limitless repertoire of social images available to us and use it to convey a sense of what we are feeling and going through, then, it seems to me, we engage in a highly creative act. We do what any artist does with the raw material of his medium . The artist links himself to an outside audience, other people, the world at large. The dreamer is engaged in fashioning a communication to himself . there is excitement, challenge, joy at play in creativity and this is no less true in dreams than in any other form of artistic expression." Montague Ullman, Working with Dreams, 1979

Dreams are metaphors, symbolic representations which we don't fully understand until we study them in depth. Exactly the same may be said of creative work in any form: art, music, poetry, fiction, sculpture and so on. Children are as comfortable with their dreams as they are with drawing or self-expression; no one ever divides children up into those who are creative and those who aren't - so why do adults categorise themselves as one thing or the other? 'Creative types' tend to be dismissed as airy-fairy dreamers by those who have 'proper jobs' which keep the literal wheels of society moving. 'Great artists' are admired by the general public, but an artist who isn't successful in their own lifetime is usually a bit of an outcast. As a result, most adults abandon their creative side, relegating it to the level of the frivolous, and often claiming not to be at all creative.

The truth is that everyone is creative; everyone dreams in metaphors, and there's no reason why they shouldn't think, write, or draw in metaphors. They simply need to remember how.

Similarly, everyone who writes, paints, composes music and so on is a skilled dreamer, even if they never remember a dream. Many great writers and scientists paid attention to their dreams, and were able to dream stories, tunes, and solutions to scientific problems: in each case, they awoke with a metaphor couched in appropriate terms, wrote it down, and worked with it until they brought out its full expression. For example: RL Stevenson and Hans Christian Andersen regularly dreamed stories which they developed into very famous works of fiction, such as Jekyll and Hyde, and The Ugly Duckling . Paul McCartney woke up with the tune to 'Yesterday' in his head. August Kekule solved the structure of the benzene molecule in a waking dream. Elias Howe dreamed how to make a sewing machine needle work. William Blake, Salvador Dali and Rene Magritte are just three of the many visual artists inspired by their dreams.

Montague Ullman developed a method of appreciating dreams more fully and understanding them better through group work, rather than by psychoanalysis. This is based on studying the metaphors contained in the dream by gradually noticing and releasing them in a way which allows the dreamer to remain in control, and to recognise what their dream imagery means to them, in order to better understand themselves and to heal inner conflicts.

Our unconscious minds produce metaphors in much the same way, whether as dreams or as creative works, but few of us would associate the two processes; dreams are often dismissed as psychic rubbish, and creativity is undervalued and repressed. This may be largely due to the way society likes to separate us off into functional categories, to keep itself running efficiently.

However, everyone also enjoys the feeling of creativity: we all know the inner joy of a momentary spark of inspiration, when a good idea suddenly rises up; a witty observation, even a well-pruned shrub can give a gardener a sense of true satisfaction. Bizarre dreams give us a laugh, a sense of wonder at the strange workings of our own minds, even if we don't look beneath their surface.

If we accept that anyone can produce metaphors in their dreams, then anyone can produce metaphors in a form of art, too. If a group approach can unravel the layered meanings of a dream, then it can do the same with a metaphor borne of the waking mind. If a person acquires the habit of approaching their dreams in an open manner, they can treat their artistic thoughts and feelings the same way. They may find that their rigid ideas about the world begin to soften, they become more tolerant, and better able to make connections between ideas, people - anything, in fact.

Connections are key. Metaphors are connections, and connections create insight: the more we can understand how we produce metaphors, whether consciously or unconsciously, the more we will be able to create metaphors with significant meaning, not only for our personal development, but for works of art which will matter to everyone else.

Our minds are our biggest, and least used, resource: we should give them the attention they deserve.