Unfolding the Symbols of the Unconscious
By Greg Bogart
This book is an in-depth study of Jungian dream interpretation and its powerful healing effects. It illustrates how dreamwork promotes emotional, relational, and spiritual transformation, and aids us in gracefully navigating life transitions. The author contends that dreamwork is a natural antidepressant and can be helpful in transforming anger, bereavement, couples conflicts and impasses, as well as aiding the process of individuation. The book describes archetypal themes and complexes, synchronistic experiences and spiritual awakening in dreams, and representations of the body in dreams. The concluding chapter, “Taming Wild Horses,” explores animal dream symbolism and its importance for enhancing our human sexuality. The author also describes the Dream Mandala, a method of self-transformation through the union of opposites — the charged polarities of the personality. Dreamwork and Self-Healing will interest all readers who wish to learn about the healing potential of dreams and the therapeutic process.
Reviews:
‘Greg Bogart shows how Jungian dreamwork can be applied effectively in brief-term and long-term therapy, couples counseling, group process work, and as a catalyst for personal transformation. “Taming Wild Horses” is a powerful case study that’s unlike anything I’ve ever read. Bogart’s creative reading of Jung, Von Franz, and Edinger, his centering, integrative dream mandala method, and his brilliant chapter on dreams and spirituality make this book highly recommended reading.”
• Stanley Krippner, PhD, Co-Author Extraordinary Dreams and How to Work with Them
‘This is a book on dreams like no other. Greg Bogart’s inspirational approach to spiritual depth psychology is potent medicine indeed.”
• Linda Schierse Leonard, PhD, author of The Wounded Woman: Healing the Father-Daughter Relationship
‘For followers of both Freud and Jung, our analytic work must balance the dream with the transference. While the transference relationship has been abundantly considered in the literature, the process of dream analysis in recent years has remained unaddressed. Finally, a unique and remarkable book has appeared that is valuable to the student, the patient, and the informed clinician. Bogart’s subtle, brilliant reflections provide an in-depth resource for Jungian analytic thought reflecting his extensive experience as a writer, teacher and clinician. I highly recommend Dreamwork and Self-Healing for professionals, their clients, and others given to self-reflection.”
• John Conger, PhD, psychoanalyst, author of Jung and Reich: The Body as Shadow
‘That Jungian dream work can advance psychological healing is convincingly illustrated in this book. Properly understood, dreams enhance the dialogue between therapist and patient about specific problems in living, contribute to a therapist’s deductions about a patient’s internal object relations, and add to the growth of the patient’s self understanding. In his beautifully detailed accounts of clinical cases, Greg Bogart shows himself able to listen sensitively to his clients’ dreams and to share what he finds in them. He demonstrates that dream symbols, delved into with respectful curiosity, can often convert a patient’s complexes into constructive life energies.”
• John Beebe, MD, Jungian analyst, author of Integrity in Depth
‘This is a rich and enthusiastic book about dreams in clinical practice. Bogart’s approach to dreams is inspired mainly by the classical and archetypal Jungian traditions. Through the many detailed accounts of his patients’ dreams (and some of his own) he explores how relationships, archetypal themes, complexes, persona and shadow, anima and animus, individuation, synchronicity, spirit and body are expressed in dream work. The clinical vignettes demonstrate the evolving therapeutic process as facilitated by dreams and reflected in them. Bogart’s passion, respect and devotion to working with dreams is palpable throughout the book and so is the therapeutic, healing effect his approach has on the patients presented in the book.”
• Review in The Journal of Analytical Psychology
“The accessibility of the book and its plethora of examples make it ideal for people who are interested in learning how to understand their dreams on their own. In fact, it would be hard to identify another book so ideally suited to teaching individuals how to begin working with their dreams alone without any reference to a “dream professional.” The numerous case examples not only makes the writing extremely clear in terms of what to do and how to do it but also in terms of what kinds of immense gifts dreams represent. It would be hard to imagine anyone reading this book without being inspired to work with his or her own dreams immediately, the author makes such a compelling case. Story after story shows how, even for people who feel beaten down and hopeless in waking life, their dreams contain what they need to heal and hold up a mirror of their own resplendency in wholeness. Different aspects of Bogart’s technique are illustrated, gently educating the reader in how to work with dreams, especially how to make the connections between what might appear to be mundane, baffling, or even disturbing imagery that will unlock the symbolism in terms meaningful to the dreamer. Bogart guides dreamers through a process to unpack the meaning of all dream elements, and he shows how an understanding of Jungian symbolism can further extend this interpretive process. A compelling case is made that dreams hold the key to self-understanding, self-healing, and even self-transcendence. This is a book of hope, a book that will inspire and empower readers of any level of experience or expertise to unleash the potential of the apparently mundane revelations given to them every night. Bogart shows how dreams are blessings broadcast, and that anyone can access their foresight, hindsight, and insight for personal growth.”
• Jenny Wade, Ph.D, Journal of Transpersonal Psychology
Contents
PART I. THERAPEUTIC DREAMWORK
Introduction
Dreamwork and Psychotherapy
Dreamwork and Relationships
Twenty Dreams of a Young Artist
PART II. JUNGIAN DREAMWORK
Archetypal Themes
Unfolding the Complexes in Dreams
Persona and Shadow in Dreamwork
Anima and Animus in Dreams
Dreamwork and Individuation
The Dream Mandala
Synchronicity and Dreams
Spirit and the Body in Dreams
PART III. CASE STUDY
Taming Wild Horses: A Study of Animal Symbolism and Male Sexuality