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A novel business: interpreting dreams
Interpreting dreams is the business of Shanghai's new dream analysis clinic, which takes its theories from Freud, but doesn't discount Chinese medicine, either, writes Xu Wei.
But what is ``only a dream'' can actually speak volumes, say psychoanalysts. Dreams have been the subject of analysis ever since Sigmund Freud, the father of modern psychology, published ``The Interpretation of Dreams'' in 1900. Now, with the opening of Shanghai's first dream analysis clinic, local residents can have their dreams interpreted as well. The clinic, which is part of the Shanghai Changning District Mental Health Center, has received an average of 300 patients a month since it opened in December, says president Ye Shanlong. Most suffer from sleeping disorders, he notes. ``More than 80 percent of the patients we see have sleeping difficulties like insomnia and recurring nightmares,'' says Ye. ``Doctors use professional dream analysis to find the root cause of the anxieties that are causing them these disorders.'' Although the local dream clinic is the third of its kind on the Chinese mainland (after Beijing and Hangzhou, Zhejiang Province), doctors still have to work hard to distinguish their services from superstition or fortune telling. All together, there are three doctors working in the local clinic. Traditionally, dream interpretation in China has meant a foretelling -- dreaming of fire, for example, is considered a sign of impending fortune; while losing teeth portends the loss of a relative. However, Ye dismisses this type of ``analysis.'' ``We consider a dream the working of the subconscious rather than a divine portent,'' says Ye, adding that studying dreams can also provide people with insights into themselves. ``Combined with continuous clinical experimentation, our dream clinic's practice is generally based on Freud's theories about dream interpretation that were published more than 100 years before. But the fact is, many of them continue to be applicable today.'' The tendency, in modern society, to trace problems to childhood traumas or other repressed emotions has its roots in Freudian analysis. Freud theorized that dreams reveal emotions, buried in the subconscious, or ``id.'' The remembered fragments of dreams can help uncover buried feelings, which, according to Freud, may uncover latent repressed sexual feelings and aggression. Freud also argues that dreams tap into the desire for wish fulfillment buried in the id when the controlling ego is relaxed during sleep. On the other hand, the anxiety surrounding these desires turns some dreams into nightmares. Freud's view is echoed by Professor Zhang Tongyan, a dream study expert and the chief physician of the local clinic, although he doesn't completely agree with Freud's analysis, which traced virtually all latent desires to sex. ``That may have been reasonable during the Victorian period, when Freud wrote, which was a time when sexual desire was routinely repressed,'' says Zhang. ``Today, however, our fast-paced modern life has aroused all sorts of different desires. We need to add some fresh elements to Freud's theories so as to better represent the situation today.'' Dreams, says Zhang, not only reflect one's hopes and desires, but are also rooted in daily experience. Even the position taken during sleep can affect one's dreams. ``People are likely to dream of a running carriage or a train when their heart is oppressed due to bad posture,'' says Zhang. ``The running represents the pace of one's heartbeat.'' Zhang's dream interpretation is not purely Freudian, as he also incorporates the theories of traditional Chinese medicine, including the theories of ``yin,'' ``yang'' and the ``five elements'' (wood, fire, earth, metal and water). Health, according to traditional Chinese medicine, is a harmonious balance of all these elements, and, accordingly, the water element usually represents the kidney while the wood element symbolizes the liver. ``When one has frequent dreams about water, he should pay more attention to his kidney and urinary system, which may be diseased,'' says Zhang. In addition to acting as a warning bell for potential physical ailments, the most prominent therapeutic effects of dream analysis may be simply eliminating anxiety and its related stresses. Anne Chen, an accountant at a foreign company, suffered from a recurring nightmare in which she was closely pursued by several strangers. ``No matter how fast I tried to run in the dream, it was impossible to escape the strangers,'' adds Chen. ``When they grasped my clothes and it seemed that they would catch me, the only thing I could do was to wake up, helpless and frightened.'' The nightmare bothered Chen for a long time, even affecting her work. At the clinic, however, she learned that dreams of being pursued often symbolize problems in human relations. Just hearing the explanation has relieved Chen's anxiety and pushed her to face these issues. ``It's magical,'' says Chen with a smile. ``After I dealt with these problems, I never had that dream again.'' Many of the clinic's clients are like Chen -- people with a high level of education, curious about their dreams and eager to have a better understanding of their own personalities. Another white-collar patient, who requests anonymity, asks about a dream in which he falls from upstairs. Zhang explains it as symbolizing a drop of the patient's status in the family, as his wife has been recently been promoted to a higher position. ``The doctor's analysis has eliminated my worry that it is a death knell,'' he says. ``I feel greatly relieved .'' It seems easy enough, guessing at the root causes of bad dreams. But dream interpretation, as Zhang points out, is not a simple skill. It requires a great deal of experience as well as good communication with the patient. And not all the patients are happy with the dream analysis. ``We always try to create a relationship of mutual trust with the patients. Otherwise it would be impossible to obtain any useful information from them,'' says Zhang. He doesn't exclude the application of psychological hints and guidance to eliminate the patients' worries and provide a clearer picture of their true self. ``Our job is not merely dream interpretation. It also includes psychological consultation,'' adds Zhang. ``And while we can't change things in dreamland directly, we can find the causes of the patients' anxiety through dream analysis, and in doing so, we can help to improve their lives in reality. Thus their dreams, usually connected with the reality, are likely to change for the better.'' Clinic Time: 1:30-4:30pm, Tuesday-Thursday; 8:30am-4:30pm, Saturday Address: 299 Xiehe Rd Tel: 5219-2911 Freud's Puzzles The theories of this Austrian psychiatrist, including the concept of the Oedipus complex, have had an enormous influence on art, literature and social thinking. Sigmund Freud's fundamental idea was that all humans are endowed with an unconscious in which potent sexual and aggressive drives, and defenses against them, struggle for supremacy. Freud (1856-1939) once stated: The only unnatural sexual behavior is none at all. His endeavors made people pay more attention to the unconscious mind. In his great psychological work, ``The Interpretation of Dreams,'' he said that the interpretation of dreams is the royal road to a knowledge of the unconscious activities of the mind, which has made an important impact on psychology. |
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They possess all of us, from babies to old men. They can be
so sweet that we want to hold onto them forever, or so terrifying that they make
us scream, shattering the still of the night and waking us from what is, after
all, just a dream.
