The Career Within You

Finding the perfect job for your personality.

by Elizabeth Wagele

What is GOOD about nightmares.

Are ALL messages from the unconscious valuable?

Published on August 3, 2010 by Elizabeth Wagele in The Career Within You

"In the process of becoming whole, we recognize and take responsibility for our shadow. Each shadow issue we reclaim is one less to project upon another person, nationality, or race." - from "The Happy Introvert" by E. Wagele

Nightmares must be terrible for those who are so haunted by them it interferes with their sleep and waking life. But is treating the nightmares instead of their source putting the cart before the horse?

In Sarah Kershaw's New York Times article (July 26, 2010), she describes Dr. Barry Krakow's P.T.S.D. Sleep Clinic in Albuquerque, where he encourages patients to change their horrible nightmare images into pleasant images after they wake up. While I sympathize with people who have debilitating nightmares, I have trouble with Dr. Krakow's logic. Since dreams are created by the psyche-wouldn't it be more lasting to go deeper and use the dream and other clues to find out what the psyche is screaming about? As an Observer personality type, I want to know the truth behind what's happening. I can't see how changing the nightmare's plot, though it might work temporarily, will solve the patient's underlying problem. I do agree, however, that it can relax the patient enough to start a program of real therapy. If it's P.T.S.D. from war or abuse, a deep trust in one's ability to be safe must be rebuilt. Dr. Deidre Barrett of Harvard Medical School, a psychologist specializing in dreams, supports the use of Dr. Krakow's technique "if the nightmare work is integrated with psychiatry and behavioral therapies to treat the underlying condition."
I've been recording my dreams and drawing pictures of them for decades. This process led to a second career for me as a writer and illustrator (of 5 books on the Enneagram, one book on introversion, and illustrator of a 7th). Doing this for years improved my drawing ability and led to writing an introductory book with a friend on the Enneagram: "The Enneagram Made Easy."

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I have great respect for the unconscious, that unknown part of ourselves that is behind many of our attitudes and much of what we do. In attending dream classes, I learned that our dreams send wise messages from there that we're not always willing to accept. For example, one person, an Adventurer, had the habit of flitting from one career to another. One dream seemed to show that, in this stage of her life, sticking with one career would be beneficial to her. The change she would have to make in order to do that must have been a frightening prospect, however, so she couldn't "get" the message. But the seed was planted for a time when she would be ready to receive it. Another dream enthusiast, a Peace Seeker type, believed all dreams should be positive and happy and that we should prepare ourselves when we go to bed for having sweet dreams. As an Observer type, I see no point in eliminating any dreams that aren't pleasing, but instead want to find out what's real, be it negative or positive. There's no clearer route to the truth of my psyche than through my unadulterated dreams.

My dreams aren't always what I want to hear at that moment, but they represent a precious, and real part of myself. I wouldn't think of changing them. If you were given the key to the castle, why would you use it for scratching your graffiti on the castle wall instead of going through that door to drink of all the riches inside?

Wagele dream image