Hermeneutics in the Dream Group Setting

8/3/2019 Hermeneutics in the Dream Group Setting

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Adlerian Society (UK) and theInstitute for Individual Psychology

ear

A Collection of Topical Essays

2007

2007 Adler ian Year Book

HERMENEUTICS AND GROUP DREAM WORKTORREY BYLES AND DANIEL ECKSTEIN

Hermeneutics, or group interpretation, is how the humanities andhuman sciences proceed to higher, more adequate truths abouthuman nature and culture. It is complementary to rational,empirical science, yet maintains different criteria for thejustification of truth. Empirical science seeks the truth about theobjective world outside of us; hermeneutics seeks that we betruthful about the subjective and inter-subjective worlds within us.Adler called this inner subjective world our private logic. As amethodology, hermeneutics is perfectly suited for dream analysis.Adler also used the term social embeddedness to indicate a feelingof connection with others. Hermeneutics is a social process; it isconsistent with Adler's assertion that social interest is a criter ion ofmental health. As such, group dream work can serve as anexemplar and prototype for developing authentic community,organisational coherence and conscious interdependence amongpeople.In this paper, our purpose is to introduce a hermeneutic approach todream interpretation. Dreams contain individual and socialelements, and therefore are best understood by groups.Hermeneutics is the group practice of finding meaning that humansconduct, whether they know it or not. A hermeneutic approach todream interpretation not only brings interpretative power tospecific dreams, but it helps people become more conscious of theway in which humans collectively establish, explore and evolvecultural meanings.


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110Background: Thinking Outside the BoxAlbert Einstein famously stated that to find solutions to ourproblems requires a different consciousness than the one thatcreated the problem in the first place. When we sleep, dreams forma bridge between the consciousness that created our problems andthe new consciousness that contains their solutions. Group dreamwo~k- sharing our dreams with others - is the practice of bringingus into that new, solution-disclosing consciousness.Innumerable examples are recorded of dreams acting as carriers ofs~luti~n~. Elias Howe's invention of the sewing machine,Einstein s thought experiment of "riding a beam of light intospace': allowing him to conceive the theory of relativity, peopledetectmg early signs of serious and deadly diseases - all these, ther~sult .of powerful dreams. Psychotherapist Sandor Ferenczi (asCited in Taylor, 1992), has speculated that the capacity to uselanguage by humans originated in the dream state. We dreamedlanguage into existence.Dreams are our way of consistently "thinking outside of the box",because drea~s are pr~ucts of our combined psyche and soma,body and mind, consciousness and unconsciousness. Such apremise is consistent with Adler's notion of holism. They reflectand e~press all that our being is experiencing. They contain cluesto things that we may, in our normal waking consciousnessoverlook. Like radar signals to our existence, dreams often containmuch wisdom.Group d~e~m w?rk is a process by which we bring forth thecreative insights into our dreams with the help of other people. Itfosters a kind of thinking different from our normal Westernrational, goal-oriented thinking. It is intuitive, right-brain, holistic'and requires listening internally and externally. Itis a collaborativeprocess, not a solitary "figuring-out" process. In this non-ordinaryawareness, we often discover connections that later become

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Group discussion processes, such as the World Cafe process(l)(Anonymous, 2006), help us appreciate the importance andconnectedness of the informal webs of conversation and sociallearning through which we discover sha~ed meaning.. Sharingdreams is different from these processes in one very Importantrespect. Many of these other group processes require atopic. orquestion that the group discusses a~d.explore~.A tOpI.Cr questionis the product of higher order cogmtlVefunctions. It ISmtellectualand mental and based on ego-framed qualifications ofappropriaten~ss. While certainly appropria~ f?r ~l12:in kinds ofdeliberative processes, it still keeps us thtnktng inside the boxbecause it is tainted by conditioned thinking.Conversely, in dream work, the initiating source is the dream. Adream comes from an entirely different place than the ego-filteredmind. It is a product of a person's whole consciousness andsentient being. It is not a rationally produced or ego-prod~cedprocess. It is not limited to a habitual agenda or a preconceivedexpectation of outcome.As Carl Jung says of dreams, "Dreams (are] involuntary,spontaneous products of the unconscious psyche and are thereforepure products of nature not falsified by a conscious purpose" (ascited in Campbell, 1971, p. 67). As a pure product of nature, thedream sets the agenda for a discussion that contains the broadest,most extensive possibilities for creative insight. It brings in a muchbroader spectrum of elements to consider. Dreams feature a naturalattunement to the cultural milieu, even to the cosmos, that a personcould not otherwise state consciously.Even though dreams as topics for discussion avoid the distortionsof an ego's agenda, they are nonetheless relevant to current ~fairs.As contemporary dream pioneer, Jeremy Taylor (1992), puts It:

(I) The World Cafe refers to a struc tured method of dia logue created in 1995 by organisat iona ldevelopment consultants Juani ta Brown and David Isaacs. Ithas been adopted by grassroot


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11 2"The picture that the dream reflectsof your life is as muchcollective as it is personal. The dream always reflects therealities of our social and cultural circumstances with thesame clarity and metaphoric candor that it depicts ourindividualpsychologicaland emotionalresponses.All dreamsreflect society as whole,as well as the individualdreamer'srelationshipto it. Someof themostpotentiallyproductive,yetgenerallyneglected,aspectsof dreamwork lie in this area ofsymbolic reflection of the deep social, cultural, andarchetypal patterns below the surface appearances of ourshared,collectiveviewof reality"(p. 10).

Group dream work, then, offers the promise of getting people tothink outside the box, especially on social issues. Dreams andgroup dream work offer the possibility of discovering solutions tohuman problems that go beyond current thinking. Certainly, theindividual gets a lot more from a group interpretation of his or herdream than doing it alone or one-on-one with a friend or therapist.More perspectives bring a richer articulation of the symbols of thedream. When the dreamer hears many different views of the dream,he or she has a greater chance of finding an understanding of\~edream. -.Group interpretation of a dream has another more important effect,and it is that members of the group participate in a culturalconstruction of meaning. Interpreting a particular person's dreamsimultaneously brings a new understanding of the collectivecircumstances shared by the members of the immediate dreamgroup. Members of the group will usually be surprised to discovercommon themes of contemporary life experience when they shareand reflect on dreams in a session.So, two effects are present in a group process of interpretingdreams: (1) a given dream, and its meaning to the dreamer, isinterpreted and (2) the members of the group experience a meldingof individual perspectives into a new, singular perspective that was

113otherwise unattainable. To paraphrase John F. Kennedy, it is notjust what the group can do for an individual dream, but what anindividual dream can do to move a group of individuals towards asense of shared circumstance and collective outlook.Group dream work can produce a profound sense of communityand of shared collective wisdom. It fosters in the individual anawareness larger than that of a single person, but is uniquelyshaped by each person of the group. The human being is social bynature. Knowledge and wisdom can exist only socially. Groupdream work powerfully brings forth shared accomplishment andknowingness. Co-creation, collaboration and interdependence arepalpable qualities of the group process.Adlerian Dream Interpretation GuidelinesFrom an Adlerian perspective, dream interpretation is verypractical. Dreikurs (1967) states that, "it is generally satisfactoryand sufficient to know the general direction of the dream withoutwasting too much time and effort to discover from where thedetails of the dream-material come" (p. 226). According to Slavik(1994), being practical means "determination of main outlines orgeneral direction of a coping style without worrying over thedetails. This practical attitude has benefits in therapy, encouragingdirect solutions to problems" (p. 279).Essentially, through dreams the behaviour of the dreamer isinterpreted. Using dreams can shorten the time spent in therapy. Atherapist can frequently get to the crux of issues quickly andpromote behavioural change by extracting the dream message or byusing the dream language itself to promote movement (Gold, 1978,1979;Weiss, 1986).Dreaming is a part of the process of forward-looking, solution-oriented thinking. The "anticipatory, prescient function of thedream is always clearly discernable; it foreshadows the


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114activity of dreaming is identical to that of thinking in general: onelooks forward in one's usual manner to solutions of actualproblems in living (Adler, 1936). In contrast to thinking, however,dreaming is not a means for the attainment of a goal. It is, rather, asign or proof that one is groping with a problem (Adler, 1929a).The purpose of dreams is to create feelings, preparatory to action(Slavik, 1994).

Despite being a more social community-oriented therapy, Adlerstresses that dreams are very personal. "Demands of society are notso urgently present with us. In our dream thought we are notstimulated to reckon so honestly with the situation around us"(Adler, 1931, p. 99). Adler explains that dreaming offers solutionsto unfinished problems of the day, unfettered by felt socialdemands or constraints and in line with one's usual coping styleand mode of activity. Dreams create solutions to problems withoutdemanding anything new from the individual, and in this sense areself-deceptive. In Adler's frank statement, dreams "are an~mptto reach an easy solution for problems, and they revealxtheindividual's failure of courage" (Adler, 1936, p. 13). -,Slavik (1994) identifies the following three mechanisms utilised indreaming:(1) An individual chooses certain pictures, incidents andoccurrences as symbols that, in themselves, offer justification for apreferred style of behaviour.(2) Dreams are metaphorical, allegorical, or analogical. Dreamswould not serve to generate emotions and to motivate one if theywere too literal and could be examined in terms of common sense.They present a solution to a problem in the form, "How would it beif ... 1" Perhaps we can say that the degree of mystery in a dreamreflects the degree to which the dreamer does not want to solve aproblem in a common-sense fashion.

11(3) Dreams simplify. In dreaming, one can curtail a problem, boildown, express it in a metaphor, and treat it as if it were the same athe original problem. How one simplifies depends on one's usuway of treating problems.

"An Adlerian therapist assumes that idiosyncratic uses aretied together.The choiceof symbols,themetaphorsused, thesimplifications, the elements of a personality style, thepresentationand use of a dream, the very choice of issuesthemselves, and the message of the dream regarding issuesare holographicallytied into a consistent and cohesive styleof copingwith the challengeof living"(Slavik,1994, p. 281).

Adler stressed to "trust only movement" (as cited in Ellenberger1970, p. 576). A person's words may say one thing, but it is thaction or behaviour of the dream perhaps made visible througdrawings or enacted in psychodrama that express how one relateto others. Adler (1929b) said, ' 'We dream in the way we'd like tbehave"(p. 42), and, elsewhere, 'The individual is both the picturand the artist" (Adler, 1930, p. 5).The Interpretation of Dreams in GroupsWe now want to offer a new dimension in dream interpretationone in which a group of people collectively interpret a person'sdream. This adds a new dimension to the challenge of interpretindreams, and we believe that it is more powerful than the dyaditherapist-client process. We adhere to the general protocol fogroup dream work as outlined by Taylor (1992, and reproduced ithe Appendix).Having participated in and facilitated group dream work sessionfor approximately five years (within a certification programme othe Marin Institute of Projective Dream work, San RafaelCalifornia), we have accumulated a good body of empirical woraround the group dream work process. In the following sectionswe apply a philosophical framework - namely that of hermeneutic- to discuss why the group process is so effective.


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116Dreams are problematical to the modern Western mindset Wearenot talking about the phenomenon of dreaming - which can bestudied empirically - but about the content of dreams. The contentof a dream is highly subjective. Yet, the dream itself is a realexperience; it is indisputably an empirical event. Empirical but alsosubjective: this odd combination of phenomenological qualitieschallenges the traditional scientific method. Classical science iscaught in a dilemma; it should study dreams, because they areempirical, yet its method is ineffective, because they are subjective.Many people today typically ignore dreams because they want tounderstand the dream in an objective, rational way - ouraccustomed way of understanding anything. However, anothermethod for investigating dreams discloses solutions to humanpredicaments and has a rigor of process. This method does notviolate, but, in fact, complements empirical, rational science.Hermeneutics: The Art and Science of Interpretation \,

"< ____Hermeneutics, or the art and science of interpretation, has, over thepast 100 years, been taken from obscure theological domains andmade into a major philosophical framework for the post-modemera. Its origins lie in law and theology, where making legaljudgements and interpreting scripture required an explicit way tomap current events to general principles. In these domains, precisedeductions from hard data were not possibilities. Human judgementwas required. The hermeneutical method concerns itself with thecontinuity of cultural beliefs and the discernment of newinterpretations from earlier interpretations.Philosophers and linguists in the past century have reconstitutedhermeneutics as a major complement to classical, rational-empirical science. Whereas classical science is a :method fordealing with objective entities and the laws governing them (i.e.,the "physical sciences"), hermeneutics is a method for dealing withsubjective and inter-subjective phenomena (i.e. , the "human,""cultural," and "social sciences"). Subjective and inter-subjective

117cultural worldviews and linguistic frames of characterising theworld - domains that have to do with meaning. Ifclassical sciencedeals with external, surface observations in the three-dimensionalworld, hermeneutics deals with internal, depth observations withinthe person and within the worldview of the culture that conditionsthe person.Accordingly, hermeneutics is an ideal framework for interpretingdreams. It is inherently a group process. Hermeneutics implies agroup of people who, through conversation, constructinterpretations of events that are satisfactory to the group at somelevel. They seek to calibrate and accommodate a specific,potentially meaningful event, in this case a dream, to the largercultural inventory of symbols and meanings.Six Aspects of Hermeneutics1. CircularityHermeneutics starts with the recognition that as inquirers we do notstart with a blank slate. The tool by which we make inquiries andobservations - our minds - is subject to influences, biases,prejudices, life histories. When we "observe" things in the world,our cognitive-sensory-linguistic apparatus gives a particularconstruction of that world. lVhat we see is critically determined bythe apparatus that governs how we see. Our cognitive apparatusgives rise to a unique characterisation of what it observes. There isno such thing as objectivity.In the West, Immanuel Kant made the seminal observations of thismode of thinking, calling it a great scandal of philosophy that thecircularity of the observing process went unrecognised for 2000years of European philosophising. We are always within our minds.Circularity, therefore, is the touchstone of hermeneutics. We areinescapably bound within a circle of our mental apparatus: what wesee "out there" is shaped by our workings "in here." Observer and


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118observed mutually determine the other: in fact, the two are really asingle unit of consciousness.Likewise, in the instance of dreams, the same life experiences thatproduce a specific dream are also active in how the personinterprets the dream. Despite this seemingly inescapable solipsism,we can find a common, shared ground of understanding withothers. This finding of a common ground - whether deliberately orunconsciously conducted - is the practice of hermeneutics.Furthermore, the inherent circularity of hermeneutics manifests inthe incremental manner by which we come to understandsomething. We follow a back and forth movement between apartial understanding of the phenomenon and a sense of the whole.As Baynes, Bohman and McCarthy summarise the philosopher H-G. Gadamer:

"We attempt to comprehendthe whole on the basis of w~twe already understand, and partial understandings are'


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12 2"Although the dream is a very private communication, itrequires a social context for its fullest realisation. That is notto say that helpful work cannot be done by an individualworking alone, but, rather, that a social context is a morepowerful instrument for the type of healing that can takeplace through dream work" (p. 129).

The hermeneutical process is inherently a dialogue, not amonologue. It requires a group of observers. The process is asharing of projections, experiences and personal meanings forcreating a larger sense of the phenomena under discussion. Nosingle person can fully elaborate a cultural theme, a dream symbol,or a situation. The more people giving a personal response to adream, the more extensive can be the elaboration of that dreamcontent.The group aspect of hermeneutics is also due to the f~ that, asTaylor (1998) says, "The dreamer is uniquely blind to the meaningof his/her dream" (p. 265). The blind spots are reduced w~en agroup, rather than an individual, works on a dream. Theperspectives of others help bring forth a larger context andextension of associations that give that context depth.4. Truthfulness rather than TruthHermeneutics is a kind of group confessional experience. Peopletell what certain symbols and situations mean to them. This mayentail providing details about personal histories, experiences,beliefs and values. Because the material is inherently subjectiveand inter-subjective (i.e., cultural worldviews, personal values andhistories), truthfulness in reporting the subjective state, startingwith truthfully reporting the dream content itself, is critical to theoutcome of the process.Ken Wilber (1997) gives an example useful in distinguishingbetween truthfulness (of the inquirer) versus the truth (of theinquiry). When I say, "It is raining outside," the key issue forhermeneutics is not whether my statement matches the facts. The

12 3issue is whether I am sincerely telling the truth of what I believe tobe happening. It is not so much "does the map match the territory"but "can the mapmaker be trusted".Truth and truthfulness go hand in hand. We are not favouring oneover the other. We are making the distinction that one(truthfulness) is about the process, while the other (truth) is aboutthe outcome. Here, I am focusing on the process.The hermeneutic process involves the interior dimensions, themeaningfulness that things have to a person. ~t ~oes not pro:ide adescription of things outside of us. Rather, It IS a confession ofwhat things mean to us inside of us. Thus, it is about being honest,to the best of one's ability, of reporting on interiors - emotions,values and beliefs. In modem culture, with its materialist bias,interiors are denigrated, marginalised, not considered "real" orworthy of attention.Interior coherence of meaning is vital to psycho-emotional health.As Wilber (1997, p. 14) points out, neurosis can be considered as astate of being out of touch with one's true feelings, or one's actualdesires or one's authentic inner state. As one denies or repressesthese affective dynamics, one inadvertently deceives oneself. Itis aform of misinterpreting one's SUbjective condition.We can understand dreams as unconscious thoughts and memoriesbecoming conscious, albeit in symbolic and sometimes crypticform. The recall of a dream is a sign that the person wants to knowsomething in this area. Thus, to remember the dream and to speakabout it (whether your own or that of someone else's), is to start theprocess of getting truthful and real with yourself.This is not to diminish the value of finding the "truth" of a dream,or of any interpreted context. It is to emphasise that anot?ercomponent of human inquiry is equal to, if not greater than, findmgthe truth. This component is personal integrity and authenticity inbehaviour not some seemingly "final assessment" made by somesupposedly "objective" observer. Furthermore, for the domains in


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124which hermeneutics plays a role in human understanding, no singleabsolute truth is available. Indeed, the holding of multipleperspectives is another key aspect of the hermeneutical process.5. Multiple PerspectivesFreud observed that dreams and symbols in dreams are over-determined. This means that one can find no single, "right"interpretation of a dream. A dream can mean many things, oftencontradictory .In general, the hermeneutic process develops the characteristic thatno interpretation is privileged as the correct one. To put this incontext, remember that over a hundred-year period, the USSupreme Court (an institution dedicated to herme~uticalunderstanding) ranged from supporting slavery (the Dred ~cottDecision), to partially supporting it (upholding Jim Crow laws~,tocompletely upholding universal civil rights (the civil rightsdecisions of the 1950s and 1960s). In a sense, the old maxim, "Allis true," really is true! Truth depends on the circumstances.All perspectives are true, or to put it more attractively, "have sometruth". Different circumstances will dictate which interpretation ismost appropriate. This is hard to handle from the strictly rationalapproach. Rationality leaves no room for ambiguity.6. The "Aha" Insight as Criterion a/ValidityBecause hermeneutics is interpretation in the realm of subjectiveand inter-subjective experience, one has no recourse to objectiveverification as one might in rational empirical science. Choosingthe acceptable or appropriate interpretation of something is a matterof intuitive feeling. The person gets an "aha" experience.A person can find many interpretations - even contradictory ones -of a dream. Multiple views and perspectives are part of thehermeneutical process. Nonetheless, some are better than others,

125and knowing which may be better is a function of how the giveninterpretation feels or sits with the person. With dreams, only thedreamer can say whether someone's interpretation feels right ornot.One woman says proudly, belligerently, "Jesus Christ came to mein my dream." To her, this visitation is as objectively real as payingbills. A man says, "Oh, I see what your dream is about: it is aboutyour issues with your mother." In other words, he makes hisprojection the absolute truth and offers no other perspective. Hedoes not see that it is his perspective; indeed, his issues that he isbringing out and projecting onto others.In some sense, nothing is gained in arguing with people about theirhard-held interpretations. The proof is in how well theinterpretation allows them to behave in the world. It may take timefor the person to come around and to get to a place to acceptanother perspective.The truth-validity claim - the epistemological issue - withhermeneutics is what leaves this form of knowing vulnerable toattack by the hard scientists. Certainly, some justification for thisattack remains. We would like to have a more definite way tojustify our beliefs. We want certainty in our thinking. However, wecannot have these things. For the domains of the interior and depth,the domains for hermeneutics, this indeterminacy and "lightness ofbeing" is all that is possible.When all of the other aspects of hermeneutics are present, thisepistemological issue is less of a shortcoming. In other words,when people form community, speak truthfully about interior andstructural issues, this makes up for the soft truth criterion of "oh,that feels right to me" in finding the right interpretation. Taken as awhole package, the hermeneutical process delivers a fulfilment anda satisfaction of understanding that transcends mere rationalisation.


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126Hermeneutics Compared to Empirical ScienceOne of the most important aspects of hermeneutics is that itacknowledges the reality of the interiority of human consciousness- emotions, beliefs, intentions, motivations - and provides amethodology for dealing with it. Empirical science is mute withregard to interior meaning and attempts to deal with it by focusingon behaviour "downstream" to meaning.As the meaning of dreams is subjective and inter-subjective, theonly way fruitfully to investigate them is through a hermeneuticprocess. In general, the utility of the hermeneutic process is that itis a method for investigating the non-objective dimension of humanlife. The non-objective includes the values, morals, aestheticsensibilities and preferences, the emotions, beliefs, the inter-personal relationship issues, the religious experiences, andso on.That is, all those interior phenomena that one cannot speak ofobjectively, but which impinge on our lives and must be dealt within some fashion.Table 1 shows a comparison of hermeneutics with objectivescience.Table 1:A ComparisonofObjectivewithInterpretativeKnowingInterpretative (Hermeneutical) Objective ScienceScienceInternal states - depth External things - surfaceSubjective and inter-subjective ObjectiveGestalt, holistic, structural Linear, rational, reductionistParadox, multi-perspective Logically consistent, singlethesisRight brain Left brainIntuitive AnalyticalMetaphorical LiteralUnderstanding ExplanationInsight, realisation Conclusion, fact

127Hard science (the empirical, rational mode of knowing) deals withobjective reality. Hermeneutics (group interpretation) deals withsubjective and inter-subjective reality. Science deals with thesurface, three-dimensional world, whereas hermeneutics deals withdepth, the interiors of the human being, individually andcollectively.

Group Dream Work as Social PracticeHermeneutics practised well is how people build cultural coherenceand solidarity. While it originated in and continues to be used in thefields of jurisprudence and theology, it can serve a greater range osocial discourse. Here is the great promise of group dream work. Ican serve to popularise hermeneutics and make it a community andculture-building practice.In the hermeneutical process, the individual and society cometogether and reciprocally transform each other. Add the focus ondreams and the hermeneutical process becomes the prototype of algroup transforrnative processes.Jeremy Taylor (1992) provides one of the best cases for this in hisearly work with group dream work. As a social worker in the 1960in Oakland, California, Jeremy was working with white volunteersto assist urban poor blacks. Yet, despite the good intentions of thewhite people, a negative response to their efforts prevailed. In anact of desperation, Jeremy changed the format of engaging thewhite volunteers. He instituted a forum for sharing and discussingtheir dreams. The focus was on dreams of persons of other racesOver several weeks, the attitudes of the white people changed fromself-righteously knowing the roots of racism in a theoretical andintellectual way, to realising how emotionally and unconsciouslyembedded racism was in them.As Jeremy explains it, the process of opening up to other peoplehelped the individual person own his or her own prejudices andrepressed fears. More importantly, from sharing these with others


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12 8in a public space and recognising that others had similar repressedfear came a self-acceptance that, in turn, diminished the power ofthe repressed images.As Jeremy explained it:

"I now see these two seemingly separate actions - ofincreased self acceptance, and increased interest in andrespect for each other - as reflections of a single act of moralcourage and creative imagination, invited into consciousnessthrough the sharing of dreams" (Taylor, ibid., p. 110).

Moral courage and creative imagination are the hallmarks of ahermeneutic process. They lead to simultaneous change at thepersonal and collective levels. Jeremy's example is in the realm ofracial issues. The same kind of transformative effect can~appenacross the spectrum of interior issues: our ability to relate ~o theopposite gender, our sense of self, our relationship to money\ andlivelihood, or our public selves. The power of group interpretation,also known as hermeneutics, is that the individual person andpublic collective are changed in a reciprocating dance of mutualrecognition and reflexive understanding."Politics and psychology are married," says Arnold Mindell(1995);

"Most chronic self-criticism stems from the internalisation ofmainstream views. Every political move by the majority hasconsequences for how we each deal with ourselves. Everytime you work to free yourself from a sense of internaloppression, you begin to transform the cultures you live in"(p.38).

People are emotionally, spiritually and behaviourally rewardedwhen they part icipate in support groups, men's groups, book clubs,discussion groups, church fellowship groups, 12-step programmes,and so on. This reward is also the basis for reconciliation such as

12perpetrators need to be brought forth in order for social healing ttake place. This is restorative justice. It is through interacting withother people, sharing interpretations, working through dialogue tunderstand one's life and times that people gain a better hold otheir lives and change their habitual practices and behaviours.Hermeneutics produces shifts and helps people resolve things.What support groups and courts of justice have in common is thallowance for an individual person to share interior truths andstories, no matter how unattractive they may be, in a public circleof other people. This has a powerful transformative effect on boththe speaker and the listeners.The emotional reward from a hermeneutic process does not comefrom a person's adopting preordained principles or precepts. Icomes from sharing life experiences and outlooks, relating themthrough dialoguing with others, and finding a common ground omeaningfulness - even if that shared meaningfulness containsuncertainties, hopes and fears. One can nevertheless find personacomfort through discovered group solidarity.As the philosopher Richard Rorty (1979) says:

"Hermeneutics is not so much an alternative knowledge, butan alternative way to cope. Ifwe see knowing not as havingan essence ... but rather as a right, by current standards, tobelieve, then we are well on the way to seeing conversationas the ultimate context within which knowledge is to beunderstood. Our focus shifts from the relation between humanbeings and the objects of their inquiry to the relation betweenalternative standards of justification, and from there to theactual changes in those standards" (p. 389).

We need to recognise the essence of this interpretative practice asvalid; and we need to pursue it regularly, consciously anddiligently. Doing this will change our collective world. It wil


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130Disclosing and Co-Creating New WorldsWhile hermeneutical processes for whatever topic of discussion arevaluable for their col1aborative and co-creative effects, whendreams are the subject matter for discussion, the effect can beextraordinary. Dreams encapsulate cultural gestalts reflected in thesymbolic imagery of an individual's life history. Interpretingdreams in a group brings forth these individualistic expressions ofthe ego-in-culture. They are natural guideposts to what is possiblein the moment of our consciousness concerning these culturalissues. Thus, to interpret them in a group context is an orientingprocess to immediate cultural and social issues. Indigenous culturesaround the world have known this from time immemorial.As dreams are continually bringing these core issues to our-,consciousness, through the group interpretative process"!wecollectively explore and create mutual understandings around th~secore issues. Out of conversation of an image such as a dream, Ourgroup attention comes to "the leading edge of our awareness" ofwhat we are as a species. Our conversations and sharing itselfpromotes emotional development.Furthermore, as we collectively and hermeneutically explore ourself-identities, we change them, and thus, change our behaviour. Aswe discuss a paradigm of human behaviour, in the process oftalking about a dream, for example, we may see something aboutourselves inherent in that behaviour. In the moment of becomingconscious of that aspect of ourselves, we may then be moreconscious of it in future similar situations. This will modify ourfuture behaviour. For example, if someone sees the opposite sex asthreatening, or empowered in a way that they are not, then they willtake pre-emptive action the next time they are in situations wherethat differential of power may adversely affect them.A man and a woman of different nationalities were contemplating apretend marriage in order for each to obtain citizenship in theother's country. The man also became attracted to the woman. In

131girlfriend he had 20 years earlier who was significant to him,among other things, for being sexually unfulfilling. According tohim, this college girlfriend was voluptuous, but frigid, and he was,well, a stereotypical young college male. He had experiencedfrustration in this relationship and, in the dream that occurred 20years after he last saw her, she performed a strip tease, removinghoops from herself and placing them on him. She contemptuouslycalled him "honey". In the last part of the dream, he became lucid(he realised he was dreaming) and decided that he would fly. Heflew up the face of Notre Dame Cathedral and bounded up themassive masonry front of the building by pulling on its protrudinggargoyles.With the help of his dream group, the man saw how his generalview of women and getting into intimate relationships was a matterof jumping through hoops and was ultimately frustrating. Hesought sacred union with the female, but essentially found a stoneface with ugly gargoyles to be as far as he could get. He ended upbacking away from the pretend marriage.With an understanding of humanity made conscious, a person mayalter his or her behaviour. When the understandings are madeexplicit, as they are in the dialogue of the group, one's habitualbehaviours become conscious and amenable to change.Group Dream Work and Cultural EvolutionPhilosopher Charles Taylor (1985) makes the point that theorisingabout social, cultural and psychological phenomena is categoricallydifferent than is theorising about physical phenomena. Making atheory about culture, changes culture; but physical theories do nothave an impact on the phenomena. The circularity of hermeneuticalunderstanding makes any self-definition, on a personal or sociallevel, dynamic and unstable. A self-amplifying feedback-loopeffect occurs. Once we create an intellectual model or ideal forhumans, that model affects our subsequent behaviour and thinking.We tend consciously to embrace or resist the model we have in our


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13 2For example, if we think of ourselves as rational, self-gratifyingagents, then we act opportunistically. If we see that anyunderstanding is an ego-created illusion, then we can become moremystical in life, seeing it as unreal. If we see life as theatre (asbeing "on stage"), then we become an insufferable show off. If wesee life as dangerous and scary, then we are careful and defensive.To whatever self-understanding we arrive at, i t will invariablycorrespond in behaviour. In turn, this behaviour will reinforce ourunderstanding.Unlike the physical sciences, in the hermeneutical sciences, theoryand practice are intermingled. The actual discussion of what itmeans to be human is a cultural building process. Social changeand construction takes place within the conversation among people.Thus, the circularity of hermeneutical understanding can seemunstable, distorting and nihilistic. Nevertheless, it underscores.thesocial dimension of meaning in our lives and the necessity \ > factively participating in that social constructive process. The groupwill always produce a self-definition larger than that of any singleindividual. The group interaction itself transforms the members ofthe group. This is probably the ultimate use of hermeneutics.As Spinosa, Flores and Dreyfus (1997) point out in their book,Disclosing New Worlds, the case of Martin Luther King, Jr. showsthis reconfiguring of social conversations. Strictly from initiatingconversations among people, King transformed race relations in theUnited States. King took the Christian ethic that all people arebrothers and sisters and wedded it to the cause of inter-racialacceptance. He used a concept that white people could self-identify- Christian fellowship - and amended it to heal both the racism andthe split between races with it. This re-interpretation of raceallowed white people to reorient themselves relative to other races.What King did was to essentially conduct an interpretative,hermeneutical action.

13 3The act of discussing self-definitions and one's internalconversations about various topics and issues is itself potentially atransformative process. Dream work is a way to bring forth thesekinds of self-defining discussions among people. Hopefully, it isnow obvious that these are not discussions on an abstract andpersonal intellectual, or theoretical level only, but at a verypractical, concrete level. As the discussion pertains to a person'snight-time dream, it brings up a specific life history, interiorlandscape, emotions and fears. The discussion of human naturetakes place in the concrete terms of the person's emotional andexistential situation.ConclusionIn discussing dreams, people share their inner senses of self, and asurprising relief and solidarity usually results. In this, change at thepersonal and group level occurs.Hermeneutics as a methodology of knowing is different fromempirical science in this transformative way. Through discussionand a group attempt at defining and understanding human nature,we may actually change our behaviour and practices.As the people of the planet get more densely interconnected witheach other, we become aware of differences in cultures, values andbelief systems.What is needed is not only dialogue among people holdingdiffering views, but a trust and conviction that the dialogicalprocess is a legitimate path of resolution and reconciliation. Totrust the dialogical process, people have to see it for what it is: i tsparameters, its limitations, its differences from science andreligious doctrine. This is where awareness that a methodology ofinterpretation, that is, hermeneutics, will help the dialogicalprocess.


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Eckstein (Eds.). (pp. 24-30). Life Style: Theory, Practice, andResearch. Dubuque, 10: Kendall &Hunt.Gold, L. (1979). Adler's Theory of Dreams: An Holistic Approachto Interpretation. In: B. B. Wolman (Ed.). Handbook ofDreams: Research, Theories and Applications. (pp. 319-341).

New York: Van Nostrand.Mindell, A. (1995). Sitting in the Fire: Large GroupTransformation Using Conflict and Diversity. Portland, OR:Lao Tse Press.Rorty, R, (1979). Philosophy and the Mirror of Nature. Princeton,

NJ: Princeton University Press. \Slavik, S. (1994). A Practical Use of Dreams. Joumal of'IndividualPsychology, 50(3), 279-287. 'Spinosa, C., Flores, F. & Dreyfus, H. (1997). Disclosing NewWorlds. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press.Taylor, C. (1985). Human Agency and Language: PhilosophicalPapers 1. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press.Taylor, 1. (1992). Where People Fly and Water Runs Uphill: UsingDreams to Tap the Wisdom of the Unconscious. Clayton, VIC:Warner Books.Taylor, 1. (1998). The Living Labyrinth: Exploring UniversalThemes and Dreams. Mahwah, NJ: Paulist Press.Weiss, L. (1986). Dream Analysis in Psychotherapy. New York:

Pergamon.Wilber, K. (1997). The Eye of Spirit: An Integral Vision for aWorld Gone Slightly Mad. Boston: Shambhala.

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Hermeneutics in the Dream Group Setting