Journal of Substance Abuse Treatment, Vol. 15, No. 3, pp.

193200, 1998
Published by Elsevier Science Inc.
Printed in the USA.
0740-5472/98 $00.00 1 .00

PII S0740-5472(97)00188-8

ARTICLE

The Changing Role of Using Dreams in

Addiction Recovery
Loma K. Flowers, md* and Joan E. Zweben, phd
*University of California, San Francisco; Private Practice, San Francisco, CA
University of California, San Francisco; 14th Street Clinic and Medical Group &
East Bay Community Recovery Project, Oakland, CA

Abstract The Dream Interview Method of dream interpretation can be applied to dreams depicting
alcohol and drug use to elucidate the meaning of such dreams in relation to stages of recovery. This
paper summarizes the method and demonstrates its application utilizing seven dreams collected from clients in psychotherapy and participants in dream workshops. The incorporation of such interpreted dreams
into substance abuse treatment as well as their relationship to other life issues is discussed. Published by
Elsevier Science Inc.
Keywords addiction; recovery; dreams; psychotherapy; groups; using dreams.

INTRODUCTION

erature (Brown, 1985; Flowers, 1993; Wurmser, 1984).

Moreover, these discussions are usually limited to general themes and do not include specific interpretations of
individual dreams (e.g., Kaufman, 1994; Looney, 1972).
Consequently, there is still a need for more information
about specific interpretive techniques applicable to the
treatment situations in which using dreams are commonly
recounted.
This paper addresses this largely unexplored area of
specific interpretations of using dreams in a variety of
clients throughout the recovery process in an attempt to
begin identifying general trends that would be useful to
clinicians working with clients in recovery.

FROM FREUDS COCAINE dreams (Byck, 1974) to Alcoholics Anonymous (Denzin, 1988), the literature on substance abuse and its treatment contains numerous references to dreams associated with the recovery process,
one study reporting increased dreaming in 33% of subjects withdrawing from cocaine (Brower, Maddahian,
Blow, & Beresford 1988). Such dreams have become increasingly recognized as valuable clinical treatment resources (Brown, 1985; Flowers & Zweben, 1996; Wurmser,
1984). More recently, it has been noted that dream work is
highly compatible with brief therapy (Flowers, 1993), and
that this particular focussed technique of dream interpretation can be an asset under the current economic limitations
on psychodynamic psychotherapy (Flowers, 1995).
Individual interpretations of one well-documented and
notorious subgroup of these dreams, which depict the actual use of alcohol and drugs and are commonly called
using dreams, have only rarely been discussed in the lit-

METHOD
These specific interpretations of seven using dreams
were collected from work with clients prior to and during
recovery. Most of the clients were seen in an addiction
recovery group, one in individual psychotherapy, and
one in a dream interview workshop training. All the
dreams were interpreted using the dream interview
method, which has been found useful in the treatment of

Requests for reprints should be addressed to Joan E. Zweben, PhD, 714

Spruce Street, Berkeley CA 94707. E-mail: jzweben@itsa.ucsf.edu

Received December 10, 1996; Accepted July 14, 1997.

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L.K. Flowers and J.E. Zweben

substance abuse (Flowers, 1993; Flowers & Zweben, 1996).

All the clients gave written permission for the use of
their dreams and interpretations.
The dream interview method of interpretation has
been described in detail elsewhere (Delaney, 1991, 1993),
and is summarized in Appendices AD. In brief, it is an
easily understood contemporary approach with immediate pragmatic application (Flowers, 1988), which has
two major axioms. One axiom is that each interpretation
is derived solely from the clients own words, knowledge,
opinions, and beliefs. This seems to facilitate a rapid acceptance and integration of the insights from the interpretations (Flowers, 1995). The second axiom is that the
plot of the dream must retain its sequence and integrity
throughout the interpretation, with its associated affect.
This retains the precision of the psychodynamic formulation presented in the dream, and, therefore, maximizes
the probable effectiveness of any appropriate action consciously deduced from the dream interpretation.
The therapists role is to ask questions to elicit the relevant information from the client about each major image in the dream and then recapitulate that information
into a succinct descriptive definition (or definitive description) of each image, checking with the client for accuracy. These recapitulated descriptions provide the cornerstones of the interpretation. The actual interpretation
is formed by asking the client to scan through his/her life
until they recognize a situation for which the dream is an
accurate metaphor, with the specific definitive descriptions
interacting in a dynamic precisely parallel to that of the
dream plot and its emotional accompaniment. Although the
affect may vary in quantity from waking life, the quality
seems invariably consistent with that of the dream.
Most of the dreams were interpreted within a week or
two of being their occurrence, but a few were interpreted
weeks or even years later. When the dream interview
method was used to interpret old dreams, that is, dreams
from months or years ago rather than the last few weeks,
the questions were modified to include the instruction,
Answer the questions, as best you can, from the perspective and knowledge you had at the time you dreamt
the dream. . . . This is, of course, subject to the vagaries of
memory, but can be surprisingly clear, especially around
powerful affect. For the assistance of accurate memory, a
concurrent written day note (a brief paragraph about the
major events and feelings of the day preceding the dream)
is invaluable for the interpretation of old dreams.
CASE REPORTS
These dreams are arranged in order of the stage of recovery in which they were dreamed.
Pre-Recovery
Case 1. This is Scene I of a using dream presented by a
46-year-old woman in a dream interview workshop open

to the public. Participants come with a wide range of issues, which are not discussed independent of a dream interview.
I was doing heroin or some drug and giving it to someone
younger. A man came in who wanted us to stop doing it. I was
with about 3 other people. We were in some kind of program.
The man came over and told me about 3 things that I should
look at. I wanted to write them down. One was the movie Wine
and Roses. It definitely had roses in it. I thought in the dream
that it was about drunk people. The man gave me a friendly
hug. It felt really good. We kept hugging and he took me down
to the floor. I was surprised that he was being sexual in a room
full of people; he was a suit and tie kind of guy. He then turned
into Mao Tse Tung. I wasnt so attracted any more.

The dream interview led the client to acknowledge an addiction to marijuana, which was the most addictive
drug (heroin), and which was taking over her life, so
that she did not care about anything but the drug. She
was indeed gradually trying to control it with a program
of her own devising, that is decreasing the frequency of
the binges. Finally, she recognized herself in the conservative man in the dream: she was being supportive of her
own efforts, not making herself wrong, and was urging
herself to look at the issue of the good (roses) in her
life being drowned out by the addiction (wine, drunk
people). In addition, she was becoming more intimate with
the more out-there emotional and sexual sides of herself in a way that felt good but inappropriate. This in turn
had triggered a transition within that part of herself from
conservative to an insidious, dangerous, repressive,
cold and distant Mao-style dictatorship, which she also
recognized as a part of herself that she invokes to try to
control her own behavior.

Early RecoveryRelapsing
Case 2. This very disturbing dream occurred on an inpatient unit during early recovery. It was actually reported in the addiction recovery group 10 years later,
when the guest therapist (first author) came to work with
the group on dreams. The dreamer had an illness but was
medically stable, abstinent from illicit drugs, and committed to remaining healthy. The group had focused on
his tobacco smoking as an additional health hazard. This
old dream was reported as he was preparing himself to
address his tobacco smoking, and was talking openly
about his resistance to giving up cigarettes.
At the time of the dream, the patient had been forced
into treatment. I was playing the role of being in treatment and didnt want to have those dreams.
I was with my drug friends. Everybody was getting off. I
was shooting up. The needle was in my arm, I could feel it. I
felt happy, I was going back to what was safe, familiar, comfortable. I awoke before I had any good feeling. I felt disappointed.

Role of Using Dreams in Recovery

At that time of the dream, the client considered shooting

up as a habit that he used to achieve euphoria, to escape
bad stuff, to feel good. This dream was, therefore, a
transparent statement of the clients sense of disappointment and loss about not being able to escape bad feelings
with an instant fix while in recovery, and implied a loss
of friends through sobriety. This Confrontation or Emphasis dream (Flowers, 1988) provided him with an opportunity to face these issues, but, unfortunately, he did not interpret the dream at the time, nor process the feelings of
disappointment. Uninterpreted, the dream only reminded
him of the pleasures of a high, and echoed his urge to reexperience it and not surprisingly, he relapsed. He did
have a successful recovery several years later.
Case 3. This new client with recent loss of appetite and
fatigue described a nightmare. Gives me the shivers,
which also caused all the other group members to have
shudders of memory and association. It occurred Friday
after his first group.
I am going to try and buy a bag of dope. A man I know said,
Yeah, I got it. Its in a big red balloon and when I finally get
it, it is filled with warm blood. I had expected tar/brown powder
in cellophane. I hear voices: Hurry up, hurry up! Im sick,
(withdrawing) and you do anything. . . . The syringe clogs up,
and Im trying to fix it because there is only so much time before it will coagulate and waste. It hits, I get it; I can watch it
going through, see it and I want to push it past before my veins
fall apart and they fall out. I feel no rush.
I woke up sweating. I had to change the sheets. Yukk! I
feel like everythings coming apart. I want to stop these nightmares.

He described dope as it changes the way you feel, get

high. You do it by yourself. Somebody elses blood he
described as a possibly dangerous body fluid, could be
badhave a virus, HIV, like I got but containing at
least diluted heroin when nothing else was available. At
the time, the client denied relapse of drugs or alcohol and
interpreted the dream to be about giving up smoking by
using nicotine patches for the second day, but this interpretation did not fit any of the desperate dangerousness
nor urgency of the dream affect (axiom two) and we were
not convinced. However, the first axiom of the dream interview method requires that one cannot go further than
the dreamers knowledge, so we were obliged to leave it
as unfinished and just note our own reservations. Later in
the same group he said that dreams were spooky, like
(the interviewer) could read my mind.
A couple of weeks later, this client revealed his hidden alcohol relapse. This was particularly dangerous for
him given his deterioration from HIV disease, and the increasing evidence of cognitive impairment. We recognized retrospectively that this dream had been an insight
for him into the dangerousness of this relapse, despite his
lying about his level of understanding. This was indicated by his comment that he felt the interviewer could

195

read his mind from the prototype question, Where in

your life have you been feeling sick and can only get a
diluted but possibly dangerous source of something, but
you use it anyway? Therefore, this dream work may
have facilitated his revealing his relapse. Sadly, he died
within 6 months from AIDS.
Case 4. This client had these dreams several months ago
when his wife was maturing and I was not.
I was drinking (no specific setting). I felt apprehension and
guilt.

He felt relief when he awokebecause he was not drinking in reality.

His descriptive definition was drinking is giving up
control. It is an attempt at freedom which ends badly.
Drinking is something over which I do not have control,
it is abrogating control. He recognized that this dream
addressed his actual drinking urge, as a way to abrogate
control of his own life in the face of pressure to mature.
It reinforced his commitment to abstinence, which was
variable at that time.

Middle or Late Recovery

Case 5. This 48-year-old woman was devastated when
her husband announced he wanted a divorce, and felt her
world had turned to chaos. In the aftermath, her drinking
had escalated and she joined the recovery group. Although in great pain, she often minimized her situation,
stating the life circumstances of others were more severe
and she was not entitled to take her distress so seriously.
Her dream occurred two nights before a group session.
Scene I. I am in an enormous store with ivy topiaries which
I love. There are wreaths in one section with variegated leaves.
It is an angular and dark store, wood planking. I was excited to
be there and see all these wonderful shapes in their set spots.
Scene II. A nice lady (the deceased wife of another group
member in reality unknown to the dreamer, but whom she had
learned much about at her memorial services) came up saying,
Can I help you? She had bleached blond hair and pencilled
eyebrows. There were blouses and shorts designed by me, in
navy blue etc. One navy blue and white striped blouse was
warm, comfortable and charming.
Scene III. Bottles of wine were hidden under the ivy plants,
with the top sneaking out. The man owner of the store accused
me of stealing them. I said Id bought and paid for them!

The client described topiaries as symmetrical, orderly,

geometrical forms, with no scary odd angles; always
green, healthy and crisp. I have control and clip away at
them and interpreted this scene as an accurate representation of her orderly, controlled life now. She recognized
the nice lady in Scene II, as an older, capable, smart,
lovely, unknown part of herself, but who is alive in the

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dream. Her hair and softly pencilled eyebrows indicated

caring about her appearance, more normal, not overdrawn. The bottles of wine were bridged to the Prozac
that I have fought taking ita crutch to me, but which
was effective in treating her depression. Her conflict
with the store owner further delineated her internal conflict of feeling both entitled and unentitled to the Prozac.
Learning more about the store owner in herself should
help her accept the Prozac as borrowed, that is shortterm use, and paid for.

L.K. Flowers and J.E. Zweben

he is angry, a blamer and hypocritical. I used with him

once or twice and I feel responsible for not being a good
role model for him in that way. He interpreted Pete as a
part of himself who had been avoiding dealing with a
job-threatening issue at work with his boss for over 3
months. He had been letting it slide, and just fantasizing that she will get fired or be removed by an accident.
The intervention was to call his individual therapist for
an extra intervention appointment and discuss the issue, something that he had omitted to do in the preceeding 3 months of therapy. There was no relapse threat.

Late Recovery
Case 6. The client presented this dream in recovery
group saying, I had a using dream, just a little one.
I was trying to use a needle to avoid getting back on methadone. I was hiding it.
I was so relieved when I woke up. It scared me! I was so
scared!

The clients descriptive definition of methadone was a

legal liquid which relieves your symptoms in withdrawal; its very addictive, hard to get off. I worked hard
to get off it, and I dont want to get back on it. I feel fine
off it . . . its expensive, and its a pain in the ass, it disrupts your life style, i.e. you lose choiceyou have to
get it or you get sick.
The client interpreted this using dream to be about
money. Her husbands withholding taxes had not been
adequately taken out and they were therefore spending
more money than they had, and hiding it from themselves. Such spending was addictive to her. The alternative, saving the money due, would have restricted their
choices because the withholding tax was expensive and
would disrupt their lifestyle. There was no actual danger
of relapse.
Case 7. This client was clean and sober without slips
from substance abuse for 10 years and was tapering individual and group psychotherapy. I went to sleep with a
sore throat and post nasal drip which I always used to get
with cocaine and I had this dream.
Pete had coke and someone elsea well built, slick, cool,
pusher type who can be scary at timeswas trying to get me to
use it. I didnt want to have anything to do with it, but Pete had
it and was using it. I got ready to do an intervention on Pete and
call his parents.

The client described Cocaine is a temporary way to get

away from your feelings, but its downhill from therea
short high, and then crash and depression, depression depression! He described Pete as conceited, renegade,
distant, confused, not participating in his family life.
Though amiable and friendly with those he wants to be,

DISCUSSION
In our experience, using dreams represented about 30%
of the dreams presented in the recovery group, but a
much smaller proportion of the dreams from other settings. This higher proportion of using dreams reported in
the recovery group compared to workshops probably reflected both the composition of the group, which included a higher proportion of people in recovery, and its
purpose. The purpose of the group was to provide support for recovery and an arena to explore issues that
emerged once abstinence was secured. Though many of
the group participants were stable in their abstinence, using dreams are normally worrisome and so might be
more likely to be presented to a dream consultant, regardless of when they occurred. By contrast, participants
in the workshops are probably more guarded about revealing using dreams. Patients in individual therapy during recovery regularly reveal using dreams in our experience, similar to the recovery group, but they are a small
proportion of their total dreaming, probably because individual therapy encompasses a much wider psychological focus.
Looney (1972) also found wide variability (05% to
75100%) in the percent of dreams that are using dreams
reported by persons in addiction treatment, with the majority under 74%. We hypothesize that our findings probably reflect the proportion of clients in the recovery
group in earlier recovery. Early recovery seems to be accompanied by more using dreams, and they certainly
evoke the greatest attention and anxiety from the dreamer,
with the possible exception of other nightmares. It is
common and highly distressing for patients to awaken
confused about whether they have actually used or not.
They may also interpret using dreams as a failure of motivation or effort on their part. Reassurance and explanation that withdrawal phenomena may also influence the
production of these dreams is useful. Knowledge of them
as a resource through dream interviewing seemed to have
an empowering effect.
As recovery progresses, it is noticeable that the frequency of using dreams gradually diminishes, one client
stating that he had had no using dreams since his eighth

Role of Using Dreams in Recovery

year of recovery. However, it is not unusual for occasional using dreams to occur at key moments in people
with long-term stable recovery. They often reflect the
presence of a major stressor, difficult emotional experience, or life transition (Case 6). In such cases, using appears to represent a return to earlier mode of coping
(Case 7), and the using signals the danger of events and
experiences in the current life situation. Once the
dreamer focuses on these events and acknowledges their
importance, the using dreams tend not to recur. Dream interviewing appears to actively facilitate this process, pinpointing the dynamic of the conflict as well as the general issues.
Although using dreams are described by a number of
authors (Denzin, 1988; Looney, 1972; Morrison, 1990),
there are few articles describing the interpretation of using dreams from either large numbers of patients, or one
persons dreams in sequence throughout addiction recovery. A few specific interpretations of individual using
dreams are described in the psychoanalytic (Smaldino,
1991; Wurmser, 1984) and addiction (Brown, 1985;
Kaufman, 1994) literature. However, addiction is noticeably absent from Nattersons (1993) comprehensive text
on dreams in clinical practice.
In psychoanalytic interpretations (Denzin, 1988), using dreams have been taken literally at their manifest content, and been supposed to indicate repressed wishes or
desires to use, and to represent continuations of waking
preoccupations with this issue. Brown (1985) extends
this idea to characterize similar drinking dreams of early
recovery as having an unconscious alert function, as in
Case 4. This using dream affirms sobriety or functions as
a guidepost to progress in recovery. Much of the time,
neither of these dream types requires sophisticated interpretation skills, since the general meaning is often transparent. Nonetheless, we were interested to note that when
dream interviewing was conducted, although the clients
interpretation did not fundamentally change, further useful information was added as details were defined and interpreted to reveal specific dynamics. Understanding these
dynamics helped tailor appropriate management strategies. This supports the validity of our previous clinical
impressions that these early recovery using dreams help
affirm sobriety in a variety of ways, and extend the help
into specific treatment indications.
An alert function is also served in a very different way
by dreams such as Case 2. These might be called relapsepending dreams, distinguished by the disappointment
upon awakening, and they may indicate a potential predictive tool for clients and therapists, in a very similar
fashion to that suggested by Fiss (1991) research. Also
of interest here, the dreamers in Cases 2 and 3 did not actually experience the high in the dream, similar to
Looneys (1972) experience. One explanation might be
that her sample and Case 2 consisted of clients in the recovery process, and, therefore, less likely to reexperience

197

a high in a dream. Such clients might be more likely to

have these transparent using dreams with an aborted
high, accompanied by a feeling that echoes their particular emotional experience of recovery.
These relapse-pending dreams and the using dreams
that reaffirm sobriety have one key difference. It is in the
feelings associated with the using and which follow the
using in the dream, or upon awakening. The relapsepending dreams are associated with pleasure in using and
disappointment upon awakening that one is not high. The
sobriety-affirming dreams are associated with guilt, worry
in the dream and afterwards, and relief upon awakening.
On the one hand, pleasure or acceptance in the dream,
and/or disappointment upon awakening that it was just a
dream (Cases 1 and 2) warns of high relapse potential;
that is the dreamer is still heavily allied with the addiction. However, reporting such a dream to the therapist reflects and will support the other side of the patients ambivalence. The therapist might work with the client about
his or her ambivalent motivation. Such dreams can be
part of the mourning process of recovery (Kaufman,
1994). It may also be pertinent to re-evaluate the appropriateness of the current treatment, or question that a client is ready for recovery at the time of such a dream. It
might be an indication for a more highly structured program or even hospitalization until the emotions around
loss can be further explored. Even when clients are lying,
dreams like Case 3 may also partially indicate what is
likely to be going on. On the other hand, relief on awakening (Case 4), and stronger still, resistance to relapse in
the dream, affirms sobriety and warns of an internal
temptation or an external threat to sobriety; that is the
dreamer is allied with recovery. This then allows further
exploration of the situations threatening sobriety, and
planning for strategies to manage them effectively.
Brown (1985) describes early recovery phase using
dreams that function as a trigger to insight; an example is
seen in Case 1. The details in scene I (and the subsequent
three scenes), when interpreted with dream interviewing,
clearly formulated the psychological work necessary for
recovery. Although Brown (1985) discusses such dreams
under cognitive and behavioral issues, it is clear from the
specific interpretation of Case 1 that the psychodynamic
process is also readily accessed using dream interviewing. Such clarity at the beginning of treatment can be a
useful guide to both therapist and client alike, and facilitates the integration of psychodynamic issues into recovery in conceptualizations that originate in the clients
thinking, and are formulated by the clients dream.
Early recovery clients like Browns (1985) who recounted that Feeling is just like drinking, that is, easily
out of control, and Case 4 abrogating control are in
noteworthy contrast to the late recovery clients to whom
use of addiction as a dream metaphor represents something else, for example, Case 5, taking Prozac; Case 7,
avoiding feelings. Possibly, a history of addiction sensi-

198

tizes a person to using dreams so that any such image in

a dream automatically catches the dreamers vigilant attention, without being dramatized as a nightmare. The
dream in Case 7 takes advantage of this phenomenon to
call the dreamers attention irresistibly to overspending.
A dream interview of the dream, moreover, allows the
dreamer to specifically pinpoint the problem area and its
dynamics, and begin to explore the psychodynamics involved, and strategize necessary and appropriate responses to the issue. This is consistent with Fiss (1991)
finding that responses to a drive state (i.e., urge to use or
overspend) are determined by both how much and how
the drive material is incorporated into the dreams, although we wonder if the responses might be anticipated
as well as determined by the dream.
This series indicates that during the course of addiction recovery, using dreams interpreted with dream interviewing initially seem to provide an indication of the
psychological work necessary for recovery, then a warning sign of the intent or the urge to use again. They appear to progress through increasing complexity, until
eventually, using itself becomes a metaphor for other
more immediate issues, such as repressing feelings, or
overspending. With the knowledge derived from dream
interviewing, a using dream can change from something
to be tolerated and endured as part of the recovery process to a useful resource. When interpreted this way, they
provide a stimulant for timely self-exploration and preventive action, so that the urge to relapse might be consciously contravened. In late recovery, the urge to use
may actually not even arise, and a history of addiction
may become itself a metaphor for other problematic behaviors. By extension, the absence of using dreams in a
client with good dream recall, might become an indicator
that the clients early or middle recovery is strong, despite consciously experienced emotional pain or distress.
This must be distinguished from selective reporting of
dreams, but might nonetheless be useful in psychotherapy with clients in recovery, and for clients to monitor
their own tolerance for and level of stress.
Our experience seems to indicate a possible new level
of awareness about the relapse issue in recovery as well
as the associated therapeutic issues. A significant aspect
of evaluating the status of a clients recovery might be to
interpret his/her latest using dream, expecting different
interpretations, depending on the stage of recovery. Expanding our knowledge about the point in recovery at
which drug use becomes itself a metaphor for other issues
would clarify when dreams such as Case 3 were most likely
to be literally about substance abuse because it was too
early in his recovery to be metaphoric about smoking.
There has been a call for specialized treatments to accommodate the heterogeneity among cocaine abusers
(Carroll et al., 1994) and dream interviewing might provide a useful contribution in both relapse prevention and
clinical management. In addition, with the increased potential for discontinuity in care within the managed care

L.K. Flowers and J.E. Zweben

health systems, an ability to pick up the thread of treatment quickly and accurately midstream becomes more
and more imperative for therapists and primary physicians alike. Moreover, the fact that pairs of clients can
become proficient in dream interviewing without a therapist allows them to monitor their own needs in recovery,
and so correctly inform a new therapist or seek appropriate supports in a timely fashion. In addition, the increasing use of medication as a less expensive treatment is not
always appropriate in addiction recovery that makes the
development of rapid and inexpensive psychodynamic
treatments even more urgent. Additional reports of dream
interviewing in recovery will be necessary to further
evaluate the efficacy of this method.

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comparison of self-reported symptoms and DSM-III-R criteria for
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Brown, S. (1985). Treating the alcoholic. New York: John Wiley & Sons.
Byck, R. (1974). Freuds cocaine dreams. In Freud, A. The cocaine papers by Sigmund Freud (pp. 203236). New York: The Stonehill
Publishing Co.
Carroll, K.M., Rounsaville, B.J., Gordon, L.T., Nich, C., Jatlow, P., Bisighini, R.M., Gawin, F.H. (1994). Psychotherapy and pharmacotherapy for ambulatory cocaine abusers. Archives of General Psychiatry, 51, 177187.
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Role of Using Dreams in Recovery

APPENDIX A

199

Step 2. Recapitulation
Interviewers Steps for Recapitulation:

DREAM INTERVIEWING: OVERVIEW

The Five Basic Steps of the Dream Interview
The interviewers role is in italics:
1. Description: This is the dreamers concrete and
subjective description of the major dream images,
facilitated by the interviewer.
2. Recapitulation/Restatement: This is the interviewers
reflection to the dreamer of an edited, concise version
of the dreamers description.
3. Bridging: This is the dreamers interpretive step of
recognizing the dream metaphor in waking life, facilitated by the interviewer.
4. Testing the Bridge: This is the dreamers verification
of the parallels between the dream image and its match
in waking life, facilitated by the interviewer.
5. Summary: This is a review of the dreamers understanding of the meanings of part or all of a dream by
means of the dreamer summarizing the major descriptions and bridges, and with the interviewers careful
attention to consistency.
AXIOM: Dream interviewing is simple, but not easy.
APPENDIX B
PHASE I
Step 1. DescriptionDefinitive Description
Formulation
Interviewers Steps for Facilitating the Formulation of
Definitive Descriptions:
1. Invite the client to recount one dream, including the
feelings.
2. Select one major dream image to be described,
usually starting at the beginning.
3. Elicit the basic information about that image:
A. Physical appearance in brief
B. Function or purpose (of a place or thing)
Personality profile (of people or animals)
C. Unique features
D. The most striking/noteworthy characteristic
E. The essence or essential nature of the image
F. Relevant associations, i.e., habitual or emotionally
powerful associations only
G. Strongest feelings and judgements about the image
in waking life, i.e., specific positive, negative,
mixed, or ambivalent
4 Be sure you have an answer to each category and then
go to Step 2.
5. Repeat this process with the first 23 major images in
the dream.

1. Edit and summarize the information obtained about

the dream image, using the dreamers own words.
2. Encourage the dreamer to correct you: Did I get that
right? Is that complete? Watch the nonverbal cues.
3. Now, polish the summary into a complete, succinct,
and accurate description, still using the dreamers
own words.
4. Return to Step 1 for the first 23 images, then move to
Phase II, Step 3.
APPENDIX C
PHASE II
Step 3: Bridging
Interviewers Steps for Bridging:
1. Mentally divide the plot of the dream into short
sequences, each containing no more than 13 major
images.
2. Ask the dreamer to repeat the first sequence of the
dream with the feelings and include the first setting:
So tell me, again, where you were at the beginning of
the dream and what was happening?
3. Start with this setting and the associated action in this
sequence.
4. Bridge questions for the setting are phrased something like, Is there anywhere in your life that you are
in a place which is like . . . (here repeat the definitive
description of the image) and where (what is happening in the dream) is (metaphorically) happening in
your life?
5. Allow time for the dreamer to think; encourage
thinking aloud, DO NOT pressure or hint or suggest.
6. If necessary, use these strategies to help the dreamer
search for a parallel life situation: Repeat or rephrase
the question 34 times. Remind the dreamer this is a
metaphor for something in waking life. Ask what
possibly fits this description and the feelings. Encourage
speculation if the dreamer is reticent. Check you are
using the dreamers own words. Ask if the dreamer
recognizes just the emotions & start there.1
7. Move to the next sequence whether or not the first
sequence is bridged to some aspects(s) of waking life,
before either of you fatigue.
8. Keep all possible bridges in mind at this point; subsequent bridges will eliminate or suggest alternatives.

Personalities often bridge to parts of the dreamer or someone else;

sometimes to the same personality as pictured in the dream. Objects
rarely bridge to people.

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L.K. Flowers and J.E. Zweben

9. Continue the process sequence by sequence, i.e.,

return to Step 1 for the next 13 major images.

APPENDIX D
Step 5: Summary

AXIOM: Think of the interviewer as the footman with

the glass slipper, looking for Cinderella: she may not be
found today, but shes out there somewhere!
Step 4: Testing the Bridge
Interviewers Steps for Testing the Bridge:
1. Clarify exactly how the dreamer sees a parallel between
the dream sequence and a waking life situation, by
asking, How does that fit?
2. Check that the major details of action in the dream
also fit the situation.
3. Check that the major feelings match precisely in
quality if not intensity (quantity)the dream is often
the more powerful.
4. In bridging the second and subsequent sequences, the
recurring images, if well bridged, will interpret consistently. This gradually eliminates inaccurate, alternate, or divergent bridges.
5. There is usually only one interpretation that fits all
parts of the dream images and plot although various
levels of this interpretation often are valid and useful.
6. When a bridge totally fails a test, ask the dreamer to
look for an alternative.
7. When a bridge partially fails a test, encourage the
dreamer to consider what would be more precise, e.g.,
it might be an adjustment in the level of focus on the
same issue.

Interviewers Steps to Facilitate the Summary:

1.

When you have reached the end of the first scene of

a dream, with as many bridges made as possible
(without belaboring the process), congratulate the
dreamer (and yourself) on her/his hard work.
2. Then have the dreamer read/recount the dream scene
itself again.
3. Next, ask the dreamer to summarize his/her understanding of the scene at this point, reiterating major
descriptions and bridges and including mention of
points that remain unclear.
4. Allow time for him/her to deal with any powerful
emotions before you move onto the next scene.
5. Repeat Steps 13 above with each subsequent scene.
6. Help the dreamer, through questions, to reconcile
obvious contradictions as you link scenes together.
7. At the end of the whole dream, have the dreamer
recount the entire dream one last time prior to telling
you his/her final interpretive summary.
8. Ask the dreamer if he/she has learned anything from
the dream interpretation.
9. Ask the dreamer what he/she might do with any new
information or perspective he/she has gained.
10. Suggest the dreamer write down the dream and the
summary after the session because dream journal
review reinforces and develops insights.