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ENNEAGRAM DREAMING © Belinda Gore, Ph.D., 2003 There is not one of us who has not at some time been moved by the power of dreams. Through dreams we have access to an inner world that is not readily available to the perception of our waking mind. While there are several altered states of consciousness that reveal this inner world, dreams are the most familiar gateway. We all dream, every night, and with a little assistance most people are able not only to recall their dream but to also understand there meaning. The language of symbol and metaphor is the key to understanding dreams, and the power of symbol derives from what psychiatrist Carl Jung named "archetypes." The symbol is the psychological mechanism that transforms the energy of the archetype for the individual. Jung suggested that human beings have inborn psychic patterns that structure psychological functioning. Rather than the triad of Id, Ego, and Superego defined by Freud, Jung identified the major archetypes as Shadow, Soul (Anima or Animus), the Divine Couple, the Child, and the Self. While there are only a few archetypes, there are endless images that express these fundamental patterns in human consciousness. These images appear in our dreams as well as the varied manifestations of symbolic expression such as movies, poetry, and literature. Using the theory of psychic structure developed by Freud and elaborated by A.H. Almaas, Enneagram teachers Don Riso and Russ Hudson have identified a precise model of ego development for each of the nine Enneagram personality types. The elements-id, ego, and superego-are all the same, but the pattern is distinctive for each type. If we utilize the major archetypes defined by Jung, would we discover a pattern of dream symbols that similarly are characteristic for each of the Enneagram types? To my knowledge no research has been done to identify specific patterns of archetypes within the dreams of each Enneagram personality type. To explore this possibility, let us consider the dreams of Diana as an expression of a type Five personality. DIANA'S DREAM: ARCHETYPAL FIVE "A person is being hanged and a little girl will be hanged with her as a counter balance. No one thinks it is fair to hang the little girl, too, and for a while the hanging is stalled. There are many odd shadows all around." Diana is a Social Five with a Four wing, a highly creative, intelligent, and expressive person. One would never describe her as macabre yet in the course of five weeks, she recalled dreams of a dead baby, a dog lunging at her throat, an old ashen-gray man nearing death, and several car accidents, along with the dream detailed above in which a child is to be hanged. Coming from another, less healthy, person, a therapist might be concerned about her emotional stability. For Diana, however, I believe these images are more indicative of the darkness that is inherent in the ego structure of a Five, especially with a Four wing that places her at the very nadir of the Enneagram. The ego development of Five's is based on a rejection of both the nurturing figure and the protective figure, the Mother and the Father, or in archetypal language, the Divine Couple. In their earliest experiences, young Fives feel cut off from even the most basic support and decide at a preverbal level that they are on their own and will have to figure life out for themselves. In order to feel secure they cultivate an expertise that will give them a place in the world, no matter how obscure or marginal. Healthy Fives may translate this expertise into elegant theorizing, like Einstein, or simply an engrossing interest in a special subject, from car mechanics to entymology. Given the rejection of the Divine Parents by the Child, how can we discover the Self in the Shadows of Diana's dream. In working with the dream content, she identified the person to be hanged as her mother. We did not explore the identity of the Judge who had condemned both Mother and Child, but would suspect him to be a form of her Father. The Self and Soul are working together to generate the public outcry against the sacrifice of the Child for the crimes of the Mother. In other words, Diana is beginning to recognize in her life that she has a deeply internalized Mother archetype that she defends against, trying to be a Super Mom with her own children to counteract the negative associations with Mother. Seeing into her dark Shadows, those aspects of personality that are rejected from consciousness so as not to upset the fragile hold on reality created by the false Personality or Ego, allows her to recognize how she sacrifices her inner Child and how she has become a victim to the inner Judge. With such awareness she can bring attention to the stubborn blocks that prevent her from opening to her most healthy capacities and finding liberation from the restraints of ego rigidity. The challenge for many Fives is to restore the capacity for connection, often by questioning the initial tendency to hang the inner Child's needs for nurturance. Through clear discernment, it is possible to learn to recognize images of the Soul (the feminine Anima for men and the male Animus for women) as trustworthy guides on the journey of Individuation. Once the Self is whole, contact with Essence is assured. |
| ©2002 Enneagram Institute of Central Ohio | |
