Dream Work in Gestalt

Methodology: From Narrative to Dramatization

Unlike the psychoanalytic approach that interprets the latent content, Gestalt approaches the dream as an existential projection that must be experienced in the present.

The protocol consists of three fundamental steps:

• The patient is asked to narrate the dream as he/she remembers it.
• The patient is asked to choose a specific fragment (especially if it is very long) and narrate it in the present tense and first person (e.g. "I am walking through a forest..." instead of "I dreamt that I was walking").
• The final and decisive step is the dramatization: the patient must act out the dream, becoming the different elements of the dream (even inanimate objects), giving them voice and movement in order to reappropriate the parts of his personality that these elements represent.

Differentiation from Classical Interpretation

In this model, the therapist does not interpret or assign universal meanings to the dream symbols. It is assumed that the expert in the dream is the dreamer himself.

The goal is for the patient, by "being" the monster that is chasing him or the path he is traveling in his dream, to discover the existential message he is sending to himself.

The work focuses on the emotional and bodily experience that arises when reliving the dream in the "here and now", avoiding intellectualization or theoretical analysis that distances the subject from his immediate experience.

Summary

Unlike psychoanalysis, Gestalt approaches the dream as an existential projection in the present. It does not interpret the latent content, but seeks to experien