The dream and the unconscious in the couple and the family

Abstract

Certain phenomena observed in a family or couple setting, which are manifestations of an individual intrapsychic world, can also be interpreted as the product of shared defence mechanisms and anxieties. In the dream reported by a family member, we can see both the intrapsychic dimension of the dreamer and the interpersonal dimension in which the dreamer participates, which is an expression of the link that unites the dreamer to an organisation such as a married couple or a family. Such collusive dreams are well-known to psychoanalysts working with couples. They highlight the mutual and complementary interlocking of the two internal worlds of the members of the couple. The production of an associative chain of dreams in family and couple therapy sessions, commonly witnessed by many analysts working in settings of this kind, helps us realise that there is a connection to more retrogressive levels of family functioning, and that the dream, with its vast transformative potential linked to unconscious-to-unconscious communications "without passing through the conscious", is a powerful catalyst of communication and therefore of potential change.