Working with Remembered Childhood Nightmares in Adult Psychotherapy

Abstract

This essay explores work with adult clients who have a particular attachment to their childhood nightmares. The essay argues that in the remembered nightmares, we have access to particularly well preserved dynamics and memories that can aid work and understanding. It is interesting that in cases where so much may have been forgotten, particularly in cases that involve trauma, memories of these dreams have endured. There is the somewhat tragic sense that some of the problems that have gone on to trouble the client's life were visible in the nightmares, and there to be addressed all those years ago. How different a life might have been if the issues in the childhood nightmares had been addressed at the time when they were first dreamt. The essay pursues the idea that remembered childhood nightmares can supply us with, firstly, important information that can support understanding of clinical work; and secondly, the possibility of assisting someone in carrying out work that has been long neglected.