QUESTIONS & ANSWERS:
Dreams Department

Please remember, this column is designed to help the consumer seeking behavioral-health information, and not intended to be any form of psychotherapy or a replacement for professional, individualized services. Opinions expressed in the column are those of the columnist and do not represent the position of other SelfhelpMagazine.com staff.

Question

My friend "Jennifer" is always talking about her dreams and what they mean. I'm really getting tired of listening to her. Shouldn't dreams be discussed and interpreted only by therapist and psychiatrists?

Answer

You sure have the right to tell your friend how you feel about listening to dreams that you don't want to hear and asking her to limit them or stop. But we don't have to send her into psychotherapy to simply share dreams! We all have dreams and as a normal part of our routine we can share them like other experiences. Therapists also work with dreams, but for different reasons. You might want to suggest that your friend join or start a local peer dream sharing group where there are no experts, but simply other folks who are interested in dreams and would like to share them. These groups are now also available on the Internet.

See the Reference Section for a Dream Network Directory.

2/19/98

Richard Wilkerson is general editor for The Internet Dream E-zine, Electric Dreams, and director of DreamGate, the Internet Communications and Dream Education Center. He writes the Cyberphile column for the Association for the Study of Dreams Newsletter.