Abstract: Dreams are the most sensitive part of mind. Dreams have many themes among them animals are very common and fascinating. Children experience more dreams compared to an adult esp. animal one. Interpretation of these dreams can be helpful to prescribe medicine homeopathically as the pathy is based on individualization and holistic approach in which it can be a helpful key symptom.
Key-Word: Animal Dream, Case taking, Dreams, Holistic approach, Homoeopathy, Individualization, Prescription.
Introduction:
Homoeopathy is a science of therapeutics which give importance to the patient as a whole which include his/her physical as well as mental state rather than just prescribing on disease symptoms. To individualize a person, it is very important to differentiate characteristic symptoms from the symptom totality. This symptom will help to achieve the goal of prescribing the most similar remedy. Characteristic symptoms can be a causative symptom, concomitant symptoms, physical generals etc. Among all these symptoms, “DREAM” is something which can be a key to open the window for the further process of case taking as well as prescribing.1 “Dream is a mystery”, in history it was interpreted differently by our stalwarts like, according to Egyptians – it is a message send by Gods or relate to psychological problems according to Assyrians and Aristotle2.
Dreams can be explained as2, “desires; the repressed, restrained and frustrated desires that generated in the conscious mind shift to the unconscious mind and stay there in latent form, later they manifest in the form of dream”.
Crude word meaning of dream is “joy” and “music” which traced back to 13th century from a word ‘Dreme’ (Anglo-saxon).2
A normal human dream one-third to fourth-fifth of sleep time and 4-7 dreams for one or two hours every night.2 Brain’s condition is different in both the situation – waking & dreaming.3 Human mind allows the inner conflicts to enter into the state of nothingness – a deep sleep; which express as a dream.4
Sigmund Freud stated that5, “dream is a royal road to the unconscious and the content of dreams can provide important information about the dreamer.”
Interpretation Of Dream:
Carl Jung- the founder of analytical psychology said that6, “the most likely reality is that there is no such thing as body and mind but rather they are the same life subject following the same laws”.
Patient’s dreams are subjective entities & understanding the essence of dreams will reveal the state of a patient’s mind as it represent the most sensitive part of the mind.7,8 Hence, dreams play a vital role in diagnosing the patients’ mental state in any given case.5
Interpretation and understanding of dreams are the technique of understanding content of dreams to express underlying motivations or symbolic meanings and representations.9 It can be useful because the themes of dreams can be linked to the suppression of unwanted thoughts which ultimately result into an increased occurrence of that suppressed thought in dreams.10
In aphorism no. 211 (6th edition), Dr Hahnemann has said that “this preeminent importance of the emotional state holds good to such an extent that the patient’s emotional state often predominates in the selection of the homoeopathic remedy”.11
Many homeopaths do not give much importance to dream interpretation in their practice while some believe dreams are very important in individualization.
“Dreams” holds a marked place in anamnesis that they become unusually marked mental generals which may overrule the particulars.12
“A dream that is not understood remains a mere occurrence; understood, it becomes a living experience.”
– Carl Gustav Jung13
There are a variety of themes available which help to differentiate the dreams. Among the Animal dreams is one of the fascinating and quite helpful for prescribing a medicine. Animals usually symbolize unconscious need and natural impulses present during the waking time which have many fold speculations about their meaning14,15. This study of dreams by interpreting the symbols is known as Oneirology.16 Past observational research indicated that children dream more often about animals than adults and dogs, cats, and horses are the most frequent animals that appear within dreams16.
| THEME | INTERPRETATION |
| Attacked by dog | Role as faithful and loving partner in waking life who are disappointed by the opposite person because of lack of reciprocation14. |
| Becoming friend with wild animal | Increase in awareness and understanding of intuitive nature14 |
| Snake | Possibilities for development. Ability to grow and develop14. |
| Surrounded by snakes | Facing plenty of opportunity to change yourself14 |
| Threatened by a spider | More fundamental needs will be explored and more satisfaction will be achieved. Worried about being emotionally entangled in a particular situation14. |
| Virus | Afraid of being influenced by others. Some ideas and thoughts produce irritability. Taking suggestions and negative attitudes from other may affecting14. |
| Zoo | Filling of caged in real lifeCertain abilities are unnoticed by others14 |
Miasmatic view about the Dreams:
Dreams can be helpful to find the presenting miasm also in individual case16.
| MIASM | SYMPTOM |
| Latent psora | vivid dreams, as if awake or sad, frightful anxious, vexing, lascivious dreams |
| Psora | Fearful images and distorted faces appear, anxious and frightful dreams |
| Sycosis | sexual dreams with fantasies |
| Syphilis | Sexual dreams with perversions and suicidal dreamsdreams of violence; destruction, death and dead bodies, and gloomy forebodings |
| Tubercular | Dreams of travelling16 |
Physician suffers from some problems while interpretating dreams, like,
- Used symbols have highly personal meaning although analysis believes – certain common symbol to stand for particular ideas.
- Part of a dream may be illogical or confusing.
- Part of my dreams are forgotten.
These types of difficulties make physicians confused to use dreams for prescribing the most similar remedy.
CONCLUSION
Homoeopathy is a holistic science which considers a person as a whole not in fragments. To know the person individually, it is important to focus on the inner man. Characteristic symptoms are the window in which to understand it. Among them dreams are one of the helping key symptoms to proceed in the case taking process for prescribing the most similar remedy. Dreams have many themes among them animals in a dream are quite common as well as fascinating to understand because of its wide variety of interpretations. This type of understanding can also help to know the miasm of the patient which again helps to find the most similar remedy. To use dreams for prescribing the most similar remedy, a physician should also sound with the knowledge of interpretation of dreams.
REFERENCES:
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https://www.njhonline.com/CaseStudyView.jsp?id=95 - APA Dictionary of Psychology
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- Schredl, M. (2013). Animal dreams in a long dream series. International Journal of Dream Research, 6(1), 59–64. Animal dreams in a long dream series.
- Debnath N., Das K., Dreams: Scope & limitations of its use in clinical aspects of homoeopathy, International Journal of Homoeopathic Sciences Dreams: Scope & limitations of its use in clinical aspects of homoeopathy,
- Blagrove M., Animals in Dreams of Children, Adolescents, and Adults: The UK Library Study
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