Regression in the Service of the Ego: I have mentioned the notion of regression in the service of the ego as this process is related to the functioning of dreams. I also mentioned that this process is engaged when one seeks to be creative in producing something new (such as a painting or poem) or solving a pressing problem. We also find that this process can be engaged when using dreams to be creative. Regression in dreams can take at least two different forms.
First, the dream can serve as an “inspiration” for some creative act. There might be a regression back in time, with the dreamer enacted a moment of creative success from their childhood. As already noted, we can feel quite powerless as a child and are likely to recall a moment when we painted something that our parents or teacher praised. Or we re-enact a short piece of theater that we wrote and presented at a school pageant. This moment is re-enacted in our dream as an adult. It encouraged us to move outside our “comfort zone” as an adult when seeking to be creative.
The inspirational dream might instead be regressive in terms of taking on a primitive form. The dream might contain an archetypal figure (such as Carl Jung would identify) who is all wise and powerful (Jung, 1978). It might be a wizard who can change the heavens or a Neptune-type figure who can create beautiful images by swirling the water around them. We are inspired by the actions of this figure to take on the task of being creative in solving a major organizational problem (our own heaven) or painting that abstract picture containing swirling colors.
Our dreams can also contain regressive content that later helps us be creative. Once again, our dream might return us to childhood and to our imagining a fairy god mother who brings us magical gifts. We wake up and decide to write a poem to our granddaughter that moves us far out of our comfort zone. Or our dream, once again, is regressive in its use of primitive forms. Our dream might contain one of Jung’s mandalas (circular image contains many colorful images) (Jung, 2009). When awake, we decide that our mental health patients would benefit from drawing their mandalas. We are being creative in our introduction of this new creative-producing process in our therapeutic practice.
Translation of Dream Content into Real-Life Planning and Action: We also can make use of a dream that represents something that is current rather than from our childhood and is quite realistic rather than being regressive in form. To illustrate this translating process, I will weave a fictious tale about a man and his dream.
First, let me set the stage with some real-life facts. I live on the rugged Maine coast with my wife. We live across an inlet of the Atlantic Ocean from a building that for many years served as a quite successful restaurant, featuring Maine lobsters. While the owner of this restaurant was able to keep it open for more than twenty years, he faced a major problem each day. No water was available on the rocky ledge where his restaurant was located. He had to import water and served all his dishes on paper plates, with drinks served in paper or plastic cups, and utensils all being plastic and disposable.
Eventually, the owner ran out of his financial reserve. He had to sell some of the property surrounding his restaurant to a builder who constructed a seaside home on this property. Unfortunately, this meant that there was no longer sufficient parking space for customers. The restaurant closed and switched hands several times, as new owners grappled with the problem of no water and no parking. The latest owner, whom I will call Jim, was also struggling with plans for the use of this building. It had been sitting vacant for a long time and seemed to be of little value to anyone.
