Hypothetical examples of Sub-Focal Conflicts: The sub-focal conflict might reside in our attempt to be heard during a meeting held yesterday. In the dream, we are naked and have been dancing on the table. We did get everyone’s attention. The “answer” to this sub-focal conflict might reside in our being candid in our comments during the meeting. We might have to risk being vulnerable (naked) in order to be heard and have some influence. At the very least, we might have to offer our suggestions in a dramatic manner that can’t be ignored. We don’t have to dance on the table, but we might need to offer a compelling description of how our idea would have an impact or we might have to offer some quite telling graphics (perhaps a powerful power point presentation) to get attention.
Perhaps the sub-focal conflict resides at a more personal level. We have had a fight with our spouse three hours before going to bed. We simmer with rage regarding the way in which our loved one “mistreated” us and “misrepresented” the struggle we are having in managing our finances. Sometime during the night, we have a dream in which we are standing (and swaying) with our spouse on a tightrope that is strung somehow between our current home and the home we lived in when we were first married. Our spouse is holding our hand and we are asking a trusted friend to lower the tightrope so that it is now only about one foot above the ground. We can now step off the tightrope with our spouse and detach it from our old home.
This dream might be “teaching” us about how big a financial risk we are taking right now. We might have to lower the tightrope a bit so that we are now so far above the ground. Do we have someone in our life (perhaps a financial advisory) who can help us with our financial management. We also might wish to somehow “unhook” from the financial battles we had earlier in our life together as a couple. There are “old ways” of viewing our finances that must be discarded if we are to deal with the “reality” of our current marriage and financial state. Perhaps this dream can be shared with our spouse and together we can take some appropriate actions and request some needed assistance from a financial advisor.
Katherine’s Sub-Focal Conflict(s): Back to Katherine. Her interpersonal problem resides not in a meeting that she is attending nor in financial struggles with a life partner—for she is not yet working in an organization and has not yet established a loving relationship with someone. Rather, she is experiencing difficult relationships with other people–except when playing card games. At the present time, Katherine can remain distant and emotionally detached from other people in her life when she engaged with them in a rule-based format and when she can be competitive in her relationships with other people.
There might even be a side benefit for Katherine. She knows when she has won and lost—and perhaps she hates to lose. As French and Fromm suggest there might be a cluster of sub-conflicts that are represented in Katherine’s dreams—formal, rule-based relationships that are “safe” for her intermix with Katherine’s competitive urges. There might even be a related sub-conflict concerning Katherine’s desire to be a successful student (competition) while also wishing to escape from the strictures of formal course work at her university. Card games at the Student Union provide a wonderful escape route.
