Dr. Dave interviews Nancy Swift Furlotti about The Dream and its Amplification (Erel Shalit & Nancy Swift Furlotti, Eds.). Listen, or read transcript.
The Dream and Its Amplification unveils the language of the psyche that speaks to us in our dreams.
We all dream at least 4-6 times each night yet remember very few. Those that rise to the surface of our conscious awareness beckon to be understood, like a letter addressed to us that arrives by post. Why would we not open it? The difficulty is in understanding what the dream symbols and images mean. Through amplification, C. G. Jung formulated a method of unveiling the deeper meaning of symbolic images. This becomes particularly important when the image does not carry a personal meaning or significance and is not part of a person's everyday life.
Thirteen Jungian Analysts from around the world and a celebrated Jungian Scholar have contributed chapters to this book on areas of special interest to them in their work with dreams. This offers the seasoned dream worker as well as the novice great insight into the meaning of the dream and its amplification.
Contributors to this edition of the Fisher King Review include: Erel Shalit, Nancy Swift Furlotti, Thomas Singer, Michael Conforti, Ken Kimmel, Gotthilf Isler, Nancy Qualls-Corbett, Henry Abramovitch, Kathryn Madden, Ron Schenk, Naomi Ruth Lowinsky, Christian Gaillard, Monika Wikman, and Gilda Frantz.
Nancy Swift Furlotti M. A., Ph. D. candidate, is a Jungian Analyst in private practice in Los Angeles and Santa Barbara, California. She is a past President of the C.G. Jung Institute of Los Angeles. Nancy did her analytical training at the Los Angeles Institute while also participating in the Research and Training Centre for Depth Psychology According to C.G. Jung and Marie-Louise von Franz in Switzerland. She is, also, an active faculty member of the Inter-Regional Society of Jungian Analysts, the C. G. Jung Institute of Colorado, and an associate member of JPA. Beyond these, Nancy teaches and lectures in the US and Switzerland, and has a number of publications: The Archetypal drama in Puccini’s Madam Butterfly; Angels and Idols: Los Angeles, a chapter in the book, Psyche and the City: A Soul’s Guide to the Modern Metropolis. Her article, Tracing a Red Thread: Synchronicity and Jung’s Red Book, was published in Psychological Perspectives.
Replies
It's not just about image. the dream itself is alive and amplification isn't enough. association and animation are necessary for amplification. Dream Tending by Stephen Aizenstat explains a Jungian approach with further additions in understanding and communicating with the dream figure.
Taking it a step further, try to see it's archetype. Understanding that and about the specific archetype will help one work through the dream and find its full meaning.
It's not about interpretation, it's about understanding and communication. It is a relationship with your psyche and discussion. Your psyche doesn't want to be told what it is, it wants to tell you why is arrived in that form.