Robert Bosnak, a renowned Jungian Analyst, presented at the Jung in the Heartland Conference during the second week of November, 2011. Dr. Bosnak, a Zurich-trained analyst, has developed a unique way of working with dreams, a process partially based on ways the Greeks utilized dreams in their practice of medicine. His techniques involve helping the patient make connection with the somatic impact of dream images and feelings, a connection he believes can have a profound healing effect both for psychic and bodily ailments. Over the four days of the conference, Dr. Bosnak demonstrated his approach to dreams with different attendees. One of the demonstrations was with a woman suffering from necrosis of her knee tissue. In prior sessions long-distance over Skype, Dr. Bosnak had worked with the woman in a process of "dream incubation" which involved focussing on dreams possibly related to her health issue in an attempt to use her dreams as an approach to healing.
My one concern about the rather elaborate techniques Dr. Bosnak uses is that he must give the patient detailed, specific direction in the working of the dream. There is a power differential already present in any analyst-patient relations, and Dr. Bosnak's approach seems to heighten that differential. However, my concern did not seem shared by any of the individuals Dr. Bosnak worked with.
Dr. Bosnak's presentations will be available by streaming over the internet or on DVD's from the St. Louis Jung Society soon. For more information, go to www.cgjungstl.org.
One of the more powerful and educational of his presentations involved a demonstration of "entrainment," the way analyst and patient can become aligned in a felt way in the shared energy field. It is in this shared field that powerful transference and countertransference dynamics have a palpable presence. It is out of this kind of "field effect" that healing of the psyche and of the body can occur.
Dr. Bosnak has recently joined the Santa Barbara Healing Sanctuary where his approach to dream incubation along with other alternative approaches to health and wellness are practiced. For further information about the Sanctuary, go to: http://www.sbhsanctuary.com/about.html
3 comments:
Robbie Bosnak has some fascinating techniques which he has explored for opening up dreams. This workshop sounds like a very good one. I've benefitted greatly from his approaches, and I wish I could have been there!
Thank you for your comment, Brian. Over the four days of this conference, Robbie was extremely engaging, both during his presentations/demonstrations and for all the other events of the conference. His explanations of dream images that are ego-syntonic and those that are ego-dystonic were quite helpful, especially when he coupled his explanations with notions about the constellated energy field between analyst and patient.
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