A young school teacher who worries too much about making mistakes in her life and professional work, who dots every i and crosses every t dreamt the following:
A student of her approaches her on the school corridor and states that she is a girl but wants to be equal and therefore wants to become a boy.
There was nothing more to the dream, she insisted.
Associations revealed that she had attended a LGBT conference for teachers a few days earlier. The conference could not emphasize enough the need to be sensitive to budding lesbians, gays, bisexual and transgender children, even in the elementary school. She teaches the sixth grade.
After the conference she had begun to worry whether she had missed out on some lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender student's needs and was not utilizing her 'skill sets' up to par. Now all this worrying was taking place in her unconscious, for in the conscious mind other than feeling pressured and running from one thing to another to have everything perfect, which she anyway always does, she gave no further thought to the conference till she ran in to the girl who became the subject of her dream. In fact she had no idea that she had had this dream till the girl, who was not in her class but had been her pupil in a previous year and of whom she was fond of, had waved at her on the school corridor. This girl had always amused her by her high spirits and tomboyish ways. And so she served as a good object for the dream to weave fulfillment of the wish.
But what wish?
Was she identifying with that girl and accepting her own wish to be a boy in this world where the female sex is often subjected to so much disadvantage? This could have been a possibility though at the deepest level, for she is quite happy with her boyfriend living with him and looking forward to getting married in near future.
At this point another dream that she had related to me in a previous session came to the rescue.
This was a laconic dream too. Her obsessive nature objects to every form of transgression, which also reflects in her dreams. She rarely dreams, and if she does, they are just one liner, more or less repetition of some scene from daytime, as if any massive enjoyment or excessive emotions is objected to by her overly watchful conscience.
In the dream: She was driving to work and had forgotten to pack her breakfast with her.
Even in the dream she had felt that this was impossible, since she never ever forgets to take her breakfast which is invariably a nutritionally fortified shake, and which she drinks while driving to work.
Analysis had revealed that this dream had occurred on a night when she had some important thing to do at school the next day and she was worrying about reaching on time and doing it right. The worry was disturbing the sleep and the dream had emerged to counter the worry by assuring her that she is as likely to be late and not know how to do the job as she is likely to forget to pack and take her breakfast with her in the morning.
The dream of the tomboyish girl approaching her and declaring that she wants to become a boy was constructed on the same pattern. It was to assure her that she can stop worrying that she is not using her newly acquired skills on how to help her pupils with LGBT issues. For in the dream a girl had approached her with gender and orientation issues and she was being sensitive to her needs.
A student of her approaches her on the school corridor and states that she is a girl but wants to be equal and therefore wants to become a boy.
There was nothing more to the dream, she insisted.
Associations revealed that she had attended a LGBT conference for teachers a few days earlier. The conference could not emphasize enough the need to be sensitive to budding lesbians, gays, bisexual and transgender children, even in the elementary school. She teaches the sixth grade.
After the conference she had begun to worry whether she had missed out on some lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender student's needs and was not utilizing her 'skill sets' up to par. Now all this worrying was taking place in her unconscious, for in the conscious mind other than feeling pressured and running from one thing to another to have everything perfect, which she anyway always does, she gave no further thought to the conference till she ran in to the girl who became the subject of her dream. In fact she had no idea that she had had this dream till the girl, who was not in her class but had been her pupil in a previous year and of whom she was fond of, had waved at her on the school corridor. This girl had always amused her by her high spirits and tomboyish ways. And so she served as a good object for the dream to weave fulfillment of the wish.
But what wish?
Was she identifying with that girl and accepting her own wish to be a boy in this world where the female sex is often subjected to so much disadvantage? This could have been a possibility though at the deepest level, for she is quite happy with her boyfriend living with him and looking forward to getting married in near future.
At this point another dream that she had related to me in a previous session came to the rescue.
This was a laconic dream too. Her obsessive nature objects to every form of transgression, which also reflects in her dreams. She rarely dreams, and if she does, they are just one liner, more or less repetition of some scene from daytime, as if any massive enjoyment or excessive emotions is objected to by her overly watchful conscience.
In the dream: She was driving to work and had forgotten to pack her breakfast with her.
Even in the dream she had felt that this was impossible, since she never ever forgets to take her breakfast which is invariably a nutritionally fortified shake, and which she drinks while driving to work.
Analysis had revealed that this dream had occurred on a night when she had some important thing to do at school the next day and she was worrying about reaching on time and doing it right. The worry was disturbing the sleep and the dream had emerged to counter the worry by assuring her that she is as likely to be late and not know how to do the job as she is likely to forget to pack and take her breakfast with her in the morning.
The dream of the tomboyish girl approaching her and declaring that she wants to become a boy was constructed on the same pattern. It was to assure her that she can stop worrying that she is not using her newly acquired skills on how to help her pupils with LGBT issues. For in the dream a girl had approached her with gender and orientation issues and she was being sensitive to her needs.
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