ABSTRACT

Is the CI (Central Image or Contextualizing Image) the Fast Lane on the Royal Road to the Unconscious?

Ernest Hartmann, M.D.
Professor of Psychiatry, Tufts University School of Medicine
Director, Sleep Disorders Center, Newton-Wellesley Hospital

Email: EHDream@aol.com

Dr. Hartmann is the author of 300 articles and 8 books — most recently, Dreams and Nightmares (Plenum, 1998, Perseus, 2000). Dr. Hartmann is a past president of ASD and was the first editor of the journal Dreaming.

Summary of Presentation

The Contextualizing Image or Central Image (CI) is a powerful image in a dream which can be understood as picturing the dominant emotion or emotional concern of the dreamer. In this workshop, participants will examine dreams to determine whether memorable dreams, or "big dreams," contain CIs, and if so, what emotions are pictured. Participants will have a chance to work with dreams, starting with the CI to determine whether this is useful in dreamwork or psychotherapy

Learning Objectives.

1. Learn how to recognize a Contextualizing Image (CI).

2. Learn how a dream may be built on the basis of the CI.

3. Learn to use the CI in personal dreamwork.

Evaluation questions:

1. Briefly define a Contextualizing Image.

2. Name one way that the concept of Conceptualizing Images can be applied to understand the formation and function of dreams.

3. How can the Contextualizing Image concept help in the understanding of dreams in psychotherapy and personal growth.

Abstract 

Is the CI (Central Image or Contextualizing Image) the Royal Road to the Unconscious?

Ernest Hartmann, M.D.

The Contextualizing Image or Central Image (CI) is a powerful image in a dream which can be understood as picturing the dominant emotion or emotional concern of the dreamer. Thus the frequent dream "I was overwhelmed by a tidal wave" pictures the dominant emotion of terror or helplessness in someone who has just experienced a severe trauma.

This situation is especially clear-cut when there is one powerful emotion of this kind, for instance after trauma. However, is the CI more generally an important part of the dream? Will an examination of a CI lead quickly and reliably to an underlying emotion or emotional concern?

In this workshop, participants will first examine dreams to determine whether memorable dreams, or "big dreams," contain CIs, and if so, what emotions are pictured. The CI will be defined and a system for finding and scoring CIs will be briefly described.

Participants in pairs or small groups will then have a chance to work on their own dreams, either starting with the CI or working on the dream in other ways to get a sense of whether beginning with the CI is useful in dreamwork and psychotherapy.

If time permits, we may also try to construct or build a dream using the CI model of dreaming.

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