ABSTRACT

Appointment with the Wise Old Dog"; Dream Images in a Time of Crisis - A Jungian Commentary

Dennis Merritt, Ph.D., received a doctorate in insect pathology from UC-Berkeley, an MA in Humanistic Psychology from Sonoma State University, CA and is a Diplomate of the C. G. Jung Institute of Analytical Psychology in Zurich, Switzerland.  He is a Jungian Analyst, sandplay therapist and eco-psychologist in private practice at The Integral Psychology Center in Madison, Wisconsin.

Summary of Presentation

We will carefully analyze a video, "Appointment with the Wise Old Dog," that superbly illustrates how dreams, music in dreams, active imagination and paintings based on dreams helped a cancer patient deal with his illness and undergo a profound psychic transformation that prepared him for death.



Learning Objectives:

To learn how people facing a life-threatening illness can use dreams and active imagination to be transformed by their illness and impending death.

To learn how music in dreams can contribute to a transformative experience in dealing with illness and death.

To learn several of the basic principles of Jungian psychology and dream work.



Questions:

Did the presenter clearly illustrate how dreams and active imagination based on dreams can help a person deal with illness and their impending death?

Did the presenter illustrate how music in dreams can contribute to a transformative experience in dealing with illness and death?

Did the presenter adequately illustrate several basic principles of Jungian psychology and dream work?

Abstract 

 The 45 minute video, "Appointment with the Wise Old Dog," presents the tragic and transformative story of a man's confrontation with cancer and death.  It is one of the most succinct and powerful illustrations of how dreams and active imagination and paintings in conjunction with dream work can be an invaluable help in dealing with life-threatening illness and death.  David Blum, an accomplished conductor and writer on classical music, reveals in the video how he dealt with cancer over the last few years of his life using these approaches.  What is unique is the classical music he could remember being played in his dreams, even of the conductors of individual pieces of music.  The dreams and accompanying work also had the significant appearance of a deceased pet dog or a stuffed toy dog from David's childhood that functioned as guiding spirits and healing influences. 

The video illustrates several basic concepts and practices of Jungian psychology and dream work, including active imagination, numinous and big dreams, the value of following dreams over a period of years, the relationship of the anima to death, animals as Self images and theriomorphic forms of God, the reality of the psyche, the connection between the inner and outer worlds, and the relationship between the anima and significant women in a man's life.  It shows how powerful transformations of the soul and preparations of death are heralded by dreams, mandala symbolism, and archetypes of the mother and child, the Self, and the divine marriage.

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