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In ancient times, the Greeks never spoke of dreaming or having a dream, but of seeing a dream, thus emphasizing the iconic form of the dream thought (Dodds, 1951). The dream can be regarded as an image, a series of images or, according to Freud, a ≪form≫, ≪the form into which the latent thoughts have been transmuted by the dream-work≫ (Freud, 1915-1916, 182). As studied by Winnicott (1971), this work, which has a great deal to do with creativity and artistic processes, is able to penetrate the complexity of the transformation process that analysis supports, including the somatic aspect.
In analysis dream images may be shared by means of further transformation, a formal organization in which the moment, the context and the relationship with the analyst may take part.
There are a multitude of modes in which dreams may be described or listened to. Freud himself made a comment of this kind in his writings about dreams: ≪some are very short and comprise only a single image or a few, single thoughts, or even a single word, […] There are dreams which are as clear as [waking] experience (Freud, 1915-1916, 89-90). Some are accompanied by many associations while others remain just an isolated image in the context of the session.
In correspondence to the variety of the patient's ≪narrative styles≫, today we are able to offer a similar variety of listening modes, according to the explicit or implicit theory adopted by the analyst, who thus becomes both a spectator and actor in the creative process of analysis (Petrella, 2000). Within this aesthetical multiplicity, in this paper I would like to look at one particular mode of describing and listening to a dream and the implications this might have in the study of the depth that the patient and analyst and their bodies — in all their physicality — bring to the session. I am referring to those dreams that are described with particular emphasis on the iconic elements, which one could say are drawn or painted with words. When a patient