Trump Dreams: A Brief Communication

A highly educated, liberal, middle-aged man whose analysis was nearing termination was alarmed when he had a series of what he called “Trump Dreams.” As a very brief sketch of his analysis and the genetic events most often worked on in the transferences of analytic process it could be said that his father’s life long passivity and depression had often led to bouts of passivity and depression in himself, such was the nature of his identification with the long suffering parent. Modeling himself on a series of alternate “fathers” (both real and imagined) and gifted with considerable innate talents, he had become a remarkable success not only in business but in his responsibilities as a devoted husband and father to his wife and children also. When he regressed into passive states and dark moods he would work hard in analysis to recover his agency as quickly as possible. He had come to learn in analysis that a mood only reflected a regressed facet of his character and not the whole entity.

The Trump Dreams, as he called them derisively at first, until he came to realize that derision was merely a defense, alarmed him for many reasons. His antipathy for Trump was deep and serious. He contributed generously to whatever political initiatives he believed might “topple the tyrant” as soon as possible. His initial disgust with himself for dreaming about Trump led to critical insights not only about politics in general but about the internal politics of dynamic conflicted

intrapsychic unconscious life as well. He was pleased that he could “use the scoundrel to understand myself better” as he put it having analyzed the dreams.

Here are the dreams as reported:

A young man challenges what Trump is saying. The young man’s name is Richardson, a business colleague of the analysand. “No, not Richardson-a younger person” a voice in the dream announces. Trump orders his henchmen to remove the challenger, justifying his action by saying, “I have only two weeks until the election.” There