Aspects of Omnipotence

In working with deep levels of character resistances, much of the patient's communications are often attempts to support defensive patterns which offer at least some illusion of partial mastery over areas of sensed helplessness. Even obsessive clinging to pain and manifest inability are often attempts to mask and encapsulate a dreaded loss of control. In dreams the ego frequently appears to be in control of feelings it fears are uncontrollable. Of course, these controlling gestures may slip or otherwise fail, with a resulting sense of terrifying helplessness. Both attempts at mastery and their breakdown quickly spiral or are governed by a pull toward omnipotent-impotent extremes. Unconscious operations move toward extremes or, better, maximal states (Matte Blanco, 1975). Defensive operations often bear an infinite exponent. It is, in part, the imaginative leaps of the therapist which enable the patient to gradually bear experiencing difficult areas muted by cycles of pseudomastery and the latter's collapse (Eigen, 1979b, 1980a, 1980b, 1981, 1982, 1983, 1984).

In the work with the dreams reported below, special attention is given to aspects of omnipotence and attempts to overcome it. The subject frequently traps himself by trying to solve his problems with various omnipotence-impotence stratagems, often subtly so. Creative struggle is necessary on the part of both dream teller and listener to stay open to fresh perspectives. The dreams reported below were given by experienced patients and/or practitioners. After sketching the play of tendencies related to omnipotence or impotence in these scenes, a more general, although still informal, discussion follows.

Fran, an experienced therapist and patient, reported the following dream in my dream seminar: