A Dream Triptych about Gustafson

I have had the luck and the fortune to learn from Dr Gustafson. The following dream triptych I believe describes a journey which is defined by the first dream and ends with the last dream.

ACT I:


As a part of residency training in our program we were required to have one hour per week of general psychiatry supervision and one hour per week of psychotherapy supervision. In the third year I had requested Dr Gustafson as a supervisor. The following dream marked that time.















Dream notes:
The dream is set in Silent Hill universe. It was in the film adaptation of silent hill. It was primarily focused on the siren which signaled the transition into the alternate universe. Dr Gustason had started recently writing his book The Great Instrument of Orientation.

Dream:
Throughout the dream, I was exploring a very strange house. I had the feeling constantly that we had to get out before the universe changed into the dark one. With me was Dr Gustafson and there was the siren which scared me and gave a desperate longing and spurred a frantic struggle to get out of the house. My guide was Dr Gustafson and together through various rooms we made our way. We had pistols and we killed several monsters in the process of trying to fight our way out.

Interpretation:
Dealing with psychiatric patients is a tricky business.

ACT II:






Dream notes:
This dream was set in the painting of the last supper. Instead of JC I had a condensed figure in it. By this time I was roughly half way through the supervision with Dr Gustafson. I had already seen him transform his everyday life encounters into words and pen them down. The rigorous discipline which came to him like breathing (inspiration and expiration). I had by this time asked myself the big question of why life was going in and out of silent hill psychosis.
Also of note all pulmonologic diseases are divided into those dealing with inspiration(restrictive) and those deal with expiration(obstructive)
(Thanks to Darkdiscordia)



Dream:
The main figure was that of Jesus who was not Jesus but a condensed figure that I had created by combining a Pulmonology attending that I once met and Dr Gustafson. The Pulmonology attending I described next day to Dr Gustafson as "a show off who was very capable but liked showing off to his students". I was asking the savior about a Pulmonologic illness that I was suffering from and the condensed figure of the savior looked at me and said to me, "the problem with you is not in the expiration but in the inspiration."

Interpretation:
Inspiration can be difficult when the organism is threatened with expiration at every instance.


ACT III:



Dream notes:
The third and the last of the Triptych, I had the night that I received news that Dr Gustafson had published his book. All through the dream instead of seeing that book, I was thinking about Eckhart Tolle and A New Earth.

Dream:
I was going around a table of people who were studiously writing about something. Each had their own book and I was going around trying to make out the book that each person had with them. Suddenly I stopped because I saw a new book by Eckhart Tolle. I knew he had not written a new book after A New Earth. Not wanting to interrupt the person who was working with this new book, I took great pains to glance at the cover about this new book.

Interpretation:
Dr Gustafson writes about the dream "The dream could be taken several different ways, of course: one is that the new author is yourself, which seems to be exciting in finding your own center; another that you are getting pulled into someone else's center."