Is the CI (Central Image or Contextualizing Image) the Fast Lane on the Royal Road to the Unconscious?
Ernest Hartmann, MD, is the author of over 300 articles, and eight books, most recently Dreams and Nightmares. He is a Past President of IASD and was the first Editor-in-chief of Dreaming. He is professor of psychiatry at Tufts University School of Medicine. Abstract The Contextualizing Image or Central Image (CI) is the most powerful image in a dream, which sometimes appears to picture the dominant emotion or emotional concern of the dreamer. Thus the dream I was overwhelmed by a tidal wave pictures the dominant emotion of terror or helplessness in someone who has just experienced a severe trauma. Such dreams are very common after trauma. The situation after trauma, when there is one overwhelming emotion, provides the clearest example, but other dreams can be approached in the same way. However, is the CI more generally an important part of the dream? Will an examination of a CI lead quickly and reliably to an underlying emotion or emotional concern? In this workshop, the CI will be c
