interpretation of the dreams and any related material,
seeking help from me only if necessary.
      The fifteen dreamers that I worked with in this project
had fascinating incubations. I wish I could share them all
with you, but I can provide only a few examples.
      Jan, a sculptor, had had quite a quarrel with her
husband over how certain things should be done in their
household. The matter was unresolved at bedtime, so
she incubated a dream on it. Her incubation phrase was,
"What are the dynamics behind this fight over little
things?" She dreamt: I was looking at my foot and saw
that the second toe was just enormous, with an ugly
mushroomlike growth on it. I wondered if I should have
the growth removed. I looked again and saw that several
of my toes as well as the growth had been amputated! I
then panicked. How would I ever dance or even walk
again? Her interpretation went like this: Her mother
was fond of saying that the woman whose second toe is
her longest one rules the roost. In the dream her second
toe was not only long, it was grossly oversized and
deformed. She saw clearly that her need to control her
husband and home had gotten out of hand. Jan also saw
how part of her need to control was motivated by the
fear that if she did not do so with vigor, she might lose all
control or power. She feared giving up her excess control
(her ugly growth) for fear of losing all her influence
(losing all her toes). Jan noticed how this black and white
thinking colored many of her attitudes. As a result of the
dream, she began to modify some of her "positions."
      Lyn, a San Francisco school teacher, was very
unhappy with her job. For some years she had been
assigned to a depressing and frightening school, where
she had to step over drunks to get into the building,
withstand physical threats and attempted assault from
the students, and confront staunch resistance to her
innovative programs from the administration and staff.
In the school system there was one school which was
worse. If she insisted on a transfer, she was told, she
could go there or quit. She incubated a dream on "where
and what next, jobwise?" She dreamed:

76