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Lesson 29 Introduction to the Transference and the Study of Allegories

In any sequence of associations, we can distinguish between the images and the “plot” that connects or links the images. Imagine a picture with a golden wheat field and some men harvesting in the left foreground, and in the center distance a city with a visible industrial area. The day is bright and clear, and in the right foreground little children are playing with dogs near a house. A woman is calling the children to dinner by clanging a frying pan. The whole picture has a friendly feeling, and shows both the work and warm home life of country people. We can distinguish between the images and the plot in this scene, the plot being the friendly, simple homey feeling of the picture. Clearly, if we treated and arranged the same images differently, this could result in a considerably different plot. For example, suppose that now in this picture the same children are hitting the dogs with the frying pan, the workers have abandoned their harvesting tools, the house is in ruins, and the sky has taken on a leaden, sinister color, while the smoke from the factories in the distance looks like it is from a fire. Although the images are the same, the plot or relationship between them is now quite different. In the scenes formed by free associations, it is very important to learn to distinguish between the themes (images) and the plot. The themes or images reveal the interplay of tensions, and how the relaxations open pathways among difficulties in a cathartic way. The plot, on the other hand, reveals the background emotional climate in which the whole scene takes place. The themes and the plot usually coincide and reinforce each other. When this happens, one can easily grasp the transferential solution being proposed in the plot simply by understanding the functions served by the themes or images in a given scene. However, in other cases the images do not coincide with the climate. For example, suppose a subject dreams of a train careening crazily towards him, and yet does not experience fear or anguish, but rather feels in a festive mood of happiness. In this case, the images of danger do not coincide with the festive mood or plot. In everyday life it can also happen that the images and the climates will not coincide in a situation. An example of this would be the person who receives some good news and imagines the happy scene he has just heard about, but then unaccountably becomes depressed. There are other cases in which, although the images change, the background emotional climate remains the same and the subject is unable to understand the reason for the climate. It is as though the climate is diffuse and not linked to any specific images, at least not visual ones. Unless it corresponds to an image, the climate cannot be adequately transferred. If one remembers what was previously explained about the secondary and primary reveries and the reverie nucleus, one will understand that the reverie nucleus is a type of fixed climate that does not vary with the constant changes of perceptions and representations that occur in everyday life. The reverie nucleus generates specific images that compensate its basic climate. These images by compensation determine one’s activities in the world; they are “attempts” to transfer its charges. However, these reveries do not manage to solve the problem of transferring this basic fixed climate. In working with transferential practices, one will often come across the reverie nucleus with its basic fixed climate which is very difficult to modify. But one will also encounter other climates that are still very profound which can be successfully transformed using adequate images and procedures. In general, we say that any image or climate that shows up repeatedly in different scenes is of special interest. If on several occasions a subject should have dreams with different plots, but the same person or object always appears in them, this image is of interest. Or this can also happen the other way around if the subject dreams about different themes or images, but the same plot and climate is always repeated. When one succeeds in capturing one’s repeating images and climates, one will have found an important thread to follow which will be a great help in orienting subsequent transferential procedures. Now we will proceed to define the general categories in which the various themes or images may be put in order to work most easily. Then we will go on to categorize the various types of plots that occur.

Themes

A. Containers are all objects that enclose, guard, or protect other things. The major container of a given scene can be reduced symbolically to a simple geometric frame in order to understand the basic structure of the tensions present in the scene; the whole scene takes place within the field of this basic framing symbol. B. Contents are all objects, persons, situations, etc., that appear within a container. Contents are called either manifest when the image appears explicitly, or tacit when the image does not appear explicitly but one “knows” that it is present. C. Connectives are all those elements that link two or more containers, that link two or more contents, or that link containers and contents. Connectives can have a facilitating nature, as in the case of bridges, vehicles, roads, ladders, and different sign communications such as gestures, language, etc. Or, connectives can be impediments, as in the case of the above-mentioned connectives when they do not do their function. For example, broken bridges, stuck or out of control vehicles, flooded roads, unstable ladders, strange and unknown languages, or languages that create confusion, are all connectives that are impediments. D. Attributes are those elements whose principal value has been transferred from other things or people by an association of either similarity, contiguity, or contrast. For example, an object one prizes because it was a present from a friend, a special piece of clothing one values because it used to belong to a particular person, and an abstract value represented allegorically, (e.g. justice represented by a blindfolded woman holding scales in one hand and a sword in the other), are all objects whose value or significance comes from a process of association. They are objects with attributed qualities, and we call the objects themselves “attributes.” E. Levels. The images in a scene are placed in different vertical levels. Any difference in the physical level of images either indicates the physical level relating them as in the case of a hill and a valley, a difference in size as in the case of a giant and a dwarf, or the different functions or roles that relate the images, as in a boss-subordinate relationship. F. Moments of process are represented by the chronological age (for example, an old person, adolescent, or child), transformations (for example, one person is transformed into another or into an object), or inversions, which are a special case of transformations (for example, an ugly frog is transformed into a handsome prince). G. Textures, colors, sounds, smells, etc., are always related to the sense that first produced the sensory signal, which is then translated or deformed into an image. In the case of textures, visual images of sharp points, cutting edges, or objects that tear, all produce definite tactile and cenesthetic registers. This is an important point, and illustrates how impulses from the external senses are continuously being translated into tactile and cenesthetic sensations or registers. In this way, an unpleasant sight can bring on concomitant internal physical registers such as an upset stomach, etc. Otherwise, a painful spectacle would have no effect on or resonance with spectators who witness it. In addition, elements such as air and fire, and also, of course, textures and temperatures produce strong tactile registers. The same thing occurs with colors. H. Functions. There are several basic roles or functions that images may have, and we classify them here:

1. Defenders protect or defend something to stop access or free passage through it. Among defenders, we distinguish those with a clearly revealed (manifest) function from those disguised (tacitly) as snares, deceits, or seductions that deviate one from one’s objectives.
2. Protectors help one’s access to or voyage towards a particular objective. Examples of protectors are guides or certain magical or technical aids (magic wands, etc.), that help ,one.
3. Intermediaries are beings one must first go to in order to later obtain some desired benefit. For example, characters one must pay or persuade to transport one to a desired place, or to grant one a certain attribute are intermediaries. There are also intermediate situations one must pass through in order to gain some benefit; these may be states of suffering or “testing.”
4. Centers of power are objects or places that possess a strong virtue that can transform one such as the water or flame of immortality, the fountain of youth, the island of happiness, the philosopher’s stone, etc. At the end of any search in which all the previous functions appear, there is a center of power, an image that represents one’s ideal desire for permanent and complete happiness and relaxation. Sometimes, one will know of the center of power even though one is unable to find or reach it. For example, it may appear as a manifest center surrounded by labyrinths or defenders who do not allow one to enter it. Occasionally it may instead be that the subject is searching continuously for an unknown center of power; this center of power is then a tacit center. In this case, there is a diffuse climate present that is not linked to any particular image. This climate must first be connected to a specific image before one will be able to carry out the transference of charges that will integrate and transform it. Idealized images of the opposite sex also fulfill a transformed function of “center of power.” Such images may appear as Lilith or Abraxas, or the great mother or great father figures. Because female sexual impulses are more diffuse, they are often translated into giants or large dark shadowy figures, while instead dancers or elusive women with their changing garments result from the translation of male sexual impulses that are more tingling and localized. Themes that come from transformations of sexual impulses often lead to sexual discharges.- they are then fulfilling a cathartic function. However, from a transferential point of view, idealized images of the opposite sex reveal instances of sexual difficulties, or difficulties in integrating profound contents.

Plots

The plot in a scene results from the relationships established among the various themes or images. Sometimes, the mobility of a single allegory which is the sum of several different themes may constitute a plot. It is important to determine the climate by extracting it from the plot. However, sometimes the climate will not coincide with the plot, or sometimes the climate will not be related to any definite visual images. This may also happen in everyday life. As we will see later on, when a climate is not adhered to a visual image or does not correspond to the plot, one has to proceed to find an image that does correspond to or “fits” the climate in order to be able to then transfer the associated charges. The principal types of plots that occur are: A. Cathartic Plots are plots in which the subject experiences a relief from tension. They nearly always involve either laughter, crying, fighting, or sex. The plots in jokes are good examples of cathartic plots. If a subject does not manage to achieve a discharge of tensions during the development of a cathartic plot, any subsequent frustration reveals there is remaining unsolved tension in the subject. This tension will be associated with particular themes or images of the plot. If the same themes are later repeated in other plots, as for example When the same house or the same person repeats in several different contexts, this clearly reveals there is still tension connected with this image. B. Tranferential Plots are plots in which the subject undergoes a transformation, a change in his point of view or how he perceives a situation, or a change in the “meaning” of something. If the same plot such as searching for something or fleeing from something is repeated many times without being successfully concluded, this reveals the presence of a fixed climate that must be worked on. One works on this by continuing to propose different themes or images until the transference eventually occurs. C. Occasional Plots are plots that reveal the presence of brief, temporary, or situational tensions or climates. The raw material that generates the climate may have any of numerous sources, and will be of recent origin. These plots are useful for momentary cathartic and transferential processes, as well as putting the data in one’s memory in order.

Allegorical Analysis

1. To analyze a given allegorical theme or plot, begin by reducing the overall frame to a symbol. This will show the most general system of tensions-the points where energy accumulates, disperses, and transfers. It will also allow one to understand the resistances, and the tensions that are overcome.

2. Once the frame has been reduced to a symbol, analyze and put all the themes and plots into the categories defined above.

3. When you have categorized the themes and plots, then extract and define the climates. This important step of defining the basic climates is the summary of the analysis done in steps one and two.

Allegorical Interpretation

Once one finishes the Allegorical Analysis and summary of the situation, one is in a position to interpret it if one also has summaries of previous allegories of the same or similar situations. One needs the Allegorical Interpretation of several sequential allegories to distinguish whether one is dealing with a cathartic, transferential, or occasional phenomenon. Remember, one cannot carry out a successful Allegorical Interpretation unless one has a process of several scenes in time. When the Allegorical Interpretation is complete, then proceed to do a brief Allegorical Synthesis. People frequently make the error of interpreting each theme or image on the assumption that it has a fixed and static meaning. For example, the image of a man barring the way is rather strangely and inflexibly interpreted by some people always as the dramatization of one’s father punishing one. We, on the other hand, interpret this image only by its function in the particular scene it appears in; this example, along with other kinds of “defenders,” simply reveals unsolved tensions that are not allowing energy to transfer naturally from one image to another. When we say “interpretation,” we mean examining the process followed by the themes and plots in time in order to understand the functions they fulfill-what tensions they reveal, what climates they express, and what difficulties or possibilities they offer in terms of the different transferential techniques one may apply.

Exercises in Allegories

Exercise 1: Symbolic Reduction Choose a children’s story or fable and reduce the major frame it takes place in to a symbol. Point out and explain the points where energy accumulates, disperses, and transfers. Try to understand where the tensions and relaxations are.

Exercise 2: Allegorical Analysis Analyze and categorize all the themes and plots in the story.

Exercise 3: Allegorical Summary Extract and define the climate of each plot in the story.

Exercise 4: Allegorical Interpretation Explain both the problems or tensions that are successfully resolved in the story, and those that are not resolved; do this from both a cathartic and transferential point of view. It is relatively easy to do the above four exercises for a myth, story, or fable because these works usually have a well-defined internal process; that is, they have a beginning, a central “knot,” and reach a resolution at the end. Exercises 1, 2, and 3 can also usually be done without any difficulty for a personal dream or reverie. Exercise 4, however, usually requires several sequential dreams or reveries to understand the process in time. Still, in some cases a complete internal process like that of a myth or legend is developed in a dream or reverie, and this then makes it possible to do a complete Allegorical Interpretation of these dreams.