I have just had surgery and both breasts have been removed. I had not expected anything so radical, and a number of people on the hospital staff are also very upset at what the doctor has done. At the desk near my room one of the research girls is quite hysterical. The situation is reported to upper levels of management, and a man comes and reprimands this young woman. I am able to communicate with the girl nonverbally, to acknowledge my appreciation of her concern and feeling so that she is able to stay together. She controls herself and the situation smooths over.

Day's Events: Got a call to come for an interview for a research position with a management firm. It will probably involve a $2,000 cut in pay.

Dream theme: a surgical operation. Recurring theme.

Puns
Taking a cut: salary cut.
Upper levels: conscious mind.

Symbols
Breasts: essential & valued part of my body
Research girl: me, in context of possible new job
Management: the firm with which I have interview scheduled. Also, the part of me that exercises control.

Message
I am far more upset about the possible salary cut than I consciously realized--in face, one part of me is almost hysterical about it. I controlled my feelings so successfully that I never even fully registered them. The message seems very clear that I should be most wary of taking a salary cut. A principle of far greater value than money is involved, and I feel I would lose an essential part of my personal/professional self-image--or something--if I take this position at this salary level, just because it's the first response I've had. The job sounded very boring anyway, and my feeling is that I should be paid more, not less, for doing an uninteresting job.

Action: I canceled the interview.

Permanent dream glossary
Breasts: my feeling of worth or value.
Level: level of the mind.
Surgical operation: a "cutting out operation" which diminished my worth.

SOURCE: The Dream Game, Ann Faraday, Harper & Row, 1976 ed.; pp 361-2 (Appendix: Pages from Sara's Dream Diary and Glossary). Passage untitled; 'Pay Cut' added to aid searches.

EDITOR'S NOTE

This is a clear example of dreamwork using the tools taught in Ann Faraday and John Wren-Lewis's workshops. Do all those notes seem excessive? Without them, in isolation, Sara might have guessed it meant "My femininity feels threatened" or "It's a man's world, I secretly want a sex change" or even "Uh-oh, I have breast cancer!"--who knows? But she notes day events, symbols & puns, pointing NOT to physical or psychological trouble, but to simple action. And she acts.

Jung felt the unconscious doesn't concern itself with money, numbers, or superficial ambitions. Jung was wrong.

--Chris Wayan

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