In 1923, the philosopher Martin Buber published his essay, Ich und Du (later translated into English as I and Thou). In the essay, Martin describes how human relationships often fall into two distinct categories, the I-It, and the I-Thou.In I-It relationships a person tends to see others as objects who must be managed, fought, coerced, or seduced to make them follow certain predetermined behaviours. This usually leads to a self centred perspective in which a person sees others in terms of ‘what you can do for me?.’ In Dream, this is termed an I-I connection as the individual finds it challenging to see beyond their own self.In contrast, people in I-Thou relationships experience each other as being individuals with unique … [Read more...]
Three Questions
January 28, 2008 By Leave a Comment
When beginning a Dream project with a client, we usually start by asking three questions. These are Who am I?, Where am I going?, How will I get there?, and if we are working with a group, then Who are we?, Where are we going?, How will we get there? Who am I? Who am I? usually encourages answers that begin to define Identities and Intentions. Our identity is our unique presence, and our intention is what we do with it. It is often what people ask when we meet them for the first time - who are you and what do you do? Where am I going? Where am I going? often produces replies that describe Values and Needs. Our value is what we are usually attracted to and our need is what we are drawn towards. Values and Needs are often the … [Read more...]
Known and Unknown, Familiar and Unfamiliar
January 26, 2008 By Leave a Comment
When we work with the Known and Unknown, we often find ourselves in areas of the Unknown that seem quite familiar, even though we thought we didn't know anything about them. We also find ourselves in areas that we know are Known to others, but we are unfamiliar with them ourselves. The areas that we definitely know are fully known and familiar to us, and the areas that we really don't know are completely unknown and unfamiliar to us. This gives us four areas we can use as a reference in our exploration of the Known and Unknown. The four areas are: Known and Familiar This is the realm of the physical where we can simply connect with what we know and are familiar with. In Jungian terms, this is the Sensing function. In … [Read more...]
Known and Unknown
January 24, 2008 By Leave a Comment
In Dream, we often focus on exploring the Unknown. It usually much easier to work with the known and the certain, but for most organisations, the unknown and the uncertain is where most of the value and potential is. In a market space, the Known quickly becomes commoditised and its perceived value will decrease rapidly. Working with the Unknown can be frustrating, as it often does not conform to logic or rational explanations. Traditional methods of analysis and forecast tend not to work and there often seem to be no causal connections between input and output. However, for an organisation, the key factor in working with the unknown is not focusing on individuals and artefacts. Instead, it is accomplished focusing on the … [Read more...]
