Dreambody Theory, the Symmetry of Symptom and Dream, Chronic Symptoms / Recurrent Childhood Dreams
Dreambody
When we follow a body symptom — that is, when we take time to feel a body symptom and unfold that experience, we find the same patterns of meaning that we find by working on night dreams. This mirror-like relationship expresses the essence of the dreambody concept.
In other words, Mindell observed that dream and body symptom express one underlying dreaming process. Thus dreambody refers to the psychophysical totality of experience where mind and matter, dream and body, are not separate but aspects of one continuous flow of information. This approach extends Jung’s dream analysis by bringing awareness to bodily experience as part of the dreaming process.
The Symmetry of Symptom and Dream
A central observation in Dreambody Theory is the symmetry between dream imagery and bodily symptoms. Mindell noticed that dream symbols and symptom qualities often contain structurally parallel information about the individual’s unfolding process. Symmetry means you can enter the same essence from all sides, like a ball which is symmetrical independent from which side you look at it.
The implication is deep: body and psyche cooperate to bring information to awareness. Healing involves becoming conscious of the meaning implicit in the symptom, often through amplifying and unfolding the subjective experience of the symptoms until the message becomes experiential and transformative.
Chronic Symptoms and Recurrent Childhood Dreams
Arnold Mindell observed that chronic symptoms and recurring childhood dreams share a deep meaningful connection. Both reflect long-term attempts of the dreaming process to enter awareness, and both contain the individual’s essential myth or life pattern — what Mindell called the “Life Myth”.
A recurring dream, especially one from childhood, often encapsulates a core experiential motif that persists through a person’s life. Similarly, a chronic symptom represents a repeated, embodied signal — a physical “dream” whose meaning strives to be fully lived and integrated.
When clients explore the atmosphere, emotion, and imagery of a chronic symptom, they frequently rediscover scenes, feelings, or figures from their early recurring dreams. Both phenomena express the same fundamental organizing pattern.
Ruth Weyermann + Josef Helbling