The dream poet’s pen: Archetypal psychology and collective dream groups

Abstract

Poet David Ray imagines, “The poem is the altar for the dream” (1998, p. 176). This research study used a phenomenological approach to amplify dreams with poetry from a collective perspective through the lens of archetypal psychology. The research was a collaborative effort of psychopoesis nested in a dream group used to explore the archetypal value of poetry created with dream images portraying the collective psyche and current cultural surround. This study reimagined the conversation between depth psychology, poetics, and dreaming beyond the personal or day-world ego’s interpretations. The focus on collective dreamwork with a dream group attends to the dream poet’s pen and, by doing so, revivifies the imaginal ego, rejuvenates the poetic basis of mind, and refreshes psychopoesis as a meaning-making agent in depth psychology. Through the lens of archetypal psychology, the current research examined the phenomenon of using dreams images to create poetry and applied the process to a group setting in service of the sensus communis