Readers’ Insights Hit Home for Denise

Dear Readers: Last week I invited you to write in and share your interpretations of a dream sent in by Denise in Pasadena. I was overwhelmed by your response and very impressed with the intelligence, sophistication and insights you offered. The following is just a sampling of the responses I received.

The dream featured Denise in bed reading or chatting with someone; a male apparition appears. The man’s identity changes each time, but is never someone she recognizes. His appearance or disappearance signals to her that she is about to die. She wakes feeling as though she is trying to escape death.

Many of you think the bed in this case represents Denise as an independent woman, enjoying her life but vulnerable. But you had a lot of different things to say about the man. One reader said, “Her present relationship is not fulfilling.” Another, “A man in her life is not all she thinks he should be.” Many of you felt that Denise is seeking sexual satisfaction or more comfort to explore sexually. Three of you cited the French word for “orgasm,” which translates as the “little death.”

Two readers feel that Denise is hoping for deeper emotional attachment, and believe the man represents hope not yet realized. One reader wonders if men come and go in her life without warning. Another states that her relationship or partner must be unstable. Several think that a relationship is dead or her heart broken.

Denise wrote back answering my questions and confirmed some of your insights!

She has been married for 10 years and has one child. She says the past few years have been rocky and that she and her husband nearly separated, but that they have worked hard and are making dramatic improvements in the relationship. She also states that the difficulties were “generally unexciting, lack of communication and differing goals,” and not traumatic in any way.

Denise also pointed out that the apparition’s head never disappears in the dream. Her feeling is that “if the head goes, I will be gone too.” Perhaps she fears surrendering her thoughts and identity and becoming absorbed into the male, thus losing herself.

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Cynthia Richmond will be at a discussion and book signing at 7:30 p.m. Thursday at Barnes & Noble in Encino. For more information, call (818) 380-1636.