A Functional Theory of Dreaming

Abstract

The emergence of feeling moments into consciousness and the use of expression dynamics to aid this emergence is the working level of functional therapy. At times it is both possible and desirable to think about each therapy session as “nothing but” a series of feeling moments. The therapist working at this level does nothing but follow the stream of feeling consciousness wherever it goes and uses expression dynamics to further the flow whenever it becomes narrowed, diverted, or affectively inconsistent. But this level of work is too molecular by itself to orient the therapist fully within a session or across sessions. It is necessary to move up a level to understand how feeling moments and expression dynamics are organized into molar personality characteristics that can be targeted for therapeutic intervention.