Dreams and daytime fears

The things we are afraid of during the daytime often turn up again in our nightmares. We can make use of this, however. It appears that some people deal with their daytime fears in their dreams. This was the case in the following example:
A woman was awfully afraid of spiders. In a dream a big spider is approaching her. But she feels quiet, and not afraid. Afterwards she noticed that by day she was no longer afraid of spiders either (Rossi, 1972 page 21).

This is not at all as mysterious as it sounds. Therapists often rid people of their fears by means of a method called 'desensitisation' For instance, if you suffer from acrophobia, you can imagine that you are looking down from the first floor of a building. If this goes well, the second floor is
visualised etc. In this way you gradually venture to proceed. Until you can look down from a real building, without (too much) acrophobia.

'Overcoming your fear' in this way is also possible in your dream. This is perhaps also one of the reasons that the Senoi did not suffer from neurosis or psychosis.