Ode To A Diamond

Abstract

In this article, the author recounts his first meeting with Philip Bromberg and then focuses on a session of dream work done in a group demonstrating the method of embodied imagination. The dream describes a place of filth where a diamond is found. By holding both states—filth and diamond—simultaneously, an alchemical sublimation process is triggered that combines the healing effect of the diamond and the filth that is paradigmatic for the patient’s cancer. It is discussed how through mimesis, the dreamer can shift into the various states in the dream, and that holding them simultaneously in the body engenders a circulation process called sublimation. This refines the dream states until they become so subtle that they can interpenetrate and cause a salutary shift in problematic embodied conditions.

Keywords:

• dreaming
• embodiment
• alchemy
• sublimation
• mimesis

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Robert Bosnak

Robert Bosnak, Psy.A., a Jungian psychoanalyst who pioneered the Embodied Imagination method. He is a Core Faculty Member at Jung Platform and the author of several books translated into a wide variety of languages, amongst them, the worldwide bestseller A Little Course in Dreams and Embodiment: Creative Imagination in Medicine, Art, and Travel. Bosnak is Past President of the International Association for the Study of Dreams and founder of the Santa Barbara Healing Sanctuary, and divides his life between Santa Barbara, California and Sydney, Australia. He trains the Embodied Imagination method worldwide. He is on the faculty of the psychiatry department at SUNY Upstate Medical University in Syracuse, NY.