Who would study psychology if they didn't have some kind of problem?

Chapter 563 What I Saw in the Dream, and What I Haven't Saw Yet

The visitor's brow furrowed slightly.

"I'm in the hospital... um, the hospital."

The visitor specifically emphasized the environment. Considering the visitor's profession is a nurse, this dream scenario seems quite reasonable.

But Nan Zhuren asked, "Is this the hospital where you usually work?"

The visitor paused and said, "No...it's not the hospital where I work."

Nan Zhuren then asked, "Do you know this hospital, or have you ever seen this hospital before?"

The visitor hesitated for a moment before replying, "I've never seen this place before... but I know this is a hospital."

That's a very interesting answer.

Nan Zhuren tentatively asked, "Could you look around and try to describe what this 'hospital' looks like?"

The visitor paused for a moment, as if trying to follow Nan Zhuren's instructions.

After taking a breath, she slowly said, "I don't know how to move my eyes and head... no, or rather, I can't move them. I can only see this part in front of me..."

I understand. After all, in the visitor's current experience, she is "watching a movie" rather than playing a first-person game, so she cannot "look around".

Of course, some people also experience this weak sense of control in their dreams. In this case, the dreamer can only passively receive information from the dream and cannot control the behavior of the "self" in the dream.

I'm not quite sure what kind of situation the current visitor is in.

Or it could be a mixture of both. After all, psychoanalysis deals with the unconscious, which is inherently very complex.

Nan Zhuren then asked, "Can you describe the emotions you felt in this 'hospital'?"

Upon hearing this question, the visitor paused for a moment before saying, "...I don't know how to answer it."

This is normal. Although clients are more likely to follow instructions under hypnosis, it doesn't mean they become machines that can answer any question. Their expression will still be limited by their own level of knowledge.

Clients who are less sensitive to their own emotions or who have limited verbal expression skills may find it difficult to accurately articulate their current experiences such as anxiety, anger, or sadness.

Nan Zhuren thought for a moment and gave a rather general description: "Do you have a general feeling? Is it a good emotion or a bad emotion?"

"...Yes, it's not good. It's rather neutral, but leans towards negative emotions."

OK, basic information collection is complete.

Continue tracing the steps.

Nan Zhuren said, "Okay, then let's continue playing this 'movie' and tell me everything you see, okay?"

In this step, Nan Zhuren must temporarily diminish his own presence and allow the visitor to finish recounting their dream.

The key is the content that the visitor selectively narrates during this process, as well as the visitor's facial expressions and manner of expression.

After she finished narrating, if possible, Nan Zhuren would replay the "movie" to enrich the details needed for the consultation.

……

Nan Zhuren reopened the folder, took out a pen and a consultation record sheet, and used them to record the details related to the dream that she heard later.

Then we saw the visitor's breathing become more and more steady.

"Where I am feels a lot like... a hospital emergency room."

"There is a long corridor here, with many wards on both sides."

"However, it's very dark here; it must be nighttime..."

The visitor slowly frowned: "Then, my task tonight is ward rounds. I could vaguely hear very low sobs and groans coming from the ward..."

Well... this description seems to be more in line with reality.

But in a sense, it's like the beginning of a horror movie.

"My task tonight is... ward rounds. I'm going to check on a little girl's ward."

"But I can't find her medical records, which won't do, so I have to find them. I started walking around this corridor, hoping to find the girl's medical records somewhere."

This description sounds more like a horror exploration game.

"Then, as I was walking, I came to the side of the restroom." As he said this, the visitor raised his chin, made room in his throat, and swallowed hard.

"The water pipes inside seem to be broken, leaking a lot of, uh, dark, flowing water... This water has filled the corridor, and I can't go around it."

“The water area is too large for me to jump across.”

"With this water, I can't get to the back."

The visitor slowly increased the pressure in his hands, his left hand began to caress the fabric of the sofa, while his right hand reached for the place where he had previously been stabbed.

"I... stayed there for a while, because I wanted to cross this puddle. I had to get across because I think I knew that the medical records I was looking for... and the girl's room were on the other side of the corridor."

"But I can't find a way."

"Then, the sounds coming from the wards on both sides of the corridor grew louder and louder... I think I heard the little girl crying inside."

The visitor suddenly sniffed.

"I was a little anxious and wanted to turn back to find someone to help. But... just as I turned around, the water... surrounded me."

"As I stood there thinking... the water rose up and surrounded me..."

The visitor's voice became hoarse and increasingly intermittent.

"But at that moment, my legs started moving... I couldn't control my body, and one foot stepped into the water, and then—"

"—I fell down."

After stepping into a puddle of water on the corridor floor, the person fell right in.

As he wrote this, Nan Zhuren paused in his writing about the details of his dream.

Then, the speed at which the pen tip rubbed against the paper suddenly increased.

"Below that puddle, it was no longer a hospital; it seemed to be a place like an upside-down sky, and that's how I fell in."

"But it wasn't like the sky we usually see. There were many dazzling colors intertwined, like many kinds of aurora were woven together. Some colors were large and diffused, some colors were projected like beams of light, and some were like fireworks exploding."

"...Anyway, it's very beautiful."

Okay, the horror story is over. Now it's turned into a fairy tale?
It was visibly that the visitor's state became more relaxed, his grip on the sofa loosened, and his voice became clear again.

"Then, at that moment, a train suddenly flew in from the horizon... yes, a train."

"It passed through the clouds below me, right below me. Even though I was falling, I felt like the train was just about to catch me."

As dreams become increasingly abstract, the imagination of mechanisms begins to take over.

"But, I don't know why. I felt like I was floating, or buoyant, anyway... my falling speed changed."

“At first, even though the light around me was beautiful, I was still worried that I would continue to fall. I wanted to float, but I couldn’t.”

"But now, I want to fall down onto that train, but then I float up again."

“I wanted to fall as fast as possible, but… instead, I started to drift further and further away from the train. Until finally… it drove away and disappeared.”

"Then, I couldn't float anymore and kept falling..."

The visitor's voice grew softer and softer.

In the end, it became as faint as a mosquito's buzz. Until it was completely silent.

Nan Zhuren waited for about two breaths before confirming, "Is the 'movie' over?"

The visitor's voice became hoarse again: "It's over."

Nan Zhuren kept her voice soft: "How are you feeling right now?"

The visitor pursed his lips and remained silent for a while: "I feel like crying, but I don't want to."

It sounds contradictory, but Nan Zhuren understands perfectly.

"You mean you have that feeling of 'about to cry,' but you don't allow yourself to 'actually cry,' right?"

"……right……"

The affirmative answer was almost squeezed out of the visitor's throat, with a softness that was not appropriate for her age.

It's like a sad little girl being comforted.

……

As a counselor, Nan Zhuren empathized with the emotions somewhat, but he quickly suppressed his own inner turmoil.

Looking at the notepad in her hand, Nan Zhuren began to organize her thoughts according to the key points of the dream she had previously recorded.

He needs to enrich the details of this dream in order to verify some of his assumptions about the visitor.

"Well……"

The visitor continued to whimper intermittently.

Her emotions were clearly negative, but her body below the neck was relaxed, and she no longer made the unconscious hand movements that she had before.

Nan Zhuren waited quietly for a few breaths, allowing the visitor to immerse himself in this emotion for a while.

After confirming that the visitor would not remain in this state and that there were signs of a slow recovery in mood over time.

Nan Zhuren finally spoke: "Is that 'movie' player still in front of you now?"

The visitor murmured, "Yes."

Nan Zhuren nodded: "Okay, then let's try to pull it back, back to where we started, okay?"

The visitor's closed eyes twitched violently twice, as if he was indeed making this attempt.

After a moment, she replied, "Okay... I've pulled it back."

Nan Zhuren said, "Let's press play and replay the scenes from when you were in the corridor at the beginning."

“You said that corridor is the emergency room corridor, so the rooms on both sides must have some windows or something, and there must be mirrors or at least glass.”

Nan Zhuren looked at the visitor and asked, "While you were looking for your medical records, were you able to see your own reflection in the glass?"

Upon hearing the counselor's question, the client's eyelids began to tremble violently.

It seemed to be carefully observing the scenes in the "movie" every time it passed by the glass.

After a long pause, she finally said, "I can't see clearly..."

"The reflection from the glass was very faint; and the lights in the hallway were very dim; I didn't linger in front of the glass for long, each time I could only see a dark blur..."

Nan Zhuren's voice softened further: "It's alright, it's alright even if you can't see clearly."

He said, "Next, let's bring the 'movie' back and try to observe something else."

The visitor did as instructed.

“Okay, I need you to pay attention—” Nan Zhuren narrowed his eyes slightly, his expression serious.

But his voice remained gentle, like an invisible hand reaching into the visitor's thoughts, guiding the little figure in the visitor's mind forward.

“You said before that you can only see images and can’t move your own body,” Nan Zhuren repeated briefly.

"This time, I want you to observe carefully when your hands, feet, or other body parts come into view—"

Nan Zhuren asked softly, "What kind of clothes are you wearing?"

According to the visitor, she was an emergency room nurse and should have been wearing a nurse's white uniform.

But... Nan Zhuren doesn't seem to think so.

He watched quietly as the visitor's eyelids began to tremble violently.

Subsequently.

breathe--

breathe-

Inhale, exhale, inhale—

The visitor's breathing suddenly became rapid!

In just ten seconds, the visitor's nostrils began to contract violently, and she began to make whimpering sounds as if she were drowning.

This is not good.

This state clearly evokes a subconscious resistance.

Nan Zhuren took a deep breath, raised his hand to the visitor's ear, and was about to snap his fingers to bring the visitor out of the hypnotic state.

The visitor's breathing suddenly became calm again.

Nan Zhuren lowered his hand again, knowing that the visitor had already completed this step on his own.

He turned around, picked up the kettle, and poured a glass of warm water.

When he turned around, the visitor had already opened his eyes and sat up to look around.

Her eyes were filled with confusion, like a newborn child looking at an unfamiliar world.

It took a long time before my gaze slowly refocused.

"...Little teacher, what did I just do?"

Nan Zhuren handed over a water glass: "We recalled your dream."

He nodded to the visitor: "Thank you for your hard work. Do you remember what you just told me?"

Then, Nan Zhuren took out another piece of paper and handed it over.

It was at this moment that the visitor noticed a slight dampness on her face. A tear had unknowingly slid down her cheek.

Only one drop remained, leaving only a shallow water mark, like a newly formed tributary of a stream that had accidentally passed through a wasteland, before quickly drying up again.

The visitor took a sip of warm water and wiped the corner of his eye.

She looked at Nan Zhuren, and her eyes had already changed.

"I remember. It felt like I was dreaming just now, but I could hear everything you said clearly, and I still remember what I said myself."

She paused, then hesitated before asking, "Teacher, can you glean anything from the dream I just recalled?"

(End of this chapter)