Rêverie and metaphor: a particular way to investigate the unconscious

A particular way of using rêveries to explore the unconscious (both with patients and colleagues in supervision) will be illustrated. For this purpose, I'll use rêverie not in Bion's sense, but in its meaning of "daydream." It seems quite probable that anyone can produce a rêverie out of any stimulus, although a certain amount of training is usually necessary. I shall describe what I mean when I say that one has to be able to let oneself go when using a very old technique that helps produce rêveries. Once obtained, rêveries can be explored similarly to the way we use dreams in psychoanalysis. One of the main focuses of this paper will be to show how everyday metaphors can be transformed into rêveries. Several examples will be given. This technical instrument should help analysts to achieve two basic objectives: to improve their own capacity, and that of the patient, to contain; and to avoid making intrusive interpretations (without giving up this basic psychoanalytical tool altogether).