Analysis for Seymour Glass, 16 December 1998

This is how you described the room:

The room smells, faintly, of gingerbread and gym socks. It is smaller than an average sized bedroom, but large enough to be a sizable walk-in closet. A dim light creeps forth from a lamp in one corner, and a spider hangs down from a shining line of thread near the far wall.

The initial room is the subject’s childhood. What interests us here is the general atmosphere of the room, in addition to the level of furnishings described by the subject. An uncomfortable room suggests a childhood that was devoid of happiness. No furnishings at all tells of either a complete absence of memories from that time or active suppression of said memories.

You wanted to leave the room.

The subject wanted to become an adult.

This is how you described the forest:

Walking into the forest, eye-level branches slap lightly at my face, not hard enough to hurt, but just enough to be annoying. The birch trees are not full grown and only a few are starting to lose their leaves. The only sound is the constant ticking of a clock.

The forest is growing up, and the trees are those adults with whom the subject interacted at that time. Small trees imply that the adults had a weak influence on the subject.

This is how you described the path:

The trail is not the product of human travel, and it follows a meandering path, over brush and vines, sometimes disappearing altogether, only to reappear after ten or twenty steps.

Adolescence is represented by the path through the forest. Poor visibility of the path tells us the subject was often confused by the changes brought on by adolescence. A narrow path suggests that the subject had limited options for emotional growth at this time. The lack of evidence of fellow travelers suggests strong feelings of isolation at that time. That plants are the major source of obstructions tells us that the subject’s problems arose mostly from interactions with adults.

This is how you described the water:

The water flows through the culvert at a rate just short of raging. The canal which runs through this culvert is a diversion of the runoff from the floodwaters which came from the heavy rains this past week. The water is muddy, but fresh.

The water is the subject’s sexuality. What interests us here is the clarity of the water (representing attitude) and its movement (representing libido). Rushing, violent water indicates a powerful, vigorous, and quite possibly compulsive sex drive. Murky, dirty, or otherwise unclear water suggests that the subject has significant issues regarding sex.

When you came to the water, you crossed it.

The subject is open to new sexual experiences.

This is how you described the cup:

An empty Pepsi can catches my eye in the moonlight, strangely trapped against the side of the canal in a small whirlpool, uncrushed.

The vessel, or specifically the practicality of the vessel, is how the subject approaches marriage or bonding. A practical container indicates that the subject is pragmatic when it comes to questions of marriage.

You left the cup behind.

The subject is not interested in marriage.

This is how you described the key:

The key is unshiny and used to be silver, although now it looks more black. It looks like a mail key or key to a chest or small padlock.

The key is the ideal career for the subject. What interests us here is how the key appears (representing how others view the career) and what it may open (representing the subject’s goals for the career). Having the key open a house, car, or other commonplace use tells us that the subject has no extraordinary expectations about a career. An ordinary-looking key suggests that the subject desires a nondescript career.

You avoided the bear.

In a crisis, the subject prefers the indirect, non-confrontational approach.

When you came to the wall, you jumped over it.

The wall represents death: by jumping over it, the subject not only acknowledges death but has come to accept its finality.