Analysis for Paul "Failure" Nijjar, 28 January 1999

This is how you described the room:

My room is dark. Only the light seeping under the bottom of the door and my growling stomach provide any indication that I am awake and not dead. The bare floor has been painted with dusty detritus evicted from a thousand pockets.

There seems to be a wooden upholstered chair beside me. I feel the leg, which has been engraved with an intricate pattern that is meaningless to me. The seat of the chair is soft and velvety, but I am too tired to get up and try the chair out.

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. A very uncomfortable room suggests a highly traumatic childhood. Few, simple furnishings tells us that the subject has few memories of that time.

You wanted to leave the room.

The subject wanted to become an adult.

This is how you described the forest:

The daylight streams through the leaves. It is springtime, and I am immersed in the smell of fresh, damp, post-rainfall air all around me.

Thin, papery skinned birch trees surround me to both sides of the path. The monotony is broken by the occasional fir (spruce?) tree. Underfoot lie mossy stones and a carpet of damp maple and birch leaves. It is too wet for them to crumble under my feet. I can see carpets of wide-leafed plants harvesting the sunshine. Are they trilliums?

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. (The birch trees outnumber the pine trees, so the average tree size is taken to be on the smaller side.) Average lighting tells us that the subject received enough attention from the adults to be guided but not oppressed.

This is how you described the path:

The path has been beaten over by many travelers before me. Leaves cover the path and make it slippery. There is some growth to the sides of the path that entangle my feet as I walk by. I pick some burrs off my pants.

Adolescence is represented by the path through the forest. The strong evidence of fellow travelers tells us that the subject received a lot of support from friends and family during that potentially troubling 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:

I see a stream of quickly rushing sparkly water. Water insects cling to the rocks as the water rushes by. Cattails grow to the side of the stream where the water flows more slowly. There, the water is green with algae and I see small fish swimming beneath the water.

The water is the subject’s sexuality. What interests us here is the clarity of the water (representing attitude) and its movement (representing libido). Fast-moving water indicates a strong, active sex drive. Clear water tells us that the subject has no issues regarding sex. (We can ignore the algae as a possible contaminant.) The presence of life in or around the water indicates a strong desire for children.

When you came to the water, you went around it.

The subject is not interested in new sexual experiences.

This is how you described the cup:

Ooh! A ship! A great big wooden galleon is parked right at the edge of the stream. I venture inside, the wooden planks creaking beneath my feet (I really must lose some weight, I think to myself). Inside is... alcohol. Caskets and caskets of port and sherry and wine, with the occasional barrel of whiskey thrown in for good measure. Yuck! The smell drives me away immediately.

The vessel, or specifically the practicality of the vessel, is how the subject approaches marriage or bonding. In the past, when someone has made a pun on the word “vessel,” it was interpreted to mean they view marriage as a joke. Considering the lengths at which the subject went to elaborate this pun, one can only assume that he considers marriage to be a silly game.

(Well, that's one way to interpret “drinking vessel”!)

You left the cup behind.

The subject is not interested in marriage.

This is how you described the key:

It is a great big golden key that looks like something out of a bad 1600s nightmare. Perhaps it unlocks some city or that galleon I just passed.. or perhaps it is the key to someone's heart. (Awwww...)

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). Magical or fantastic keys suggest that the subject has unreasonably high expectations of what will result from a career. Old-fashioned keys suggest that the subject desires a traditional career.

You avoided the bear.

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

When you came to the wall, you tried to go around it.

The wall represents death: by trying to walk around it, the subject shows an acknowledgment of death, but also a need for an alternative to its finality, such as an afterlife or reincarnation.