“Asked for Her Hand”: The Realization of Idiomatic Expressions in Dreams and Fairy Tales in Relational Group Therapy—Whose Needs Are These Anyway?

The article deals with the affinity existing between dreams and fairy tales as manifested in a group therapy session. The association of a well-known fairy tale, which was brought in response to a dream presented in the group, enables discussing the relations between the group and the group's leader and elaborates the understanding of relational aspects associated with the leader's own personal needs and the way in which they were activated in the group. Analyzing the phenomenon of realization of idiomatic expression as appearing in both the dream and the fairy tale helps to shed light on some of the mechanisms operating within the group's process, especially the mechanism of projective identification.