Who was that stranger in your dream?

According to psychologist Fritz Perls, the
correct answer is YOU.

Perls (1893 - 1970) held that the characters
and objects in our dreams are unacknowledged,
unaccepted aspects of ourselves that we
unconsciously attribute to others -

others including the characters and objects we
create in our dreams.

Here's an example:

a young woman, who was recently promoted
to manager, found herself in the uncomfortable
position of having to supervise former colleagues
and friends.

At some level, she felt that her actions as
supervisor were "bossy"; and she feared that
she'd lose valued friends.

One night she woke in anger; she had dreamed
that she was at work, with a co-worker friend.

She was pointing to some new manager, calling
him a "bossy son of a bitch!!!"

In Perls' Gestalt Therapy, the young woman
would be asked to role-play and dialog with
the dream characters. By asking questions
and expressing feelings, she would come to
recognize the "bossy son of a bitch" as her view
of herself in the new and uncomfortable role
of supervisor.

She would then be in a position to deal with
the issue at hand -

in this case, the need to integrate the role of
supervisor into an acceptable notion of herself
as person, supervisor and friend.