“Find out about your dreams and you will find out about insanity” – Hughlings Jackson
What is a dream? A vision? A fantasy? A plan? A word so simple, yet with so many speculations. A dictionary would define Dreams as the images, thoughts and feelings experienced while asleep. Someone inclining towards the biomedical model would talk about dreams in terms REM sleep cycles. Then of course the cardinal protagonist of ‘dream definition’ came to existence – Sigmund Freud.
Freud has created an impression among us aspiring psychologists and laymen. The man who openly admitted to having issues of his own, incorporated in his own theories, churned newer concepts and still managed to hold on to the image of the most controversial psychologist in the history of this field.
What a commendable achievement. Speaking in terms of analogies, I can say with conviction that my children would still listen to The Beatles – creative, autonomic and surrealistic. The spirit would stay alive. It’s the same with Freud. He was creative, autonomic and definitely surrealistic.
This piece is not an ode to Freud, but to explore the deeper concepts and meaning behind the most introspective and self discovery theories ever written. A layman would always associate psychology with Freud (As obnoxious as I might sound, it is true, I constantly hear… “Oh Psychology, so you must know Freud….that guy talks only about Sexual drives” I am NOT denying the above observation, just merely pointing out a fact that there is so much more to him, than that stated above.
Coming back to where I started, Dreams!! Yes, we all know dreams are an integral part of one’s being. Some may claim to never dream, some may not remember. But there is something there, and that has been explored intensively. Poets, Musicians, Novelists, Psychoanalysts have all used the concept of “Dreams” – in its original sense or the other. But its presence was never felt until Freud defined its significance. In his terms, the notion of dreams so repressed in the hostile world of criticizing the theory, emerged with a new energy – cathexis perhaps!
I recently read an article on Pop Culture and Dream Interpretation. It said how dreams manifest one’s desire to have a lovely, brilliant life devoid of any anxieties or worries. Several music artists right from Madonna to Billy Joel have expressed in their songs the importance of dreams and how the latter helps one relive their fantasy of a “lovely – brilliant life”.
“ In the middle of the night
I go walking in my sleep
(The state of readiness before transcending into one’s dreams)
Through the valley of fear
Through the river so deep
(Talk about the anxieties one must cross to get to the deepest levels of dreams)
Know I’ve been looking for something
Something sacred I lost
(Looking for a beautiful life, which so blessed to him might have lost in reality)
But the river is wide
And it’s too hard to cross
(The darker side or the pessimism involved in dream manifestation)
Even though the river is wide, I walk down every evening and stand at the shore,
Hope to cross to the opposite side so I can finally find what I’ve been looking for”
(The ray of optimism to see a beautiful life through these dreams as he falls asleep).
There is this other song of his where he wrote “Good night my angel, now its time to dream and dream how wonderful your life will be” Different song, same line of thought.
Of course interpretations are meant to be questioned, reasoned, argued upon and contradicted too. But the point I’m trying to make here is unadorned. We live our lives playing different roles, but at some point (perhaps even at the unconscious level) why is it that we wish to sleep? Need to sleep? To give us a good rest from the roles we play, our various personas. What is rest? Biomedical school of thought would have a lot to say here, but how about delving into the inner psyche of oneself and think something different, something new, something exciting. Mental serenity…dreams….of living harmonious lives… rest….mental serenity…sleep.
