In
our pilot-study, we have synthesized observations
concerning all of the dreams we have written for 5 years. This work has made us
hypothesise that dreams reproduce day before “preconscious” feelings.
These feelings are typical: they can be introspected although they don’t reach
the conscious level to which we are accustomed. That’s why it’s not so easy to
“see” them, especially when one is not familiar with them.
This reoccurrence of
feelings makes it possible to link a dreamt-image to a real-life thing : the
dreamt-image (which is known) joined together with its
dreamt-accompanying-feeling (which is known) reproduces the near-past real-life
feeling (which is known as it is the dreamt-accompanying-feeling) joined
together with the real-life event (which has produced the feeling and which is
supposed to be remembered).
We
show here how the use of this relationship can bring us to the understanding of
the symbolism of dreamt-people – including the dreamt-dreamer – and how that
can lead us to definitions of concepts. Since the title: towards a
dreamt-sourced psychology?
Concerning the
translation of the dreamt-people, we only use the relationship which links
dreamt-images to real-life things through the similarities of feelings (there
is neither resort to intuition nor resort to unconscious processes, typically
associations). We have run this procedure over all of our dreams in order to
understand the symbolism of dreamt-people and we illustrate here the results
thanks to a short dream in which several dreamt-people had appeared.
“I’ve
a mistress. She’s married and she has 4 children. We meet at her flat. This one
is slightly messy, rooms are rather small and we indulge in carnal pleasures. I
pity her husband. There’s some talk about her divorce and about our living
together”. In this dream, I was caught by notable feelings of excitation,
triumph, pleasure and by an ulterior feeling of guilty conscience.
This set of
feelings was experienced the day before evening when I was reminding how I had
been able to submit a wild pack of staff in the morning. Indeed, the involved
sets of feelings were so typical and similar that it has made no doubts that
the dreamt-set of feelings was a reoccurrence of the real-life one. That’s why
we can be sure of the incitement to dream moment. This dream implicated the
dreamt-dreamer, a married mistress, her 4 children and her husband.
Concerning
the married mistress, I was charmed by her such as in the day before incitement
to dream moment as I was charmed by the part of I who had managed to dominate
the others. Actually in the same real-life moment I felt rather disgusted for
being the seat of such an inclination just like in the dream where I felt a
disgusting ulterior taste due to the fact that the mistress was an adultery
woman. So, both in the dream and real-life, I was attracted to although it made
me despise it. This similarity of feelings have made us link the married
mistress to the inclination of being dominant. That’s why we understand that
she symbolises the Social Dominating part of I (we’ll call it the Social
Dominating Alter Ego).
The
understanding of the symbolism of the 4 children is also a result of this
relationship. In the real-life incitement to dream moment I made a quick
association between the social domination and the conceited policy and that
made me quickly and slightly allude to the 4 disrupted Alter Egos about which I
had been told for many years as a consequence of the conceited policy. At that
moment, I felt a little embarrassed just like in the dream when I reminded the
existence of the mistress’s children. The similarities in the accompanying
feelings – both were seen as secondary and rather embarrassing – make us link
the 4 children with the 4 disrupted Alter Egos who are fed by the conceited
policy. (By the way, let’s note that the dream reproduced under-exposed
thoughts as they were, no matter they were right or wrong. Dreams have the
parrots’ sagacity).
It’s
interesting to notice that the relationship between a mother and her 4 children
echoes the preconscious understanding concerning a generational relationship
between the Social Dominating Alter Ego, who is conceited minded, and its
supposed 4 generated consequences. These dreamt-echoes of real-life
preconscious understandings may be seen as hazardous by any. Indeed, not only
such fortunate coincidences are too much systematic to consider only chance but
this dream, thanks to a trick I didn’t speak about in order not to be too long,
reproduced a mental confusion I experienced during this particular moment.
In
the same kind of ideas, I felt betraying the part of I who advocates solidarity
and I pitied this Social Alter Ego. So, he was seen on the way of becoming
pathetic just like in the dream, where I felt myself as a traitor who pitied
the poor mistress’s husband. In addition to that, in the real-life moment, I
considered that the Social Dominating Alter Ago and the Social Alter Ago were
the 2 parts of a same thing (in this case, the 2 parts of the social life).
Indeed, their symbols were married in the dream. In real-life, I was so much
enjoying what was happening to me that I wondered if I wouldn’t rather choose
the social domination way of life and reject any social considerations. Indeed,
there actually was some talk about a divorce with the husband (rejection of any
interferences of the Social Alter Ego) and about a life with the Dominating
Alter Ego.
This approach
has been applied to all of our dreams and that has made us see Alter Egos
behind dreamt-people. This symbolic conversion has systematically appeared in
all of our inside-story dreams and in many of our outside-story dreams. (In a
few outside-story dreams, dreamt-people have been understood as acquaintances’
Alter Egos).
Studies of
dreams have made us see that inside-story dreams – in that case we feel
confined – and outside-story dreams – in that case we feel it as open –
correspond with 2 different real-life psychological processes (introversion, extroversion). In our case, the
psychological process which is involved in the real-life incitement to dream
moment is the very model of what is converted into inside-story dreams:
there is a substantial move concerning the inclinations which lead the dreamer.
In fact, in our case, the dreamer was previously moved by social inclinations
and these had lost a part of their power to the benefice of the Social
Dominating inclinations. Moves of predominance in the inclinations are linked
to inside-story dreams. Indeed, if the inclinations had stayed as they used to
be then the social inclination would have remained predominant then the
ulterior taste of guilty conscience would have become a substantial remorse and
the dreamt-scenes would have been external. (The dream stopped before it
reproduced the preconscious process which accompanied the end of the real-life
story. At the end, considering the hell which is created by the course to the
domination, we have had no difficulties to move away from the social domination
tendency and then to come back to our prevalent social tendency).
Regarding the symbolism of the
dreamt-dreamer we use, as for any questions of translation, the
relationship in which the dreamt-image is linked to the real-life thing through
the similarities of the accompanying feelings. Considering the feelings we can
notice that the dreamt-dreamer is intrinsically felt as a central manager, as
the heart of what we are. In our day-life, a part of us – we’ll call it Resolving Ego – is felt exactly like that.
The
symbolism of the dreamt-dreamer – whose understanding is a result of the union
between introspective psychology and observationally studies of dreams – seems
systematic since definitions: “the Resolving Ego
is the psychological thing which is converted into the dreamt-dreamer”.
This case of
dreamt-sourced concept doesn’t seem to be a particular one. Let’s remind that,
through asking the question “why is the dreamt-action running inside instead of
outside?” it has appeared that this conversion was connected with 2
distinguishable psychological processes. Therefore, it was also possible to
suggest definitions such as: “introversion is the psychological process which
is converted into an inside-story dream”, “extroversion is the psychological
process which is converted into an outside-story dream”.
That illustrates
how entering a psychological thing through its dreamt-symbol can start
improvements in its definition especially by making reach undoubtedly
refereeing concepts. Here could be one of the fabulous potentials of our
approach of dreams. Unfortunately, the meaning of those concepts can be
experienced in one’s mind only after he has become familiar with the field of
dreams.