THE

DREAM POET
by
Richard Jones

G.I(.HALL &CO.
70 UNCOLN STREET BOSTON, MASS .

Schenk man Publishing Company

CAMBRIDGE , MASSACHUSEITS
 For
Andras and Gabriel

Copyright © 1979 by Schenkman Publishing Company

Library of Congress Cataloging in Publication Data

Jones, Richard Matthew, 1925-

The dream poet.

Includes bibliographical references.

I. Dreams. 2. Creation (Literary, artistic, etc.)
3. Consciousness. 4. Human evolution . 1. Title.
BF1078.J628 154.6'3 78-26490
ISBN 0-8161-9014-3 cloth
ISBN 87073-903-4 paper

This publication is printed on permanent/durable acid-free paper

MANUFACTURED IN THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA
PREFACE

This book joins Freud's seminal metaphor of the dream censor

with a newly emerging metaphor, which J have come in my work to
call th e dream poet. Freud's analyses of dreams were conducted as
means to the ends of unde rstanding and treating psychoneuroses.
Within that context th e metaphor of th e dream censor proved to be
of great heuristic power . Inte res t in dream s, in both scholarly and
popular cireles, is probabl y more ex te nsive now than at any tim e
since Fr e lld es t ab lish e d th eir study as th e foundation of
psychoanalytic research - due to several converging re cent cle-
\'(~lopl11ents . within each of which cOllsid era ti ons of neurosis are
nex t to irre le\ant .
First, we have th e unusually productive and fast Illoving research
efic)rts in the psychoph ys iological study of sleep, especially of rapid
eye Illoveme nt sleep, made possible hy electroe ncephalographic
technology. Scores of books and thousands of artides reporting the
findings of th ese research es hav e been published since the discov-
ery of rapid eye move ment sleep by Azerinsky and Kleitman in
195:3 ,1 and interest on the popular front can be seen in numerous
places , notably in two feature articles summarizing these findings in
the New York Times Magazine. "Vhat seems to appeal most to th e
public imagination is the mounting ev idence that dreaming is a
startlingly ubiquitous me ntal function (much more so than our
conscious me mori es allow us to appreciate) and that it occurs almost
exclusive ly in a "third" psychological state (REM sleep), which is as
different from th e waking state and from non-REM sleep as these
latter two are from each other.
Second, we hav e the findings of so-called "split-brain" research,
wh ich sugge st that the two basic modes of human consciousness, the

ix
 x Prefill 'c
ration,d-vl'I" i>al and th E.' t' ll1otive-inluiti\'e (\\-hat Frf'ud referred to as
th e secol1darv and primary process) arc loeali;ced in the respective
hemispheres of th e hrain - the left he misph ere governing th e
secondary processes an d the right hemisph ere goverIling the pri-
mar y p rocess('s, Dream ing, th en, \\'hich is known to proceed under
tlw prc dominant inll tl('nc(" of the prilll ary processes . is largt' ly a
fillletioll of the right IWlll isplwr(: - which in \\Ts!t:rn civilized
e \'l)ltl ti on h as corne to h e more or less eclipsed ill waking life by tlw
left h('rnispht'rc functions_ Carl Sagan , in his popular Th e Dragon s
of frl(:Il . puts it this way:
Iii,· 1"'i1li;!,, ('(' 01'''1 11 ' 1110,,1 rp,,('nl ""olulioll"r\' d('crclion, th" \ ,'rbal ,d)iliti c'"
01 111( , 1(ft h"ll li splH': re , olJ.' c11r(', 0111' ClW,U t: l1e ,s s "ftlw functions of the intuitiv E'
,-igl,t 11I'111 isph o: r(' , ,,'I,i c h ill 0 111' anc""tors 111 lISt ha\ (' I)('(' n the principallllt'an s of
pt'rct"iving th (" \\'orld , Th e left hellli sph e re proc('ss es information s('Cju e n-
li,dl,, ; II,,,, right h"lIlisphl, r(: sim llitan eously , acce ssin g sevcral inputs at 'm ce ,
TIll' 11ft hClilisphl'rt, \\'orks in sc' ri,' " th e ri g ht in parall e l. Tht: left h(,lllispi" 'IT is
""'1I'thill~ lik e" digital ('ollljl()t<'r , til!' ri g ht lik e ~n a nalog eomp"t e r. Sp(·rry
sllg!!"st,'d tha t Ih, ' w paralioll offllll eti on in th e t\\'() hemisp he r('s is the co nsc'qu-
,'nl'(' of'a hasic in('ompatihililv, Pe rhaps \\(' arc loday "hie to se nSe directl" the
op('ra ti o n" of the righl hemi sph e re rn ai"l" when th e left he mi sphere ha s set"-
tkl t i... . ill clrl' < lIlls . ~
Til in!' \I ' C !J <t\(~ tIl<! hypotheses , suggested by modern arch cologi-
("d ,\11<1 anthropologica l th( ~ orists that dream in g \vas the g('lwratiH'
('ogniti\'c mode wh ich prompted hUlllankind 's career as the spt'ak-
in g (and thcref()]'(,~ naturally selective) animal , and which sustain ed
that career over tells of thousands (perhaps hundre ds of thousand s)
of ycars prior to the inven tion of writing and th e suhse(luellt (and
comparatively hricl) period of record ed history, In the "..ords of
Le\\-is MUl11fi)I-d:
'VI' shall not go too far astray, J submit, if we pic ture this proto-human as a
(n'dlme p..slt-red a nd t.m talized by dreams , too easily L'Onfusi ng the images of
darkness and sleep \\'ilh thosc of " '"king life, suhje-c i to mislead ing hallm:ina-
tions . disord"r.,d memories. nnaceollntahle impulses , hut also p e rhap s ani-
mat ed ()('c<lsiona ll ), Il\' an lieipa t'Jn' im ages of joyO()S poss ibilities, From th e
hq!illllill),!. till<.' nlll sl infer , nl;'11I wa s a dreaming anim al; and possibly tIll'
l' i"" IIl'SS of h is dreanlS \\',.., \\'h'd l' 1I"bl l' d !.imlo d"p"rl 1'1'01\1 tl,( : rl'sh-ictiollS ofa
plln.' I~ ·a ni/llall·an·t: r . . This brings liS hack to it p(lntcioxical po.. . sihility·, nam e ly
Preface xi
th,,1 (;onsc io usness may have heen p.romoted by ,t h e strange disparity be tween
man 's inn e r emironnwn t, \\'ith its um,xp eeted images and exciting, if disor-
dered , eve nts, and th e (lllt... r scenl> to \\hid, h e a\\'akened, Did this breac h
betwel'n the inn n alld th e outer \\'orld not l11 e re ly cau se wonderment but invit e
further comparison find demand illt"rpretation '~ If so, it would lead to a greater
paradox: that it was the drea m that opened man 's eyes to ncw possihilities in his
\\'akillg lif<> -"
Finally , th er e are th e increasing number of books and manuals
\\-hich are addressed to the general public and d esigned to wean th e
interested drea me r away from the Freudian mystique which has
tended to separate us from our common sense of authorship over our
dreams, I think, for example, of Ann Faraday's Dream Power 4 and
The Dream Game;" of H e nry Reed's Dream Realization, 6 of Ern es t
Rossi's Dreams and th e Growth of Personalit y 7 and of dozens more
listed in Magic Theoter - A Handbook for Exploring Dreams b y
Dick i\lcLecs ter 8 Although I am sympathetic to these works and
th (~ ir inte ntions , I find this fault co III III on to the m all: in not proceed-
ing from theoretica l co nsiderations , th ey ha\-e had to fall back on th e
spurious and self d efeating position that th ey have gone "beyond"
Fre ud b y go ing counte r to Fre ud - wh ich says to me that th e ir
authors have not studied Fre ud. In introducing the metaphor of the
dream poe t, and its various observational and conceptual creden-
tials, I hope to provid e the theoretical hase which such efforts should
have had , and , in do in)!; so, to show that the bes t \\ay to go beyond
Fre ud is to begin with Freud.
If dream psychology is to be of service in a multi-disciplinary
study of hum an evolution, it must be equipp ed to formulate ques-
tions concerning adaptation and creativity as well as questions con-
cerning maladaptation and neurosis , The me taphor of the dream
poe t (v,,-hich I and certain of my colleagues have found useful ov er
th e past fi\'e yea rs) combined with tbe me taphor of the dream
censor , may Ixing to dream' psychology just this needed,degree of
ve rsatility, •
* * *
xii Pre.iiu'('
'Illis hook is also ahoul sorrwtlling else: the values ofrememuering
and sharillg tin-a ms , the values of learning to appreciate and cnjoy
thelll (in cOlljunction \\ith thc appreciation and enjoyment of' some
orlll<' h('st hooks ill 0111' l'lIltllrcl; .lIld the \'alucs ofcollneding thcm ,
IhrOllgh wriling , to l!l'nllim~ hooks, This is a reflection of the particu-
lilI' ,'()!ltc,xl \\'ithill \\'Ilich I havc made th e ohservations and done the
th inking \\'hich le d lIle to cOllcei\'c ofthc dream poct , I happen to be
a school t(;ach~r. If oth e r tenehers arc inspired through reading of
111\' \\ork as a te aciJl'r 10 illiagille ways in which their own tf'ac hing
Ilia) 1)(' mad(, 11101'(' dkcti\'c' h~ ' introducing tlwir studcnts to the art
oj' <in',lIll reflection (as mil)( ~ has hecn ), I shall he pleased , For I
1)('li(,\'(', \\,illl Carl Sag.IIl , that " tlw path to th e futurt, lie s throngh
the corplls callosum":
The!'" is IlO \\'a) to tell \\'11('tlwr the patt('rn s extracted by the right h e mi sp here
!,palor illiagi n ed \\itilolJt subiecting them to leli -he misphere scrutiny, On
>tl'( '
tl,e oth e'!' haJllL 1'11<'1'(: critil'al thinking , without ercutive and intuitive insights,
\I'ith,,," tl", ,,'arch ror new patterns, is sterile and doomed , To solve c'Olllplex
problems ill c hanging c i!'e llOls tanecs requires the a<:tivity or buth cerebral,
h( 'lI1isph, ·rt·..... !)
Dream reflectioll seminars , as described in the pages that foIlO\\', are
,t simple . obvious and effectiv e way of bringing these reciprocal
11C'1l1isplwric i'JlI1ctiolls into harmonious interplay, And \\'hat better
place> to e ncollrage slich interplay than in a public schoolroom? Yd I
,lin milldhli th ,(t the ('h:l1lces of dream reflection heing assimilated
inlo "01l'lIllOIl cdllcatiunal practices Oil a \\'ic!t, scale in my lifetime are
aiJolit as good as Sagan 's belov(~d interplanetary cOlllmuniCiltion
o('c1II'ring in his , There!ill'e, I made the decision to write oftheoreti-
cal c()lIsiderations more than considerations ofe ducational practicc,
This has be('n a troublesom e hook to organize, ""riting it involved
cOllling to grips with a serendipitous conflllence of professional
intcrests that I had thollght to be disparate enough to he safely
yond the IH'cd to live together, On th e onc side were interests in
en listing Illodern psychotherapeu tic perspectives in the service of
making model'll co mpulsory e dllcational practice'S morc lively than
th('\, routin('l\' ,lJ'(', \I y first eHi)rts in this direction took thc fill' m ofa
Preface xiii
hook called A.1l Application of Psychoanalysis to Educatioll, 10 Sec-
ond efforts took the form of a hook called Contemporary Educa-
tional P,sychology,)l The hest efforts took the form of a book called
Fant(/s!/ and Feeling il1 Education, 12 \Iean" hile , under, I suspect,
somc suhtlc imperative of the mid-twentieth century that one had
also to estahlish credentials in the abstract if one wanted concrete
advcntures to be taken seriously, I develope d expertise as a scien-
tific oneirologist, \1)' first efforts resulted in Ego SynthesiS in
Drcams , 13 and eight years later , ] \\';IS ahle to gu milch further in The
,"'etc Psy chology of Dr~am ing, 14 The prevailing notion of both latter
hooks is that the manifc'st conte nt and thc transformation of day
j'('sicllll' are at least as important in understanding dreams as are
Freud's concepts of the "latent content" and "the censorship" - a
notion \\'hich is carried yet further herein,
]n 1969, ] found myselfin the painful grip of the "Peter Principle"
in a professorship at Harvard, a position for which I had to thank the
writing of the books just mentioned, How'ever, the position turned
out to be one in which] could do nothing that was relevant to the
further pursuit of e ither interest: dreaming about teaching or teach-
ing about dreams, An opportunity came along to help plan , and then
to teach in, an "alternative" college in Olympia, Washington (The
Evergreen State College , founded in 1970); and] took it,
The college which we planned, now in its eighth controversially
successful year, has no departments, require ments, majors, courses
or grades, ]nstead, groups of students and small teams of faculty
contract to work together nill time (for a semester, a year, or two
years) to study a theme, solve a problem or complete a project of
interdisciplinary scope, When we are done with such a project, we
write to each other as candidly as is possible ahout the influences we
had on each other in the process, Considerations of what is learned
are secondary to considerations of how to learn, For neither stu-,
dents nor faculty can there be competing commitments , Whate:
it takt's to get the joh done well and satisfactorily - skills ter'be
learned, information to he acquired , research to he done - cannot
be arbitrarily ob,trueted, Th ere is no place to hide , and almost
XIV Preface
an\thing can h e tried. And the s}'stern of evaluation by mutual
rt-'Ilcction tends to keep most orus honest.
DlII'ing 111)' first year at Evcrgrct-'n, I was asked by a former
~;tlldl.'nt (Arthur \Varllloth, by that time a prominent figure ill the
Association fe)r Humanistic Psychology), who was composing a text-
hook on "h u man is tic psychology," to write the ehaptcr on dreams. It
l()ok('~1 to Iw an (>asy t<lsk, involving only a slight rC\\Titing of a
dwptcr J had alrcadv \\Titt('n on conte mporary approaches to dre,ull
intnprdatioll , so I agrc'ed . But when it came time to meet the
agn'("nwnt it da\\ ned on m e that J had f(lr some time t(~nded to
n ,; n p ('[ Oil Illy o\\'n dn><llTls in \\av~ which none of thes e analytical
lIlethods sought explicitly to do. I had , I realized, become unable to
rest ('onknt \\'ith mcrely IInderstanding them; 1(,r optimal lidfill-
lIl(!nt had Cllllle to reside in the enjoyment or tlwm, as one might
enjoy a piece of llIusic or a beautiful building. Sometimes the
cnjo\,llH'nt followed the understanding; sometimes it superseded
understanding. \ 1ut thJt I was ungrateful for the deC'pened sense of
s d!~a\\areness \\·hich anah"ling m~' dream, ga\'(' me . Hatlwr. I had
em ll (' tll take tIl(' various interprdutions and their cOllSequent il-
11IIl1ina tiolis orm~' personal sclft()]' granted . I lind h('come trllh-Il'ss
inkl'l',tf'd in \\'hat Ill)' dreallis cOlild sa)' to Ille and more illten'st(,d
in \\'hat I. as their author , could say t() them.
rlleITasillgl~', J wanted to "talk hack" to th(~ dreams' play with
words and images ; to their sOllnd symbolisms and flourishes of
synestlwsia; to their visually alliterative sequences; to their amusing
and sometimes profound deployments of the figurative and the
literal: to their double entendres; to their stagings, artifices, puns
and jokcs. All vcry similar to Freud's original studies of the "dream
work." bllt with the dillcrence that whereas Freud was bent on
understanding tht, rational truths which lay dissembled in dreams , I
seemed to be primarily interested in simply appreCiating their
prerationative artistry . In short , I realized that what had impercep-
tihly ho('om e thc first reward for the disciplines ofre membering and
..ccordillg my dreams \\'as not their mental health \'allle, but the
plcasu]'('s that came from exerCising these disciplines: the awe, the
Preface xv
amllsement. the aesthetic lifts that came from pondering not what
my dreams were telling me, but the ways they v,'ent about telling it.
(The ways, f()\- example , that some fleeting concerns over my ap-
proaching iatherhood were re\\'O\'en , in m)' sleep, into the t'xperi-
ence of being the well-used mother of a swann of precious little
silver-winged bugs - complete with a new body part. ) So, what I
wrote about was not only the ways that had been invented to
interpret dreams , but ho\.... one might hope to enjoy dreams after
having learned those ways - which all appears here ,IS Chapter
One.
In the leeway provided by the Evergrccn system , I proceeded to
conjoin this approach to the enkrtainment of dreams with my
teach ing. The rest I()l kl\\'ed. Th () studen ts not on Iy responded en-
thusiastically, hut they also had many suggestions on how to im-
prove the conjoinmcnt. So, eventually, did some colleagues who,
having got willd of the thing, asked to experience it and went on to
put it to their various uses, These include Leo Daugherty, David
Hitchens . Will Hllmphreys , t-.'Iark Leve nsky, Earle \JcNeil, Tom
\"Jaddox , Charles I'ailthorp, Pete Sinclair and Bob Sluss .
As <\11 aid to the enli\('nnl!'nt of te ach ing and learning in the
!Jul1laniti(' s and social sciences, dn'am rdlectioll was - and is - a
booming success.
* * *
HO\v could I account for the dream poet's and the dream
seminar's success? In order to respond to this question, the
theoretician had to confront the practitioner. Consequently, the
book has rather a split personality. The first five chapters seek to
convey the educational approach (it is not yet, and perhaps never
should be seen as, a "method"). The lengthy sixth chapter, evolution-
ary in its perspective , seeks to advance our psychology of dreams
and dreaming, using the practical slIccess as an observational point
of departure. The reader whose interests arc t'xclusively theoretical
may choose to hegin with Chapter Six, and then read Chapters One
through Five for context. Throughout, I chose to follow the chronol-
xvi Preface
ogy in which my thoughts on the dream poet evolved, Chapter One
is addressed to students , and is currcntly in press as a chapter of Th e
A rt and Scie nce of PsychoLogy : Hll1ll{lnisti c Perspectiues ,
Brooks/Cole Publishing Company, Chapte r Two was written Illr the
.-\ me rican Psychoanalytic Association and was presented at its an-
Ilual m( ~(, ting in Nt' \\ York City on Dece mber 1S, 1973. Chapter
Three \\'as presen te d as part oCthe symposium : Research on College
Teachillg: Th eoretical Perspectives, sponsored hy The Center for
the Teaching Professions , :-.Iorthwestern University on May 24,
1973, Chapter Four was a letter to an appreCiative, critical friend
who had been a discussant at the Northwestern symposium, Chap-
ter Five was written for The American Orthopsychiatric Association
and \\ias presented at its annual meeting in San Francisco, April 12,
1974. Parts of Chapter Six \vere included in an address given to the
Invitational Conference of the Social Science Education Consor-
tium in Denver, Colorado on June 13, 1975,
The \\Titings which interlace the chapters were by students in
response to dream reflection seminars, There were thousands to
choose from , I chose, from among the shorter ones, those that I
particularly enjoyed.
1 am indebted to Charles McCann, former President of The '
Eve rgree n State College, whose criticisms of the first draft helped
me to hea r the book's pulse. And to Eli Bower, Leo Daugherty, Lee
Graham, Bob Greenway, Tom Maddox, Ed McQuarrie, Anne
Reynolds, Pete Sinclair and Montague Ullman for their criticisms of
and comments on the final draft. And, mostly, to my students at The
Evergreen State College whose enthusiasm , hard work and good
humor made my first hunches about the dream poet turn, eventu-
ally, into belief.
CHAPTER ONE
DREAM REFLECTION
If' here «:ere dreams' 0 sell ,
Wha t would you /nty?
Some cost II passing-bell;
Some a lighl sigh,
Thomas LOt:ell Beddoes
Dream Pedlnrl}, © 1840
One of the hazards of becoming interested in psychology is that
one almost always has his personal relations with his unconscious*
thrown into confusion. This is because most books that speak of the
unconscious speak of it as something either so abstract or so elusive
as to he out of reach of normal everyday introspection, Actually ,
becom ing conscious of our unconscious exp eriences is like becom-
ing conscious of air; no more abstract nor elusive than that, but also,
as we civilized persons tend to liv e , no less unusual. The air that
surrounds our bodies is always there, just as the unconscious images
that suffuse our minds are always there . But we tend not to be aware
of the scents , touches, tastes and sounds of air except during those
brief moments of physical transition in which we occasionally find
ourselves as·we go about pursuing other interests . A dingy overcast
day suddenly breaks into clear blue sunshine. Or vice versa. I
em erge from a smok e-filled seminar room with my head full of
thoughts into a tangy , autumn, hurning leaves evening, and sud-
" shall overlook the theoretical distinction between unconscious and pre-conscious proces-
ses, not becouSt! it isn't an important distinction, hut hecause it isn 't germane to the practical
purposes of this discussion. Those who wish to comprehend this distinction should read
Lawrence Kubie's "Neurotic Distortion of the Cn:ative Pmce ss ,"" or Chapter Seven of my
.. Fantasy and Feeling in Education ,"
2 The DrealH Poet
t\cnly tht' tllOlI ,!.!hts \\'cigh more than they arc worth, Or I'm dridng
;ltTOSS tilt' Pulaski Skn\'a\' outside l'\C\\ York City trying to hreathe
as little as possibl e and gratefully anticipating the relati\'C' fragranc('
Ilftlll' Ilolland Tunnel's exhaust fumes, Th ese kinds ofllloments are
(·x[J(-'ri('ll(.'t,d 1)\, IIlOSt of liS , for th c most part. as chance happe nings ,
S OIll(, lWopl(" it is tru e, t;l kc to heing Oil th e lookout for them , the
Iwltt'r to appreciat(· tllcHl \\'hen they happen , Some people even
j";lJIl to cultivate th e m , But most of U~ have becn taught to arrange
our \i\'(,s in other \\'ays , th e betkr to pay attention to the things that
('()lIIlt. Lik!' hill boards and ofTj(:(' nWllIoranda and wond e rin,l! ifhe ing
('llIb(:ioIiS of til<' UIlCOIiScioliS isn' t a contradiction in terms,
SimiLlriy \\'(' tend not to he: a\\'are ol'the fresh perceptions . n()\'('1
thoughts and rich <'nwtiollal currents carried hy our nneonscious
images except during ccrtain moments of unavoidahle psychological
trallsi·tioll: waking lip . going to sleep , having a k~ \' er. suffering a
nisis or til(' lik(' , Ali t'!' a series of had days I wake, lip , as we say, "on
til(' rigllt side of the I)('d , " In going olf to sleep , my tedium with an
income tax /t)J'lll turns into a juggling feat in which Richard l\'ixon
ba lau cc,.; hawks and do"es on the nose of a trained seal named IRS, I
<I\\ akc in a s\n ~at having ,iust experienced the split second before
lh'in~ in a plane crash , Or , after tl1<' agonies ora divorce , reading the
SUllda\' :\('\\ York Times seems stnlllgely less intimidating, Simi-
larl \' too, th ese passing moment,.; Oll the interfaces of th e psyche are
mostly experienced as happening (:0 us; although some people take
to IWin ,\! on th e alert li)r th e m , and some people e"en learn to
clllti\'atc them,
So , if YOII dec i(jp you want to le arn hO\\' to become conscious of
\OlJr IIncoI1scioIlS , you should first of all note the absurdity of some-
one seeking to d ee pe n his apprcciation of air by sllhmitting his more
personal momcnts with it to interpretation by a meteorologist.
Sccondlv. learn to he on th e lookout during moments of mental
trallSition for new inner horizons . Thirdly , if possible, learn to
('lIlti.ate these Illoments ; that is , cause them to co me into your
possession hy \\'illful choice.
Dream Rejlection 3
What I \vant to do in th e rest of thi> chapter is try to give this
three-fold strategy som e useflll sllbstnnce ancl some tactical
guidelines. But first I'll need to say a little more about "the uncon-
seious," because it has been observe d by psychologists to assume at
leas t three different kinds of shapes, and ifyou determine to become
more keen-eyed in respect to your unconscious, it will help to know
at least what these three different kinds of shapes are, Then I'll need
to say a littl e ahou t the nature of dreams; vv"hat they are, when they
occur; what they do for liS and how to remember them, Because
dreams are, as Frclld and Shakespeare ha ve hoth told us in their
J ifl'e rL'n t \\<I)'S " the royal road to the u ncon sciou s," And because all I
can in good consciencE' advise you to do, if you determine to cause
your unconscious to come into your possession by willful choice, is
rememher your drea ms, If you happen to come down well from an
instructiv e fever, drllg experience or emotional crisis, well and
good, But if I recomm e nded that you seek out the first or third of
these you wouldn' t; and if YOLI tri e d the second because of anything I
said I wOlild \\'ant to be th e re to he lp , Dreams , on the other hand ,
are just what we want, and are prese nt in all of our lives in such
abundance that w e can easily afford to waste a few while learning
how to enjoy them,
THE BURIED (REPRESSED INFANTILE) UNCONSCIOUS
This is the dimension of unconsciousness that Freud explored and
described , It refers to specific images which were associated with
times of anxiety in early childhood before experience had furnished
life ~'ith its fundamental boundaries; inside the body and outside the
body , awake and asleep, alive and dead , self and non-self, purposes
• and accidents and the like, V.rhat are times of anxiety? They are
tim es wh e n a child does not yet confidently know how to control,
sharc or us e his images , and th e re is no one to whom to look for help
or instruction , Parcnts may not be talking to each other, or to the
child, Deaths and separations occur , More typically, one or another
pare n tis himselfmad e frightened or uncertain by some of the child's
behaviors , thus sufTering the child to feel alone and helpless with
4 The Dream Poet
\\"h,llL'n:r pri\"ate images tend to accompany thos e beha\'ior~ . For
eX<I!I1ple , a three-year-old hoy is left \\ith his grandparents whi,le his
llIother and father go on vacation. 011 th<:ir return , the boy is happy
to s('c thcln and secills none the worse for this first lengthy separa-
tion froll1 his parents . Only one thing seems out of proportion. He
insists repcatedly, in an atypically lIncertain voicc , that he wants to
go home to his own house "to see my marbles ." \-\lhy , of all the
things he 'd left at home , his marbles? At first he \\on't let on, or
can ' t, becalls c he isn't sure himself. That night after awakening from
a had dream he confides to his bther , " 1 \\'as thinking you stopped
liking me h ecause I didn't Pllt my marbles away." He was reasslired
and tnch·d back into bed, and that was the end of it. It was , of
cOllrsc. not the extent of it; marbles are things one can throw and
hurt with , or make noise with, or slip on and fall down; they are also
th ings olle can put in the mOllth , and maybe swallow and have' to go
to the doctor to get out again; marbles are easily lost, hidden and
rediscovcred ; and they make fine objects "'ith which to east make-
helie\e stories about families with different-sized people in them. It
\\"as <~ nollgh however, or so the father felt , that the boy had shared
the part about marbles that seemed to make him anxious. For the
H'st. let hill1lcarn to trllst his growing abilities to re a~sure himself.
For tilt' purpos e of this discussion , howeve r , let liS suppose that
the boy fantasiz e d something more during his parents' ahsence . Let
liS Sllppose , for ex ample, that he came to associate all image which
jllst happ e ned to pop into milld, of his btber throwing him O\er a
cliff. "ith another imagt' of s\\allo\\"ing a marhle. He couldn't n ' -
IIlcm her having ('\'cr swaIlO\\"(~d a marble, bu t th c mere though t of it
sC('Illed to make his father uncontrollably nervous. This image of
hIth e r tbro"'ing him away like a pi ece of garbage was nothing to play
around with. \Vhat to do \\"ith it then ? This is the moment of
repression and I have never felt that ordinary language could ade-
quately descr ibe it. The extraordinary language of Shakespeare
comes close, ho\"e\ler, when he has Hamlet say:
Dream Reflection 5
llemelrlhcr ,I,(·"('?
Ay , them 11001" gllOst , u'hi/e memory holdv a seat
I II this distracted glohe" Remember thee?
YeaJrom tlte table of my memory
I'Ll wipe away all trivial fond recor-cls ,
All sall;S of books, aUf(mn." "II pressures p"st
That YOllth and o[,serwtion copied there,
And thy com mandment all alone "hall live
Within the book ancl voillme of my In-ain .
Unmixed with baser matter.
In the opinion of Ernest Jones this scene in the play is merely a
representation of an earlier time in Hamlet's childhood when he
encountered not his Unde's incestuous wishes toward the Queen
but his own, which he then repressed as a child and subsequently
expressed in self~disguisecl ways by his on-again-ofl'-again preocc;u-
pation \\"ith killing his uncle. 16 This is prohably true , as far as it goes.
That it does not go nearly far enough to explain Hamlet the man, nor
the role in our culture of Hamlet th e play , I have shown in another
place .17 For the purpose of ullclerstandin g th e dimension of uncon-
sciousness \\ hich consists of repressed infantile images, howeve r ,
Jones' interpretation goes e.xactly far enough. 'for it reveals the
distingUishing trait of the infalltilt' repressive process: while its
initial ohjf:ctive is , so tn speak , to forget th e anxiety-inducing image
or complex of images, what it actually achieves is a special remem-
brance oftl1Pse by means of distorted and confusing symbolic substi-
tutes. So instead of the image hecoming ultimately expressible as
kno\\'ledg<' or art, it cOllles to Iw (~xpressed as symptom.:.! Let's say,
then , that the hoy completely forgets thc misguided hypotheses
ahout marbles that conjured themselves into mind in attempting to
cllmprehend what he might have don e to cause h is parents to leave
him. Instead , let's say, he develops an aversion to eating fish. The
mere thought of a tiny bone slipping undetected down the throat is
enough to mak e him nauseous. And so he lives out his life "remem-
bering" the time that his parents left him by excusing himselffrom
tables where fish are being eaten , and hy not knowing the joys of
broile d fresh brook trout. He thus remains unconscious of two
things: (1) the childhood events themselves , and their associated
('
.) Tile J)1'('WJ1 Poet
th()lIghts , f~'c'ling", images alld llH'lllorics ane! (2) \\'!I,' lw ('an't stand
\'i sli
l.d liS "IJPPO'" one thillg l1J()r(~, Let us imagin e om flsh phohic
(jill' d;l\ II ;1\ i lit! a ell,("t m ah()u t a hu\\ I full offis h oyes, H C' approaches
it \\itil (';llltioll ; then rl 'ali/('s tktt fish e~'e, havo no hones and are
('ollsickrl,d hy "onw pc'upi<:s to h e ddicacies, nc picks one lip and
s\\,;dlcl\\s it, r\mhrosia~ Then he notices that c;tch has a distinct
('olma tillll ;Ind desigll , like" marhles, ,\lId so , as tilt' elre'am procc~c'd " ,
Ill' \'illds hilll.,,,,I\' ait''I'lIatl'h- I)()uncing th e fish eyes off a \\'all and
popping thclJl illto his mouth , fceling senetl" proud of ha\ing
(I\('n'llIlIl' ;It least this llluch of' his trouhlcsonl c a\'Crsion to fish ,
,\ ssuming h e wl1H'm hc'I's his clream , what might he do \\'ith ie
C II<l II (TS arc this is an irrdevant question , h ecause chances are he
would shh (~r a littl e or chuckle a little , then r eme mbcr an appoint-
ll1ent allel rapidl\' heconic absorbed in th e llluch more important
husilil'ss of shaving his \\'h iskers,
'I'll(' important things to rememher ahout repressed inhtntile
imal!cs arc that (1 ) they are inhmtile, (2) they only e merge into
consciousiless b,' \\'a)' of quite far-fetched svmholic representations
and, (:3 1 they ;11'(:' very specific ,
THE Ol'TFLA:\'KED (CONVE~TIONALIZED )
t ' ,\,(;O:\ SCIOl'S
El'Ill'st Schadel \\as led hy his experienc(~ as a psychoanalyst to
po:,( ' t\\'() discollccrting quc,tiolls to Fn>ud's co nce pt of the uncon-
SCiOllS , First, ho\\' is it that , although individuals differ greatly in the
(',kilt to \\hich their early childhoods included times of anxiety ,
~t!lilost all p('oplc' e nd lip forgetting almost all of their early child-
ilooci C' s,'colld , hem is it th'lt even afkr the most prof<llll1d anc!
prolongt"d p ,<;),choanalysis , during which num ero us early traumas
arc dl'duced , clarifIed und even re,s olved, so \'ery few actual experi-
ellces from cark ch ildhood are r eme mhered in th e sense of h e ing
1'C'-cxlwric'llc('(P Schadel concillded that something more ubiqui-
1t1iiS thall rl'jlrl'ssi(Jn , as Fn'lIc! hacllc)i'll1ulated it. must he at work in
lill' (it-n'lopll)(,llt of Illosl p('oplt' . \\hich a('Collllts for " norl1lalchild-
Dream Reflection i
hood amnesia," He proposed that this something else was a kind of
educational process , which rendered adult memory systems refrac-
tory to the essential forms of childhood experience, He named this
proccss cOl1uentiol1oli:wti.on, In other words , while we may repress
this or that sp(~cific childhood experience b eca us e of its tranmatic
effects , the structlll'es of our memory svstems, hy virtue of becom-
ing "mature ," i>eco m e somehow unfit to sustain even pleasant and
fulfjlling childhood ("xpcrienc('s, :\fot that the two kinds of UllCOIl-
SCiOlISIH'S~ arc cOlltradictory, Bath er Schactelconccived them to be
reciprocal,
Oil(' lI1ight S;I\' that ta bOil and repreSSlOn arc th e 'ps)'chologiea l cannons of society
again,t the child and agai nst man , "h ereas in normal amnesia society us es the
methods of hlockade and slo\\' starvation 'lga inst those experiences and
nWlllori es which do not eq uip man for his role in the social process, The two
m e thod, of warfare supplement each other and , in the siege conducted by
society against human potentialities and inclinations \\'hi ch transcend the cul-
tural pattc'I'n , IlIt, eannon he lps to maintain the hlockade, and the blockade and
el1!oiuin1-( starva tion make it less necessary to use th e can non . IN
If\\'e compare what we know to b e tbe ways in which young children
perceive an d organize life with the ways in which we know ourselves
to perce ive and organize life , the process of conventionalization will
become cl ear, Adults tend to experie nce life objectively and literally
(i,e" by way of words) and tend to organize it logically, If I see a
cloud that has taken the shape of a horse I will either not notice the
resemblance or I will notice it and then qUickly remember. i,e " tell
mys e lf, that it is a cloud I see and that it merely resembles a horse, I
may, in a fanciful mood, choose to attend more to the resemblance
thall to th e cloud, but I am incapable of b e ing carried to the point of
perce iving a horse, A young child, on the other hand , although he
may have learned the word "cloud," too, would be unlikely to say, "I
see a cloud that looks like a horse," More likely he would simply say,
"I see a horse, " Ifhe happened to think "cloud," too, it wou ld not be
a horse that was really a cloud; it would b e a horse that was also a
cloud, This is hecalls(~ young children te nd to ex per ience life subjec-
tive Iy and figu rati\'e!y (i, e" hy \\'ay of images) an d tend to organ ize it
ana logically,
8 The J)reo 1/1 Poet
\"hat Schadel has hrought to our attention is that civ iliz ed intel-
ligc-:Il t people> Ilormally develop literacy and logic to an addictive
degn:c_ \' cry long away from either, and ,\'c manifest withdrawal
symptoms, lIsuallv by way of feeling silly or childish. Tru e, th e
idioms of childhood are the architects of myths and poems - and
dreams. And th e grcat artists have brought this up to IJS in ways that
dd~' helittl emen t. Shakespeare shm\'ed , /()r example , again in Ham-
let, that he \\'as no stranger to the machinations of conventionaliza-
tion ancl the conventionalized unconscious :
POl.O ." 1L' s: \Vhat do YOll read . m)' Ion!?
\-1.\ \ I LET: \V"rds , "orcls , words.
I'OLO'.;Il ·S: What is the l11atlt'r , m y lord ?
l/A~I LET Behn, ,,n ,,-hn?
POU),,! L S: 1 mean, the lIlatter that you I'(:ad. 111 )' lord .
11:\\1 LET: Slal'l,kr . .sir: for th e sati rical rogut" says here that old men hU \,f'
grcy beards . that tl,eir faces arc: wrinkl ed , tllt'ir eycs pmging
thi ck am ht:r and plul11-tree gum , and that th('~' llJ\'e a pl e ntiful
lack of wit , together with most ,,-eak hams ; all of which . sir .
though 11ll,,,t pow e rf,dl y and polt-ntl), heli ~ \ t" , )' <'1 I hold it not
h onest y to I",,'c it thll' sct down : for y\)u r, e1 f. sir, sha ll gro w old
;" I am , irLik .. a ''I'ah you co uld go Imck"·ard ,
I'OLO;\lllS (:\ sid e:) Though this be madness , )'t" t tlH'r e is nH'thod in ' t.
\\ 'ill yo" \\alk out oftl1" air . 1Il~ · lord ·)
II\~II . FT : 1lIto I'll : .c: r a\ t' .
POLO\' I L~ : II ,decd , that 's (Jut of the air . (Asid ...! Ilow pregnant sOlnct iu1l'S
itis r<' plies arC"! A it.ppincss that often madness hit s 011, which
rea son and sani ty eou ld not so pro'l)('rollsly be deli vered of.
The fact that some highly civilized people manage in their develop-
ment to make litc racy preva il on th e idioms of childhood, rath er
thall to displace these , is evidence that the conventionalized uncon-
sciolls b not a necessary price to pay for acculturation. The fact
l'(!mains that it is th e price normally paid . Th e challenge herc is to
our edtl cat ional practices - of which more in the follo\\-ing chap-
tE-rs. Suffice it here to say we should flnd ways of enabling people to
lwcollw "rea listi c" \\ithout causing them to dis own their dreams .
Olwiollsly I Illean this to he taken quite' literally , since dreams are
" the royal road " to this form of un consciousn ess too . Dr eams being
Dream Reflection 9
natural, normal and recurrent exercises in expressing life subjec-
tively and figuratively , and organizing it analogically.
The thing to remember about the conventionalized unconsciolls
is that it refers not to any particular image or set of images but to a
complete mod e of experienc1ng life . The metaphorical mode.
\Vhereas repression, as Freud conceived it , seeks to exclude from
consciousness particular memories that were made in tolerably pain-
ful hy temporarily uncontrollable me taphorical elaboration , con-
ventionalization seeks to exclude from consciousness the metaphor-
ical process itself.
THE SUBDUED (HOLISTICALLY REPRESSED)
UNCONSCIOUS
Andras Angyal was led by h is experience as a psychoanalyst to ask
a further question which neither Freud's nor Schactel's formulations
of th e unconscious h elp ed answer: How is it that a neurotic person
manages to turn all. sorts of potentially positive experiences and
opportunities for personal growth into addi tional evi dence in sup-
port ofhis apparently unconscious hasic assumption that life is, all in
all, an enemy; and , conversely , ho"'- is it that a healthy person
manages to turn all so~ts of traum atic experiences and personal
setbacks into opportunitips for continued growth, in support of his,
apparently equally unconscious, basic assumption that life is , all in
all, a friend? Angyal was a peculiar psychoanalyst in that when a
patient with whom he had worked hard and skillfully did not get
well, i.e ., when the neurosis did not give way to health , he became
both deeply disappointed and very curious. Gradually, as he com-
pared the numbers of his patients who got well with those who did
not, he noted that the development of insights into speCifically
repressed infantile experiences and the giving of more attention to
one's unique metaphors, while necessary to therapeutic success,
were not sufficient. Those patients who got well , and especially
those who stayed well, were those who came, in addition, to per-
ceive in themselves, in vivid detail, the outlines of two very different
kinds of unfinished life histories. They came to see that what made
10 Th e Dream Poet
the J ifference in the personal meaning of a partieu lar experience
was \\·hic:h of these two holistic systems gave it definition. The
e ).perie nce might he of great significance, like th e hirth ofa child or
th e death of a mate; or it might he trivial, like mowing the lawn or
hrtJshin,1; one's te eth. As defined in th e one system, all of these
e:'l)('ri('ncL's took their places as manifes tations of "being a person
!i\ in .~ a life ;" as defined in the otlwr system, all of these same
(:xpcriellu!s took th ei r places as manifes tati ons of "being a person
waiting to die," The patients who got well gave articulation to this
inner perception of "u nivel-sal ambiguity" in highly individualized
wa~·s . hut they had one thing in common: having di.scovered within
themselves these two itineraries for tra\'e ling through life, and
ha\'ing gained some experience in following each, more or less by
choice, th ey cho.se by a succession of conscious acts to identify
themselves with the one and to reject , although not forget, the
other.
Angyal concluded ...
.In llH" co urs e of m)' work with neuo'otic patients I have been searching lor a
cono::eplnalization of personality ade'luate for the practical tasks of education and
tlwr"p'·. The most significant· general statement I am ahle to make as a result of
this s(,arch is tha t whil" p<,rsonality is pluralistic in tl)(' dNails of its functioning.
ill it ~ hroad ulltline it is a dualistic orgaJli7.Cltion,
;\nd . ~pe<lkillg /i'om a developmental point of view,
Th"l'e is no lite (:()\IrSC in which every developme ntal cx pe rience has been
tl';llllnalil' , and no one Ii-om \\·hich all dd,:t,'rious innllenees have heen absent.
'1'11<'1''' art' both hl'"lthy "nd tralllllatic featnres in every chil d's e nvironment and
in hLs 1'f'lations with it; early attempts at relating oneself to the world succeed in
part . and in part fail. As a result, the personal it)' of th,' c hild develops simultane-
ollsly around two nuclei. forms two patterns One pattern is based on
is,)lation and its deri"atin,,: 1,:e1ings of helplessness, unloveahl e ncss , and doubt
ahulit on,,'s prospects . Tbe other is bast'd on confid e nce that a modieum of one's
autllnolllOIIS and homonomous stri\ings (i.(,., to be in c h ;lr~e of one's life and to
J'(· lak it llwaningfully to th e lives ofo!.hers) mny be rc"liLed more or less directl y
. Th e world I'isucdized in the healthy pattern feels like one's home ; it is rich in
opportunities, lawfu lly ordered , and meaningfull y related to the person. The
world of neurosis is foreign and threatening, full of obstacles and dangers ,
Iawl"" . capricious , l' chaos rather than a cosmos.
Dream Reflection 11
This view of personality organization led Angyal to modify the
concept of repression:
In th e original formulation of repression certain impulses were considered to
have bef'n made i ncoJllpatible with t/le person's sense of self-esteem by parental
rencc:tion of ,otio-cultural sanctions and therefore excluded from conscious ness .
Aecording to my tlworv, tlw r.. presscd h that whieh is inconsistent with the
domin"nt organization, whieh"",,, it he'. He pn:ssion I'l'mains ~ very useful
{'()ncept , but it takes on new properties, It is no longer a one-way affair but a
two-way affair . ;-':ot only the ne urotic feelings and tre nds but the healthy ones
too Jllay be repressed, in this case by the neurotic organization, Both organiza-
tions are repressive , in th e general sense of the term , because they are incom-
patible gestalts , two total patterns struggling for dominance, If one system gains
dOlllinance, the oth e r is co ipso subdued or submerged , and this may take the
form of excl uding it from consciousness, i ,e., of repression in the tech nical sense
of the word. This conception is borne out by numerous observations that one can
and does repress feelings and wishes that are in no way socially tabooed and are
even considered la ud"hk.'"
When asked to clarify this notion of repression Angyal used to
present this ambiguous gestalt, used frequently in perception ex-
periments ,
and say: "Now , can you see both the vase and the profiles simultane-
ously? Of course not , Only one at a time, Yet nothing changes in the
design itself. This little piece of nose here doesn't become some-
thing else when it becomes part of the neck of the vase, Just so, each
tiny detail becomes a part of one gestalt or the other. The duality is
inherent in the design, but it is you, the perceiver, who 'decides'
which gestalt will be conscious and which will be unconscious, And
there are no halfways about it; it is an all or none affair. This is but an
analogy of what I mean , but, J think, a good one,"
A symptom then, however debilitating in the life of a person
whose neurotic system is dominant, can give hints of the contours of
12 Th e Dream Poet
the unrealized health system , which, under th ese circumstances
Illay he said to he unconsciolls. In Angyal's view dreams are likewise
to he seen as exposures to consciousness of th e struggle for domi-
nan ce h etween th e dreamer's two syste ms of total personality or-
ganization .
Two things sh ould he kept in mind ahout th e holistically repres-
sed un consciolls . (1) It pertaills more to pe rceptual, or, more accu-
rately, to app en.:eptllal functions , than to memory functions. The
memory, say, ofh e ing deserted by one's fath er will be a bitter and
perhaps blinding me mory as it functions within th e person's neuro-
tic ge stalt . F or exampl e, "I am unlovable , and even ifI am not I am
hop elessly handicapped." The sam e memory in the same person , as
reflected within th e health system may actually have strengthening
or deeping effects. For example , "What must th e poor man's life
have hec n like to have driven him to leave hi s o\. . n child?" (2) The
hol ist ica lly repressed lIn eonscious may harbor one's late nt talents
for he ingworthl ess and helpl ess , or it may harbor one's latenttal e nts
for he in g worthy and conf1dcnt. No personality lacks either ofthese,
an d most of us live out parts of o lIT live s in each .
DR EAMS AND DREAMING
Drea min g is a form of thinking expe rienced as action . Let's pon-
der that for a mom ent. All forms of thinking, from deductive logic to
daydreaming, are ways of exploring the consequences of various
actions without commiting ourselves to those various actions. This is
tru e of th e f()\'\n of thinking known as dreaming too , hut - wond er of
\\'ondcrs - this particular form of thinking is experienced as action .
The most compelling daydream will include some degree of aware-
ness that we are not really living what we are daydreaming , but the
most mundan e drea m is expe rienced at th e time of its being
drea med as be ing lived . We may, th en, view learning by way of
dream re fl ection as an acce ptance of Nature's most provocative
invitation to learn hy doing , an observation wh ich makes th e
paradox that the "doing" hody is actually asleep during dreaming all
the more tantalizing!
Dream Reflection 13
Dreaming, it has recently been discovered, is an integral part ofa
very distinctive psychophysiological state which periodically super-
ven es the state of sleep every night in all people. Called REM (for
rapid e ye mov ement) sleep it is as different from non-REM sleep as
non-REM sleep is from be ing awake. It includes the concomitant
presence of irregular puls e, blood pressure, and respiration; penile
erection in males; rapid conjugate eye move ments ; sporadic activity
of certain fin e muscle groups; near absence of tonic anti-gravity
muscle potential ; a low voltage desynchronized cortical EEG pat-
tern ; and high brain temperature and metabolic rate. REM sleep
sup erv enes the sleep cycle about every 90 minutes through the
night and lasts for increasingly longe r periods of time ranging from
about 5 minutes to about 40 minutes.
Why dreaming should occur during this kind of sleep and not
durin g th e oth e r kind is anybody's glless. Actually, it may he that we
dream all night long, in and out of hoth kinds of sleep, but only
reme mber th e dreal~ls that occur during REM sleep , since the only
evidence we have for associating dreaming with REM sleep is that
people sleeping in laboratories almost always remember a dream
after being awakened from REM sleep and almost never remember
a dream after being a\\lakened from non-REM sleep. However,
most authorities currently favor the idea that dreaming is somehow
functionally related to REM sleep.
People have always wondered why they dreamed but the discov-
ery that we dream so much has prompted the more functional
question of what dreaming does for us, since nature has not been
known to lavish attention on insignificant functions. The best ans-
wers that can be given to this question, linked as they presumably
mu st be to the question ofwhat REM sleep does for us, can be stated
only hypoth e tically at this writing.
Five biological functions have been ascribe d to REM sleep:
1. It may serve a neutralizing function, in counteractive relation
to some noxious by-product of metabolism ;
2. It may se rve a stimulating function , in compensatory relation
1 Th e Dream Poct
to the periodic sonsory deprivations which are t:haracteristic of
sleep;
3. It Illay ser\'c a reorganizing hmction, in response to the disor-
ganizing efkcts ofslecp on tht' et"ntrdl ncrn)l1S syst(!Ill :
·t . It Illay serve an alerting function , in preparation for fight and
/light pattcrns; and
.) . It may serve an innervating function, in the specific service of
depth perception.
As fClr the psychological functions of dreaming , I have suggested ,
again hypothetically , that these may be analogous to the suppos ed
functions of HEM sleep. Thus as REM sleep Illay neutralize this or
tliat cerebral toxin , so dreaming may neutralize this or that noxiollS
impulse or memory. Similarly, as REM sleep may reorganize firing
patt erns in the central nervous system in response to the disorganiz-
ing effects of sleep, so dreaming may serve to reorganize patterns of
ego defe nse or cgo synthesis in res ponse to the disorganizing effects
oh\aking life . Similarly, as RE~'1 sleep may serve an alerting func-
tion ill res pect to potential thrcats to physical integrity , dreaming
Iil a\" sen e an alerting function in respect to potential threats to
ps\chosO(;ial integrity. Finally, as HE~'I sleep may help to establish
and mai ntain depth perception, dreaming may, if you will , help to
estahlish and maintain "perceptive ness in depth. "20
The last of thcse hypothetical functions of dreaming is the only
one that is relevant to our present purpose , sinee it is presumahly
"perceptive ness in depth" that we are after when we set out to
explore our unconscious . Indeed, it is probably only this function
\\"hieh requires that a dream he remember ed. The other functions
lIlust be served whether or not the dreams are remembered , be-
canse so vcry littl e of total dream production is rcmem bered that it is
hard to imagine these functions heing served if only remembered
dreams would do.
\-I/c come now to how to rememher dreams, Actually the best
thing to do, as in so many other pursuits , is to have some purpose in
tniing to remember them, based on previously gratifying slIccess.
But since it may he that your main purpose in reading this book is
Dream Reflection 1.5
that you haven't had such previous experience, the trick will be in
gctting started. My experiencc with ppople who have difficulty
H'lllemlwring dreallls has been that if the following five-step routine
is conscientiollsly follow ed, at least partial sliccess can he guaran-
teed without exception.
1. Keep a pad and pencil next to your bed .
2. Learn to wake up with your eyelids closed . If you depend on
an alarm clock , don't use the radio kind and learn to turn it off
with your eyes closed.
3. After you have run over the dream a couple of times behind
clos ed eyelids , and have it we ll fixed in mind, write it down
immediately , Resist all temptations to postpone the writing.
This is where most dreams are lost. It is also where your
motivation to avail yourself of your dream life will be put to its
seve rest tes t.
4. Before th e day is out , read the dream over and reflect on it for
at least a half hour.
5. Write down those reflections that we re particularly meaning-
ful or instructive to you.
The gratifications that will reward this routine and make it self-
slIstaining \\'ill come in the pe riods of reflection , so I want to devote
the rest of th is chapter to the art of dream reflection, As in any art,
instruetion sholiid hc kcpt to a minimum , th e be tter that you may
conw to sense the unilju e possibilities for self-expression and sclf-
discipline that are in It for you. In this connection, I should point out
the all-important distinction betv,'een dream reflection and dream
analysis.
Dream analysis may have its artful sides, and usually does in the
hands of a master analyst, but dream analysis is ultimately a scien-
tific enterprise. For example, each of the hypothetical functions of
dreaming listed above have been partially derived from a particular
me thod of dream analysis or combination of such methods. The
neutralization function was suggested by Fre ud's method, the
stimulation function by Lowy's method; the reorganization function
 Hi Th e Dream Poet
hy tlw methods of Erik SOil, French Hnd me; th e alerting function by
the me thods oI'J\I'ng and Ullman, Each of th ese methods is based on
\ ast amollnts ofknO\\ledge, has he(~ n dc'vised \\ith intricate caJ'(~ and
mtlst h(' applit~d with precisiOll , \;0 kno\\'lerlgeable p e rson would
tllink of s<l\'illg to a prospective praetitioner of any of these analytic
nwthocls that a minimllm of instruction is desirable, Because , for the
productive application of Hily of th e se methods of dream analysis,
milch pain <;taking in structi on is n cee ssilr~ ' , *
But. for purposes of cu ltivating the art of dream reflection , the
on k ol>jl'l-ti \'(' of \\ hlch is to enric h and di \'(-~ rsif\' yo ur pe re(~ptions of
YOllrSt' ]f and yo ur world , I repeat , instruction should he minimal.
th c bette r that you Illay come to SL'nsc till' uniCjl1{' possihiliti(,s for
s(' lf~(')(pr('ssion and pl'rsonaliz( ,d ]earn illg that ,11'(' in it Ii)}' \'011.
It is tilll(> for a d Clllonstration , If I \\anh~d to demonstrate a
ml'thod of dJ'(~am analysis I \\'oldd us e som eone e lsc."s dream; for
l'xamplc, one tllat a patk' nt or student had shared \\'ith m e, Thi s for
th e Vl' n ' good reason that I would \\'ant to be as objecti\'e as possible
in m)' approa ch to it. In dream r e flection on the other h and, th e
more! subjecti\'e one is , the bette r. Therefore, I shall use one of my
O\\'n drea ms, Here is the dr eam as I wrote it down on th e morning of
\I arch 14, 1968,
1 am I~'in): in bed trrillg to pay atte ntiOn to a dream, From time to time a littl e
,(!nat-Iike hug riscs up through my fi(,ld of vision , For H\\'hil(' J m e,rely note th e
tkdillg distractions and pay IlO furth er hced, Theil a fearful hint of suspicion
('rosses my mind: th e re havc bee n several of the se bugs now , and they seem to
fl y lip at regular inten'als and all of th e m as th ough from the same place . which I
'aguely imagine to be a spot on my right thigh just be low the hip , Could these
littl e " ingcd things be coming from out of me' Cod , cou ld it mean I'm infected
or ,'ontaminated' Ugh' I don 't "'ant to think a bout it. Beside s it ', distrac ting m('
Ii-om wh" t I do " 'alit to think about , th e dream I " 'as having, But there goes
mwtl1l'r one, \Vhat if they lire coming from me? How bad would it he ? \ Vou ld it
1)(' Mllnething ,,,,luI. maybe irn:vC'rsible lik e cancer? Or is it something that
woold respo nd to simple trcatment? I' d he tter look to nwke su re, But God , )
don ' t want to l \Vhat a pain in the, ass I Cod damn life never lets up' Alwa!'s
s01l1 t' th jn,~ to worry ahout!
'1\ re"" llt survey of the psytholog~' of dreaming. ,nd of the method, of dream analysis that
h"vc co lltributl'd sign ifi can tly to it , can be found in my Th" N"UJ Psychology of Dreaming,
Cnmo' and Stn,tton, New York, 1970; Viking Paperb>1ck , 1974,
Dream Reflection 17
Slowl y I inch my hand do\\'n to the spot be low my hip where I fear th e bugs
may be coming Ollt. Sure enough I feel a flap in th e skin like labia and now the re
is no (jll(' ,stio nin g m! ' fears , for at that "ery moment one of the bugs comes out
li''' Il11.11J(I(,J' tl1< ' llap , ('ros"" mv finger and fli e s ofl', I punic, Jesus, "'hat might it
I,p lik ~ unde r th er<-'- I start imagining th e ,,'o rst : horrible images of teemi ng
hord f's of cra wl in ,£( bugs , limitless musses of foul decaying rotting cavities
branching out through my insides, Panic' I decide) mus t now pay full attention
to this , i,e" to si t up amI look inside, However bad it reall y is , nothing could be
\\'orse tha n wh,lt I'm vi sualizing, Imm edia te ly aft e r I make this decision another
bllg fli es lip and I notice it's a rath er pre tty littl e th ing, not dirty at all , with little
,ih'..~ r tr,u1 ."ipare nt wingo,; .
I sit lip , tllWII the Ib p, an d sllre enough th e re is a large eayity underneath it,
"lid S\II' (' ('\lo ll\.(h too thert' are '''arm ,s of np\\ Iv hatched and hatching bugs
stirring around with <llle or t\\[) re ~ lIlarJy ,l!t)tting lip ( ' n()lJ ,~h wing power to fl y
a\\,,~· . I . llll ~il1llllt;ll](.' l)jI.... I~· di'illli:.lyed to St~(' !'OtlH.' of m )' fl~ ;HS confinllcd alld
rl'ass',Irt 'd tll ,S t'I' till ' ",ur,1 "I' tl]('r,., di S('ollfin ll (:d , F(II' tile cavi ty , while discon-
c'>rtin!!jllst i lll )('in~ Iher~ , is lIut dirty or rottin?:, nOr is it ulldl"ss, I fee l around
and find that it i, lik e a medillm-siz ed soup howl , clean, smooth to the 'tou<:h and
very definitely of a finit e, co ncave shap e, Further reassured) now begin to think
things throllgh , That I shou ld havc su ch a hod y part as this is itself a puzzle - at
once myste rious , fea rful and fascinating , Eit her it has always been there and I
ne ' er notieed it or it just de \'e lope d and 00 one ever told me to expect i t. I \\'ould
h3"(, to think abollt that later. As for th e hllg' , th ey are now nothing tn worry
about. First , th e re is a limit to them , Second , the)' are clearly as eager to get out
of me as I am to get them out. Somehow . I specula te, the larva e must have
gotte n in th e re by aeciden t and th ey just took ad,'antage ofi !. Then) begin to feel
sorne,,'hat tende rly toward them for having made such good us e of m e without
Illy knowl edge, and also for having drawn Ill y attention to this new part of
m yself.
I start running my finger around the smoo th wall of the cavity enjoying the
toueh and ge ntly nudging the little insec ts into flight, trying not to injure any of
them,
With a feeling that it was ju st a matter of time before they would all hatch and
be on their way, I lie back down and, while continuing to sti r them up with one
hand , return the rest of my attention to the dream that had been interrupted,
H e re arc th e refl e ctions , pare nthesized at relevant pOints in th e
dream narrati\'e:
I ;lIn I" illg in l1<>d tr!'i ng to pay attention to a dream,
(You'd bett er pay more attention to your own dreams! The students are
eloin,\.( hea utif"II y with the irs , \\th"t if th ey kn ew you weren't nea rl y as
18' TIll' Drea1l/ Poet
C ()TI~('it'ntJ(" h ~ lhl)lIt rt·tl('clill ,t! on dr('am, u, ~ ()II C!(ki :i l ' th f' 1rI to h(J':' For
111.d 1r1.dtt,l". ll ()\\ IIl, llly otllt'1" Illill ,l..!.' do ~ 'Oll ,U I \l' ll'dIJ!"( ,.. ... dn;llt , \\lih-
I ){)(lI.; ~ di>Ollt .Illd Ilvlp ~ '()lIr }ldlivll h t() do lhal ~ Oi l drt'n 't ... 0 Illlt.lt ~ Ollr't·If? 1
r ro lll til "" lu lil1'" a littl " gllat -likt, bug rise'S up tlll'IIl1gl, 111)' H~ld of "i>irHI. For
a",hil(' Inl('l ,' Iy 1I0te tl", lle(,tin,\! c1i,tractiolls alld pay no furthcr heed,
,That ', lillniJjar, COllcenh'ating in tilt' presence of dish'actilln, Like think-
illl! throllgh "",I('
inlll'r lhulight ",I,ile ,aying \lh huh , uh huh to someon('
lo ,,1,,"1'1 'ou "1'(:I\'t listenillg, That\ d good talent to havp, Cd, me in
trouhle: on Dcc:asiu,." B"t. 01\ J,alallce , I'll tab: it, SOl11dhillg elst' or which
thi s ('( ·! nind.... )))(': IJI~ tVlld\'ncy to pf'reeivl' a~ intrllSioI1!'1 , as people hllg.
""ing 11)(', wlidt in n :trnspe{"l an- ...ometime.\ .' (' ('11 to hav e ht'l'n oppor-
tlllliti t', Ii 11' dh 'ersinn , I ollght to try to be more' discriminating - and
1111)1' "" 1()()~ (· . "1
TI ,\ 'n a I,-., rl'lI I h illt ill' ''''picioll CI'Il S" ' S m) mind: tlll'I'l' J,;l\'" he'"n ,,',cral of
tl" ',,, IIII,g, 111)\' ,llId tl"", ,,'ell! til Ih' lip at rq:uL,r illtl'I",,,ls and all of thclll '"
thurt,~h li'OIII the ~ltlll(' pJaCf'.
,TI'dt. til" . is !:llniliar, Lik<' tl", s4Ileaking-whcp. l-gE'ts-thE'-grease way
Ill. m II!' , tl", "hol'l" o!'lift.: ill(,lIme ta,x, lili ' iIlSlll"II1 Ct', lict'me' piatt'S , hOIl,,'
H' p:)irs, Tlw)' do gd dOlw , hut it\ Il(:rn:-wracking tlw way I do them, and
,ol ll"tinw, Illllw('r,'""rik "'I]('lIsi\ l' , Bllt. J'll sdtJt. lilr that ont' , too, \\'ho
til(' IIP II \\ '1111\ to)!(j arolilid \\ ith hi s hl'ad dutt,'n'd lip \\ ith ll""c thin!!s'
Bu t. ',\',Ii t a m inlltl' , \i;lyl](, thl' S.1l1'" kind of thillgdpplics hlT!' , ..h Illng '"
J SlT th!'1ll '" di ,s tradiollS, and ""it IIl1til th,' last l1\i1111 tt' . of (,Ollr'" tl1\" " l'l'
~O lll ~ tl ) hi ' Ih,' l"\ (·-wrac king . .\ .. lnn.1.! , I'" I h.l\ 'C to cltJ tlll 'll1 al1~ \\ a y . wilY lIil t
s" " if tl",I'[' l'I I't ""11" plca sllrt' to Ill' """1,,1 ill th"I11 ') Thillk ,d","t th"t
\1. LIe h I \ a ,U;I Il,I > illl.l!.!,in .... to hl''-I ,pot tJIl 1I1~' ri .L.dtt tl,igl'.ill ~ t 1'~'lo\\ tilt, hip .
, Bllt I,, 'n.'s til<' IIll11'r ,sidr ' "f it. SOl Ill' thing, do nN'd rr')!I,[dr "ttl'IIdillg
,,"cJr'r allY circllrnstam:t's, [Thi' ,dwll' tlWl11 I: of IInkllown hody contalni-
I",lioll tklt run, tl,nll,gh th .. dream '''Id \\ llidl. frolll tl,e points oft'iE"s of
itll' numhc: r of allal,'tical' approach " , would he considered its centr.!1
thC'IIIt'. is .! "l'ry finely dnl\\ 11 metaphorical memory of a traumatic episode
Iliaci al age 1(),dlPn in till' bathtnh I cam" upon "genital hygiene probl e m
tin which no ont' had prf' pared m(',] I haven' t thought of that for yea rs ,
Those shlpid idiots~ Jesus , the things ('V" had to lr,am by myscl/1 But that's
had it., COl11pf'usations. too, Still , J \\'on<\f'r if rd hav (' been better ollhad
111)' f" th e r s tud it Ollt \\'ith liS, Interesting que"ti on , Maybe not, as things
tllrll('cI Ollt. ,\eademic all)'\\'a),, )
Could th!'s(' littk winged things I", eoming from out of me' God. could it mf'an
I'm inf"dc d or contaminated ? l :gh! I don 't ,,'ant to think ahout it. Besides iI's
di strading 11ll' li'ol'll "hat I do want to think ahoot , till' drt;am I was haVing, But
Dream Reflection 19
th,'I'<' go,', "notl,,'I" 011(' , What if tIIC' " (In' coming from nw? Hcm' bad would it he',)
\\ '""Id il Ill' "olll"tldng a" ful , ","yh,· irrt" C'r,ihk like ""nccr" Or is it something
thai \\ Oldd re'polld to "i 11 11'1(' trt'atnH'n 1'1 I'd J,C'ttcr look to make S1lJ'E', But God, I
don 't want to' \\'hat a pain in the ass l Cod damn life ne"er lets upl Always
something to worry about!
Slowly I inch my hand down to the spot belo\\' my hip where I fear the bugs
may be coming out, Sure enough J feel a flap in the skin like labia and now there
is no questioning my fears , for at that very moment one of the bugs comes out
from under the flap . crosses my finger and flies off. I panic. Jesus, what might it
b .. like lInder therE'? I start illlagining the \\"orst : horrible images of teeming
horclcs of crawling hugs . limitless mass"s of foul decaying rotting (".)vities
hranching Ollt through my inside; , Panic! I decide I mllst now pay fnll attention
to this , i.e " to sit "I' ancllook inside,
lisn't that tht, tmth? ..\s often as YOII find, ii' you always do, that when YOII
look into things like this , you become stronger for it, it's never easy,
AI"'ays a ,s h'ugg\e, )
However bad it really is nothing could be worse than what I'm visualizing,
ImnlC'diately after I make this decision another bug flies up and I notice it's a
rath e r pretty little thing , not dirty at all. ,\'ith little silver transparent wings,
(How about that! Lea"" it to you , Jones, to find a silver lining even in a
nightmar(' , [As a psychologist I ha ve always I)(-:en more interested in
Ilpalth th'"l ill illnt''' ' For e' '''llple, Illy \\ork on ego synthesis in dreams ,
For another . I al\\'~)', gt't more' of a kick (lilt of holding a patient responsi-
hi" fill' hi, IH'altln' hc '}'a"i"r th.m ill "'posin g him t(l his unhealthy Iw·
I,a,ior , "hich , ,,/' cllllr,,', i, "hy ,'\11 !! \"t1's th('m; appeals tonIC ",milch ,
0" a rC\\ or
"('l',,,i,,,,s till., ("'(' l'lr tl" , sil\'('r lilli"g , ," f think it , ha, llli,I,'d
n,t' into "ot pt'rcci"ing patholn!!y \\ hcn I "IH,uld haH' , On balanct'.
IlClwever, it has served me , and by no\\' many others, well. I sense this
talent to have gr()\"n from ;om e inherent trait of optimism in my makeup,
either constitutional in origin or something that became a part of me very
,'ariy by identification, So I feel grateful for this trait as well as proud of it,])
I sit up , open the flap, and sure enough there is a large cavity underneath it ,
and sure enough too th e re are swarms of newly hatched and hatching bugs
stirring around with one or ~o regularly getting up enough wing power to fly
awav.
(SlIsie ' is ho,w fur along no\\,' Four month;; , Something stirring around in
there , too . by now, Hope it's a healthy one, What an incredible chance is
in that! One sperm out ofbillions , and it all rides on that one!)
I am simul taneously dismayed to sec some of my fcars confirmed and reassured
to see the worst of them diseonfirmcd, For the cavity, while diseoneertingjust in
being there , is not dirty or rotting. nor is it endless.
20 rill' Drealll Poet
,Sollwthill.u h(')'(.' "I)I,"t being r,'" ,, "r('rI that it is n't "(· ndl "ss." Fllllll \'
" hoi,,(' nl'\\ol'ds Ihf'n' . Can't pi"" " it for su n ". \"' yl)(' t he k ctlln' <) 11 the
ro ll' "I' I,,\(, ill till.' li fe cycic tl.a l', heen gi \'i ng nl<' tnlllhl<- . \I"\·h,, th e
ci md. ts aboul bringing a child into Ihe world at ~2 . '\ 0; more likely tl""
(1)()lI ghb I was IIi"'in g th e other day "bout .\' 0 man y of th e world', crist's
Iwill g c" "scd hy ('~plosions : popula lion , kn (l\\'IE'dg(' , th e IlO lllh , C,lIlCl'r. j
Ili",l ,,1'011 lid ,wd nlld Ih"t it is likea rn edi llm- ,i7(,d SOlljl howl , cit-all . s)]']()oth to
tIl!' tOllch alld \ ('ry defi nitl'iy Of:l finit(', (:(> 11<:"\ C ' '''11)(' ,
l It 's beell a long time,ince I' ve h"d that experiellce , :\ n ew body part!
I mag ine that !)
rll l' th"r n ·,bS II n ' d 11Ii)\\' begill to think th ill .~, thnlllgh , Th,,1 I shol d,lll "\ (' s ll"h a
hody part d ~ tlli~ i:"l itS"~ ' lril plli'!lt.' - at unn' 1I1~·s(f'rio li s. fl·arh d .ll lt! til.. . ('ilJati lig .
Eil llt'l' il has "I\\'ays h(:(,l1 therr and J ll eve r noticl'd or il Just den'lop(·d "n rl no
on( ' (' \ ('I' told Ine to expect it. I \\'(lldd h ave to think "bout that lat e r . As for th e
hugs , th c)' are 1I0w nothi n,g to \\'O ITy ahout. First, th e r e i, a limit to them ,
St'eollcl. th e)' are clearly as eager to get o ut of m e as J am to ge t th em ou t ,
SOllwh o\\', " sp oc ulat e, the larvae mu s t have gotten in th e re by accid e nt and they
j l"t took a<h'antage oJi!' Th en I begi n to feci somewhat tenderly toward th em for
ltct', it ,~ m<ldc su ch go oel use of m" \\'itho "t m y knowl e dge and also lor hilving
dl'd\\ n 1t1\ ' a tt entio n to this new part of m ysel f.
, \\'h ut a hC<lutiful rc:nderingofthat su htl e set offeelings I've never got te ll
around to tl'S'ing to articu late! [There ha ve been o(:(:asions Tl ea r the com-
pll'lioll of succc"ful cOllr,,'s of pss'c hoth e rall ), \"'len I ha\'" felt Illu e h lik e
t hi s. TI ,(· p ,ltif'llt has mi spe rcpjved Ille in a ll sorts of\\ays , sonw tilll Cs \\'i tb
111\ krto\\·lt-dge ,md some tim cs w ithout. tit' has also correctecl those:
Ill h p<'rc;cptic ,n s, someti mes \\'ith ill S' help and so metimes \\'ithout. And .
elll ,' in iarg" part to thes e' co rrcl'live (, motional ex p erie nccs , he has go tt en
w(,11. .-\ncl. in vari3blv , therc has [we n th ", added bonus that I ha\·e learned
sOlnething nc \\' 'lirout rne , too. l I \\'(Hdd lle\'t'r have thOllgllt to put it that
\\'a~', but that's it: I fcc-! tender!\' to\\"trd th e m for ha"i ng made slIch good
li SE' of nk. Th"t must be h ow a \\' OlHa n ill 1(J\'t' feels. Or a Illother ,)
I slitrt running Ill)' linge r around thr' ,mouth \\,,,11 of t hc ('a\' i~' , ('njoyi ng the
touch "lid g('nlly nudging th e littl e insects into fli g ht , trying nut to injun; an)' oj:
tilt'tll.
,T"lk "hout ['('unoul\' of t".\pr""ioll' lim\ man, word, would it tiki' to
SII\!!!, ·,t tilt' istllnorplt iSiIl "I's('.\ and pil tel'llit)'·.' "\ml ttl lili nk I didn ' t know I
kll e w t"'lt~ )
\ \' i 110 " ll-,'I ing th,lt it \\',,, just" matter of ti 111 (' 1",I<)re th e\' \\'IlLd d all lw lell and
iJl' Oil th "ir \\ay IIi ,' J,,,,,k <10\\'11 and, whd e; cOlltinuing to stir thelllilp \\'ith un,'
h,,"c l. l't' tUrJJ the rest ofrny a tt ention to tIl(' dream that had been intcrJ'lJpted ,
Dream Reflection 21
\"'(.' hegan by noting tbat dreams are a form of thought experienced
as action. What I was thinking about whil e composing this dream is
no mys tery , I was thinking about our unborn child and my then
impending fath e rhood, I was thinking about my health . I \\'as th ink-
ing about my effectiven e ss and ineffectiv e ness as a teac her ,
therapist and psychologist. And I was thinking about myself, my
problems, idiosyncrasies , douhts and sources of confidence, All
things about whi ch I had prohahly heen thinking the day hefore,
Indccd I was reminded 1)\, th e dream in the process of re m e m he ring
it th at I had th e day b efor e (1) Of'f:'t ingly tried to ima gin e the size of
th e f(~ tJts at its Cllrn"llt stage of de\' e lopment ; (2) told myselfI had
h e tter get a ph ys ical checkup soon; (3) felt discouraged about being a
psychologist in a world plagued by environme ntal and socie tal prob-
lems and (4) commented to m y wife that I would probably feel less
like the old woman who lived in a shoe at th e University if I could
learn to say no to "Doctor Jon es, do you have a minute?" Th ese are
known in the trade as the dream 's " day res idu e," about which I'll say
more later. Wh at th e dream did was continue these lines of thought
more dee ply into myse lf and more patiently into my knowl edge of
myse lf. And in rich symbolic modes which are unavailahle to con-
scio1ls wakin g thought , All of this , paradoxicall y, without my know-
ledge! Behind my waking back, as it we re, Which is wh e re the
importance of re fl ection lies , Had I not reflected on the dream I
might as we ll have not re membered it. Unreflected it would have
rem ained without my knowledge. And without my knov.-ledge I
could, of course, neither have enjoyed nor learned from it.
It has b ee n said that a dream uninte rpre ted is like a letter un-
opened, That would certainly be true we re it not that in our times
the illterpre tation of drea ms has become almost synonomous with
the analysis of dre ams. Analyzing a dream , re member , is like in ves-
tigating th e air ; \ery important /(l r nH:'tcorological research , but a
hell of a \\ay to enjoy a spring lllorning. Let us the re/clf(:' re phrase
the truism for our times : A clream ulll'efl ected is like a lette r un-
opened. Continuing th e analogy , we may say that what make s th ese
le tters unique and a special joy to read is that they are written to us
22 Th e Dream Poet
hv ou rs(,lv( 's , hut, these sch'es being unconscious , their communi-
cations \\'ith us se em as thougb the y come from someone else.
som eoue who knows us very very well.
JlIst to rOllnd out this discussion , Id's see if we can identify in m)'
dn'am the three kinds of ullconscious sell~kno\\'l edge described
earlier . rOll tr\' it first , nnd th('n come back to see how I did it.
TIlE HEI'RESSED INFANTILE l'NCONSClOUS
Finding a SOIiP ho\\I-shaped cavity on my thigh just helo\\' the hip
w01Jld "ppl';lr to he a \'ery ('\(overly ('once iv cd symholic repres("nta-
iioll oLlIl inblltile dcs in" to have a womb. " 'omh en\'Yin boys is not
talked ahout in ps ychoanalytic literature nearly as much as is penis
( ' Il\\' in girls. Nevertheless , man y boys develop this secret \\'ish and
art' marie amious hy it. Apparently I was one such boy, The endless
Ifla sses of dec,ly ing cn\'ities hranching out through m)' insides might
thell represent the kind~ (iwildlv imagi,ncd fears that I secretly
dsso('ialt'd with this dcsire , which calls('d it to 1)(' n"pn'sse d ,
OJ COIIISC. all of tIl(' contimination imager~ (foul , decaying , rot-
tinl':, dc. \ suggests rcpn 'ss(' d "anal" illlpuls('~ , That I ha\'(' n ' prl'sscd
,lIl al illl p lll s('s dOl's not slIrprisc ml', In Etc(, I <lllI rcmilld(,d of a
prob;lhh apocryp hal ston' ill which Frcud \\'as supposed to ha\'('
repli('d, \\'he n told by one of his f()llowers that the anthropologist
!vl alinO\\'ski had found no evidence of anality in the fantasies of the
Trohriand Islande rs: "What? Those people don't have anuses?"
UO\\/:'\'(,r, <III association] had to these images, which] did not
includt' in Ill\' writte n reflections , suggests the re may be something
Ili00T hen; than the almost universal desire of small children to mess
around \\ith fec es, 'Wh e n ] \\'as a child , I had a fe male cat \\'ho \\'as
always having kitt e ns, This was during the Depression and we \\'ere
sufficiclltly poor that olle cat was allm\' family could afford to keep,
Tht' \I mien tand ing was that] could ha\'c my cat pro vided the kittens
\\'('1'<:' disposod of. And since she was my eat, it was my responsihilit)'
to dispose of the kitte ns , This I did , \\'ith , as I recall it, much
trcpidation and sorrow , b y dro\\'ning them in a burlap sack tied to a
stiliI!' , The dn!am ima.ge of the teeming horde of hugs brought hack
Dream Reflection 23
to m e th e long-f()rgotten experience of fearfully \..-atching the
struggl ing kittens as they Slink to the bottom of the pond, Con-
sciollsl)" I re member being almost siek with sorrow at this sight, but
what thc dream may be hinting at is that I was also sexually aroused
hy th ese e xperiences and secretly indulged sadistic, perhaps even
necrophili c, fantasies in relation to th e m. Fantasies \\'hich, of
course , led to anxiety and their subsequent repression, This possi-
hilit)' does surprise me some . ]n any event , if I have any necrophilic
impulses , ] am glad to see th ey arc so neatly repressed, hecause I
wOllld not parti cularly care to hav e to cope with them consciollsly.
Th e husiness about not wanting to look, and then being forced by
Wildly uncontrollable curiosity to do so, suggests the possibility of
repres sed voyeuristic impulses and fantasjes. And stirring up the
hugs with one hand as ] lay in bed is so obvious a portrayal of
masturbatory impubes as to confirm the truth that these were not
e ntire ly re pressed. By definition , ] cannot , of course , guarantee that
these inif-r('nc('s are valid. Becaus e my repressed infantile uncon-
scious is supposed to lw able to outwit m e at eve r~' turn in order to
stay r( 'pr essed . I ('ould , nfcourse , claim professional license , and say
that as <J trailwd and experienced Jl, ychologist, I kno\\' a repress ed
inhllltil c- image when I sec one. But for th e purposes of this discus-
sion all I need be able to say for sure is that these are the kinds of
fantasies , images, and impulses that populate the repressed infantile
unconscious. Consider th is said . Furthermore, as an illustration of
the qualities of knowledge we may expect to gain from dream
reflection along this dimension, ] can assure you that the above is
representative, inferential, speculative, surprisingly abstract at
times, and more or less informative about what the problematic
sides of early childhood may have been like , Such knowledge can be
useful in understanding the historical sources of whatever serious
personal probl e ms one may have, I didn't have any of these when I
dreamed the dream , so I had to be content with having recovered
the memory of drowning the kittens - not a brilliantly illuminating
addition to my knowledge of self, but it did have a kind of unifying
effect on me , and I was glad to have the memory back. Like finding
an old photograph you'd forgotten you lost.
24 Til e Dream Poet
THE CONVENTIONALIZED t:l\'CO:\'SCIOVS
It was along th is dimension that th e dream refledions really paid
oil. TIl(' high point was th e P;lrt ahuut feeling tender!\' to\\'ard th e
hugs for haVi ng mack such good u, (' of lll(' , and seeing tllis as a
Ilwtapllor fill' the \\ay J regard patients \\'h o ge t hetter, I just kno\\' J
\\mild 11('\'('r ha w' hecomc as articulatciv conscious ofthat rare sd of
attitudes a nd feeli ngs had I not re fl e d c cl on this dr ea m, Certainly J
would nev e r h,I\'e thought to com pare it with what a \\'()tnan in love
or a l11otlJ<!r lI1ust fee l, and since it is not in th e eards that I will e ve r
directly kllow \\'hat a woman in love or a mother fe cls , I consider this
addition to m y knowledge to be quite preciolls.
Running a ve ry close second was the refl ect ion that suggested the
isolllorphism of sex and paternity, i. e., that b e ing a lover and a father
invoke some \'f~ry parallel if not overlapping intentions: "enjoying
the touch," "gen tly nudging .. . into flight ," " trying not to injure."
Partic ularly remarkable here is th e fact that I was not ye t a father
\\ hl'n J dream ed this , althou/£h oh\'iollsl~' Illy thoughts \\'( ' n ' dWf' II-
ing Oil \\ hat kind ora btlwr I might hec()Ill~' . \[ os t ]'('llIarkahl<-: oLd!.
liO\\('\Tr , w as that J didn 't knO\\ J had d e\'{~ lop ed this particular
piece ofwisdolll. (Ohviously 1 had , hecause it \\'as m y dream and m)'
fe fl t'dion. ) So , while I eo uld not d e ny th a t J knew this , I was
mightily surprised that J did . And am very glad that it is now
conscious knowl e dge. Like th e h e st ofdaytime metaphors , thes e are
the hes t kinc!' of dre am r e llections , th e kinds that te ach IJS what w e
know , hilt don't kno\\' that we know .
1 could go o n . I do have a problem about res ponding to pote ntial
div ers ions as though th ey we re distractions a nd th e re h y missing out
\)) 1 a lot nffiJll. I w,lsn ' t IIneoll sciow, ofthis \\'I1<'n I had the dream , hut
I \\ ',h I'Illlning ou t of ways of perc:ei\'ing the problem so as to kt' e p
le \ c ragc on it. and its metaphorical presen tation in the drea m \\ as a
1ive ly ne \\ way that rang tru e . And th e teenage memory affill'ded 111e
anotlwr r e trospective run ovcr an importa nt track in my life history .
.And till' silver lining bit really tickled me. But enough, ] think, for
nill to see \\'hal ] m ea n.
Dream Reflection 25
THE HOLISTICALLY REPRESSED UNCONSCIOUS
This one is difficult, hec:ause of th e all or non e aspect. \\ie have to
assum e that the re fl ec tions set down h ere re present the way I
regard e d m~' dream wh e n I was in a h ea lth y fi'<Jme of mind , because
i.t is difficult to seC' ho\\' , otherwise , suc:h a potentially gruesome
drea m c:o llid hav e yiclded so Illll c:h pleasure and so muc:h know-
le dge, Actually , w e don ' t hav e to ass um e this becallse I can t e ll yo u it
\yas so. Th e \\'h o le year in which th e dream occurred \\'as among th e
richest and m os t fulfilling I can rem e mber. I h ast e n to add that J
hav e had plen ty of th e other kind , so] know the difference,
Ho\\', then , can I use this example of dream re fl ection to demon-
strate Angyal's notion that dreams tend to show th e dreamer's two
systems of p e rsonality , his healthy system and his neurotic syste m,
vying for dominance? I really don't think I can if my choice of this
particular dr ea m has not already don e it. I chose this dream because
I thought it would le nd itself easily to a lmos t anyone's imagination of
h ow a dream co uld h e neurotically perc:eived to re inforce all sorts of
ass umptions abou t one's worthless , frigh te ned, despicable self. I
co uld , I suppose, try to imagine h ow I would have re fl e cted on the
dream had I dr ea med it a t a tim e in my life \\·h e n I felt about m yse lf
in th ese ways . But, this , I sense, \\'ou ld be too contrived to h e
convincing , At any rate , I don't fe e l like trying it. So I'll hav e to
address the question of how this dr ea m re flccts my latent neurosis
the way Louis Armstrong is said to have addressed the question of
ho\\' jazz could h e rega rded as art: " Man , if you got to ask, there ain't
no sayin'."
Th e art of dr e am reflection is in the re llccting, not in identifying,
<iim e'm ion s of th E:' u Ilcoll seioliS. \Vh ieh is to say, in the ways yo u rcud
the ktters, o nce YO II ' y e es tabl ish e d th e h abit of opening th em .
Chances are you \\'ill do it in ways th a t differ from the way] do it . J
like th e n arration and talking to mys e lf in parentheses, and th e
pare ntheses within pare ntheses approach. It suits m e because that
is th e style in which I te nd to think . For exa mpl e, when writing, I
always lik e to work from an outline, which I modify as the piece
dev e lops its own shape. And I never could bring myself to do
--- - - - - - - - - - - '
2(i Th e Drealn Poe I
I'igu rat iH ' dood Iing, Btl t, as I said , you " 'ill c\'oh'e you r own style of
recording yUUl" dr('<1111 reflections,
0 11(' filial tliill ,!.! , tlH · minimal instrlldion [ spoke of:
OnCI ' \'011 have dcveloped tlit, hahit of r('nH'llliwrillg dreams , thc
il)lIll\\illl.( sllggC'stiolh ilia>' hl ~ lp >'"llU develop your potf'ntial stde uf
rdl('l"ling lin thelll,
1, Ht' sist the tCIl C]('I1(:Y to Ilclittl .. or tri\'iali7.e tlw drcam as
,ilh, cllildish , or ,Ihsnrd , .\/all>' dreams appea r at first glance to 1)('
silk , cl lildi,h , or absurd . Btlt to allo\\' such first glancc appearances
to stop the rl'il ec ti\'(e proc pss is to enlist the strength of your CO ])-
SCiOli, "ill in the service Ofco])vcntio])alizatioll, On further leflec-
tiOll, thes(' first r('actions to tilt' dn 'am \\'ill alllHlst alwa ys hc pcr-
('(\iq·d as 1I1lctilicalt'd fin,t imprcssiolls of the dream's esse])tial
[I l' ttl I h](,ss ,
2 , K('sist thl' parallel t('ndl'Il( '\' to diso\\n the drcalll ,IS "onl>' a
dn'dlll, " 11('<11' in lIlind , Oil the contrar\" , that it is on/If 1/011 who
drl',lllIS >'Ollr dn'ams , :\0 onc else docs , cL'I" tainly : and , in alilikeli-
IH)()(!. no Ollt' else- could. Our dream s sho\\' us th e styles , te mpos ,
sh"IWs. <lnd motds of om imaginations in their most individualizc d
conditions . Th e \' hold up our lIniqllcn esses to liS in their most raw
stall". In this tl1{.' \· are like <I writer's first draft : no one else need see
it. IJilt if it.- <lutllOr rcjl'cts it , the hook stops th('re,
0, DOII ' t try to analyz(.' the dream , even if you know how to
an.liyzl' dreams. A retkctcd dream can he analyzed later , but an
,malzY"l'd <1rcall1 resists reflection. After I have seen and enjoyed Van
C og!J', late Southl.'rJI Francc paintings , I can still consider the
h\'p(Jthesis that V,li1 Gogh \\as sutTering from glallcoma at the time ,
:li1d thell get Il ,ICk to \\hat the paintings lIleant to me, (One of tl1('
-,.,'llIpt01l1S or chronic glaucoma is the inte rmittent appearance of
ranilow tinted halos around lights, ) l3ut had I carrkd thoughts of this
hyp()the~is to m)" first viewing of the paintings . \\'hat could those
a\\'I'SOnw outhursts of eo lor haH.' meant to me?
If you haH:' had sonw experience " 'ith dn :am analysis and find
('l'rtaill <l1l,dvtical conjectllrcs cropping lip involuntarily in your
reflectiolls , a\ oid th(· conclllsion that thl' <In',1111 m eans "notbini,;
11,lt" this or tli<lt, Say' , rather: "Yes, <In<l \\'hat else?"
Dream Reflection 27
4. Don' t reOect on the dream until after you are satisfied you
have written down all YOll can remember of it, You will usually find
that much of the dream will be remembered for the first time during
the act of writing, so if you try to reflect on an unrecorded dream you
will probably be trying to reflect on an incompletely remembered
dream, Like a Iettcr with a page missing.
,j, [fin rccording a " bad" dream you find that you can't keep a
comfortahle distance on it ; if it makes you fe e l really scared in the
waking stote , drOll it and either come back to it later or let it be
forgotten. In reflecting on dreams we are not out to prove anything;
\\'e are out to learn something. Learning requires a modicum of
enjoyment. Moreo\'er , bear in mind that most dreams are never
rememhe re d, although presumably they did their work tending our
mental health , anyway. Some rememhered dreams, I sometimes
think , hav(~ heen so taken up in their mental health work that they
have little left O\cr f()r \\aking enjoyment. These should he re-
spectc'd , not badgered.
6. Bcgin your reflections by allOWing the dream's "day re-
sidues" to identify thems e h-cs, This will usually happen spontane-
ously as you recognize certain obvious connections bem'een specific
dream events and specific waking events from the previous day or
two, These connections might not seem plausible to someone else,
but to you they "'ill be self-evident, Like the connection I saw
between the dream's use of the word "endless" and previous waking
though ts ahou t the world's "explosions." These day residues will
almost always include thoughts , feelings, or perceptions to which
less than full attention was given at the time of their occurrence.
Perhaps b ecause they were painful, conflictful, or uncertain; or
perhaps , simply because the press of other obligations left insuffi-
cient e nergy or time for them.
7. This is the most important step: Try to ge neralize or amplify
the linkages of these highly specific pairs of memories; the day
residu e s, which will always he familiar , and th eir dream representa-
tiv(:'s , which will often seem strange. The singular genius of dream-
ing is just this knack ofexperieneing the familiar as strange, The art
' of dream reflection lies in turning this process around and making
28 Th e Dream Poet
tLe ,tr~lIl ,gc hllllil iar a,gain, So , ask ofthosp dream images that strik<·
\'(JlI as p~lrticllbrly Ilo\' e l: " 'Vhat is familiar a],o llt \ '()ll ~" "\\'hat in llIti
C\O you remind Inc of'?" And ask of til(' unfinished th(ju ghts and
feelings fI'olll th e previous day, havin g pondered th e ir drea m cOlln-
terparts: " \Vhat had I not noticed in you before?" " \Vhat was it I was
missing?" Then try to relate the answers to both of these questions to
some genera l th e me or pattern of YOllr life, \vhether long known or
newly discovered. Perhaps you will develop some o th e r way of
going ahout this. Some way more congeni,ll to yo ur tastes and
tale nts. Fine . But do try to amplify the connect ions bel\veen your
recorded dreams and th eir day residu es in some way , because th e
essellce of dream reflection is in just that eHc)rt.
8. Finally , remem her what I said about th e absmdi ty of con-
sulting a meteorologist in seeking to deepen your e njoyment of
"pring mornings. In dream reflection, in whieh your objectives arc
to '}njoy , appreciate , and learn from your dreams , the ultimate
a\lthority as to \\·hat is interes ting and mcaningfiIi can bl' no Ollt' hut
yourself. So , if YOll choose to share your written drealll~ and reflec-
tions with someone e lse, best keep in mind who the boss is.
Dream Reflection 29
Repression
\\'e had spun a world entire!\' our own. Life. was a fantasy and reali ty was enough
to send us into hysteriCS.
We'd torture the rea lities.
Ha-ha we know you have a plastic bag for a bladde r
Y\lU have webbed feet <lnd SO does your mothe r .
We would steal sanity and garden statues and sink them in the lake.
We would steal quarters from the Orthopedic wishing well because we could use
them so much better.
We stol e paints and toys and maps and postcards to send mess,lges of absurdity
to lonely people.
\Ve never walked , bllt rode ostriches and spoke in words beginning on ly in P's
<illring that tim e.
\\ '(' ''''rt: going to li\'e fort'ver 1", the ocean . mar ry men for their sperm and
money , and then discard them, living th e re ,t of our lives by the ocean with 0111'
chi ldren, painting . \\'ea\'ing, coll ecting, laughing, and li ving self-sufficient lives,
-Bar/lara Lyon
Dads
Dads are no prohJt.m to anyone. hut fathers certainly are. Dads).to fishing and let
you ""mn,..r nails into " 'hat he's making anti tickl e you under the armpits, But
btl",r, cast huge imagt:s into you r life to li\'c up to <lnd conllnand an alml of
ndll1ira ti ()n anti 111ake their daugh ters ,,('raid of men and their stll" afraid of
tlwllls"I"" s. Fathers arc sullen images with pockets of sperm , and death as an
"d(kd re'[l()nsibi lil\',
-Barbara LY0rl
42 The Dream Poet

In the I()urfuld genetic tCln pk

\Vh e re th<) hermaphruuiti c Ath elia
Protects the spiral strands
Of th e tenni",,1 me mol'}' bank
From serpen t spirochetes CHAPTER THREE
And Aurora unfolds her mushroom chandel ier
III the pent'liit t('mple
DREAM REFLECTION AS A LEARNING TOOL
Signalillg to the P~lrthian cock
"For Puesy aIUl/(: t:(/II tdl Iwr tln:a"., .
Th"t Atianti s i, \\'ithin / /'
\\fith the prle spell of ,cords alUIIC1 ca rr ,wee
Alld when e"clling sets 011 th e feve r irllugill(J/i,", frUII' Ih e salAe charm
Of th e earth-csi}eu poet Awl dl1m}, enchantrllent , Whu alive ca ll say.
The te mple of the virgin 'T!",u urt no Puet - may's t nOllell thy dream~:)'
Will beeom e ,1 11 op e n vehid e Since eloery 17Um whose so 1l1 is 1101 a clod
(Mi stress to an apocalypse) Hath cisiollS , and WOldt/speak. ifhe had laced ,
The broth e r of the Rebel A.nd beel' ,,;ell nurtured in his mother tong,. e,"
Shall sign for the T30 K'"" ts. "Th e Fall of H vperio,,"
A lid the guilty la me duck diplomat
TIll' !'irst indication that knO\dedge gained from ps\'t:hoanalysi~
Sbll (,ome hicycling infinit~
Till hi, kcys art' t"n)!ied ill ti l<' r(·d t"pc
\\'[luld h(, COIlIC' stll.!;gcsti\'(' of('dtl ea tiollal rt'fllrll1s lI'as Fn' ud 's ohs(:r-
Of ill1l1l.tcu l"ll' C"lcllhltiOIl \'atioll ()f all anin ity hdll Ct'1I til<' Irt'U rot ic process alit! th e crviltil l'
-Ld";"1'11 Kt: I dill III pnll'l'SS , Both II ere seell to han' th e ir gcnesis in uncollsciom ('01\-

flict . lloll'CH'r , ill the neurotic proct"s . the un('onsciolls conflict was
re pressed , and in the creative prove ss , the ullconscious con fl ie! was
de ployed in a very distinctive 1I'~ly , d escribed hy Freud as /()IIows:
Co-operatioll hct\\·el' 1l a preconscio us and an Ut1t:ollsciotL'i ilnplli st.' , ('\' t:~ 11 wh<:n
the latter is subject to very strong re pression , may he establi she J if the si tllation
pcrmits of the 1I nconsc ious im pul se opcra tin.1< in harm o ny with nnt' of the l'gO'S
control ling telldencies, Th, · n 'p ression is rt'l1w\'cd lin th c occasion , th,· rt'prl's -
St'd adil'itv bcing "dmitted ,IS" reinlilJ'l'e,ncnt o f the on,' int('nJ.. n11\' th l'l'gO , In
n :spect or'this si ngl e t'oIl(jtpliatit))) ti lt' 1I1I('O llsciOll"i he colJu'\ eg()- "~··\lt()n;<:, ralls
in li nt· with the ego , with oll t ehallV;l' taking place..: in the repre ssio n othl'n\ · i~('.
The effed of the Lies in this co-operation is IInmistakabl e ; th., rt'i,di'rC'ed
tcndt'ndes rC\'t',,1 the mse lv es as . in spi te of all. uifft,n'llt Ii'olll the norll1al- tllt'y
make· possible ac.hieve ments of sp('c ial pe rfectio n, alld they manifest a H'Sistant"
ill the /ae", of opposition similar to thut of o bs essional symptollls,'·

Ernst Kris \I'as later to describ e this process as "regressioll in the

se rvke of the ego. "25

43
-l4 The Orca 111 Poet
It remained for Lawrence Kubie to filrther systematize this con-
cept ,lnd to dra\\" its implicatiollS for educational reforms. Kubie first
elre\\' a set of distinctiolls between conscious, unconscious , and
prccons<.:ious symbolic processe." Conscious symbolic processes are
predominantly verbal , thrive on repetitiOll. and serve primarily the
communication of ideas. Unconsciolls symbolic processes arc pre-
dominantly 1H11l-\"(~ rbal , also thrive on repetition , and serve primm'-
ii\' to pn!\cnt communication b~· disrupting eonneetio'ns het\\'(.' cn
con .;c-ious symbols and their rcft'J'cnts. Preconseious symbolic pro-
cess('s are predominantly analogical and therefore serve primarily to
divt'rsil)! th(~ r<~lations he tween cOllscious symbols antI' their rcfer-
en ts .
Distillctive of preconscious filllctions are "their automatic and
,uhtle recordings of multiple perceptions , their automatic recall,
their multiple analogic and ()\erlapping linkage s, and thcir direct
connections to the autonomic processes \\'hich underli(' affective
states " Kubie cont'eives precolIs{;)OUS hmctions to be constantly
olwrati\'t'> hehind the scenes of cOIlS('iollsnt'ss and likely to emerge
011 sta.l;e " in ,taks of allstraction , in sleep . in dreams. and as we
\\'rit(" paint , or allrN ' our thoughts to flow ill the non-sde<.:ted paths
nffrc(! associ,ltion. " Their emergence, however , is conditional:
\Vlwre ['olls"iou, protcsses pre dominatf' at Ont' cud oftlH: speetrtJlll , rigidity is
ililPUSt·d Il\' tlw hid thclt (;()mcious symbolie functinns arc anchon,d by their
prt'cis" and Iiteral relationships to specific conceptual and perceptual units.
\Vlwre IInconscious process"s predunlinate "t the other cne! of the spectrum ,
there is an eve n illorc rigid anchorage , but in this illstallce to unreality. . Yet
flexibility of symbolic image ry is essential if the symbolic process is to have that
cn:ati vc pot(' ntial which is our supreme hUlllan trait . . this creatiH' flexihility
is mad" possihl e predominantly if liot estiu.si\·e1y hy the free , continuous , and
t'O IU'IIITt.'nt <letinll of pr e(,oBs ci()u~ processes . 26
The dllal imperative for educators who were interested in facilitat-
ing creative thought and behavior in school \\'as then extracted:
1. They 1I1ust cease their excessive reliance on "drill and grill"
routilles , which serve to over-strengthen the constraining
influences of conscious processes.
Dream Reflection as a Learning Tool 45
2. They must lift the "conspiracy of silence" to which much of
children's emotional lives are subjected throughout school
life, therehy inviting the disruptive influences of unconsciolls
processes.
\Vhile Kubie f()l1l1d appreciative ears among many educators, few
\\'ere ahlc to follo\\ his clinical prescriptions to their educational
counterparts. The re asons , I think, \\'ere: (1 ) The path that Kuhie
charted hetween psychotherapy and education was one-way, and
the smell of medicine hovered disconcertingly over it. This was not
an atmosphere in which many teachers could be expected to find
their own \yays. (2) The theory of healthy emotional development ,
upon which Kubie based his educatio'~al imperatives, was largely a
product of extrapolation out from between the lines of the psycho-
analytic theory of neurosis - with all of the connotations of pre-
school predetermination , which this theory carries, and which
teachers ha\e f(>L1I1d so l()rhiddillg . hecause it secms to leave so little
room for optimism ahout \\·hat school t(!aching can e xpect to accomp-
lis lI.
\-\'hat was Ilf'eded then \\'as (1) a perspective which showed the
\\-ay f()\' mutual commerce between psychotherapy and education,
and (2) a theory of healthy human development which could stand
on its o\\'n good feet.
The first of these I tried to provide in Chapter 4 of Fantasy and
Feeling in Education, entitled "Insight and Outsight." The second I
tried to provide in Chapter 6, entitled 'The Course of Emotional
Growth," wherein I relied heavily on the work of Erik Erikson . 27
Recently, I attempted to draw from these theoretical formulations a
statement ofpragmatie principles for use by teachers in suggesting
and evaluating innovations involVing fantasies and feelings in the
processes of education. The principle on \vhich I shall dwell here
reads as follows:
A tea<:her's "lesson plans" should regularly indude exercises which encourage
and reward in/er",sting as well as "right" responses. This is no more than to
under.,core what has long been obvions to students of "creativity." Namely, that
creative thinking involves divergent as well as w\lvergcnt thinking; digression
46 rhe Dream Poet Dream Reflection as a Learning Tool 47

" . . \\ I,ll ;1'" COIlCt'lItration ; nega tion a~ \\'(·11 as affinn(ltion : the forrnation of ('on- to the subjective domain by none other than Freud's own
,'('ph d,' \1('11 a, tl,,' attaillmellt of con('cph - in short, ill\c'n tion as \\' (' 11 as methodological ass umptions and emphases,
di'('(l\ ''I,' TI,,, diHk,,!t\ np('ril'lI(,l'd hy t eac h(,rs ill H'siwe t to thi s manifold
pr incipl" 1.." Ilut het''' onl' of c re dihility hnt on,' of "ppl;catio,.., 1vlost !('achers
The most trouhlesom e of these m e thodological assumptions are
\\ 1,,,1,,,,'" 1'1",,1 or hl',ml oftl,, ' rc' s('archcs "fC('t ze ls alld Jackson , forank Barron , il ) that the only proper approach to dreams is by way of interpreta-
Edilll \\'('i s kJ)pl~J"l' lson , Cahin Tadoi' "nd ..\ I,rah a lll \\a,lo\\ , alll'"I~ Ina", tion and (2) that the lllost vaillahk objective of dream interpretation
ol lll' r" , find thl' \alidil,' or tiJ('ir rildori(' ,,,lr-(' \,i(I<-II(. But thnt' h", h"(,11 d is the ('xpOSlire of p e rsona'} conflict, \Ve would be foolish to quarrel
("lIril)lI'" I.wk Dr l-l. I . . '" roo II I impro\·i . . ;\tiol\ s II~ ( ·; w\·wr.. . tlH'IlL"I\ ,1H'S ,;l Il )\\"i [l~ tht' with tllt's(' assumptions in dinical contexts, The patient has. after
\\ .t ~ frulll Jll'r' "a ..;i\ ,' rllt'loric tu t·ili. ·(·ti\ (. llH'thod . . . {: 1\ rillu .... 1H'('~III . . (· till ' i..!l'llt 'Ld
aiL entered into a clinical relationship precisely because he cannot,
... tr.ttl·l!~ i"i . . o dl\lrly indic-a tpd dlld so :->;lnp l (,. th e illC'llt, jnl"l in nHlt i nc l"t ~c iL.ltj()n.
di~clJ;" " i()ll . ds'\ic;nIlIl'Jlt a nd (~V~d\l~ltion pnH'( ;dltl"(,s of tlw IJse of metaphor,
by himself, make sen se of his inner life, and precisely in order to
a"'alu~y , paraphrase, and (Ither tlwugllt proC(',s"es the fu" c tion of which i, to e1m·if), and resolve his personal conflicts, His "ego's controlling
I""k" till' s tl'al1 ,~" LllniJjar ,1IId tl", h11Hilial' 'tran~c' ; and occasional attention to tendencies," are those , in other words, \vhich beckon him to submit
till' i1l\(( I11nt"r:- ):(',wric forms of thc-se thought Pl'Oc(csses : thc" drc'a rn , the to the analyst's authority regarding his personal life, the better to
renTie, the il1lag(' , Studen ts ,11Ould he led to expect thai wh(,11 ,,, ked to say what develop, in time, his own such authority,
a thill~ is , it is not IInly pCl'missihl" hut fi'ecJ!lentl y desirahle to S<lY what it is like,
I have learned to question the usefulness of these assumptions in
\\'hat it is (IS if. what i,t is not hut could more enjo),ah!" h e thought as, \\'hat it
,.,'nlincj, one of or Illak('s one feci; what, in short, it is as it lC(!IT, Despite educational contexts , howeve r , because they invite teachers and
('\ cntl,ing, Illost children usually learn to say what cn()ugh things "arc" to get students to view the acquisition of private knowledge as an end in
fronl \.!r~ld(, to (2Y<lclc alld to sho\\" ac'(:epL.lhle pr(lgn"s~ on "a('lth~\'(,lrlellt" test,>.;, itself rather than as a means toward the individuation and private
\\'hl'llll'l' thc\ Illldcrsta"d \\hat tlll's(' thinl!s /Ilea" or not. But the current enhancement of public kno\\'ledge , which is still, I believe, the
1'(,11 '\'"1('" lTi,i," ill ,\In('ric'lIl Higher Educatilln t('lIs us that most childrc'n are
primary business of formal education.
1l0! l('drnill,\.! ho\\" to take Inllc,h intcrC'st ill v.. hat thjn~s an' , an: not karning how
to tun, thl' realities or their ('ultml" into pc'rsonally \'alucd nWanings, And, as How, then, to retain the suggestive power of psychoanalytic
",OllW !'l'('t'llt ('.\{1t'rill1cnttl prngLl1l1S ill college' t,clllVatitllJ 1Ia\"(' p~Jinft111y disco\"- theory in experimental education, while freeing our work from the
l'l"vd. it I" i 111po;o;sildl' to teach YOllll\.! ad111h tIl(' IlH'Hllin,{,!.. . of things. YOllng adults constraining effects of psychoanalytic methodology? Ph ilip Rieff, in
l';lll ()lIly IH' helped to filld their OWll l!l t-'an ilJ~ .... And , SOtTlt·tilTle~, by yo ung
his illulllinating review of Freudian thought, points a way, when he
ad"lthood it is tool"t,·, ifthcJ'(' hdS h" ... " 1I(l " arlit' r I)(,,,cti c(> in the fllndamcntals
observes that in Freud's singleminded intention to establish
01 til" ,Irl. Therefore, onc(' a teacher has Incorporated l'I 'glliar appeals to the "",
if" ill hi, classroom, he is well advised to Io"'ish t'w'n more attent;on (In interest- psychoanalysis as a science he neglected to advance its credentials as
in g diu:rc . . "iflll ... to and frollJ (,IrITt.'ct (llls\,,'e p,; tllan Oil tilt' i.lns\\er... th(,lIlst'k('~, an art - or at least as a new root to the tree of aesthetics, "A sharp
11,,\1'1'\ cr, as SilllPJ.. "lid wc,ll do('unit' lItt,d as is thi ,s ad\,;('(" I hrill)! little distindion het\\cen the cxpressiv(-' and the purposive ," notes Rieff,
oplillJi;o;ll! to hop(-'s of its witlt'sprt.'ad i.lcC't·ptalwf', :-.0 dt~(~P~:-'(>(l h... d :-.('(' IlI S to h(· "is missing from Freud's view " Freud tended to dismiss as
:\ml'ri('a n EdIH'atilm';o; 'Hl,I}("til>1l tIl "Inn'c·t an:-.\\t: r s. 2!1
superficial the expressive in itself. Thus he could not accept some
This addiction pertains primarily, of course , to objective public dreams, or parts of them. as simple play. spontaneity. "29
kn()\\I(,dgt', and on(' " 'ay ill which I ha ve sought to alle\'iate it has My work as a teacher in follOWing up this neglected thought by
I)('('n to appeal to the domains uf subjective prh'a te kno\\'leclge, as employing dream reflection as an aid to learning is Oil-going and far
represented in dreams ; to serve as catalytic agents in the processes from conclusive; however, if my enth usiasm, and that of my current
of assimilating public knowledge, Here , however. I have found the students and colleagues, is a measure, it is worth sharing in its
addiction to correctness ironically compounded by being extended incomplete state,
4H Th e Dream Poet
\\'hile engaged in studying and teac hing Moh" Dick , I record ed
the full()\\'ing dr<:am :
~ [lrt':lIn inn)ldl1~ riec , f(lld ed n(,w spape rs and shops ha\'ing tak e n on som e
, 'f" "\' ,; pl'cial . alm, " t salTed . sy mhol ie signilkancl'. :dhT thcy ha ve o"t l i\ cd th e ir
I ,,{'f11 I111 'S> , h('(:aus.-, tl)!'y "TV I,d ,'" w(·l1 dmin\.! their plTiod ofrn erL," tility , 1'11(-
I~'l 'ling i~ that unly 1 iJpprc ·('la tl·· tlll'st.:, !'IYlllbniit , si,!..!lIifi ca T1lT 'I, tha t others d o not.
:l nd th .. t therefore 1 run th" risk of 'lppea r in\.! alNlrd if 1 psp",-s, " 'hat 1 kn ow, I
am I1fln('th,' jpss pre par('d to d o so. and I.. l o th"", th ink what tllt'\' will. 1 the' n
I' lfget all "hout th e pl~ople and hecoill o l'ngrossed ill some \'ery intricate ritual in
which th p old shoc's , new spapers and ri ce arc shifte d arollnd in \'ario", co mbina-
ti ons in a ,c ri{'s ofs1c-igllt -[)f-hand-like mano-m'p r,.
:\ ex t. I'm in ,onw kind ofehurch ofth" flltm[- . not 'luit e knOWin g what's going
on ur 11 0'" 1 , IHluld heha\'f·. I'm , itting ill the' frn nt pew at tIl!' hottolll of an
",tr('mel ), high plllpit - ju,t a hare o hlon g rl'l'langular s trllctme ahellit 70 or ~()
li'd high " 'ith no ha nni ste r at th e top . jn st a platfnrm , M y fi\(' and two-ye,lr-old
so ns And y and C ahy an' np th e re on thi s platform , The\' :lIT Il)r the' lnon"'llt
appa",',"tlv the (;("nt c r of sonil' c(' rclllony or ritual , Caby just toddling around and
:\I,d ~' howing a 11l'ad of long, hair oyer thl' l'd~(' in sullle ;ip paJ'cn tly ritll albl ic
\!l':-.ttlrp that tlH' l"f)ngrl~g,l ti o ll lrlld(-'r ~tol)d. They .\L"(' IU lJlI ite l 'Ll I11I()rt:..tblc ;tnd
kllllwlc-dge:lhi e ahuut it alllikL' th, ·\'\ '" dOl)(' it Illuny tinu 's h"lim', It is " II Ilc'\\' to
ml' . h{)" ('ver , and J d on't kn ow what is going on or ",hat if a n y thin~ is l; xpceted of
n]('. UII.S t the opposite of our usu al rolcs in llctualit\'. ) 1\0\\' I experiellee a v('ry
strongly mixcd statc of mind, No one seem , afraid th ey Illight bll. "ior do they.
Su. for the most part. 1 jus t assu m e th ey ar.. in nO danger and try to re lax , Hut
"nothn part of me almos t trie, tn prO\'ok e Ill e into fe aring th e)' will trip '1nd fall ,
" 'ith me ltX) fur away tos top them. I am reduced to alternating hetween decidin g
to look away and d e"icli ng to keep 111 )' ey(-s glu ed on thpm sO that if o ne of them
did 1,1111 muld catch him ur at least break his fall before h e hit th e flool'. All the
tim e ('speriC'ndng th ese th[)lI~ht s as all almost patheti c pri vate atternpt to f('e l
lik" th ei r lath e r . sil1l'f' they seem totall y ohli violls to my prese nl'(, and quite;
('ap"hl e of taking care of theJ11Sl·h'cs .
TIll' 11 I hq!i n to reel prou d of them and 1 think to my selfit is tim e for IlW to h"
Il)()\'ill),! alo ng with my sYlllhoJ s o f o ut -liv t>d u sefuln ess.
The oblong rec tanglllar pulpit is th e pulpit in Moh!1 Dick. Father
.\!apple's, th e one in the shape of a ship's prow. It is also the
11llll1olith in 2001. Day I:esidue is reading Jung yesterday regarding
ardll'hval symbols of res ignation <md sacrifice preparing It)r d ea th .
.\Iy \\Titte n refl ections centered on how the day res idue (reading
.Tung on archetypal symbols of resignation and sacrifice in prcp ara-
Dream Reflection as a Learning Tool 49
tion for death) was represented in th c drea m in repeated conjunc-
tion with th e th e me of odd reve rsal , of strange juxtaposition , of
turning things around to the opposite of what on e would normally
expect. Hice, newspapers and shoes are hardly th e kinds of ubjects
one would ex pcc\ to ca rry <uchetypal sym holic sign ificance.
Sleight-of-hand mane u\'e rs arl> !lot what one expects to be asso-
ciated with sacred rituals. I, not Ill)' sons. am usuall y the knowl-
eclgeable one in situations of potential danger. Father Mapple's
pro\\'-pulpit, as I imagin ed it and as it was depicted in th e movic of
Mob!! Dick , is about as differen t in appearance from the monolith in
2001 as anything eould be; ye t, in the dream both images coexisted
as a pe rfect ly natural unity.
H e re is a very condensed version of thc analytical re fl ections
which came to light ill a seminar dc\otcd to refl ectillg on this dream :
\Iixed it'l'ling abollt Illy fatlwrhood and Illy sllnhood ,
Qu(!stions abollt n1\' marria,\!c : sacr ed . prohille, full , ()ll tl ived ?
.\Iix(:d fcc-lings ahl)ut my rejection of thc' Church in younger
years.
The pleasures and burde ns of be ing knowledgeable.
The apparent depende nce of my se nse of self-confidence on
situations whic.:h lend themselves to control. F ear of spon-
taneity .
I had no difHcu Ity recognizing these as familiar areas of personal
conflict in need of continued c.:onscious attention. From th e stand-
point of more fully appreciating the dream itse lf, hO\veve r, J fe lt no
call to take any more of th e seminar's tim e to dwell on them . \Ve
shifted th en to th e aesth etic reflections . H e re is a condensed ac-
count of these :
If I live to the year 2001 , I will be 76. 'Would this be my year of
independence?
How could I be so sure that the pulpit was Father Mapple's
prow-pulpit as describe d by Melville in the chapter "The Sermon"?
Especially since its ph ys ical qualities re minded me of the monolith
in 2001 , which resembles anything but the prov"'-pulpit as I visualize
50 Th e Drr'om Poet
it? I \\' a!) ' ( ' 1"\ ' ITIllch takf~ 1I \\-ilh 'Tlw Sermon" ,,-hell reading it a
JllIllllh or :W ago . had underlint'd it t'opiullsh- and mad(' a me ntal
not!' 10 rc-rl,ad it \\ h e n we gut to .I ling. feeling confidcnt I would
tl)/:'11 h(' ahk to st·!:' sOllle i mporlant cOllll('diollS - jllst as in th e
d rea1l1 I \\'as confid ent r <.:()uld lead th e symhols of ri<.:e , old sh{)e~ ,
and newspap e rs to \'aluahle <.:oncl usions .
It h ad felt esse ntial , both in the dream and ill recording it , that th e
phrase " my symbols of ont-lived us efuln ess" be stated exactly that
way and no otlH'r , In waking retrospection , th ere seemed to he two
possihle source s of this appreh e nsion : (1 ) In the dream, the phrase
carried vt'n' positive , ego-gratifying connotations, Yet I sensed eve n
tlwl1 that. ill all probahility , the phrasc would he heard pejorativel y
hy othe rs, So. if I forgot th e ex act wording, I might forget to explain
what I had really expe rience d as opposed to what it might appcar I
had e,\ pl4:icnn'd, (2) If I f(lrgot th e ex act phrasing, I might neglect to
p('re(, j\,{"'ill it some suhtle truth or blsl'hood , on(' or the other. \vhich
I sCIlS(,d \\'ould vield to waking refl ection,
~ o\\ wnsu Iting "Th e Se rmon ," what do we find hut that Melville,
In a lin e I had heavil y unde rscored , us es th e words "live out" where,
in all prohahility . I \\'(llilcl ha\'e said "outlive,"" , .. for what is man
that IH' should li\,(:' Ollt th( ' life tim e of his God?" On reflection , it is
clear that \I dv ille meanl exactl y " live Ollt;" to have said "outlive" in
the COil tex t of this lilw would have carri ed the opposite of his
rt1canill),!:, CO Il\' (~rs(>lv , in th e context of th e dream as I experienced
it , Ih( ' \\'eml "o utlive" is exactly wrong (and so it \\-as a suhtle
Etb:hood); " lin' Ollt" \\'as what I should han' said. and \\ould have
\\ ' ('1'(' I as Ilm'ITing\\- in wmm<lnd of th e lan guage as was \Ielville ,
Thus , ", . it is time for me to be moving along with my sym bois of
li\'('d Ollt (not out li ved) usefuln ess,"
I had not tried my h and at poetr y since I was 18 , having resigned
myself to th e ohvious as to talent , but at this point in our reflections ,
there began to well up a strong conviction that some profound
articldation of what Moh!! Dick had meant to me would emerge in
verse iff co uld permit the mood of this subtle juxtaposition of words
to h e its generative stimulus, In the post-s eminar writing period ,
after s("veral fals(" starts , the follOWing was on paper :
Dream Reflectioll as a Leanling Tool 51
Cod isn ' t o,'ad , God is D eath
"r(,<te h th" Trllth tn th(' facc of False hood ,
COllscienL'(' is th,' wound a nd th (, re's naught to staunch it.
)'(". th,' worlel's a ship on it s passage out.
'\ ot a voyagt' complete,
Wh at is man that hto' should live out th e lifetim e of his God?
Death is God ; God isn't.
Good poetr y, I doubt; and what aesthetic merit there may be in it
is to Melville's credit, since all but th e first and last lines were copied
verbatim from Moby Dick . But that is bes ide the point. I was not out
to write poetry; I was out to deep en my understanding of Me lville,
and this I did - b y man y fathom s. Later I read He nry Murray's
essay on ~'I()b y Dick , " In Nomine Diaboli ,"3o and was startled to
obse rve that \Iurray complete ly ignores Ishmael (" Methinks we
have huge ly mistaken this matte r of Life and Death"), So when I was
organizing m y notes on Moby Dick in pre paration for a book semi-
nar , I chose to focu s on Ishmael and his running commentary
throughout the novel.
NOTES ON MOBY DICK AND
MURRAY'S IN NOMINE DIABOLI
\Iurra\' dot's his dut y, reluctantly , and gives us a class ic early-
Freudian analysis of Moliy Dick , H e doesn' t say it , hut could easily
he mispc ree ivc d 10 be saying that Ahah is nothing but the id and the
whale nothing but th e Jud eo-Christian superego and so forth . The
old belittling re ductionism, Actually, this red Hctionism was never in
Freud's mouth - he neve r said nothing but - but rather in the ears
of his liste n ers , The conclusions of his analyses of, sa)' Hamlet or da
Vinci , were so startling, so ne w, so shaking that his listeners simply
couldn't hear of anything else, much less the whole thing as they
we nt about e ither absorbing or rejecting his singular conclusions,
It is to Murray's credit, I suppose, that he tries to do his duty in as
Iowa key as possibl e, Ye t, he was still unable , when he wrote this
piece, to say to Fre ud , as we have been saying in our dream
reflection sessions: "Yes, and what else?"
52 Th e Dream Poet
It "'as in trying to answer this question that I was startled to
ob~crv!..'that \Iurray doesn't even mCHtion Ishmael in his anal ysis.
In illy H'ading of Moh!/ Dick, Ishmael was at least as compelling a
character as Ahab ancilllore compelling than anyone else - except-
ing possibly Bulkington , of "hom we harely heard.
\ 1ost of my lInderlinings, I see now, were busy trying to capture
Ishmael's vision . What I want to do here is to simply record some of
the more engaging linf's in all their a"'akcning concretenesses;
" \Ipthinks " .(. han'> hu~(·ly mistaken this matte r of Life and Dc-ath . . that
what thL'\' ea lllllY shadu,,' here on earth is my tn ... sul"tance." (Signet Clas,;c
:\ ..w :\1TI('ri"an Library edition , p . .'5:))
" QU<:('qlll'g " 'as C"orgf' Washington "annihalistil'ally dC\"('luped'"" (p. 65 1
. ll1(·1anchoh-' All nllbJt. things are touched with that." (p. 1):3)
.. Il,' Sl/l"l' or this, () youlig ,"nhition, "II Juortal ),(r('at,1<'ss is hu t d ise"s"." {p o8
"ThulIgh ill man\ ' of its aspeds tbis \'i,il,l (' world ,,·(·,n, fonn, ·d ill love , the
in\'isible spheres \\"l:re formed i,di·ight. " (I' . UJG)
"Cannibals? who is not a cannibaP" (p . 293)
"Oh , man! admire and model thyself aft e r the whale! Do thou , too, remain
,,'ann a mong iec. Do thou , too. Ii\'e in this world without being of it . . retain ,
() mall! in all set,sons a temperature of thin e o\\"n.
" Bllt how e as), and how hopeless to teach these fin e things ." (p. 300)
" Is it not curious, that so vast a heillg as the whale should sec th e world
throllgh I'll sll1all an evc, ami hear the thun,ler throu~h an ear which is smaller
than il harc·s'. . Why . tbt'n do you try to 'enlarge' your mind? Suhtilize it. " (1"
:121 )
"So m(ln'~ insanit y is hpaven's sense; and \vanderin'g from all mortal reason ,
man C,,"1W , at last to that c[, lestilll thought , whic h , to reason , is ahsurd and
frantic; "nd \\"('a l or \l"0l' . feels then IIncompromis e.d , inclilferr'n t ,LS his Cod." (1'.
:1Hi')
"Seat thyse lfsultanically among th e moons of Saturn , and take high abstracted
man alon e; and h e seems a \,",mder, a grandeur, and a woe. But from the same
poillt . tak.. man kind in mass , and for the most part tht'\ ' seem a mob of
IInIlC,(:CSS<lry duplicat('s , both contt'l11pnrary and h c red itarv." (p. 441 )
Still later, imagine the resonance of scholarly satisfaction with which
I read these lines in Charles Olson's authoritative study of Melville:
"There remains Ishmael ... Too long in criticism of the novel
I,hmael has be e n confi.lsed with H(~ rl11an ~lelville himself
unlt,ss his cboric function is recognized some of the vision of the
Dream Reflection as a Learning Tool 53
hook is lost ... Ishmael alone hears Fath er !Happle's sermon Ollt. "31
(Italics mine)
I know how casy it would be to argue that these aesthetic reflec-
tions , including the verse and the subsequent readings and writings
on \-lelville , served to buttress my defenses against further insight
into the conflicted areas of my personal life. Against such argument I
claim not the demonstrable authority of evidence, but the arbitrary
authority of authorship. The dream is mine; I am its author. The
responsibilities and licenses which go \\'ith its remembrance are
mine to do with what my nceds and my tastes require. I chose, not to
ignore th e dream's potential for furthering insight, but rather to
devote the larger share of my reflections on the dream to the
furth ering of outsight. And I declare that my life und the lives to
\\·holll mine is mean ingful have bee n rnore grcatly enriched and
strengthened by my newly aequired knowledge of Moby Dick than
had I chosen to dwell exclusively on my ambivalence toward my
children, my wife and my work, Of course, if my sons and I were not
on speaking terms, or if my wife and I were approaching a divorce ,
or if my work was stagnating - and I noneth eless remembered and
recorded this dream - the luxury of opting for Melville might not
have been mine to ehoose. Which is the point I, and I think Freud ,
was trying to make in speaking above of the "e~ controlling
tendeJ)eies." But, you may ask, assuming these te ndencie;~have
been more expressive than defensive , or as expressive as defensive,
why choose bel\veen insight and outsight; why not harvest the
dream in both fields? i'vly answer to that is why not, indeed? And
here, although my experience has not been suffiCiently extensive to
speak conclusively, I do have a strong hunch to share. It is that a
comparatively normal person with a garden variety share of charac-
ter strengths and weaknesses , of resolved and unresoh-ed conflicts ,
of self-confidences and self-doubts is more likely in refleeting on his
dreams to deepe n his knowledge of self after he has deepened his
knowledge of lif( ~ than befmT. At least I have found this to be so for
mysdf and an incrt,asing number of students and colleagues.
54 The Dream Poet
:\ fe ll' \\ords nOw about the procedures we have fOllnd llsdtt! lilr
invokmg dream refle ction in tl)(' edllcatiq· process .
F irs!' it is essential that the atmosphere oitlw scminars in which
the students share and dis(;uss their dreams and rdlediollS be
gl'n(~ ratelLb~ _schQl<!rl.Y-!2.Qjedi ves. Thus , exdus ivei y' fher'apeu tic
gains in self knO\dedge are ack,~~~ I~dged as acceptable . but the
prevailing expectation is that personal insight shall always be ex-
tended to grace some as peds of general knowledge \\'ith personal
Jlwaliing. Here are some rece nt examples of what I mean, all from
tIll' same group of students who were con(;urrently studying 'vlel-
vill e (1 shall presellt the <l(;ademi(; papers only , omitting the dreams
.md shared dream refl ect ions which led lip to the papers):
Dreall! R(jlectioll As A \Var! To Pllsh Tltnl The "Mask"
('\nd A Lot of Other Semi-Related Things)
- Lee Graham
Till' natural )'('11<OW<11 of sell', tl)(-, tkunsing of O11("S psyche, the refreshment of
on,,' , lif" - - "II tht'se call 1)(' dOll(" bs detached adventure. Dreams = detached
ad\\'l-Itl.lrc:' .
lshnlat',1 on board the Pe(/,wd , taking of]'!"r parts unknown to regelH'rat<: his
tired slllll, 10 n'gcnl'rat" his joy oflift' through \lnkl'o\\ Il <Id"cntJlrf's. . This is II
pllysi"al al\s-l'ntur<', a tran .s porting of till.' bods to a Ill ' W life situation and <Inothn
pu.ssihl" p('r:oq)('ctive . a drC'(ltn. Ish 1l1acl j~ e lililarking on a renc-·\\"ingjollITH·Y.
hilt lit' is tict'ldJ('d both in bods' ( Oil llH' ,nastlH'ad I and ill spiril . [Ill' '';III't wake
lip]
.\, HidT"IS". h" i.s not a missionary hut 'I pilgrim turned tUllrist. :\ lourisl IIfhis
tiuctuatill .g life, Iii., possibili ti", .
i am nol a IlIi.,.,illn'lI·y; I 100 ,nfi ,oJ' would like to be) a pilj.,.'rim·touri.sl in lift' .
Cro\\ illg nlder, f(~ ~('I)(.. rating Inys('lf through n<:\\' si tuafinllS , cleansing Ill y hody
S'. ith till' nalural process of fasting - growillg and changinJ! allli dreaming .
As I look at this process "from the Illasthead" [of my dreams], r can see that it
on(~' rs so many possibilities; things fluctuate' but never remain static and stifling,
The l'hildish , lear· motivated wisl, to crawl back to the womh of unchanging
pl"asur" , to emers" m )'scl fin protective sperm case is so limiting, so narrow .
I want to ride high on the masthead always . to renew my weary and hanal
attitnde tll\\'ard, the process of lil'e with ocean spras' and cannibal idols. 'liot to
cOlllmit mysdf and 1m' range of possibilities to a d esparate search for something
I,,·hind the mask - what is b",hind the mask can be apparcnt to me through
introsp,·ctioll . through explonltion of myselfand th e changing process that I flow
Dream Reflection as a Learning Tool 55
with . A,S Doroths' ..sa ys. " \\'hen \'flU think Yllll'VC lost something, look no farther
than s'our OWI I back yard . b"cause ifit iSIl't there you nev"r real'" lost it to begin
\\ ith ."
\1)' dream , an: 11'1) " back s',l\'(l" alld what is behind th" mask of my nauseating,
ex ist en tial view of reality is not a fearful vis'ion of white whales, hut my Own
"lost" innoce nce and wonder at what's actually going on in the whole pattern.
There will be different direc tions, but no deadlines - dead ends are also
middles and begi nnings, part of a process. and time is not running out. . I can
control whether or not I feci the squeeze; no door doses but what can't be
opened sometime, somewhere, from some perspective, some dream,
I may have resolved my paradox of choosing and being chosen; my choices are
of interest and importance simply because I choose them, and that is the most
"justifying" thing about it . In a sense , I am ht:ing chosen by myself, by my very
imlTlersion in the growing process and Illy deep-dO\\1l·inside acceptance of this
process throllgh Illy dreams .
Good God , cou ld I just have flushed six years of nauseous helplessncss down
th e drain with one dr eam , with the help and insight of nom)al (not mystical)
people? Amazing .
A pilgrim , on the masth ead, tllmed tourist-I read .t he words , I wonder over
them , I said "Oh. yes, I can see how this can be so. " Then one dream, one
relativel y simp\<: process of rcflecting on it , a few new insights on natural
rc,n ewal and ZAP , I feel it. lik ea harpoon sinking right home through the mask of
ills' "reality." (Poor Dick; sOilleho\\' he's Ahab again). Moby Dick knows har-
POCll1S. ht· knows tlw\' wHI harm him - hut he never feels it unless it is struck
hom"
To think that I might hav, ' n'mained a sort ofAhah , trying to grasp something
tholt Ia. " bC'hilJd " tllf' di sglls ting l'\ist<:II('(' of objects , dropping occasional tcars
in tilt' rhythmic cyl'it, of till' Oc('an and of rent.'wing and changing life. The parsee
at Illy elbow was SartJ'(" whispe ring , " Yps, you can choose, hut why bother?
"iothing; is worth choosing, and YOII arc not chosen. The whole thing's a cruel
practical joke, an abomination - can't you feel the breath of the white whale of
nausea and despair?"
Imagine! The lact that what was behind the mask was inside myself, right
there in my drc,ams and begging to be noticed. Every person is a walking,
breathing answer to himself, and contains the answers that he searches so
dcsparately for in books and mystics, I still can't quite believe that I had the
power all this time to put the gun to Ahah's head, hut never fired, In my
intell('ctual impotence I clawed through any book, any theory, anything. . but
still I re mained helow in th e cabin, and put the glln away saying, "Great God,
where art Thou?
Shall I? Shall I?" and remaining stagnant in my perceptions, let Ahab have his
way. Didn't Starbuck ever dream? Perhaps if he had climbed up on the mast-
5f) The Dream Poet
Iwad of his drcalHsjust once and s"en it all. . a pil~rilll on a pilgrim's progrl'ss
\\·ith i10 J('adlin('s to lIlake, no doms to Ill' doscd too soon , !t:adng VOII .Itrande'!
lik,· tl", lallH' boy whost, Pied Pilwr had !,)rgotten him.
C hildrc'n ""alizc s{) much without even knowing it; my favorite fairy tale was
"Wizard of Oz" when I was little; Dorothy, a detadll'u pilgrim on a constantly
changingjo\lrnev. When she nc"dcd to go home . .Ihe looked right in her 0\\-11
h"ck )·arel. TIl(' \\'iZdrd . part of a positi\'(' c!\rnmllnity with ,,,tcnsibl,. a "(;0111-
",illlwlll therap,." of Illagie: " " I](,\'('r t'.'pe<:ted it tn b" his salvation . only ,m
engro~sill.1! ht"fc -now possibilitr.
\\'hv do I always conI(' IXll,k to Hi,·!]'> Findill~ ,,,,.",»).(i,'s Iwl\wen Hidf and I ..
rn,,", Ballll' - J('''JS~
Thi ~ paper \\<lS written ill two hours illlln c diatt'ly ilJllo\\ing ,I
dreum rdl('dion sC'minar in which the authlJr's dream and ont' other
wer0 disclissed. \Vhat impressed me was that , in less than three
pages . she had brought into lively and mutual commerce her read-
ings in ~lel\'iIIe , RiefI'. Sartre, and Baum. What ifI, as her teacher,
had assigned her that same task? Any college teacher knows the
answer; she is a good student and would have writt~n a dutiful -
and dry - paper on Mel ville , Ridf, Sartre, and Baum. And it would
not have inclut;led a single exclamation mark. The telling point ,
howl'\;cr , is that 1, in my most wildly inspired pedagogical dreams,
\HlUld Iwv(, r have thought to assign that exact task . It was her own
more or less humdrum dr!c'am and , as she says, "the help and insight
of normal (not mystical) people" which turned this trick of creative
teaching il)r both of us. ~Iore()\'er , if she emcrged slightly more
impressed \\'ith the fact that she had resolved a personal conflict of
~;ix ~' cars ' standing than \vith thc fact that she had written a first rate
sch()oi pape r, I, as her t(·~acher may still choos!c' to reverse these
cnthusiams. It is this kind of result which is behind my hypothesis
that in resped to relatively normal students , knowledge of self
folluws, or at least occllrs concurrently with , knowledge of life .
The ne xt example was supplied by one of our most gifted stu-
de nts . who had pospd a problcm all year long , howevcr, in that he
shared very little of his thinking or writing with me or his fellow
students, ~I y guess is that he was painfully aware of his budding
genills and chose to soft pedal it for fear it might isolate him socially.
Dream Reflection as a Learning Tool 57
The opportunity to launch his writing on the wings, as it were, of
other people's dreams seems to have freed him from his preyious
restraint, as in the following:
The Text of
.\-IOBY-TRICK:
or
THE TALE.
- Frank Greenhalgh
"Then ' arc l'crta in qlll't'r time~ alld occasions in this strangl' mixed iln~tir \\"{~ call
Iifc wl1<'n a Illall tab-·s the wh"I(' tlni",' r,,, fora , 'ast prat:lieaijokl' , though thl' wit
th,'n·"f 11<' hllt e1ilnl,. discern s. ,I lid ilion; than SlISPt'cts that tilt' joke is at
nobody', e.'p"nse but his ()Wn.
"Though in Illany of its aspects the visible world seems formed in love, the
invisible spheres were formed in fright."
-1\lelville in Moby Dick
"A great big old log three-story house up on stilts" - the beginning of Linda's
dream - strikes mt.: wi th the same feeling tone as the c1assi<:al opening offanciful
stories , tall tales; viz. , "Once upon a time . . . ", a line that seems al\ implit:it and
apt prefix to the drea m.
\Vhat is the activity proper to one whose spirit is informed by the se nse of th e
world as a vast joke, dim and oblique as that intimation may be? Why , to plunge
into the play of energies , surrt'ndering the ~rt:atest part of the s<:lfto go with the
flo\\ , so ,1' not to miss the pOint of pointlessness; to remain hllo)'ant in ac'Cepting
the part of the joke that falls to one's lot. What of the rest of the self, not so
involved? That is , the observing self, whose equable detachment is bred of
understanding; it has no fixed locus, but instead can rove in imagination to
different spaces and times , hringing new perspectives to bear on happenings in
the present. In .I hort, by a certain detachment from the immediate, the observ-
ing self can reflect , and so cnrich the here-and-now .
But what if the joke has a malevolent cast, ifindeed the invisible spheres were
formed in fright? Or. which is worse , if there is no joke at all, no objective relief
from the' serious mattt"r of inhahiting a nniverse h{, hind which lurks only an
unthinkable horror? P('rhaps th., natural impulse will allow of nothing hut
recoiling. or a willed tc)rgdting. Then . to fill thl' void left by such r('pudiatinn ,
we spin on t Oil" nam." and stories alld tln""'1S ill large "'tturs . populating till'
""cuity with uur new· ,'reatiolls. el1lbellishing the malign urdcrofthe '\'I)rld with
mythologkal construets fashion ed of our own sweat and blood . In a deep and not
unambi"alent sense. we learn to play , to e ntertain oursel\'es - which amounts
in the c nd to an()ther kind of joke.
.5.S The Dream Poet Dream Reflection as a Learning Tool 59

)'\; othing h en~ of therapy whatever, Just startlingly penetrating For th e purposes of maintaining these attitudes of scholarship , I
thought and qualities ofwrittcm expression worthy of~lelville him- have found th e following procedures to be useful:
self. 1. In order to have a dream and its reflections discussed in a
I take th c last example from the other end of the spectrum. The seminar , the student must type them and reproduce copies for
stud en t was hright enol'lgh hut not ofa scholarly hent, He typically each member of the seminar. The typing should be in double
l'xpress(,'cl himself with difllculty , and by his 0 \\,11 admission had not space to allow room for note-taking by seminar members.
writtt' n a single paper during th e first two quarters of tlw year. I 2. The author of the dream then reads it and his reflections on it
illdud(-· this ('xample . also , becaus e its las t two paragraphs nice ly aloud as the others read along . Then the author reads the
rdh~<.:t th e ('sprit of plavfulnC'ss and good humor which tends to dream aloud again as the rest of us try to make it our own by
pn'v,ti l in th e dream rdkdion seminars . visualizing it in our own imagery .
A Di,I'co!lrse Oil Dream Heflectiorl .3. In th e ensuing discussion the seminar is free to ask any ques-
-Davc Ham es tion ; venture any hypothesis; advance any hunch, speculation
l.1pOIl f' llI c rging fi'olll Illy first dn'alll s('min"r " thought struck me, the iele" or intuition; offer any guess which it is felt may help the author
that pt:rhaps ollr attellipt to reflect upon dr eam s is similar to the whaling \'ovage deepen his reflections or help him to perceive a connection
oreapt"ill Ah ah ill '\/oiJ!I })ick, It s"ellls as though ou r ohject in rc.flccting "POll betwe en his dream reflections and his scholarly pursuits. This
dr/'ams h", Ililich in ('omillon with th " o],j t:d which se nt .-\h,,1o UpOIl hi,s search fre e dom is predicated on the understanding that it is , of
fill' th;, whi t" wkd", In .\I(JiJIJ [Jick ,-\ba b says that h,' is altcilipting to ,s trike thru
course , only the author of the dream who can ultimately
tlh-' l11.1sk of oillward appearance ,",<1 r"ality , to ,,~ (' the hidden IInkn own , Ih "
r ..;)lit\ that 1)(' ,,'n,,'s li. ,s h. ·hind . dete rmin e the helpfulness or interest value ofthese offerings.
I fl,,'1 this to h,' 11111.. 1. th .. ,allll' ,IS 1I 1~ ;li ,li , in tIl<' s(, lf re fl t'div.. a('li\'iti, " in olli' 4. The seminar discussion of a given dream and its reflections
p rug r.1I1l '"Hl ill dn 'al ll rdl"diull ill parti.. llla r, I "'"k t,. look h"hind tIl(' o lllw,ml should he at least a half hour in length and usually no more
"p]",aralll'l ' "t' daih' lift- d('('per illto Il w d"pth ,s of Il l\'sclf. Sl' ekillg th" ,,,"an'IH'S' than two hours in length. I d on 't know why these temporal
'lild insighl to be "Hind hy ullderstanding thi s grea te r unknown tl1<lt lies ],c·vonrl. param eters obtain, but they do.
This de sire for awareness I felt and senst'd in o th e rs as \\'(' explored the dreams
and so ught to Se,,, tl", obscured me anings intricalcly woven into the obvious
5. The author then devotes a couple ofhours immediately follow-
ab surdity and co medv of our dreams, ' ing the seminar to summarizing the highlights of the discus-
TIl(' fright ening implication of this ;)nalogy is that a, we examine our dreams sion by way of extending his reflections on the dream. The rest
and st:lvcs fil l' this greater knowl edge we see m to be as Captain Ahah on his of us use this time to write som ething (a poem, an essay, a
voyage, searching the seas I"r the ,,'hite \\'hale , dete rmined to strike thm th e letter, a story or play, a draft of a term paper - whatever)
Illask and set' the great unkno\\'n he senses hut <:annot see.
which links our appreciation of the dream and the reflections
This hrings an inlln ediatt' question to mind . The objective of our "voyage"
bein ,g so similar to that of Ahah'" arc; we bound hy fat e to an ending as dire : a nd to our understanding of the week's common reading assign-
IInfi,rtunak as \\;IS ,-\hab's final encounte r with \Iob" Dick? ment. 'vVe then return to the seminar and read to each other
P"rhaps not. J have to chuc kl e at Ih t: th ought ofD iek (th e author) as adark and what we have written.
brooding . p eg-l c"g"d captain , pacing a midnigh t dec k burning with dark dreams
oi'rc \'(:ng" and death, with liS as his Ill o tl ey (:TCW, Rather. I feel us more as a ship
On e of th e happiest surprises to have emerged from the evolution
of II10re c;asygoing Ishmaels. who tired of th e solid ear th , embark "pon a voyage, of this teaching method was the discovery that this last step in the
mgt'r for adventure: , enjoying tIl<' trip , but ullobscsscd with the outcom e, sequence is its highlight. The writings are always noticeably more
thollgh .Il;rea tl\· inte rested and f'lscinat ed with th e voyage,
flO Th e Dream Poet
,:re,\tive than anything most of the students ha\'e evcr done before .
The first few times it fcels almost incongruous that this kind of
writing should have occurred in a ,chool setting, with the result that
the students arc lite rally awed hy the experience oflistcning to each
other. And , however moving the personal insights developed in the
d ream reflection session may ha\'e b ee n . tlte e xpe ricnce' \\hieh has
ofte n lIl oved 1111-' (amI hy now many a student and coll eagu e) to the
ve rge of tears is that of reading and listening to the writings which
the dream session 50mehov,,' had a part in inspiring. Over th e course
of time , as the nove lty of the dream sessions hegins to wane , it is the
rcading-the-writings step in the sequence to which we C'Ollle to look
forward the most.
Returning to the quotation with wl)ich I began this section, how
may we view these experiments? "Cooperation between a precon-
scious alld an unconscious impulse , even wh e n th e latter is subject
to ve ry strong re pression , may b e e stablish ed ," said Freud , "if the
situation pe rmits of the unconscious impulse operating ill harmol1!}
w ith on e of the ego's controlling tendencies ." (Italics mine. ) Sum-
ming up these atte mpts to in\'olve dream life in sehool life I have
concl ud ed that th e controlling tend e nci es of a typical stude nt's ego
will not usually operate in harmony \\,: ith th e methods of dream
interpretation - psychoanalytic or other - because these methods
were d e veloped for th e purpose of strengthening weak egos, th e
con b'olling tend encies of \vh ich are more de fensive than expressive,
The controlling te nth-neies of a competent student's ego will, how-
ever, usually operate in harmony with the me thods of dream
reflection , as inco mplete ly set forth above, be caus e these are being
developed for the purpose of providing conditions in \\'hich the ego
may express and enjoy its co mpe te nce . In continuing efiiHts to
follow lip F\'( ~ ud's valuahle thought on " th e general condition that
gove rns all aesth e tic ideation ," it \\ill he important to keep the
diffe re nces he tween dream analysis and dream reflection in vie\\':
Th e authority involved in dream analysis is perceived as external
to th e dreamcr; the dream is "confessed" and the dreamer feels
depe nd e nt on th e person or persons to wllOm he reports the dream
Dream Refl ection as a Learnin g Tool 61
for confirmation or disco nfirmation of his interpretive efforts. The
authority involved in dream reflection is perce ive d as residing
exclusively in th e dre amer's judgment; the dream is "confided" and
it is the person or pe rsons to whom it is eonfided who feel dependen t
for confirmation or disconfinnation of th e ir rcflective efforts .
Dream analysis is ex p e rienced as work , as seriolls busincss , heing
exclusively intent on C'xplanation and discovery. Dream reflection ,
although ofte n induding periods of interpre tive work , tends on the
whole to be f'x pe ricllced as play , An es prit of humor and good
fellowship fi'eque ntly prevails as the dreame r and his friends seek to
go beyond explanation and discovery to e njoyme nt , invention and
celebration.
The sole objective of dream analysis is the deepe n ing of the
dreamer's self-knowledge, It te nds , therefore, to focus on the
dreamer's memories, with an eye to revealing previously unknown
or unaccepted aspects of the self, and it seeks to go about all this with
a more or less impartial air. In dream reflection , the deepening of \,
self~knowl e dge is viewed !lPJ:tJ£4ll.D.o]Iie.:.iilllini:jte-eodouillPIIfy- )
ing th e drean:1e ~~ ~ approach tolearI1inKJU~nds , therefore , to focus
on the "(\reamer's 'imagination and his ahility to communieate the /
workings of his imagination; utter self-indulge nee being the prevail-
ing tone of the procee dings,
In summary, thanks to dream analysis as practiced by Freud and
others , we know a great deal about th e structure and functions of
dreams and dreaming, i.e " about questions of how dreams work. I
think this puts us in un ideal position to address questions of how
drcams pill!/ ; and I submit , furtherm o)'('. that the humanities class-
mom is all appropriate place in which to pllfSlle this quest. In
making this assertion . I am but following Ollt th e implications of
these learn e d obse l'\'ations , \\ hich were made by Elizabeth Leonie
Simpson in a rece nt report to the Ford Foundation:
"Whatever truth , grace, and beauty are our monumental heritage, it is not
e nough; for I, too , must be an ancestor as well as a d escendant, a progenitor as
well as seed from the past . ,My knowledge is never inherited experience. It is
my own, th e gift ofmyselfand not the gift of others, however much they deem it
G2 rh e /)re(lll/ Po el
gn' ~tn e ss or I i<":ntif~ ' myself with those who value it. It b the workings of my
n:spoTlsi\"(' .,dr, Illy consciousncoss - the view from within - a most privat"
piace to whi ch only I }"IV(' access .
·· Ther.., is ill 111\' own inl1 er life till' authority and the ~ear that will link me to
th.. agcs FroiO "aried hi.storie,,1 contexts , from th e forms , th" ideals , tht'
, ·,.JUl 'S, till' b..lid:, of th,' cu ltures which are ,pt'cificall y ours, we dra\\ th e
.' "pportin' stnlctun:s of our I,..ings. hilt not from tl" ,st' alone . The data are
ui tilil at.. h- ')Ilr." ,h-.., . T/IfI( pol'try is honlc-ganl t'n('d and gat llf'rcd ; it is
ki l ("h(' I I-~ 'ard p"iy c hlll f)}!~ and it i" trlll' . ":{2
"K itch e n-yard psychology hom e gard e ned and gathered,"
T nll', and t' .xactly ,,·hat we find grows abundanth' and happily in
dream rdl l.'d ion seminars. And vastly to be preferred , in my ex-
periellct', to the hot-house kinds found in psychology texts, For the
PU'l)()S t" that is , of e nahling students to make of their cultural
lwriUl;gl' " a gift to th c mselves."
Dream Refl ection as a Learning Tool 63
What "Really" Means
\Vhen I \\ as three ' had a pair of toy pistols , and' wore the m around the house
on a holster . One Jay m)' fathersaid , " Ld's see yo u draw your gun . '" ran to get a
picce of paper and pe ncil. of <:oursc. When the)' laughed I was puzzled. 'didn't
we the point ; the phrase "draw your gun " was very clear to me.
\Vh t' n , was six and In)' hrother was two, wee were left alone in the houst' one
"vening whil e m)' mother \\'ent to the train station to pick up my father. Dinner
was in the oven , and as ' stood in the kitchen , a little light went on with a sudde n
click. "Oh no'" thought , " there's some thing wrong with the oven and the house
is goillg to explode ." , bundled m)' broth e r into his snowsuit, put the leash on the
dog , and went across the street to th e vacant lot, where' waited for the house to
go up in flam es. As my mothe r explained late r, the little light was only the
tcmperaturc' indicator Ic)r the oven. , was so e mbarrasspd that' didn't speak a
worJ all ""l'ning .
\\'h"' n , Was eight it was a barbec ue summ er ; my pare nts went to the
l1(' i.l(hho ..' " itn os t ':""!'\, day, saying ·' \V c ' r~ going Ic)r a drink at the Schulman's
and \\'(: 11 1,0 hack wo n"· Onc morning my mo th er went to the neighbors' for
sumething, and ",hil t: she was gone my grandmother called. "\Vhere is your
mother, dear?" "She's over at the Schulman's having a drink." My grandmother
asked in a scandalized voice, "At 10 o'clock in the morning?" And my mother had
some explaining to do when she came home with th e borrowed easserol e dish. It
made sense to me , though - when you went to the Schulman's you went for a
drink . My family teased unmercifully about this , and my grandmother has
brought it up at every family gathering for the past twelve years.
What chagrin , what mortification' went through when, time after tim e , ,
rt'alized that my int erpre tation of th e world didn't match up with the "right"
interpre tation, Partly to escape th eir laughter, I was forced to re-interpret what
I expe rienced and to make sure that what' saw was what the Crown-ups saw,
hefore I opened my mouth and int:urred their patronizing amus e ment. They
were powe rful and all-kno\\~ng ; therefore th eir view ofthe world was " right" and
my own pri\'ate "iew "wrong." I adapted.
But I'm sure there 's still a part of me that , when seeing a light on an ove n go
on , e nvisions an explosion, This part of me is "allowed" to exist in my dreams, 'n
that (drean;ing) reality there are no Crown-ups to say, "No dear, that little light
64 Th e Dream Poet
Il nly mean s that dinner is rt'ady ." :\[~I "i ew of till' " o rld is " right" , and if! dream
,)f d littl e li,.:ht "I ieking a ll , tlH ' n it is " ." 'lIsible and rat ion,.!" that tlwn: will he an
(·xpiosiol'l.
P1)tting lll)'selfbac k to a~c six, I g e t an inJlT1 t-' llse pl eil ~ ure o ut of irnagining , ill a
dream , that nil' moth e r 'bSllre' me that till' littl e: light is onl" the tempe rature
indica tor , got's into th e hOllse , and ge ts blown to Kingdom COilH: .
I think imm e diately of Andy , Richard's son , whe n he assured me very
sokmllh' that I,,· "as no t Jewish hut English - "hut no t \tiddle English ." I'm
sun' he has a vc r\' dear five-year- old eonception of what \Iiddle English means ,
and I'm a hit sorry I laughed when h e said it. At least I didn 't enlighten him on
"hat \Iiddl e English "reall y" means.
-Lee Graham
CHAPTER FOUR
RESOLVING PUBLIC AND PRIVATE
III dreams begin responsibility .
-W.B . Yeats
Professor David Bakan of York University was the discussant at
the Northwestern University symposium of the paper which be-
came Chapter Three. The present chapter consists of his commen-
tary, and my eventual reply:
~lay 24, 1973
Ladies and Gentlemen:
Last year I visited with Dick in Olympia for several days and we
talked a good deal. We talked a good deal about politics. I was
arguing for greater involvement in the body politic, and for the
relevance of the political situation in the educational process. Dick
defended a somewhat more apolitical posture.
In this ongoing debate betwee n us , I have been much more
adamant , certain and dogmatic; and Dick has characteristically been
more qualified , more open, less certain, and generally more reason-
able. :'Ii ow, as I read through the manuscript of Dick's paper re-
cently , I began to understand more dearly why Dick was reasona-
ble. If my arrogance can be forgiven, I began to appreciate how it
wa-s that his reasonableness coincides with my adamance. And thus,
I hope to draw Dick's reasonableness as evidence for the validity of
the position I hold so adamantly.
First, a few words on my position. I have been working in the field
of the history of psychology. Without trying to defend my conclu-
sion, I have become increasingly convinced that psychology in
65