The genius of the dream

Abstract

In Act V of A Midsummer Night's Dream, Theseus and Hippolyta exchange views on the dreamlike adventures reported by the young lovers. Theseus dismisses their stories as fantasies of wish fulfillment, but Hippolyta points out that despite their strangeness, the tales reflect an adaptive change in the psychic reality of the lovers. The dramatic action of the play supports Hippolyta's view. The release of Demetrius from his transferential infatuation with Hermia comes at the moment of awakening from a dream in which he has matched his current feelings for Hermia with a repressed libidinal fantasy of childhood. This example of a correction dream illustrates how condensation in dreams functions adaptively in matching a new experience with previously stored representations of related events in the past. It also illustrates the ability of the matching process to go beyond the narrow logical categories of waking thought to reach deeper levels of experience otherwise inaccessible to the dreamer. This ability accounts for the important role played by dreaming in the creative process generally and in the day-to-day working-through process of psychoanalytic therapy. The adaptive function of dreaming is subject at many points to interference from the censorship mechanisms discovered and emphasized by Freud. A theory of dreaming combining these antagonistic processes is more consistent with the data of the sleep laboratory than the traditional psychoanalytic theory alone. It also provides a better fit with the introspective date more familiar to the analyst as illustrated by Freud's well-documented analysis of his own dreams.

The effects of dream length on the relationship between primary process in dreams and creativity.

“…The contention that creativity and dreaming may reflect similar psychological processes has long been maintained by both the lay public and philosophers alike. In support of this, both the anecdotal and empirical psychological literature contain numerous references suggesting both a direct and analogical relationship between dreams and creativity (Adelson, 1960; Dave, 1978; Domino, 1976, 1982; Sladeczek & Domino, 1985; Dreistadt, 1971; Giovacchini, 1966; Krippner, 1981; Lewis, 1984; Palombo, 1983, 1984; Sylvia, Clark, & Monroe, 1978; Wood, Sebba, & Domino, 1989-90). Some anecdotal examples of creative achievements ascribed directly to dream material include the prelude to one of Wagner’s famous operas (Dreistadt, 1971), inventions such as flaked cereals (Sylvia et al, 1978) and the sewing machine needle (Domino, 1982), and musical works of Beethoven, Tartini, Mozart, and Schumann (Dreistadt, 1971; Sylvia et al, 1978; Dave, 1978).…”

The prospects of open science practices and large-scale collaborations for dream research

“…One research topic that has received considerable attention in recent years is the role dreams play in memory consolidation. As recent memories are often incorporated into dreams, it has been hypothesized that dreams may be involved in, or at least reflect, the ongoing memory consolidation processes during sleep [ 3 ]. With the first scientific study published in 1977 [ 4 ], several studies have since tried to probe dreams’ role in memory experimentally.…”

Replication of the Factor Structure of a Questionnaire about Dreams and its Relation to Creativity

“…Specifically, Suler notes that "primary process may not be a primitive or infantile mode of thought which is gradually replaced by secondary process" [22, p. 145], but instead may function in parallel to logical thought and possess dynamic and progressive qualities. Many theorists have linked creativity to primary process though [II,13,16,17,[23][24][25]. Kris, for example, thought that a regression in the service of the ego was necessary for creative inspiration [13].…”

“…Consistent with previous research, item analysis of the QAD again failed to discriminate creative from non-creative individuals. Taken together, these findings strongly suggest that the QAD may not be a valid research instrument.There are numerous references in both the anecdotal and empirical psychological literature suggesting both a direct and analogical (symbolic) relationship between dreams and creativity [1,2,[5][6][7][8][9][10][11][12][13][14][15][16][17][18]. Some examples of creative productions derived directly from dreams include Robert Louis Stevenson's novel The Strange Case of Dr. Jeckyll and Mr. Hyde [2], some of the famous musical compositions of *This research was completed in partial fulfillment of the first author's requirement's for the doctoral degree in clinical psychology at Yeshiva University.…”