November 17, 2009

• dreams and emotions

  It’s weird that we talk about dreams as if there were only two types. Good dreams and bad dreams. And by good dreams we generally mean dreams that make us happy, dreams that give us joy. By bad dreams we almost universally mean nightmares. Dreams that scare the living daylight out of us. Those are what we call “bad dreams”.

  But it occurred to me that we talk a lot less about dreams that evoke other kinds of powerful emotional response.

  For instance last night I had a dream that woke me up with a profound feeling of extreme anger. While I don’t remember much of the dream, I do remember that there was a character that did and said things that utterly pissed me off. I woke up fuming and found it hard to make myself go back to sleep.

  And yet I don’t think this was a bad dream. Not really. It was nothing like the terrifying nightmares that I’ve had that I would do anything to avoid ever experiencing again. The angry dream was just an angry dream. It was neither good nor bad. If anything it was interesting. Sort of a unique kind of dream that had a profound emotional impact on me.

  So if there are those dreams that have deep emotional effects why not the save for other emotions? Can you have a dream that leaves you weeping in sadness? Can you have a dream that makes you restless or bored, disinterested, or apathetic? How about a dream that makes you giddy? Can you have a dream that makes you feel pain? Real physical pain. Or emotional pain? How about a dream that makes you despair? Can a dream bring you a sense of adventure or a sense of wonder? Can a dream make you weary. tired, or worn down? Can a dream make you depressed? Can a dream leave you with a sense of self doubt or a strong overwhelming sense of pride or respect in others or yourself? Can a dream make you feel humiliated or embarrassed? Can a dream make you yearn for revenge? Can a dream bring a sense of jealousy?  Can a dream lead you into waking with hatred? Or for that matter love?

  Can a dream make you wake up laughing?

  Maybe most dreams don’t have any of these characteristics and the vast majority of the most common dreams just invoke basic emotions of happiness and fear. If so then could those be the root emotions from which all other emotions derive?

  Or maybe I just haven’t had enough dreams. And most people regularly experience dreams that invoke powerful emotions of all types in equal measure. But if the latter is true, why is our language of dreams so limited? Why do we only generally speak of good dreams and nightmares and not the myriad set of others dreams out there for us to experience?

  • 9:39 pm
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