Most often, it is just a matter of the dream scales being balanced—some challenges and some support. Unfortunately, during times of stress and transition, the scales might be unbalanced. We are facing a majority of dreams that disturb us or leave us awake, frightened and sweating in the middle of the night. While these multiple challenging dreams might in some way “be good” for us, dreams which either allow us to escape the challenge or provide us with some guidance and support are frequently welcomed.
I can identify several different forms taken by those dreams that are supportive. They may contain safety-providing schemata or sanctuaries. Or they might serve as venues for incubating ideas and images or as the endpoints for regressive processes that support the generation of insights and creative productions. I will even introduce a process called Targeted Dream Incubation that offers the possibility of at least partial control over the type of dreams we produce during the night.
Schemata: I introduced the concept of schemata when considering transactional dreams in my previous essay (Bergquist, 2026c). At this point, I would suggest that schemata not only support the processes of memory and synthesizing information, but they also provide a safe place for the thoughts and images we generate. Our thoughts and images can “comfortably” reside inside powerful assimilating schemata (Bartlett, 1995; Paul, 1959; Paul, 1966). For instance, during a dream, we might imagine a person unknown to us, who is entering our imagined home in the dream. We give them the appearance of our parent or best friend (and might even mix up identities during the dream). A schema of the caring parent or trusted friend might be imposed (Young, Klosko and Weishaar, 2006). We provide support to match the threat incurred by someone new (“the other”) entering our life. Unfortunately, this support sometimes comes at the expense of accuracy regarding the intentions and trustworthiness of this new acquaintance.
Conversely, the schemata of villainous person might be engaged in a dream that introduces us to a candidate for public office that we heard speak on television before falling to sleep. This person might initially be a bit threatening; however, we can easily place them in the category of “villain” and thus comfortably dismiss what they have to say. Furthermoe, during the dream we can deploy our archetypal hero to defeat this new villain.
It should also be noted that schemata can become too dominant. We can not only dismiss this one “villainous” political figure but also discount and intensely hate all members of this person’s political party. We assemble an entire army in our dreams to defeat the politically opposing “rabble.” We can go too far in our waking life as well as our dreams. We become “true believers” who impose a specific scheme on everything (Hoffer, 1951). Often following the dictates of a powerful authoritarian figure, we begin to march to a single tune (Weitz and Bergquist, 2025).
Sanctuary: safe place for feelings and behaviors. Building on Winnicott’s (1971) concept of “play space,” Alston, Calogeras and Deserno (1993) write about “dream space.” This space serves the function of transition (like the teddy bear). I would also suggest that the dream space serves as a launch pad for new ways of being in the world. competence and creativity are on full display. The dreams in which we are flying might refer not to sexual performance (the traditional interpretation) but instead to this sense of being competent and capable of achieving great things (Bergquist, 2024). “I am flying and the whole wide world is before me!”
