And, bringing us back to the focus of this essay, our early night dreams tend to be filled with experiences from recent times—even the previous day (called “day residue”). Our late-night dreams, on the other hand, tend to be filled with experiences from earlier in our life. Thus, we are likely to find early night dreams incorporating our current home, while late night dreams incorporate homes in which we lived earlier in our life. To complete the picture regarding regression, we are also likely to find that all three forms of regression play out in our late-night dreams.
Dreams that occur after many hours of sleep may not only incorporate one of our earlier homes, quite vivid and even bizarre portrayals of this home or what occurs in this home are likely to occur in late-night dreams. In these dreams, the home might come to represent a variety of thoughts and feelings that are usually not accepted by us. Layers of meaning and representation are embedded in the image of our home, and our home might even be representing powerful archetypal themes (such as sanctuary, fortress, Eden, mother’s breast or womb).
Movement of Content and Energy
The intricate processing of our brain when faced with an anxiety producing challenge involves not just the tendency to regress; it also includes the intertwined movement of content and energy. When we regress, our attention and motivation move away from matters of the present moment to matters associated with the content of our regression. Freud would suggest that the boundaries between our preconscious state and our state of action become particularly strong when we are anxious (threatened by unacceptable thoughts and wishes). Our energy is moving us forcefully backward on Freud’s psychic apparatus.
At a mild level, we find this joint movement of content and energy in our daydreams. During a dull meeting, our attention shifts to a pleasant memory of our latest fishing trip or to a sometimes pleasurable and sometimes disturbing interaction we had last night with our adolescent son. At a less mild level, our attention while trying to fall asleep shifts to that horrible fight we had several hours ago with our life partner. Primitive images of revenge or escape swirl around our head and are accompanied by shifting feelings of rage and fear that swirl around our heart. This intertwined movement of content and energy is particularly pronounced during our dreams. It is important to gain a sense of the way that our psyche tends to move within a dream or over a sequence of dreams during the night.
Interpreting My Own Dreams
How then do these concepts of regression and movement apply to actual dreams? We are accustomed to applying Freud’s obsession with sexuality to all of our dreams: “That dancing and swimming are actually an indirect expression of sexual intercourse.” “The tentacles of the sea monster are actually phallic representations and suggest that sexuality can be threatening.” However, we can also apply concepts regarding the structure and dynamics of dreams to our everyday dreams. I will use my own dreams to illustrate these insightful applications.
