I wonder . . . Is this the only way in which to interpret the meaning of a flight during my dreams—or the dreams of many other people. Could flying represent something other than the sexual act? Why did I swoop down and kick the monster? What about the differing thrills that took place when viewing a Fall day or a day in the Spring? Perhaps (as the Freudians themselves have declared), an activity during a dream can have multiple meanings. In an earlier essay in this series on dreaming, I wrote about a dream element that I collected in a dream laboratory that seemed to have multiple meanings (Bergquist, 2023). This word was “Bridge.” The dream I collected contained a physical structure, card game and structural element of a nose that could all be called a “bridge.” The physical experience of flying can similarly relate to several different sensations—not just sexual arousal and fulfillment. It can relate to the exhilaration of soaring at great speeds and minimal effort, or to the enthrallment that comes from looking down upon the world from a great height. Is Superman not a compelling figure when he is flying through the air (“up, up and away”)? Is not Peter Pan at his most theatrically exciting when soaring through the air?
At this point, having raised the question regarding what “flying” in a dream really means, I wish to introduce a quite different interpretation regarding the presence of flight in the dreams of young people and the absence of flying dreams (at least for me) later in life. My interpretation derives from the work of Robert White, one of Freud’s acolytes who focused on adaptive (“ego”) functions rather than the more primitive (“Id”) functions on which Freud focused. White focused in particular on a powerful motivator that he identified as Competence.
I Dream I Am Flying: Discovering Competence
In an important essay that was published more than sixty years ago, Rober White (1959) wrote about competence. He suggested in the title of this essay that the basic framework of motivation needs to be reconsidered. While most existing theories at the time focused on the reduction of basic drives (such as hunger, thirst, shelter –and sexuality), there was no accounting for playful and exploratory behavior. Why join in a basketball game or ride on a roller coaster. They tend to increase levels of arousal rather than reduce these levels or fulfill any “primary” need. Up to this point, some psychologists wrote about something called an “arousal jag.” Gratification apparently comes from increasing arousal and then reducing this arousal. This is a variant on the old adage that we should bang our head against the wall since it feels so good when we stop.
Other psychologists simply gave up and began to use the term “autotelic” (self-guided) when categorizing these playful and exploratory behaviors. “Autotelic” behavior becomes anything that doesn’t fit with the existing theories of motivation. It seems that psychologists have found themselves facing what the scientific historian, Thomas Kuhn (2012), would call an “anomaly.” According to Kuhn, it is an unsolved mystery (anomaly) in any specific scientific discipline that can no longer be ignored which can produce a “revolution” and a whole new approach to solving this elusive mystery. Such was the case regarding the purpose of play and exploration in the domain of human behavior. Something had to change! And the change did occur. White’s reconsideration of motivation led to the “revolution” in psychology that occurring during the following four decades. So-called “positive psychology” began to address long ignored aspects of human behavior such as hope, generosity, and courage.
