Enactment Perspective
We can take a segment from the title of a Lerner and Lowe song from My Fair Lady to describe this function: “I’ve grown accustom . . .” A new and unique task is done repeatedly in the dream. The dreamer is now “accustomed” to doing the real thing. Healy (2019) ends his own summary of dream functions with the following statement:
So the next time you dream about an education related sexual experience in which you are both falling and being chased, don’t worry: It’s probably totally meaningless. Then again, your brain might be practicing so you’ll be ready if such an event ever comes to pass.
We can practice in our dreams – even for some required activity that will never occur. A similar event, however, might occur and our rehearsal in responding to a similar (though only fantasized) event could come in handing. I am reminded of workshop exercises that I often conduct in which participants are asked to solve silly problems or to play roles that they would never be asked to perform in the real world. What, for instance, would you [workshop participant] do if they ruled the world? You are a miracle worker who can heal anything. What three things in the world would you most want to heal.
I often engaged a psychodrama exercise in which I take on the role of a shopkeeper who stores bottles on the shop wall that are filled with anything that anyone could desire. A workshop participant enters my shop and I tell them that I will give them anything they want as long as they give me all of something that they now possess.
On the surface, this would seem to be an easy trade: “I [the workshop participant] will give you [the shopkeeper] all of my anger and you give me a lifetime full of happiness. However, do I really want to give away all of my anger? And what would a lifetime of happiness look like?” My participant tries out other options. They soon find that they are “rehearsing” some of the real-life struggles that they have in establishing priorities. It is often a matter of managing polarities (Johnson, 1996). We swing back and forth between one priority and then the other priority. The psychodrama rehearsal can be of great value in helping us find a way to manage polarities. So can comparable rehearsals and hypothetical exchanges that occur in our dreams.
Dysfunctional Dreams
The dream is dysfunctional if nothing was learned from the dream (boredom) – and it was not at all “entertaining” (anxiety). Dreams occur at the threshold between boredom and anxiety – equivalent to the flow experiences in waking life (Csikszentmihalyi, 1990).
Anxiety dreams
Sometimes we are overwhelmed in our dreams by anxiety. Flow doesn’t exist—there is too much challenge and not enough support—with is the description offered by Nevitt Sanford (1980) for an environment in which we are frozen and unable to navigate or learn (equivalent to Csikszentmihalyi’s flow). These dreams often appear as nightmares. Typically, they are overloaded with symbolism and multiple memories that are intended to offer protection—but the defense is overwhelmed by the power of the content that emerges.
As Carl Jung would suggest, the awe-filled, dread-filled numinous breaks through as the protection breaks down. For Jung, this break down is orchestrated by the shadow function. Both the personal shadow and collective shadow are involved. The personal shadow consists of repressed experiences that are unacceptable and that we can’t fully integrate into other aspects of our self. In this way, Jung is somewhat aligned with Freud (though Jung’s shadow is not obsessed with sex as is the case with Freud’s Id).
The personal shadow can collect fantasies, desires, feelings (especially sadness, disgust and shame), and uncomfortable memories (especially of abandonment, rage and panic). We are hard-wired (via the amygdala) to see and react to threat. Our memories of threat and associated emotions are never lost. There is no memory “erasing” function in the amygdala as there is in the hippocampus (which is our major repository of memories). The amygdala is alive and well as an actor during our anxiety-filled dreams – whether or not we embrace Jung’s notion of a personal shadow.
