I also wondered about what I saw in the window, where a case was being tried. What were the people inside the courtroom thinking about children playing games outside the courtroom, given that serious business of a quite different nature was being played inside the building? What about me, Billy Bergquist? Was my fear of life on the niche intertwining with my sense of social injustice (playing the role of Indian and tangentially witnessing courtroom proceedings)?
Several other features of this lengthy, wandering dream stand out. This was a long, exhausting journey. Does my life sometimes seem to be exhausting, especially as I enter the senior years of my life. It is also noteworthy that I am faking it as a singing actor. I get away with the faking, but I am not doing a great job during the dream (at least by my standards). To what extent am I now faking it in my work, in relationships with my wife and family, and in my sense of self? There is the matter of impostorship that is highlighted by Kets de Vries (2003). To what extent am I an impostor? Has this dream (and other similar dreams) called me to the courtroom docket? Am I charged with the crime of failing to discover or enact my authentic self at this late point in my life? No wonder I am exhausted by the end of this dream and need to “bail out” into wakefulness!
Let me turn away from this personally challenging interpretation to the matters at hand regarding the structure and dynamics of dreams. I will be returning to this dream at times while providing a more detached analysis of dreams.
In the first essay in this series on dreams, I focused on the nature and function of dreams. In this, the seventh essay, I return to my consideration of the general principles that operate when we are dreaming. I focus specifically on the structure of dreams (what keeps them coherent) and the dynamics of dreams (what keeps them moving). Some of my observations and conclusions go against the usual assumptions made about dreams. I begin with an exploration of dream structure as it relates to the varying properties of dreams.
The Structure of Dreams: Properties
I propose that the structure of dreams varies quite broadly, as does their content. Six structural properties are to be found in all dreams: (1) length of the dream, (2) movement of the dream, (3) speed of the dream, (4) role played by the dreamer, and (5) level of creativity in the dream. I first consider the most obvious parameter: How long is the dream?
Length of the Dream
Some dreams are very short. Just a snippet of some theme or image. These short dreams tend to occur early in the evening. By contrast, other dreams are quite long and complex—such as the dream I shared at the start of this essay. Like my dream, these long dreams often contain multiple levels that might contradict one another. These multi-tiered dreams often contain powerful (and often creative) compressions, with a single image containing multiple meanings, such as the multiple ways “bridge” was used in the Pelican dream featured in the second essay in this series and the way fear and injustice tend to intermingle in the image of Starved Rock in the dream I offered at the start of this essay.
