Creativity of the Dream
I introduce a fifth element to be found in the variations of dreams. This element concerns the level of creativity and generativity in the dream. Some dreams seem to be closely tied to what is called “day residue.” These dreams tend to be rather mundane and are often forgettable. Dream researchers often portray early evening dreams as being black-and-white (or even gray), two-dimensional, and more “thoughtful” rather than “vivid.”
Other dreams burst out of all boundaries and restrictions. My opening dream certainly fits in this category. The buildings are shiny black and contain ornate statues. The landscape might have been harrowing, but it was also beautiful. These generative dreams make extensive use of multi-level portrayals, are filled with strong colors, and have detailed backgrounds. People and other characters in these generative dreams are likely to be spontaneous, alternatively threatening and appealing, and both helpful and hurtful. Their portrayal is likely to be filled with insights about our relationships with people in our waking life (Fromm, 1951) and about our own multiple and conflicting senses of self (each character in the dream potentially representing an aspect of who we are).
Generative State and Peremptory Ideation
Clearly, there are times at night when our dreams are highly focused. One specific narrative or theme is dominant in the dream. It is as if we push everything else aside to get to the major point of the dream. Sigmund Freud (1900/2010) might suggest that we are just a bit “horny” and want to get on with the lovemaking in the dream. French and Fromm (1964) might instead suggest that the dream is being directed toward some focal conflict, as I suggested in my essay on the Pelican dream (Bergquist, 2023a). Yet, we might turn again to a more mundane perspective: the dream might simply be dominated by some daytime residue that needs to be “cleaned up” in the dream.
By contrast, there are times when we are sleeping that our mind is highly generative. Our dreams are filled with many images. There is a great diversity of images and themes. Even when we wake up, the dream images continue to pop out. We seem to be drawn back into sleep and dreaming. We can’t wait to see what comes next. We reside in what might be called a Generative State. What produces or motivates this generative state? Perhaps we have had a stimulus-rich day. Alternatively, we have been sleep-deprived or dream-deprived and are trying to make up for lost time.
There is a third option. As I seek to make sense of this extraordinary power of dreams to be generative, I am reminded of the theory proposed by George Klein (1967) many years ago regarding a process he called Peremptory Ideation. As I have noted in several of my previous essays on dreams, Klein is proposing that in our internal world (psyche) we create a specific idea or image that begins to “travel” around our psyche (head and heart), picking up fragments of unconsciously held material (memories, feelings, thoughts). Much like an avalanche (and other forms of what chaos theorists often label “strange attractors’). This train of ideation becomes increasingly rich and emotionally powerful.
At some point, this ideation begins to pull in material from outside the psyche. External events suddenly take on greater saliency (more emotional power and vividness). It is because they are now connected to the internal ideation. Klein would suggest that the ideation now takes priority with regard to what is valued, attended to, and remembered in the external world. It assumes a commanding (“peremptory”) presence. A positive (reinforcing) loop is created, with the external material now joining the interior material. They are all clustered around the original (often primitive) ideation.
