INTRODUCING MY DREAM THEORIES 

   The following text is an abbreviated account of the ideas analysed extensively in my first book "SPACE EMOTION - an idea" one may also find in this web site.

    The Greek version of this precise text on Space and emotion was presented by “Archeology and arts,” editions “Lambrakis”, issue 81 “Theories of dreams”, Dec 2001, pgs 27-35. This was the last issue of a four-issue dedication to dreams in Greece:

·         Issue 78, “Dreams in ancient Greece”

·         Issue 79, “Dreams in Byzantine era”

·         Issue 80, “Dreams in contemporary Greece”

·         Issue 81, “Theories of dreams”.

I have also kept this text posted (in English) at an experimental site I used to keep for some years in FORTHNET. It is a text I use every time somebody needs a brief introduction on my theories.

«SPACE AND EMOTION»

A METHOD

FOR INTERPRETING DREAMS

 

Space is in the beginning
The space-emotional dream interpreting method depends on some simple, clear and comprehensible spatial relationships in real wakefulness and in the dream, either between a «subject» and an «object» or between «objects». I will try to make myself clear by analyzing all these relationships divided in four categories:
  
1. A subjective spatial relationship in wakefulness

A dog to the left

 «Subjective» is the spatial relationship a «subject» has regarding an
«object». For example, the relationship that I (subject) may have
regarding a dog (object). That is, if I have this dog in front of
me, behind me, on my left, or on my right, high above me or below me, far away from me or close to me, etc.
This specific spatial relationship of the subject in respect to some
object(s), is very important for the space - emotional dream
interpreting method, since the method relies on identifying some
standard spatial relationships that may figure both in reality and in
the dream.

2. A subjective spatial relationship in the dream

A dog to the left

 A round object on the left hand side of the subject during some real
event, may result in a similar round object appearing on the left hand
side of the dreamer in the dream. A dog to the left, a river on the
right, a leaking roof above, red tiles beneath the feet; all of these
may give rise to spatially analogous re-figurations in the dream even
though the dream at first sight might have very little to do with any
real incident or reality itself.
Actually in the dream, as in reality, exist both a subject (the dreamer)
and some object(s), (as dream representations).


3. An objective spatial relationship in wakefulness

Another equally important spatial relationship is between objects
themselves. In reality first, any two or more objects have spatial
relationships with each other regardless of the perspective of the
onlooking subject. For example, a red apple between two green apples is such a standard relationship, no matter what angle one is looking at it from. Primarily this is an objective relationship, having directly to do with objects, and only indirectly with the observing subject. The structure of the elements of an overall (real) situation, their specific spatial arrangement, provides many such standard pictorial relations of their own. For example, a couple walking side by side in some real event, a yellow lemon on a red brick, a man and a woman facing (orientation) each other, an old man walking towards (direction) a church, a woman in a car, a boy wearing a white hat under a tall tree, a red sticker on a black fender, a round frame hanging between two rectangular ones etc.

  A red apple

between two green apples

4. An objective spatial relationship in the dream
These objective relationships are also very important for the comparison of the pictures both in some real event and the dream simply because all of the above relationships can also appear in a dream. Then the «subject» who saw all these specifically related «objects» will simply be a «dreamer» and they will re-appear in his dream as dream «representations». The fact is that they will retain some of their very specific and characteristic spatial relationships between each other to the point of being recognisable beyond doubt. In the dream too we can see a yellow lemon on a red brick or a boy wearing a white hat under a tall tree. Even if it is not the same boy, the same hat or the same tree. The relationships remain the same.

 A red apple

between two green apples


THE SPACE-EMOTIONAL
dream interpreting method

a. The initial event
Having gone so far as to realize that some standard spatial
relationships may exist in the pictures of both reality and the dream we
can make a step further to realize that a dream is a representation of a
specific real initial event.
Indeed according to the space-emotional dream interpreting method a
dream is basically a particular memory from the day before. A specific
real event happens initially in the wakefulness directly preceding the
dream, (usually the day before), and during the next sleep this initial
event recurs in a peculiar way as a dream in the space (and time) of the
imagination.

b. The previous event
This dream recurrence has a specific peculiarity. During the dream we do
not see at all this initial event. Whatever pictures/ representations we
do see in the dream belong to another event from the memory similar to
the initial event. The pictures of this other event "substitute" in some
odd way the pictures of the initial event and these previous pictures
only we recall the next day when (and if) we remember the dream.
This other event we call "previous event" because it is actually
experienced by the subject/dreamer before the dream and before the
initial event and is already in memory when first the initial event
happens and then eventually the dream.

An example (1)

1. INITIAL EVENT

2. DREAM 

3. PREVIOUS EVENT

1. This happened in reality the day before.

2. This is what we see the same night (we do not see the dog).

3.This had happened some time in the past.

Seek and hide
So, in the dream we only see these previous pictures from memory (e.g.
the leopard) but point to point "behind them" the similar initial event
(e.g. the dog) of the day before is also present somehow, though hidden
and invisible. This recent and real initial event of the day before is
the true interest of the dream. The obvious previous event is only a
front and a useful medium.
Strange though this may sound, it is as if the initial event gives the
spatio-temporal points (traits) on which the previous event is recalled
from memory and is re-lived once over in the dream.

The many previous events
We understand that the picture of the previous event can substitute the
picture of the initial event if only they are similar to each other.
That is if the picture of the previous event has the same inner spatial
structure with the initial event.

Example (2)

1. INITIAL PICTURE

A. SIMILAR MEMORY 

B. SIMILAR MEMORY

Similar pictures regarding the spatial structure of their elements that are important for the dream.


A dilemma
It is easy to see that under this strict condition a very specific
dilemma may rise: such a true and precise simile of the initial picture
may not exist in memory since initial events of reality are unique and
can have very complicated pictures.

And its solution
In cases like that the dream quite often employs a very creative
solution: it constructs (condenses) a dream picture similar in
appearance to the initial, selecting suitable elements from many other
pictures of the past that exist in the vast memory, constructing them
during the dream in such a way that the end product will look like the
initial picture.

Example  (3)

1. INITIAL EVENT

2. DREAM 

3. PREVIOUS EVENT (A+B)

1. This picture we saw  the day before.

2. This dream we see at night (the initial picture passes unnoticed).

3. These we had seen some time in the past in the different events (A+B).


The invisible structural pattern
The initial picture provides the spatial structural pattern according to
which the suitable material from memory is condensed in order to
construct a dream idol similar to the initial. Even when the dream uses
condensed pictures from several previous events it always retains the
spatial structure of the recent initial event, even though the initial
event remains invisible and passes unnoticed during the dream.

c. The pending emotion
Not all events of the day before become dreams at night. Only those
causing an emotional frustration to the subject/dreamer. These more or
less annoying frustrated emotions linger along till the night and cause
the dream. Main concern of the dream is the relief of the soul from the
annoyance caused by these pending emotional remainders of the day
before.

Emotional likeness
So, the previous (memorial) picture that will finally be selected by the
dream, besides the similarity in structure and appearance with the
initial, it must also have some emotional similarity with it. In other
words when the subject/dreamer had experienced this previous event, and
recorded it in his memory, besides the similar picture he had seen he
must have also felt some similar emotion, (quite natural since similar
pictures can stand for similar emotions). These relived emotions are
very usefull for the needs of the dream too.

d. The dream event
This old picture re-appears in the dream, re-produces the emotion it had
produced the time it had happened in the first place, and at the same
time «stands for» the frustrated emotion pending from the day before.
That's exactly what dreams really are: re-presentations and
re-dramatizations of frustrated initial events with previous (memorial)
pictures. In other words dreams obviously have the pictures of some
previous event(s), secretly they have the spatial (and temporal)
structure of the initial event, they also have some selected emotions of
both.

Space and emotion
This is why the method is called "space-emotional". Given the absolute
relativity of space and time everything we said so far about space is
valid for time as well and the space-emotional method is also meant as
space-(time)-emotional.

Note: The interpretation of the dream "sad little girl" one can find in this site, is a very analytical example of how the method is applied in practice.

Back to DREAM