I now turn to analysis of dream texts. I have chosen data from my dream journal in order to investigate Jung’s proposed narrative structure of dreams.4 First I will look at a set of texts in order to see how well the Exposition phase, i.e. the identification of existents, characterizes the texts in the set. Next I will look at the narrative structure of a complete dream text.
Orientations: The Exposition phase
Beginning with the Exposition phase, which may consist of the spatial and possibly temporal setting, the characters involved, and the initial situation, my journal contains numerous reports which begin by situating the dreamer in a certain location, although some are quite simple, others more elaborate. For example:
1. I walk into a large old hall of a college building. It seems to be Steven Pinker’s office, or a classroom where he teaches.
2. I am standing on a bluff.
3. In a house with others (someone else’s). On a couch in a den with J. to my left and a man to his left.
4. I am in a meadow at twilight with J. It is huge, open, green, with gently rolling hills at the edges. There is a pedestrian tunnel or passageway.
5. I come out of a building at dark, early evening in winter, onto a slippery backyard slope with someone else.
6. I am lying on a table, like a hospital operating table, in a room with cognitive science and linguistics faculty.
7. At a show of some kind, like the Spectrum or other indoor amphitheatre. I sit next to J. in a sideways-facing mezzanine level.
8. I happen on a park with a pool, amid rolling hills and open space.
9. I am in a large house/building with others. A room with a huge scorpion running around.
10. I am in a tower, with members of a committee.
11. I am with some man--J., V., a composite, or someone–. We arrive at a museum parking lot.
12. Flying in an airplane with a man, maybe two.
I now turn to analysis of dream texts. I have chosen data from my dream journal in order to investigate Jung’s proposed narrative structure of dreams.4 First I will look at a set of texts in order to see how well the Exposition phase, i.e. the identification of existents, characterizes the texts in the set. Next I will look at the narrative structure of a complete dream text.
Orientations: The Exposition phase
Beginning with the Exposition phase, which may consist of the spatial and possibly temporal setting, the characters involved, and the initial situation, my journal contains numerous reports which begin by situating the dreamer in a certain location, although some are quite simple, others more elaborate. For example:
1. I walk into a large old hall of a college building. It seems to be Steven Pinker’s office, or a classroom where he teaches.
2. I am standing on a bluff.
3. In a house with others (someone else’s). On a couch in a den with J. to my left and a man to his left.
4. I am in a meadow at twilight with J. It is huge, open, green, with gently rolling hills at the edges. There is a pedestrian tunnel or passageway.
5. I come out of a building at dark, early evening in winter, onto a slippery backyard slope with someone else.
6. I am lying on a table, like a hospital operating table, in a room with cognitive science and linguistics faculty.
7. At a show of some kind, like the Spectrum or other indoor amphitheatre. I sit next to J. in a sideways-facing mezzanine level.
8. I happen on a park with a pool, amid rolling hills and open space.
9. I am in a large house/building with others. A room with a huge scorpion running around.
10. I am in a tower, with members of a committee.
11. I am with some man--J., V., a composite, or someone–. We arrive at a museum parking lot.
12. Flying in an airplane with a man, maybe two.
As diverse as the surface features of these settings described by these statements may be, each one describes the dreamer’s initial location. Sometimes the opening statement incorporates other characters in the dream. In (4), for example, the first sentence consists of a statement of physical setting, temporal setting, and actors. The first sentence in (3), by contrast, situates the dreamer in a location that includes other people who are not individualized, although it is made clear that this is not the dreamer’s domicile. The second sentence specifies the dreamer’s position in the setting, and includes information about the dreamer’s position with respect to other actors, now depicted as individuals. In (5) the initial sentence shows the dreamer and an unnamed character actually entering upon the scene, which is described in terms of both time and place.
Occasionally the introduction of actors precedes that of location, as in e.g., (11). Finally, sometimes the opening sentence describes location, characters, and a situation, all three, as in (12).
The second (and third) sentence of the Exposition phase of these dream texts may provide further description of that place, e.g. (4), “It is huge, open, green, with gently rolling hills at the edges. There is a pedestrian tunnel or passageway”, or it may, additionally, incorporate a situation in progress, as in (9), “A room with a huge scorpion running around”.
Almost as easily found in my journal, however, are dream reports in which characters and setting seem to be of secondary or no importance, for the dream text begins directly with a statement of the situation, occasionally incorporating the dreamer as actor. For example:
13. Someone has advertised something in the newspaper –something for sale.
With someone else driving, we go to meet this person at a designated spot on the highway. It appears to be San Francisco-like, and we have to drive onto a bridge that is partly –mostly– underwater. Several cars have either been wrecked or stranded off to the left.
14. There is a fire somewhere nearby.
The kids and I go out to see where, and after some confused searching, turning in this direction and that, I see the fire blazing on top of a (suburban) hill, burning down a house, I think. Later we seem to be closer to it and I see some kind of glass office building in ruins, post-fire smouldering.
15. I am looking for our (family’s) plane tickets to China.
The flight is for 5 p.m. tomorrow, and I want to confirm it. I keep looking in the stack of papers inside my top drawer, but I can’t see close up anymore, so I don’t find it --perhaps because I just keep missing seeing it.
16. I am a substitute drummer for the Grateful Dead.
For some reason Mickey Hart (the only drummer for the Dead in the dream), is sick or otherwise unavailable, and I have been selected to play in his stead.
17. My cookware (pots and pans) is chipped.
The stainless steel, I think, but especially my cast iron skillet, which more closely resembles V.’s iron pan. There is a wavy, “bite-sized” chip in it about an inch or so long.
In (13) and (14), subsequent sentences do provide information on setting and characters, although in (14) they are incorporated into an elaboration of the situation. In (15), the opening statement of situation is followed by one of explanation for the activity, which is followed in turn by a sentence providing minimal information on the dreamer’s location (before the top drawer). In (16), the dream report opens with a statement of the dreamer’s situation, which is followed by an explanation for this state of affairs, recognized as unusual even in the dream. Setting and finally characters are introduced in this dream only after several more sentences which expand upon the initial situation.
The dream text of (17), presented in its brief entirety above, consists of a static image of a set of objects. Aside from the dreamer as witness to the image, there are no characters and there is no setting or action, merely this one situation.
To summarize, there are considerable possibilities for variation within the Exposition phase which nevertheless preserve its structure. I found no examples of dreams that did not have anyof the elements identified by Jung as pertaining to this phase within the first few statements of the text; even dreams such as (17) which consisted of a single image had at least the element of a situation in some, albeit unidentified, space. The initial statements of dream reports seem to fit Chafe’s statement on narratives in general --they “give evidence that the mind has a need for orientation in terms of space, time, social context, and ongoing events” (Chafe 1990:97), this evidence being that narratives typically begin with “a statement of the particular place, time, characters, and background activity against which the events of the narrative proper then unfold” (Chafe 1990:94). Or, to use Chatman’s term, this orientation is achieved through a statement of existents.
Full dream text
Turning now to the remaining phases of the dream as suggested by Jung (Development,
Culmination, and Solution or Result), I present a dream report in its entirety in order to investigate the presence of these phases and their narrative elements. The numbering of the statements is my division into the phases.5 The Exposition phase of this dream text, consisting of a statement of place and a statement about the protagonists, was introduced as (7); it is repeated here as (18a):
18. At an Indoor Amphitheatre with J.
18a. At a show of some kind, like the Spectrum or other indoor amphitheatre. I sit next to J. in a sideways-facing mezzanine level.
18b. During intermission, I go out and realize the music can be heard out here. Standing around one of the entrances, I sing along with the music –it sounds like the Grateful Dead, at least vaguely. I note with someone passing from out to in how you can hear the show outside [it’s in some big city, but which ?], but we agree we’d prefer to be inside.
18c. It looks like it’s E., and he adds, as he passes me going in, how its only five dollars anyway. I think for a moment, because I paid more, and realize that was for reserved seats. Did I really need them?
18d. I make my way back to my seat. J. already seated in his. A woman like G. [from UT] comes along and we try to figure out which is her seat, since she’s trying to sit in mine.
In (18a) there is both a statement of setting (indoor amphitheatre), and a statement of actors (dreamer and dreamer’s spouse), as well as further information on the situation in progress (a show of some kind) and of the actors’ specific position in the amphitheatre: not only are they at the mezzanine level of this amphitheatre, but they are facing sideways. Thus the Exposition positions the actors as spectators to the performance of some ongoing action, yet they are not facing this action directly, but rather indirectly, i.e. sideways (possibly a pun that they are not “facing the music” with respect to a situation).
The next, Development, phase of the dream I have identified as (18b). Something is supposed to occur; tension develops and the situation becomes complicated in the Development phase. The development in the present text appears to be rather ordinary. The dreamer leaves her initial position and exits the structure, a shift of position which causes her to become an “outsider” after having been an “insider” adjacent to a spouse. The dreamer is still participating in the action of the performance from this exterior position, not as a spectator facing the stage sideways, but as an actor in the open air, with greater freedom of movement, who from this fringe position actually participates in the action of the show. Using terms from narratology, the dream text depicts actors acting in events at this phase.
The Culmination phase of this dream, which would see something decisive occurring or changing suddenly, I have identified as (18c). The dreamer is speaking here with another “outsider” who is on his way “in”. This brief exchange of talk introduces a puzzle into the narrative. The dreamer learns that some people, at least, paid less for their seats than she did. Why did she pay more? The question seems to be resolved upon the realization that the dreamer’s seats were reserved. But a further concern is then introduced: it seems now as though it might not have been necessary to pay extra for reserved seats, although no definitive resolution about this is offered at this stage. But the matter of reserved seating seems to be pivotal, for a doubt has been introduced. Was the dreamer duped through naivety? Perhaps she has merely been overly cautious. Or it may be that the purchase of reserved seating was wise. Perhaps the dreamer is more vulnerable than others to the loss of her seat and needs the added protection of reserved seating, or perhaps she simply had to pay a higher price than others to guarantee her place. Events at this phase allow for these questions to be posed, although they remain unanswered here.
The final part of the dream presents the Solution or Result, identified as (18d). The dreamer has left her seat, exited the building, learned something about seating in the amphitheater, and now returns to her seat with this new information. To find someone else occupying one’s seat presents a response to the question of whether or not it was necessary to pay for reserved seating. For here is someone from the dreamer’s past in her seat, and only her reserved ticket proves that the dreamer, and not this acquaintance from her graduate school days, is entitled to occupy this particular seat. So it was a good idea to have a reserved seat after all.
This dream, while not the stuff of high drama, nevertheless conforms to the general characterization of narrative as “the representation of ... events and situations in a time sequence” (Prince) with actors acting and experiencing events. It also conforms to Jung’s phases and can be said to have an identifiable beginning, middle, and end, wherein, following orientation to the existents, there is a development of the situation, a problem identified, a question or puzzle to which the problem gives rise, and a response to that puzzle, resulting ultimately in a “shift from one equilibrium to another” (Todorov).
Although many additional dream reports I have reviewed also seem to conform to this suggested narrative pattern, not all do. Short dream fragments, for example, seem to resemble snapshots more than stories. If some dream reports have narrative structure, but others do not, then it is not the case that we inevitably impose narrative form on dreams in order to relate them, since we are capable of reporting dreams that do not conform to this structure. Recall that for Freud, secondary revision “does not appear to accompany the construction of dreams invariably” (Freud 1900:496). This in turn lends support to the view that our dream reports may be fair representations of our dreams after all.
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