This dream mind is not a logical and orderly thing like the conscious
mind; it is not business-like and civilized, it does not deal in
abstractions. It is far more interested in things than in words; it does
not present us with formulas, but with pictures, and with stories of
weird and wonderful happenings. It is like the mind of the race, which
we study in legends and religions. It does not tell us that the sun is a
mass of incandescent hydrogen gas, so and so many miles in diameter; it
tells us that the sun is a cosmic hero who slays the black dragon of
night. So the mind of our body presents us with innumerable pictures and
symbols, exactly such as we find in poetry. There may be, and frequently
is, dispute as to just what a poet meant by this or that particular
image, but if we read all the work of any particular poet, we get a
certain impression of that poet's individuality. If he is always talking
about the perfume of women's hair and the gleam of the white flesh of
nymphs in the thickets, we are not left in doubt as to what is wrong
with this poet.
And just so, when the expert sets to work to examine all the dreams that
any one person can remember, day after day, sooner or later the expert
observes that these dreams hover continually about one particular
subject; and by questioning the person, he can find out what is the
secret which is troubling the person, perhaps without the person himself
being aware of it. Of course there are many people who like nothing so
much as to talk about themselves; and many are spending their time and
their money on the latest fad of being "psyched," who would, in any
properly organized world, be put to work at hoeing weeds or washing
their own clothes. Nevertheless, it is a fact that there are real mental
disorders in the world, and innumerable honest and earnest people who
have something the matter with them which they do not understand. Here
is one way by which the conscientious investigator can find out what the
trouble is, and make it clear to them, and by establishing harmony
between their conscious and their subconscious minds, can many times put
them in the way of health and happiness.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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