Dream and Creative Writing

楊公建

Abstract： Freud asserts that the unconscious will express its suppressed wishes and desires. The unconscious will then redirect and reshape these concealed wishes into acceptable social activities， presenting them in the form of images or symbols in our dreams and /or our writings. Dream is the unconscious which promotes the creative writing.

Key Words： The Unconscious， Dream， Creative Writing

Everyone can have dreams which fascinate， perplex and disturb human beings. Filled with bizarre twists of fate， wild exploits， and highly sexual images， peoples dreams can bring them pleasure or terrorize them. Sometimes dreams cause people to question our feelings， to contemplate their unspoken desires， and even to doubt the nature of reality itself. Do dreams serve any useful function in writing？ Faced with the question， many writers have cxlaimed that they have received some of their best ideas from their dreams. Robert Louis Stevenson， for example， maintained that many of his ideas for Dr. Jekylle and Mr. Hyde came directly from his nightmares. Similarly， Dante， Goethe， Blake， Bunyan， and a host of others owed much of their writings， they claimed， to their world of dreams. Still others， such as Poe， DeQuincey， and Coleridge， borrowed from their drug-induced dreams the content of some of their most famous works.

As for the notion of dream， different psychologists have different ideas. But the ideas of Freud and Jung are so innovative that they frequently serve as inspiration for later works in the field of dream analysis. For Freud， dreams are a form of fulfilling suppressed wishes. Jung， as the successor of Freud， disagreed with Feuds basic premise that all human behavior is sexually driven； he asserts that dreams include mythological images as well as sexual ones.

No matter which notion of dream， it is believed that dreams play an important role in creative writing.

As far as dream and creative writing is concerned， to Freud， he claims that the source of creative writings comes from fantacy or daydream which is the fulfillment of unsatisfied wishes. Of course， Freud is not the first one to investigate the relation between dream and creative writing. Plato， for instance， traces literary imagination to divine inspiration. Therefore， Freud asserts that “our actual enjoyment of an imaginative work proceeds from a liberation of tensions in our minds”. He also believes the unresolved conflicts that give rise to any neurosis constitute the staff of literature. A work of literature， he supposes， is the external expression of the authors unconscious mind. Accordingly， the literary work must then be treated like a dream， applying psychoanalytic techniques to the text to uncover the authors hidden motivations， repressed desires， and wishes. Freud says that an authors chief motivation for writing any story is to gratify some secret desire， some forbidden wish that probably developed during the authors infancy and was immediately suppressed and dumped in the unconscious. The outward manifestation of this suppressed wish becomes the literary work itself. Freud declares that the literary work is therefore the authors dream or fantacy.

Since Freud believes that the literary text is really an artists dream or fantacy， the text can and must be analyzed like a dream. For Freud， this means that we must assume that the dream is a disguised wish.

For us， we have our own dreans which lie in our subconsciousness. Faced with the proper time， place， and stimulus， they will occur. Many distinguished works come out when creative writers disguised wishes in the subconscious are activated. In China， the greatest poet Li Po of Tang dynasty writes the famous poem “Jing Ye Shi”， which describes the poets deep feelings about the family reunion. In poets subconsciousness， he yearns for “Family Reunion” ； faced with the bright moon and the right occasion， the poets inner feelings about “Family Reunion” pour out spontaneously. In other words， the occasion “the bright moon in high sky” is stimulated by the poets inspiration （ the inner feeling about his family）， and the perfect combination produces the distinguished poem which is passed down from one generation to another. There are so many cases like this abroad. For example， in Italy， a violinist named Giuseppe Tartini living in the eighteenth century， similarly was inspired by his dream. It was said that one night he dreamed the devil came to his bedside and offered to help him finish a rather difficult sonata in exchange for his soul. Tartini agreed， whereupon the devil picked up Tartinis violin and completed the unfinshed work. On awakening， Tartini jotted down fron memory what he had just heard. Known as The Devils Trill Sonata， this piece is Tartinis best known composition. As the chinese saying says “one will dream what he thinks during the day”. Let put it in another way， what you dream in the night has direct relation to what you think in the daytime. It is the dream that give the composer inspiration.

To sun up， dreams usually play an important role in creative writings. It is dreams that endow the author with inspiration and help him express his inner feelings. A lot of famous works which are passed on generations by generations attribute their success to authors dreams （ inspirations） .

【Reference】

[1]Zhu Gang， Twentieth Century Western Critical Theories， Shanghai Foreign Language Education Press， 2001.

[2]Charles E. Bressler， Literary Criticism， New Jersey： Pearson Education， Inc. 2002.

[3]Freud， The Complete Introductory Lectures on Psychoanalysis. Trans. James Strachey. New York： Norton， 1996.