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DREAM EXPLORATIONS

Abstract
This paper is an attempt to explore the dreams along various ways. A critical crossroad is the point where the dream manifests itself as a figure of the Other. Dream interpretations (Sigmund Freud, Medard Boss), violate the alterity of the dreamer – they relate the dream to the constitution of the awake. Dream interpretations are answers to the “Whys” and the “Hows” of a dream. They are explanations that just soothe the uneasiness caused by the uncanny dream world. Few quotes from Elias Canetti’s notes emphasize on the singularity of a dream and its mysterious, i.e. inexplicable nature. A brief critical review of Medard Boss’s conception of dreams allows to understand a dream as magnifying mirror of the existential features decisive for the shortcomings one faces in his everyday life. In psychoanalytic practice (and not only here) we cannot grasp a dream by going straight to the point. “Free associations” and “free floating attention” guide us to other, indirect and unforseen ways of approach. Remembering and forgetting dreams is an experience different from remembering and forgetting things. The question “What is a dream?” is a trap because it demands an answer like “The dream is …”. A dream is not something, it is not a “that”. We attempt to speak about dreams following a phrase in Odyssey – “sie gingen vorbei an den Toren der Sonne, an der Gemeinde Träume, und kamen dann schnell an ihr Ziel, zur Asphodeloswiese”. Further goes a brief discussion of Beckett’s play for television (“Nacht und Träume”). And finally a revision of the famous Dschuang Dsi’s dream (“Butterfly Dream”) on the basis of a painting by Katsushika Hokusai “The chinese philosopher Sōshi looking at butterflies”.

Key words
Dreams, Sigmund Freud, Elias Canetti, Medard Boss, butterfly dream, Samuel Beckett, Hokusai.

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