Vision and Language in Dreams

Dreams consist of both visual images and languages and language. One tool used by Near Eastern Writers, ancient Greek, writers, medieval Muslims writers, and Freud was to examine what the possible meanings of dream images were, but another tool known to all of these groups would of been to specifically look for puns and metaphors in the dreams. Another interpretation used was that some

dreams meant their exact opposite, in fact Freud goes so far as to cite examples of how ancient languages often used the same root word for two opposite things. And lastly another tool would have been to try to focus on the visual images of a dream, an approached used by Artemidorus and favored by Aristotle.

The idea that dreams contain puns wherein the words used for images one sees in a dream can be studied and inferences can be made about what those puns mean is a practice found in all of the aforementioned oneirocritic traditions. In the ancient Near East there was an idea that dreams were a kind of secret legal contract between humans and the gods, but because of their secret nature one needed to visit a powerful dream interpreter to find out what one’s dream meant because they were not always self evident. For example there’s a point in the Epic Gilgamesh when Ea warns Utnapishtim to “spurn property” which we later learn sounds very similar to and actually means “construct boat”. Another example from the same story is when Ea tells Utnapishtim that she dreamt that the people would receive an abundance of wheat cakes, which Utnapishtim takes as meaning that there will be a heavy dark storm, notice how in this last example the interpretation of the dream not only plays off of puns in the dream but the ultimate meaning is actually counterintuitive and opposite of what it originally said. The notion of the polarity of dreams and their meanings is another important theme of dream interpretation related to visual input verses the language used in dreams. A link between ancient Near East and Freudian interpretation of dreams can be made because it was said that the very act of interpreting a dream and “solving” its word mysteries could dissolve its harmful consequence, a notion that Freud would later support fully albeit for different reasons.

Puns of this kind as well as the polarity of dreams and their meanings can be both in all levels of dream literature of the Jews. The two most prominent figures related to dreams in the Hebrew Bible are Joseph and Daniel both of whom became foreigners in other lands. The use of word play and puns is quite evident when one looks at Joseph’s interpretations of the cupbearer, the baker, and the Pharaoh’s dreams. In the cupbearer’s dream grapes can be equated to people, budded can also mean prosperity so Joseph interprets his dream as meaning that soon he will be exonerated. However the baker’s dream is more grim because the word used for food in the basket on his head is a word that’s normally used to talk about a carcass left for birds to eat, and the mention of white bread is equated to Pharaoh’s heated anger, so the dreams ultimate means that the baker will receive a harsh punishment. Joseph uses similar means to interpret Pharaoh’s dream, reckoning abundance to seven years.

Another issue that would of been important to ancient Near Eastern people, Biblical era Hebrews, and Freud alike would of been the issue of reoccurring dreams. For the Near Eastern and Biblical people the repeat of a dream obviously meant that it was of some significance because it was being sent to the person for another go at interpretation. For Freud it would of meant that the dream represented something unresolved in the unconscious and one needed to find the meaning in it.

Ancient Greeks also had many similar ideas on oneirocritic traditions. An example of somebody with similar ideas on dream interpretation is Artemidorus. Artemidorus had two practices related to the visualization of dreams that were not as popular in Near Eastern culture but has Freudian echoes. Artemidorus made a case for dream images as being symbolic and similar to something else, for example he likens a crucifix to a sailing mast when interpreting a sailor’s dream. Notice too that that Artemidorus takes into consideration details about the person interpreting a dream, ancient Near Easterners would of done this too but mainly in the context of whether that person was pious and ritually clean enough to receive dreams, not so much relating their particular life circumstances, such as being a sailor, as being a critical part of the person’s dream interpretation. This notion that different people’s dreams can mean different things gave Artemidorus much more leeway when interpreting dreams images and puns.

Another ancient Greek interested in dreams was Aristotle, although Aristotle did not necessarily believe that one could gain any daemonic knowledge from dreams, he believed they were value to interpret because they could put one in touch with their imagination and give one introspective knowledge about one’s self. For Aristotle the important thing in dreams would have been apparitions and the conversations one has with them. Because the imagination is the part of one’s mind that can make radical associations and isn’t limited by things like reason and memory it can the source of some unique knowledge. Because the nature of imagination the notion that dream images are representative of something else similar would not of been lost on Aristotle.

Aristotle’s imagination is somewhat similar to Freud’s unconscious because it makes unusual associations, isn’t hampered by reason, and is the dominant force at work in one’s dreams. There too is a need for an interpreter in the Aristotelian system of dreams and a dream interpreter is said to be in touch with and have great understanding of the imagination. The interpreter would of looked at things such as the images and conversations in the dreams and then try to figure out what other things those images are related to. As a sort of proof for his methods Aristotle cited the occurrence of how in dreams you will see a figure in a distance and it will look one way, perhaps like a horse, and when you get closer to it will look another way, perhaps like a man. So the idea goes that your imagination made these kinds of associations but it isn’t until you’re asleep that your imagination, working off of the residue of your senses, plays with these associations.

Medieval Muslims would of been aware of all of these traditions and here are elements of each in the Islamic dream interpretation tradition. There is some conflict in the Islamic world about whether dreams had any value at all. John C. Lamoreaux argues that even from the early stages of Islam dreams played a paramount and central role in orthodoxy. Puns were a popular form of interpretation in the early Islamic world, and puns were also popular in Islamic poetry. Images were important in Muslims dreams, especially the image of the prophet, because it was said that Satan could not take the form of Muhammad and any dream that Muhammad appeared in was a true dream. Dream visions as being representative of something else by way of the Artemidorian system would of been known to early Muslims also by way of many popular dream manuals and the notion that the individual circumstances of the person having a dream were of supreme importance would of been known to Muslims as well.

Another important issue, present in all the traditions talked about so far with the exception possibly of Freud, is the idea of a junk dream. Not every single dream had profound meaning. Also it said that a dream from an impious or ungifted person probably did not hold much weight. The notable exception to this idea is of course Freud, who held that all images in dreams are important and represent some facet of the unconscious.

Dreams played a critical role in all of these traditions and continue to do so until this day. One can speculate endlessly about why dreams meant so much in these traditions, one possible answer is that the attempt to try to understand dreams is an attempt to try to subdue them there by conquering them. It is an attempt to try to apply things from the waking world, like reason, cause and effect, unto our dreams that do not apparently seem to follow these kinds of rules.