Last night, I dreamt I was an animator skilled in a range of styles.
Some would see it as a wish fulfillment. I have artistic talent and was fully immersed in producing and learning about art in my teens and early twenties. I could have had a career in art if life had gone in that direction. Now, I miss it and sometimes think of how those alternate paths may have been. So yes, the dream can be seen as wish fulfillment.
I see it differently, perhaps in a more Jungian way. I see the dream as aspects of me. Something that’s already here, and the dream invites me to bring it more fully into my life. It invites me to bring more of my wholeness and richness into life.
Those two orientations are similar, and the wish fulfillment one can – if we have that orientation – lead to bringing it into life1.
Still, I prefer the second orientation. What the dream is about is already here, as a potential, in some form. And the dream is an invitation to notice and, in this case, bring it more fully into my life.
I may not be a Japanese animator. But the essence of the dream is, for me, about a fun, imaginative, joyful artistic expression. And that’s something I can do. I have pencils, Japanese brush pens, and paper ready in front of me, and plan to do some drawing today2.
NOTES
- I am I honest, the wish fulfillment orientation (Freud) feels a little sad and cynical, and it requires an extra step for it to encourage us to bring what the dream is about into life. The Jungian approach is more life-affirming to me, and the invitation to bring it more into life is already built in.
- My mother died two days ago, and I can also see the dream as my mother encouraging me to do more art. She did in waking life, and she is on the side of the parts of me that wish for me to more engage in art.
The sketch is one I did a long time ago, when drawing and painting were part of my daily life.