The Dreamer's Use of Space

Abstract

The dreamer often portrays wishes, conflicts, or current problems in terms of visual-spatial representations and metaphors. The spatial dimensions of dreams frequently signify important affective themes of the dream. In doing so, they serve to continue or reflect processes of self-recognition in relation to the environment, processes that began in early childhood, when the developing child's experience of movement through space played a central role in organizing affect and motivation systems that contribute to emerging schemata of the self. Representations of that movement through space gradually grow to serve a broader symbolic function, as may be seen in the spatial dimensions of both play and dreaming. Spatial relations then become building blocks for aspects of metaphoric and abstract thinking. The resultant personal "geography," a constellation of physical imagery of a body moving through space, retains an important place in mental life as development unfolds. It is complemented and enhanced by the achievement of language, but it never recedes as a core aspect of self. Developmental and neurobiological observations suggest the clinical usefulness of heightened attention to this spatial aspect of dreams. Clinical examples illustrate how attention to the spatial arrangements of a dream and the dreamer's movement through space can enhance access to the affective tone and meaning of the dream.