Gamwell’s Dream Book

Review of Lynn Gamwell, ed., Dreams 1900-2000: Science, Art, and the Unconscious Mind (Cornell Studies in the History of Psychiatry). Ithaca, NY: Cornell University Press, 2000. ISBN: 080143730X, pp. 304, illus. 100 color and 500 black and white, $50.00.

This book, and the exhibition it accompanied, are commemorations of the one-hundredth anniversary of Sigmund Freud’s The Interpretation of Dreams. It is an unusual exhibit catalog, however, indeed it may not be an exhibit catalog at all, but a dream in its own way. It is itself an exhibit containing carefully selected images inspired by dreams in the plastic, performing, and cinematic arts of the 20th century. It contains three major sections. The first consists of essays of very different length, purpose, and tone, illustrated by photographs of the art forms discussed; the more scientific essays are accompanied by diagrams. The second is the sumptuous “Gallery” of more than 150 works of art in color and black and white relating to dreams and dreaming. The third is an alphabetical “Dream Archive” containing some 500 small black and white photographs, with references to those included elsewhere in the text.

The foreword, by August Ruhs, M.D., of the Universitätsklinik für Tiefenpsychologie und Psychotherapie, Vienna, defines the vast importance of the insights contained in Freud’s book. “It was precisely on the basis of dream interpretation that Freud was able to develop, for the first time, an aesthetic and rhetoric of the unconscious” (p. 9). Several of the following essays also remark upon the “language of dreams.”

Lucy Daniels, of the Lucy Daniels Foundation, Raleigh, NC, provides a preface, “Dreams in Pursuit of Art,” which includes a personal memoir of the way in which a dream freed her of writer’s block and provided energy for a period of creative activity.

The keystone essay is “The Muse Is Within: The Psyche in the Century of Science,” by Lynn Gamwell, director of the Art Museum at the State University of New York, Binghamton, who organized the exhibit and edited the volume. Her article combines dream-related aspects of the history of art and the history of psychology in the 20th century in a remarkable tour de force. She approaches art in the widest sense, including literature, painting, sculpture, dance, drama, film, and video. (Her choice of selections for the gallery section of the book is similarly eclectic, with the exception of literature.)

Beginning with the state of psychology and neurology in 1900, which she attempts to show was under the major influence of Darwin’s thought, she proceeds to trace the braiding of psychoanalysis and art through the century, with balanced attention to the theories of Freud, Carl Jung, Jacques Lacan, and others. Schools of art such as the symbolists and surrealists receive due attention.

Other intellectual currents, such as the philosophy of phenomenology and James George Frazer’s study of mythology, receive attention, if all too brief. This reviewer was particularly interested in her analysis of Jung’s influence on the dancer-choreographer Martha Graham. The author concludes with the impact of scientific discoveries in the second half of the century: REM sleep, DNA, neuroscience, and the computer.

But all that is a lot for an essay which is

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only 43 pages long, with space, albeit well-deserved, devoted to many illustrations, so that throughout, Gamwell can only summarize and indicate fruitful fields of possible further study of the relationship of dreams to art and psychoanalysis.

Ernest Hartmann, M.D., of the Tufts University School of Medicine, follows with “The Psychology and Physiology of Dreaming: A New Synthesis.” He reviews the work of recent sleep researchers, concluding that while the biology of REM sleep is important, it does not provide a complete explanation of dreaming, since dreaming occurs in several states outside REM sleep. Hartmann’s synthesis is based on his perception that dreams picture emotions, and are very good at making connections between images and emotional states. He maintains that more focused activities, such as reading, writing, and computation (the “Three R’s”), almost never occur in dreams. This reviewer, who has a recurring dream of visiting a library and consulting old tomes there, must conclude that he is one of Hartmann’s exceptions.

The last essay, by Donald Kuspit of the State University of New York, Stony Brook, is entitled “From Vision to Dream: The Secularization of the Imagination.” He sees the 20th century as a period of the debunking of both religion and dreams, and of the connection between them. In the 19th century, romanticism affected the art derived from dreams, and William Blake could portray religion as a sun that illuminated life, even in dreams. Freud, as Kuspit quotes him, was happy to live in the basement or at most the mundane first floor of human life, from which that sun was rarely visible. Dreams, in our day, take place mainly in the dark. “‘DREAM,’” says Kuspit, “is the name of another backstreet of art.”

The 122-page Gallery of art related to dreams that follows is, however, no backstreet. In fact, it argues well for recognizing the art of dreams as a major 20th-century theme. The reproductions are of fine size, color, and quality, and the selection is for the most part excellent. There are many full-page photographs, reproduced paintings, and engravings. Films are represented by a series of selections of stills. These dream images are a delight to the eye and stimulation to the mind. This reviewer caught himself about to say that it would make a wonderful coffee-table book (it is of the appropriate size), but given the subject, it should probably be recommended as a night-table book.

The Dream Archive at the back of the book is a reference work of considerable value, although it is not exhaustive, as the editor admits. There is also a fine listing of films with dream themes, each with thumbnail summaries appended. This will be an aspect of the book useful to teachers of courses on film, or who use film in the study of psychohistory.

Anyone interested in the aesthetics of dreams in the 20th century would be well advised to invest in this attractive and thought-provoking book.

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