22 October 2007

 

What's the metaphor?

Christmas 2006 crowd at the Austin Airport at Flickr.comI've been having unusual, interesting dreams this week. All of them have been about transportation problems.

Last night it was a strange chase by a Customs agent/bounty hunter who followed my companions and me across the border from the U.S. into Canada. The night before, I was running around an airport, late for a plane, with stuff spilling out of my luggage (by the way, earlier that day, in real life, I'd taken my parents to their flight). A day before that, I was struggling to get aboard a ferry. And Thursday night I was in a crowded van crawling through huge crowds on a muggy street, maybe in New Orleans.

I'm sure this all has something to do with fighting cancer—a way for my brain to try to resolve the frustrations of surgeries and radiation and chemotherapy going on and on and on. Anyone have further analysis?

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# 11:04 AM

Comments:

This is obviously an expression of your latent homosexual tendencies.

/duck
# posted by Anonymous gillian : 22 October, 2007 12:52
 
Well, duh, I mean besides the obvious.

"Customs agent/bounty hunter" indeed.

And you should have written that in a detached German accent, by ze way.
# posted by Blogger Derek : 22 October, 2007 12:57
 
Souldn't ze aksent be razer Austrian ?
# posted by Anonymous Laurence : 22 October, 2007 13:07
 
i just woke up from a crazy transportation dream myself. i was flying somewhere, and just as i was reaching the security check point i realized that i had misplaced just about ALL my carry-on luggage: laptop, jacket, boarding pass, etc. it was nowhere to be found and then i started crying.
# posted by Anonymous eli : 22 October, 2007 13:54
 
I'd have to go with a simple escapism theme: you're trying to get away from your troubles but something keeps getting in the way?
# posted by Anonymous Kirsten : 22 October, 2007 16:41
 
And your destination is the place where you don't have cancer - where you may or may not admit ze sexual preferences... (laughing) Don't lose sight of that sun drenched destinaation.
# posted by Blogger Melanie : 23 October, 2007 06:51
 
Okay, last night was a little different: I was debating the merits of DSL vs. cable Internet with Bill Gates and some other people in what I think was a mountain cable gondola. My imagination is starting to run out of new transportation modes.
# posted by Blogger Derek : 23 October, 2007 09:32
 
Well, it's very possible that you taking your parents to the airport caused your dreams about the airport.

Other than that who can say for sure? I think Freud believed that dreams presented phychological conflicts. Maybe your dreams expressed a need to escape or a need to take action as faster as possible. Difficult to interpret dreams. Usually they mean nothing a all.
# posted by Anonymous Anonymous : 23 October, 2007 11:59
 
So, Freud thought that dreams represent wishes in the unconsious that are repressed, because they are unacceptable by the consious mind.

Maybe, you would like to leave your troubles behind and get your family with you, but that is not possible. Here is a psychological conflict. But all this is all speculation.

Actually, Freud's psychotherapy, i.e. psychoanalysis is somewhat complicated (plus as therapy it takes time, usually many years) and I believe its ideas are not easily applicable. Other forms of psychotherapy like cognitive-behavioural therapy are much easier applied, very effective and short.
# posted by Anonymous Anonymous : 23 October, 2007 13:43
 
Or better, a psychological conflict of yours could be: you would like to stop treatments, leave and get your family with you, but that at the same time you want to stay and fight the disease.

Again, it's all speculative. But Freud ideas were interesting nonetheless and not to be discarded.
# posted by Anonymous Anonymous : 23 October, 2007 13:46
 
By complete coincidence, the New York Times just published two articles about dreams and dream research. Have at it.
# posted by Blogger Derek : 23 October, 2007 14:22
 
I think reading your blog is having an impact on my subconscious... last night I had a dream that I was riding the skytrain back and forth through the city.
# posted by Anonymous Tarya : 24 October, 2007 19:22
 
No no, I am really good at this. It means you have had so much on your plate lately. You have a lot of things backed up and you know it. You are feeling overwhelmed with all the things that you need to do in your life. The customs agents that are holding you back are the things in your life that are holding you back from accomplishing what you need done. May it be your treatments or your health, you need to answer to this first. It can be hard to bow down to such "customs agents", but sometimes they are the ones that can give you that much needed rest and to slow your life down to a normal level. I hope this is helpful.
# posted by Anonymous Anonymous : 25 October, 2007 17:41
 
Actually, I don't have much on my plate at all. I've intentionally (and finally, after years of doing otherwise) taken the chance to say no to things so that I don't have a big backlog of a to-do list.

Zo I guess vee haff to go bak to ze Austrian analyziss!
# posted by Blogger Derek : 25 October, 2007 18:29
 
I dunno, I dream that I fly, but it's usually self-propelled (e.g. a-la Superman)...
# posted by Blogger Raul : 31 October, 2007 10:57