Language and dreams

Language is momentous and the most mysterious product of the mind. From the first utterance to the least trivial spoken word, there lies a whole chapter of evolution. In language we have the freedom to use symbolism and articulate conceptual thinking. Without language there is no expression of our thoughts. All cultures of humanity have their own complete and articulate language.

Animals on the other hand, express their emotions by suggestion. Their language is restricted to sounds of a general emotional significance. There is no articulate speech in animals; they vocalize sounds in order to communicate. For example, a dog will growl, whine, or bark.  Even primates such as the ape do not have the power of speech. Descriptions of their behavior in research suggest they use sounds only to signify their feelings and perhaps desires. Their vocal expressions of love are symptoms of an emotion, not the name of it, nor any other symbol that it represents. True language begins only when a sound keeps its reference beyond the situation of its instinctive utterance, e.g. when an individual can say not only: “My love, my love!” but also: “He loves me – he loves me not.” Some animals may meet their food with exclamatory sounds but they are more like a cry for “yum, yum!” rather than: “Milk today,”  “meat today,” or “fish today!”  They are sounds of enthusiastic assent, of a specialized emotional reaction; they cannot be used between meals to talk over the merits of the meal.

The prototype of language can only be found in humans. Therefore, it may be supposed that humanity by nature is a linguistic primate. 

If language is born from the profoundly symbolic character of the human mind, it would be logical to believe that the mind tends to operate with symbols far below the level of speech. Previous research has shown that even the subjective record of experiencing the observation of images is not a direct copy of  an actual experience, but has been “projected,” in the process of copying, into a new dimension, the more or less stable form of the picture. It is not the changeable elusiveness of the real visual experience, but a unity and lasting identity that makes it an object of the mind’s possession rather than a sensation. Furthermore, it is a “free” association of the mind in which it can call up images and let them fill the virtual space of vision between us and the real objects, similar to projecting pictures on a screen and being able to dismiss them without altering the course of events. They are our own product, but not part of ourselves as our physical actions are. We privately compare them with our uttered words which can be contemplated but not actually lived.

Images have all the characteristics of symbols. We attend to them only in their capacity of meaning things and not encountered.

The best guarantee of their symbolic function is their tendency to become metaphorical. They are unable to “mean” things that only have a logical analogy to their primary meanings. For example, people consider a rose as a symbol of feminine beauty so readily that it is harder to associate roses with vegetables than with girls. Fire is a natural symbol of life and passion, though it is the one element in which nothing can live. Its mobility and flare, its heat and color, make it an irresistible symbol of all that is living, feeling, and active. Therefore, images are our readiest instruments for abstracting concepts from actual impressions. They are a spontaneous - embodiment of general ideas.

The thing we do with images is to imagine a story; just as the first thing we do with words is to make a statement.

The making of images is the mode of our uneducated thinking, and stories are its earliest product. We think of things happening; we see with the minds’ eye the shoes we would like to buy, and the transaction of buying them. Pictures and stories are the mind’s stock and trade.

Fantasies, like all symbols, are derived from specific experiences. But like the original perception, any item that sticks in the mind is spontaneously abstracted and used symbolically to represent a whole kind of actual happenings. Everything that is perceived is mostly retained in memory and called up in imagination when it occurs again.

The symbolic status of fantasies is genuine by the regularity with which they follow certain basic laws of symbols. Like words and images they tend to convey metaphysical meanings.

Metaphor is the law of growth of every symbol. It is attested by the fact that the lowest products of the brain are metaphorical fantasies which are symbolic of dreams.