The other day a fellow student was telling me about a dream she’d had. She was heavily pregnant, despite not being pregnant the day before, but that’s dream logic for you. She visited the hospital for a check up, and coincidentally one of her friends was also due to give birth, yet she was experiencing problems with her pregnancy, so everyone was concerned for her well-being.
Upon being informed of the good health of the baby, the first girl was assured that she had plenty of time before the birth, so she left the hospital and went to buy a magazine. However, once she had left the shop, copy of Mother & Baby in hand, she suddenly went into labour in the street and gave birth within minutes to a screaming infant, presumably as morning commuters tutted at her for blocking a ‘red route’.
Now, I’m no psychologist but… No wait, I am supposed to be a psychologist in-training…. Okay, so in my (inexperienced) opinion, it’s quite clear what this dream symbolises, even though I’m certainly no expert on pregnancy, seeing as the closest that I’ve ever come to giving birth was the day after eating a particularly spicy chicken curry.
To me it seems likely that my fellow student is channelling her MSc-related fears into her night-time thoughts. She’s concerned about making the grades and worried about the prospects of her friends. You and me both.
Whilst I have yet to experience a nightmare in which I’m plummeting to the ground, seemingly doomed, before suddenly finding myself bouncing back up from the rather springy couch of a dreamlike Sigmund Freud, I have found myself waking in a cold sweat to thoughts of content analysis. Not a pleasant start to a day.
And as I’ve watched a slightly deranged train passenger yelling that he “… used to ROB PEOPLE” and was “RUTHLESS”, I couldn’t stop myself from thinking what were the antecedents for this behaviour and what treatments would benefit this troubled man?
I guess that it’s an inevitable consequence of studying a masters course. It’s so mentally taxing that it pervades our lives. It’s not easy to switch off completely as we try to unwind in our hectic social lives or part-time jobs.
It’s almost like we’re expected to, well… master our subject. Who’d a funk it? Whilst it’s too early to be congratulating anyone, I would like to offer my sincerest best wishes for the expected births in a few months time, when those of us that have lasted the course will see an end to nine months labour, and out will pop a fully formed (but hopefully not too slimy) dissertation, for us to proudly hold before ourselves. At this point it will feel that all the suffering has been worth it. It wasn’t so bad! What next?
This Little Thing Called Life 
Yeah, I had a really weird dream. I went out with this really tall man and for some reason I found it hard to walk. We shouted at each other for a couple of hours then drank lemoncello. Oh wait…that was real wasn’t it?!!
It’s what dreams are made of. 😉
I haven’t dreamt in ages. However, when I was a wee lass, I used to dream every Christmas Eve that a masked man, armed with a knife, was trying to kill me. He never found me because I was too good a hider. What is that all about, Mr. Psychologist-in-training? Perhaps it’s a good thing I don’t dream anymore.
Congratulations on the masters course. Oh. While I appreciate your witty comparison between childbirth and your chicken curry experience, trust me, it’s not even close.
Maybe your parents had an unusual take on what a Santa Claus costume should be? That sounds disturbing! Everyone dreams, it’s part of REM sleep. If you don’t remember them, it’s just that they aren’t very long or vivid. I haven’t finished the masters yet, so your congratulations are premature, but thanks anyway.
The only dreams I had of late involved………………… hmmmmmmmmmmmmmm…………. I typed it then removed it. I could get arrested.
I haven’t had any memorable dreams lately, especially of the hmmmm variety, which is a shame.
Think M for rather than S for
That’s too cryptic for me to understand!