Self Inception:
the Architect Within
Robert Hoss, M.S.
with input from David Kahn, PhD and E. Hartmann, M.D.
The movie Inception proposes an
exciting fantasy dream world where the dream is populated by mutual
dreamers adventuring into the deep layers of the unconscious,
engaging with subconscious projections as well as the inception of
new thoughts intended to change the dreamer’s waking views and
behavior, all taking place on a dream stage designed by the
“architect.” Although Hollywood may have staged the players as
outside forces and stretched the nature of their roles much as they
stretched time, our dreams do indeed contain many of the elements of
Inception. However, our nightly dreams tend toward a natural
inception where we venture into our own unconscious to engage with
our own inner “projections,” guided by our own ‘architect’ within,
which in a sense designs our dreams to follow a natural tendency
toward mental well-being.
Carl Jung, the eminent Swiss psychologist
and one of the founders of analytical psychology, claimed that
dreams are the most readily accessible window into the unconscious,
and that they not only deal with the emotionally important
unresolved business of the day, but also aid in a natural process he
called “individuation,” the process of our becoming a whole,
balanced individual by reconciling our conscious and the unconscious
parts [1]. His theories set the stage for recognizing our own
internal ‘inception’ driven by an inner architect within the
unconscious which he called the “Self.” Jung indicated that this
internal architect is the “organizing center of the personality”
from which the development of the ego consciousness evolves. He
claimed that these natural unconscious forces that we see within our
dreams have a goal beyond that of the ego (the dreamer), that goal
being an urge towards self-realization or coming to terms with one’s
own inner Self. This can be found as a deeper theme woven within
Inception. In the end resolution is achieved only as the key
players each come to terms with their own deep unconscious
misconceived “projections.”
Jung claimed that dreams bring about
internal change through a process called “compensation,” in which
the dream brings an ‘inception’ of new information, or forms new
mental connections, which attempt to “compensate" for our
misconceived projections that keep us trapped and hold back our
growth. Jung further states that dreams also contain a
“transcendent function” which brings about a new awareness in
dreamers permitting them to transcend their present state. This is
seen in the movie when the key players re-awake into a new life
situation, but only after accepting their inner demons in a new
light. In simple terms Jung believed that dreams can ‘incept’ new
information that helps change our waking viewpoint.
All this sounds exciting in theory, but are
our dreaming brains really processing all this information or are
they mostly inactive during dream sleep? Researcher J. A. Hobson
[2] describes a unique combination of active and inactive brain
centers during the REM (rapid eye movement) state dreaming that
appears to account for not only the unusual characteristics of
dreams, but may “underlie the role dreams play in processing of
emotional memories that is often hypothesized by dream psychology
theorists.” During REM, which is the more vivid dreaming state,
much of our brain re-activates or “wakes up,” including centers such
as our limbic system or ‘emotional brain,’ which is thought to
selectively process important emotionally relevant memories, making
emotion (or what is important to us) the “shaper of the dream plot”
rather than a reaction to it. This concept appeared to a minor
degree in Inception, as the dreamer’s deeper emotions altered
the dream plot in unexpected ways.
Dreams appear bizarre but only to the waking
mind. In dreams we are experiencing the inner brain communicating
it its own natural language of association. Dream images appear as
picture-metaphors in part because they are a product of the visual
association cortex which creates imagery combinations that
represent connections being made within; a pictorial blend of
emotion, memory and thought. The weaving of the dream story is also
a creative weaving of meaningful connections which continues
unconstrained in the dream state, giving the dream a creative edge.
David Kahn [6] explains this further. When the dorsal lateral
prefrontal cortex (DLPFC) is not neuronally active, and when there
is no input from the external world, the dreaming brain has a free
reign on story making. It will create stories because that is what
the brain does, but what stories it creates! The free reign on
story making comes about because ‘reality’ checking is not possible
without access to the outside world, and because the DLPFC-parietal
circuit, which provides veridical biographical and autobiographical
knowledge, is relatively inactive.
So are dreams simply making connections in
response to emotion, or do they have a more purposeful function,
perhaps guided by an internal ‘architect’ with a degree of creative
cognition? Jovet (1998) indicated that dreams reprogram cortical
networks to maintain psychological individuality despite adverse
waking experiences. Foulkes (1982) maintained that dreaming is not
a simple replay from our past experience but a creative
recombination of memories and knowledge. David Kahn [6] explains
this further. The on-going activity in the brain consists of
thoughts, recollections and fragments of recollections that may
lead, quite unexpectedly, to another line of thought. This happens
through self-organization whereby a new thought emerges that is
different than the thoughts from which it had developed. As a
self-organizing system, the brain rapidly responds and is poised on
the edge of change. Brain activity is therefore particularly
susceptible to change from both internally and externally initiated
influences. Ernest Hartmann [3] in his Contemporary Theory of
Dreaming, describes dreaming as an emotionally guided,
hyper-connective mental function, which is partly how the brain
learns, creating new connections and weaving new material into
established memory in a way that provides a different perspective
and can help us make important decisions and discoveries. Aside from
promoting psychological growth, there is a wealth of interesting
anecdotes about the creative power of dreams providing solutions,
inventions, songs, and other works of art [4].
Do our dreaming brains contain this
‘cognitive’ ability to create new connections which can provide new
perspectives and ideas when we wake? So far research can’t tell us
exactly how all of the active brain centers function together during
dreaming, but there is certainly adequate cognitive ‘machinery’
present and active during REM. Even though our ‘rational thinking’
brain (the dorsolateral prefrontal cortex) remains inactive during
the dream, there are a number of active centers at the lower front
of the brain which are found to be involved in the internal,
unconscious aspects of cognitive processing (anterior cingulate,
basal ganglion, frontopolar, orbifrontal and medial prefrontal
cortex) [2]. While we don’t fully understand how they operate
together in the dream state, a brief survey of some of the waking
state functioning of these centers provides an interesting potential
for cognitive functioning during dreaming. Various research studies
have indicated these brain centers to be involved in [5]: processing
internally generated information required for analogical reasoning,
planning and problem solving; stimulating motivation; extinction
learning; initiating action to resolve inconsistencies between
conflicting perceptions; mediating resolution by anticipating the
consequences of an action based on experience or imagined outcomes
(dream scenarios?); deciding upon which of several possible
behaviors to execute based on valuing the rewards; monitoring the
outcome of an action and adapting behavior based on that outcome;
self-monitoring of learning and providing a “sense of knowing”; and
facilitating memory consolidation, optimization, encoding and
retrieval. If these centers function similarly during REM, then it
appears that the dream state is capable of significant decision
making and personal change.
David Kahn [6] summarizes it this way.
Dreams provide the dream-self the ability to experience unusual and
improbable events and behaviors not possible in the wake world.
This can be enriching. The dream and its images may be explored
upon awakening to give a clearer understanding of ourselves.
Sometimes dreams offer new perspectives that were not immediately
obvious to the awakened self. Often completely novel associations
occur within the dream that were not apparent to the waking mind.
These, if recalled when awake, might yield unexpected insight that
is beneficial.
So it appears that our dreaming brains may
be capable within themselves of being a creative source of
‘inception,’ of manifesting new ideas or viewpoints which can bring
about a change in our waking behavior. The healthful outside
influence of incubation, dreamwork, meditation, therapy and other
mindful modalities is helpful and often necessary to stir and focus
the creative ‘architect’ within, but dreams appear to carry the
spark of ‘inception’ that can become an integral part of who we are
and who we are to become.
References
Note: Only summary references are listed
here. Contact
bob@dreamscience.org for a detailed listing.
[1] Jung C.
G. (1971), The Portable Jung, Edited by Joseph Campbell, The
Viking Press, N.Y. 1971,
[2] Braun,
Cartwright, Kramer, Maquet, Franck, Nofzinger, Perlis & Nielson in
Hobson, J. A., Pace-Schott, E. F., Stickgold, R. (2003). “Dreaming
and the brain” Sleep and Dreaming. New York, USA, Cambridge
University Press
[3] Ernest
Hartmann, M.D. contributin from his upcoming book The Nature and
Functions of Dreaming, Oxford University Press, 2011 (pending)
[4]
Barrett, D. L. (2001) The
Committee of Sleep, NY: Crown Books/Random House, 2001/hardback
[5] Carter
1998; Bush, 2002; Apps, 2009; Hayden, 2009, Botvinick,1999; Luu,
2004; Allman, 2001; Posner,1998; Kringelbach, 2004 & 2005; Bechara,
et al 1994; Green, 2006; Christoff, 2000; Braver, 2002; Gusnard,
2001; Marley, 2009
[6] David
Kahn, PhD, Harvard Medical School, IASD Board member and Past
President; individual contribution to this paper
Bob Hoss M.S. is author of Dream
Language, IASD Treasurer and Past President and DreamScience
Foundation Director for funding research grants. A scientist with
Gestalt training, he has taught dreamwork for 30 years, is on the
faculty of the Haden Institute, and hosted the IASD DreamTime radio
series
(
http://dreamscience.org
)
