IX. Read the text. Give your arguments to support or reject one of the two points of view.

1. Dreams protect sleep. 2. Dreams repair self-esteem and competence.

 

Use the following to express your opinion. I think (that)...; in my opinion; as I see it; the point is (that)...; I quite agree; that's just what I think; I am not sure; I disagree.

 

The fact that it is more difficult to awaken a person from REM than from NREM sleep provides some initial support for Freud's idea that dreams protect sleep. An additional partial test of the Freudian theory is to deprive (лишать) subjects of REM sleep, thus depriving them of dreams. If subjects are awakened every time there is an onset of REM, they have a night's sleep without dreams. Early experiments indicated that after such deprivation there was more REM sleep the following night, indicating that there is a kind of "quota" for REM; and there is less REM sleep one night, more will be required the next. Indirectly, this would support the Freudian theory of dreams as a protector of sleep. However, other findings of sleep and dream studies contradict the interpretation of REM as a protector of sleep. In the first place, REM is prominent (заметный) in infants, when meaningful dreams are unlikely to occur, and also in lower mam­mals. The study of the dreams of older children shows that their dreams reflect the realistic activities of their waking lives and that emotional disturbances occur in their dreams when there are emotional disturbances in their waking lives.

The only conclusion to be drawn is that the psychophysiological studies of dreams have given little support to the Freudian theory that the purpose of dreams is to protect sleep.

But from the work done so far, it appears that dreaming serves several cognitive functions: it is measurably involved in mood changes; it seems to provide the energy space for working out problems set aside through days filled with busy activity; and. in general, it offers a kind of workshop for the repair of self-esteem (чувство собственного достоинства) and competence.

 

X. A. What are your sleeping habits? Interview your fellow student using this questionnaire (work in pairs).

1. If you have trouble getting to sleep do you:

a. count sheep;

b. toss and turn;

с. lie still and concentrate.

 

2. When you have dreams are they mostly dreams:

a. about work;

b. nightmares;

с. sweet dreams.

 

3. After a night's sleep do you find that covers:

a. are is tidy as when you went to bed;

b. are all over the floor;

с. are in a heap in the middle of the bed.

 

4. If you wake up in the middle of the night is it because:

a. you remember something you ought to have done;

b. you're cold;

c. you're hungry.

 

5. If you hear a bump in the night do you:

a. get up cautiously and investigate quietly;

b. turn over and go back to sleep;

с. wake up your husband (wife).

 

B. Characterize your partner according to his/her answers.

Use the following words: nervous, calm, sensitive, imaginative, emotional­ly stable.

 

XI. Play the Dream Game which can help you to understand your inner personality.

 

You are asleep and you are dreaming. In your dream you find yourself in your perfect house. What is it like? Describe it in detail.

Now you are walking along a narrow path. Suddenly you find a cup (glass) drinking vessel on the ground in front of you. What is it like? What is in it?

Now the path ends and you are walking in a wood. You walk quite a long way until you find a clearing. In the middle of the clearing is a building. What sort of building is it?

Around the building is a garden. Describe the garden.

You walk out of the garden and through the wood. At the edge of the wood there is a wall. The wall is too high to climb over, and it is too long to walk round. Suddenly you notice a small door in the wall. It slowly opens as you watch. What do you do? Do you go through the door?

On the other side of the wall is water. What does it look like? Do you want to swim in it?

 

Interpretation

Now read about what the images represent and try to analyse your answers.

The house. The house is your idea of yourself. If your house is old, you probably do not like change, you like traditional things. If у our house is large, it means you are wuite confident, with a high opinion of yourself. If it is filled with light, you are optimistic. If it is dark, your are pessimistic. The number of rooms is the number of people you want in your life.

The cup. The cup is your idea of love. The more beautiful and valuable the cup, the more important love is in your life. You are a romantic person. The contents of the cup show what your experience of love has been so far.

The building. The building is your idea of religion and God. A strong build­ing is a strong belief. A ruin would mean a lack of belief.

The garden. This is your idea of the world around you, your country, or the whole world. If the plants and flowers in your garden are dying, this might mean that you are worried about the environment and pollution in the world.

The wall. This is your idea of death. Is it the end or is there something after it? Do you go straight through the little door? Do you look and check before you go? Or don't you want to go through at all?

The water. The water is your idea of your future. If there is a sea with big waves, you feel positive an excited about your future. If you want to swim, you feel confident and want to take risks. If the water is a stagnant pool, you might fear your future and the future of the world.