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Yup, I get grief here at the Dailynightmare for various things but one of the criticisms I should probably address is that of the structural method of the site. Some critics suggest that I’m doing more harm than good by abstracting nightmares so fully from the contexts that gave rise to them. A real psychoanalyst would want to know, for instance, more about what happened during the day preceding the nightmare to see if certain images are derived from recent events. And that same cigar-smoking busy-body would also want to know about how the nightmares relate to the dreamer’s ongoing neuroses and everyday crazinesses. (Like anyone would post that stuff to a public blog?) But the nub of the criticism is that without this kind of context, the nightmares themselves are unfit case studies. And since no scientific insight is shed on the nightmares, the terror they inspire is being re-inforced, leaving the dreamers worse off.

Certainly, the Dailynightmare does not pretend to be a series of scientific case studies. (Like who would want to read THOSE?) In fact, as the site develops, I don’t anticipate much scientific, or heck, even verbal discussion about the nightmares themselves. (If you’ve ever been woken up by a partner’s nightmare, you can probably agree that it’s not really THAT much fun to talk about other people’s dreams.) But other kinds of “commentary” will very likely start to appear in the ‘Nightmare possibly very soon, like comics and illustrations, maybe dreams set into poems or even songs. One guy I know does stop-motion animation like the Brothers Quay and he’s interested in filming some of the nightmares. And that seems appropriate. Dreams are movies that we make and screen for ourselves alone, personal art that deals with very personally important topics.

One of the things that is so often terrifying about our dreams though, is that we ARE all alone with them. The Dailynightmare can’t be there with you while you dream but we can provide a communal workshop where we can investigate the meaning of our fears. Ultimately though, we dreamers ourselves have to examine and confront our own fears. Writing down our nightmares and phobias is one way to start. Sharing them is a second step. Maybe illustrating them, giving them some kind of tangible artistic form might be the next step, one that allows us all to examine the shape of our fears and to imagine what might lie beyond them.

At least that’s my answer to Uncle Sigmund.