Homemaking -or- Good Housekeeping's Seal of Approval

Psychological Interior Design -or- The Homeless Mind in the Global Village 

My first memories as a child are those of living in a house out in the country, there were no houses close to ours. I can still see myself in the house, in the backyard, in the front yard and many other places in and around the house. Many dreams received by the International Institute for Dream Research (IIDR) speak of the childhood home. Other dreams talk about rooms in the house such as the living room, dining room, kitchen, the bathroom, the basement, the bedroom, the attic and so on. Every house has some psychological type of "interior design", this design often becomes engraved in our memories and in our dreams.

The word "home" has many meanings, however the word "household" is closely connected to the political designation of family. A "housewife" was an occupational designation for a woman who ran the family home. Today, "homemaker" has become the gender-neutral term for "homemaking". The magazine Good Housekeeping features articles which are directed to those who share homemaking interests. Our dreams speak to us about the successes and failures of homemaking.

For Peter Berger, Brigitte Berger and Hansfried Kellner "The Homeless Mind" they believe that "modern man has suffered from a deepening condition of ‘homelessness'. The dreams below discuss the psychological problem. 

         Mandy, 16 

Recurring dream. 

My mom is chasing me through the house hitting me, beating me with belts, objects anything. I don't recall having done something she just got set off and started beating me. I ran away screaming, nobody outside or anywhere heard me. I called 911 the police came said nothing she was doing was illegal and let her go on and left me. Wake up. 

In a different house, mom got angry at me and started up beating me, I ran into this "rollercoaster" kinda thing in the house and it started, took me around not really sure of the destination. It then took me down this large hill and I ended up in a bathroom or something and she started yelling so I took out my phone and called 911 and they came, next I was in a church talkin bout some scripture I didn't recall. Then I ended back into the room with her and the cops. The cops then again left but left her with a warning. She went back to hitting me and I ran out the door and flew off lookin back and down screaming don't touch me, don't ever touch me and I woke up yelling that same thing crying. 

Interpretation: Mandy's dream below represents an abusive home, a place where domestic violence takes place, many children have grown up in such nightmarish homes. 

          Fred, 17 

I have this dream all the time.

I'm in my old house which was on a looped street.  I see everything as if it were sepia or goldish.  I'm running around a group of trees. Then all of a sudden there is a huge lion chasing after me. I keep running as fast as I can in a circle around the trees over and over. The lion seems to be getting closer to me and I'm terrified of it catching me but for some reason I never try to go into my house. 

Interpretation: Fred's dream is one that he is never in the house, one wonders why? Fred's dream as well as George's (below) seems to be more related to the dreams of a child and not those of adolescents? Perhaps that is why in George's dream, he decides not to go in that room again, meaning he is leaving his childhood fantasies behind.  

          George, 18 

I was in my house, and me and my sister were bored. so we went into the pantry, and for some reason, a set of stairs was in there, that went up to the attic. which isn't what my real house is like at all. anywho, me and my sister went up into the attic, and we began scrounging around the attic. we found a little container, blue i think, with odd markings and such. it looked like an antique i suppose. and we opened it. and then a green monster (that appeared to be a giant booger) popped out of it. but it like oozed out and formed the monster. me and my sister immediately took off running for the stairs and i got half way down the stairs when i  heard my sister yell and i turned around to see the monster at the head of the stairs holding a gun that fired bubble gum, and it had just shot my sister with it. a long thick strand of gum was connected to the gun and her, and the monster was trying to pull her up the stairs. So like the good brother i am. i ran up to her and broke off the strand of gum. and before the monster had a chance to shoot again. we ran down the stairs and slammed the door shut. we then locked it and fell in a heap on the floor. panting and out of breath we both decided never to go in there again. and that was the point at which i woke up. 

Interpretation: George's dream, is one driven by boredom and the search for some excitement which is found in the anthropomorphic form of a monster in the house. One is reminded of the film "Monsters, Inc". What this dream seems to emphasize are the child's need to be entertained. The dream of course is the greatest form of entertainment ever invented. 

          Valerie, 29 

The dream started off i walked into a brand new house that was huge and very expensive. I was very happy. We were having a house warming party where we invited everyone we knew. We had a well known chef make the food. Now when it was time to eat the dining room was wierd. It would be a huge table with alot of chairs and on the side of the table were stairs that led to another set of chairs with a table. This also led to more stairs and table and chairs. It was about 10 floors of this. My mother said we were missing something from the store, would i go and get it. She gave me the car keys to a new white Mercedes SUV. I was on cloud 9. 

Interpretation: Valerie's is the house of her dreams all wrapped up with the traditional housewarming  party, the well known chef and everyone they know. 

          Lilly, 40 

My dream starts in the summer of a house I lived in during elementry school. I was an adult with the father of my youngest son. He did not want me to leave the house, he held me captive in the house for days trying to make me have an 'accident' so I would miscarry our baby. we were in the bathroom and he started to wrestle me into the tub. he broke apart the razors put them between his finger and every time i didn't do what he said he would slash my skin with the razors. I wasn't allowed to leave the basement, he boarded all the windows. When I finally escaped the ground as covered in several feet of snow. When he was passed out i broke one of the boards off the window dug the snow out and crawled to the street and passed out. i woke up to smelling salts and the EMT telling me i was gonna be ok and the police go inside and find him so strung out on drugs and alcohol and stuffed him in the cruiser. The EMT stayed with me the entire time i was in the hospital, then I wake up. 

Interpretation: Lilly's dream also speaks of domestic abuse and violence, perhaps even the inter-generational and "psychohistorical" transmission (the son is present in the dream) of violent dreams and behaviour. 

          Sandra, 48 

I dreamed wise elders visited me in my room. They pointed out my bedroom window, down into the woods I saw a herd of wild horses and burros moving in the trees. They were all white, with gray or dark manes and tails. The people in my room said "Look they are here". I felt at home.

Interpretation: Sandra's dream speaks of the metaphysical feeling of being at home in the world, in nature. Sandra is learning to see the wisdom of nature and dreams, which was and always has provided us with our sense of being at home.  

 

All material Copyright 2006 International Institute for Dream Research. All rights reserved.