Les rêves pandémiques : élaborations psychiques et témoignages sociaux

Abstract

Context

In various fields of knowledge, such as philosophy, anthropology, and social sciences, dreams are often perceived as manifestations of individuals’ psychic life or as reflections of socially shared events. In the dichotomy between the individual and society, psychoanalysis has traditionally oriented dream interpretation towards the former. The psychoanalytic interpretation of dreams has been a cornerstone of theory and clinical practice in psychoanalysis, thus establishing the foundations for understanding unconscious processes. Freud, however, revisited his theory of dreams several times, particularly when he introduced the concept of the death drive through the analysis of traumatic dreams.

Objectives

This article is situated within the perspective of psychoanalytic theory and examines pandemic dreams within the framework of the Brazilian project Inventário de Sonhos [Inventory of dreams]. It aims to explore their function as witnesses to collective experiences in order to understand how social, historical, and political processes have influenced the psychic life of dreamers in Brazil.

Method

The article begins with a presentation of the epistemological framework for dream interpretation, highlighting how sciences have directed dream narratives towards the individual, thereby detaching them from the underlying social processes. It then describes how psychoanalytic interpretation fits into this tradition while acknowledging Freud's revisions to his theory throughout his life. Finally, through the analysis of five pandemic dreams from the Inventário de Sonhos project, this article offers a psychoanalytic interpretation that recognizes the intertwining of individual narratives with collective histories of societies, thus recontextualizing dreams within their cultural and historical context.

Results

The pandemic has been a significant event in everyone's life. Psychoanalytic theory supports that dream interpretation should focus on individual psychic processes. The analyses of pandemic dreams presented in this article demonstrate that it is impossible to ignore the social and cultural context in which these dreams emerged, transforming them into true sensors and seismographs of history.

Interpretations

This work aims to advance the state-of-the-art in psychoanalytic interpretations of dreams. While recognizing that dreams are narratives constructed by dreamers about their unconscious life, we open a debate on whether some narratives may be intimately linked to the historical and social experiences lived by dreamers, thus allowing them to testify through their dreams about what they have uniquely experienced.