« S’il-vous-plaît, considérez-moi comme un rêve ». Une vision bionienne du rêve

Context

This theoretical article charts a psychoanalytic literary itinerary that clarifies Bion's theory of dreaming by harnessing the evocative power of fiction. Furthermore, Bionian Field Theory postulates are shown throughout the paper, suggesting that the analytic relationship itself creates an analytic field in which dreams and unconscious processes are co-constructed.

Objective

The reader is guided through three emblematic texts, each embodying a different modality of oneiric experience. Juan Rulfo's Luvina represents absolute wakefulness: a concrete state in which β elements remain undigested and meaning erodes. The forest in Shakespeare's A Midsummer Night's Dream illustrates absolute dream, where an unbridled α function spawns an excess of symbols and dissolves psychic boundaries until waking intervenes. The shoreline of Virginia Woolf's The Waves exemplifies the dialectical dream: an intersubjective flow in which consciousness and the unconscious co-construct experience – the ideal described by Bionian Field Theory.

Method

This paper employs a qualitative approach, using literary examples to explore the portrayal of dreams, namely: Juan Rulfo's Luvina, William Shakespeare's A Midsummer Night's Dream, and Virginia Woolf's The Waves. By examining the settings, characters, and events in this short story and novels, we aim to demonstrate how various forms of dreaming (absolute wakefulness, absolute dream, and the ebb and flow of Bion's dialectical dream) manifest in the narrative structure and character experiences.

Results

In Luvina, the narrative illustrates a concrete world view (absolute wakefulness) where meaning is elusive and dreams are inaccessible, symbolized by the desolate environment and incessant wind. In A Midsummer Night's Dream, the excessive dreaming function (absolute dream) is shown to be overwhelming, where its characters lose their sense of reality, demonstrating the necessity of waking from the dream in order to avoid confusion and over-symbolization. In Woolf's novel The Waves, the dynamics of the un/conscious are portrayed through the fluid interactions between its characters, embodying Bionian Field Theory postulates.

Interpretations

By juxtaposing these landscapes, the study offers a heuristic for identifying concrete, excessive, and balanced dreams in clinical practice, showing how literature illuminates a mind that dreams itself into being.