Ancient Systems of Dream-Classification

Bibliographic Data

ID5809325
AuthorsA H M Kessels (corresponding author)
Year1969
Volume22
Issue4
Pages389-424
Publication date1969-01-01
Open AccessNo
TypeARTICLE
VenueMnemosyne (JOURNAL)
Journal identifiersISSN: 0026-7074 • E-ISSN: 1568-525X
PublisherBrill (PUBLISHER • NL)
DOI10.1163/156852569x00058
OpenAlexW2001721521
LanguageEN
Citations received11

One of man's least explainable experiences is his dream-life. This is certainly the case with people of a modest cultural background, for whom the rational explanation of things has only just started. This quest for a rational explanation did not start in the same age for all known phenomena. It was only in classical antiquity that serious efforts were first made to provide a rationale for most of them. This is certainly true of the problem of the dream. It should be borne in mind that it is a great achievement when man begins to realize that between the dream-world and the waking-world exists a very fundamental difference. What this difference really is, and how it can be established, is of course another question, that is beyond the scope of this investigation. It may only be remarked in passing that even in antiquity one meets awareness of the problem that strictly speaking there is no real criterion to distinguish between these two worlds *). Of course from the above it cannot be concluded that 'originally' there was a situation in which primitive man did not mark any difference whatsoever between dream-life and waking-life. Still it is true that the same value was assigned to the things experienced in dreams and the things that happened in waking-life. In any case man regarded the dream as a real event, which was in fact as 'true' as ordinary events 2), even to such an extent that people

Scope (computer science · Value (mathematics · Historical Astronomy and Related Studies

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