ABSTRACT
This chapter delves into different types of bodily movement in dreams and how these might be captured or represented in imaginative arts practice. Although our bodies might be still whilst asleep or reminiscing in reverie during the day, our psychic self is not. The activity of the self in dream space can include swimming, flying, running and climbing amongst other combined types of movement. This chapter engages with the sensation of specific types of movement in dreams rather than actual movement like sleep walking; it also focusses on non-movement or frozen movement, which is very common in dreams. As such, Chapter 4 builds upon the spatial context addressed in Chapter 3 where the self moves within, through, above or beneath a particular terrain or place. The theoretical section is divided into swimming, flying, running and climbing, each with a focus on the associated elements of water, air, earth and stairs, or other constructions of height. Contributions from Gaston Bachelard, Carl Gustav Jung, Sigmund Freud, James Hillman, Friedrich Nietzsche once again underpin the discussions that are augmented by feminist writers Luce Irigaray and Elizabeth Grosz. The ephemeral aspect of ‘time’ is crucial to understanding movement in dreams. The chapter deals with non-linear time through life journeys dreamed and fraught with confused directions. The practical section addresses these travels head on with direct references to escaping, pursuing and returning to the metaphoric landscape of our psychic selves. The chapter is richly illustrated with pictorial examples from artists and students. These serve to inspire and inform the exercises by relating psychic movement to achievement and fulfilment in the day world.
