Mageo - Jeannette Marie - 2006 - Figurative Dreams Analysis and U.S Traveling Identities

Figurative Dream Analysis and U.S.
Traveling Identities
Author(s): Jeannette Marie Mageo
Source: Ethos, Vol. 34, No. 4 (Dec., 2006), pp. 456-487
Published by: Wiley on behalf of the American Anthropological Association
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456
ETHOS
Figurative Dream Analysis

and U.S. Traveling Identities
Jeannette Marie Mageo
Abstract Many psychologists and anthropologistsargue that dreams depict

dreamcollectionsthatregards
people'ssenseof self.HereIoffera methodof interpreting
dream
as
to
cultural
major
figures alluding
self-models-"figurative
analysis."Infigurative
reviewsa dreamcollectionforfiguresthatare salient,ambiguanalysis,an ethnographer
Iargue,indicatesthata figureand
ous,and of majorsignificanceintheculture.
Ambiguity,
concomitant
self-model
are in a momentof historical
transformation
and also thattheyare
to
be
cultural
in
work
the
dreams
of
Inturn,groupmemmembers.
likely
undergoing
group
bers'dreamsreveala rangeof orientations
to theseself-models
and theirvicissitudes
inthe
and
lives
of
In
I
individuals.
fall
psychology
springand 2004, collectedover300 dream
accountsin an undergraduate
class in the UnitedStates.Carsemergedas a
university
one
characterized
a "traveling"
self-model.
majorfigure,
by ambiguityand configuring
of thecar self-model
and relatedtravelingidentities
in dreams,I
Throughthe investigation
illustrate
United
States,traveling]
figurative
analysis.[dreams,analyticalmethods,self,
Many psychologists and anthropologists think dreams depict and develop people's sense of self (Damasio 1994, 1999; Fairbairn 1952; Hollan 2003, 2005;
Kohut 1971; Noy 1969, 1979). Hollan (2003, 2005) argues that dreamsoffer us
the "nightly news" of the self, updating its relations to internal and external
worlds. I want to go further:dreamsand their accountsnot only update an individual'ssense of self but also depict and develop culturalmodels of self. A cultural
model consists of shared interrelated schemas that fit together to represent
something larger (D'Andrade 1995). Culturally shared schemas about what it
ETHOS,Vol. 34, No. 4, pp. 456-487, ISSN 0091-2131, electronicISSN 1548-1352. ? 2006 by the
AmericanAnthropologicalAssociation. All rightsreserved. Please directall requestsfor permissionto photocopy
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http://www.ucpress.edu/journals/rights. htm.

FIGURATIVE
ANALYSISAND TRAVELING
IDENTITIES457
means to be a person-that is, about identity-fit together into "culturalselfmodels."' Here I use self as a domain term that encompasses all aspects of
personhood and subjectivity.
Previously,1 (1995, 1998, 2002b) have exploredculturalself-models in discourse.
What I am proposinghere is, first,that we also hold sharedself-models in figurative form-that is, through figures associatedin cultural experience with these
models. Here byfigure I refer to images (e.g., a car), along with affiliatedthemes
which may have symbolicsignificancein the culture.Second,
(such as "traveling"),
when such figures occur in the manifest content of dreams, they continue to
represent self-models. Third, dreams' depiction/development of self-models is
clearestin dreamcollections.Dream collections,figurativelyunderstood,offer the
"nightlynews"of culture-potentially revealinghow rangesof people subjectively
experiencea model. And, fourth,by capturingthis rangeof experience,dreamcollections disclose the dynamic tensions inherent in a current self-model and its
directionsof change.
Anthropologists have long collected dreams but commonly prefer either to
document dreambeliefs and practicesor to adopt a person-centeredapproachin
which they drawlargerculturalimplicationsfrom analyzingthe corpus of dreams
by a single individualor a small number of individuals.2In recent decades, they
have been reluctantto explorehow culturalpsychology is reflectedby dreamcollections sampled across a group. In the field of psychology, however, Hall and
Van de Castle's (1966) content analysis measures comparative emotional and
behavioralfeaturesof groups through dreamcollections. Hall and Van de Castle
were inspiredby Eggan's(1952) call to consider the manifest content of dreams.
In content analysis,the analystscoresa set of dreamson 19 preestablishedscales16 empirical scales and three theoretical scales, the latter borrowed from
psychoanalysis.The assumptionis that these scales correspondto universalvariables. Anticipatingselective correlationsbetween groups and the variationsthey
observedin dreamcontent, Hall andVan de Castle (1966) took the frequencyof a
dreamelement to indicatethe extent of an individual'spreoccupationwith related
materialin wakinglife and collected dataon "types"of individualsbasedon factors
such as age, gender, and culture.Van de Castle (1983) was also interestedin the
symbolic nature of dream content and conducted a major study of dreamswith
animal figures. The form of analysisI propose here-"figurative analysis"-also
looks at recurrentfiguresbut enlists an anthropologicalapproach.

458 ETHOS
Culturalanthropologists
since Geertzhave favoredletting analyticcategories
from
emerge
ethnographicdata,althoughGeertz(1984)himselfbelievedthat
certaincategoriessuchas "person"
havecomparative
validity.A figurativeanalysis focuseson the manifestcontentof dreamsbut allowssignificantelementsto
contextrather
emergefroma set of dreamaccountscollectedin anethnographic
thanprecedingit. The presumptionhereis thatdreamanalysisneedsto begin
with culturallyspecific interpretiveframeworks.An ethnographerrecords
dreamsin the processof investigatingandparticipating
in a culture,reviewing
the resultingcollectionformajorfigures.Figuresaremajorif (1) theyoccurin a
significantpercentageof the dreamsin the collection;(2) they are salientin
diverseculturalmaterial-popularentertainment,
commerce,andso forth;and
to whichthesedreamfigures
(3) culturememberstreatthe objectsor characters
refer in wakinglife as psychologicallymeaningful-as targetsof emotions,
desires,andneeds.
Working from the hypothesis that dreams depict/developself-models, a
researcherusing figurativeanalysisaskswhetheran emergentfigureis used
in an ambiguousselfambiguouslyby subjectsand,if so, how it mayparticipate
modelin the culture-one withcontradictory
features.Takingambiguityasa sign
that a sharedself-modelis in historicalprocess,figurativeanalysisdirectsthe
researcherto furtherinterrogatethe dreamfigureat issue and the model it
Forinsights,onedrawson largerstudiesof thedreamers'
cularguably
represents.
tureandits history,alongwithoralandwrittenliteratures,
mythology,song,and
otherpopulartextsin whichthe dreamfigureandcloselyrelatedfiguresappear.
All the dreamswithina collectionin whichanemergentfigureplaysa majorrole
composea relevantsubset.One reviewsthis subsetto detectaffiliatedthemes.
Numerous studies indicatethat recurrentdream themes illustratecultural
schemas(Ewing2003; Hollan 2003;Mageo 2002a, 2003:3-42;Shulmanand
Stroumsa1999;Stephen2003).In figurative
analysis,theresearcher
goesfurther,
how
the
subset's
themes
illustrateschemasrelevantto the selfasking
specifically
modelunderinvestigation.
Last,one zoomsin on individualdreamsthatfeature
these themes,nestinga person-centered
approachwithina broaderanalysisof
otherdreams.Workingwith dreamersto interpretthismaterial,the researcher
exploreshow thesedreamstransformthe figurethatdefinesthe set alongwith
the affiliatedthemes discoveredin subset analysis.These transformationsopen a
window on identity constructionwithin a specific cultural-historicalworld.

FIGURTIVEANALYSISAND TRAVELING
IDENTITIES459
As in Foucault's(1988, 1990) analysisof discourse,people experienceshared

models as havinga formativepower.But self-modelsare by naturepartial,
highlightingsome aspectsof experiencein preferenceto others.They also
to the subject.Suchfeatures
code powerrelationsthatmaybe disadvantageous
spawnurgesto reformself-models.Dreamaccounts,I argue,area "royalroad"
thereone hearsthe fractiousdialoguesamongdisto a "culturalunconscious":
crepantvoicesthatalwayssurrounda culturalmodel.Recurrentdreamfigures
and themesportraya culturalself-modelin process.In any dreamcollection,
therewill be severalmajorfigures,justas thereare alwaysa numberof salient
self-modelsin a culture.Used repeatedlyon a collection,figurativeanalysis
forms intersectingsubsets,each of which points to the transformations
of a
self-modelwithina socialgroup.
Car Tropes
When I began leafingthroughmy collectionof U.S. undergraduate
dream
accounts,carsemergedas a majorfigure.The frequencyof carsin U.S. dreams
is no surprise.Carsarenecessaryto U.S. lifeways,andadvertisements
attestthey
areobjectsof emotions,needs,anddesires.Basedon his psychoanalytic
workin
Los Angeles,Hollan saysthe caris also a "highlysalientsymbolof the self in
North Americanculture."Cars are "usedby people to expresstheir status
theirsenseof fashion,theirsexuality,
theirwishforfreedom,mobility,
aspirations,
andautonomy,andso on. The identificationbetweenselfandautois promoted
by hugeadvertisingbudgets,andis reinforceddayin anddayout by the amount
of time most North Americansspendin theircars"(Hollan2003:70).It is not
unexpectedthen, that a collectionof dreamaccountsfrom studentsin the
UnitedStatesincludescarsasa significantfigure.This figure,moreover,should
cast light on the currentstate of one importantself-modeland its affiliated
schemas,alongwithyoungpeople'sreactionsto thismodel.
The caris a keydreamsymbolin the UnitedStatesbecausethe United Statesis
a "travelingculture,"to invoke Clifford's(1992:101-103)famousessay and
analysisof modernculturesas characterized
by sitestraversed.Surelytraveling
culturesmust correspondto kindsof subjectivitiesand to certainsharedselfmodels. Self as a mode of transit?Undoubtedlythere is a diversearrayof
traveling cultures and self-models that go with them-from nomadic cultures
to diasporic ones.

460
ETHOS
In the United States,even Oedipal motifs appearin terms of transits;"myway or

the highway"is one clich6 that fathersuse with waywardsons. We ride down on
Route 61, Dylan'smetaphorfor modernity,and get our kicks on Route 66. Since
their invention, carshave been our most prizedmode of travel:"Seethe U.S.A. in
your Chevrolet,"as Dina Shore put it. We all have them-all genders,all classesand when we grow too old to drive,how painfulthe sense of impairmentand loss!
The car is all about agency and freedom of action. In the United States, getting
that first driver'slicense is a more real "coming of age" than menarche is for
young women-that hidden passagemarkedneither by ritual,by discourse,nor,
for many,by any visible change in sexualstatusor behavior.But a car-that truly
means new freedoms and new financial responsibilities, a new station! The
importance of this rite of passage makes historical sense. Since the European
Enlightenment,people have seen the self as moving beyond birth statusand birth
context. This is the legacy capturedin EastmanJohnson'sfamous 1868 painting,
TheBoyhoodofLincoln,in which young Abrahamteaches himself to read by firelight. Today the car is one importantsymbol of this movement beyond context.
Hollan speculateson car symbolism for North Americanidentities:
Perhapsthe notion that life and people should run smoothlyand without
interruption;that when life and people do breakdown,they should be
repairable; that life is a journey involving constant movement and
progress,andthatone is in troubleif one is stoppedtoo long by the side of
the road;that big, strong, fast, powerfulcars are better than small,weak,
slow, brokendowncars;that it'sbetter to be the driverof a car than a passive passenger;that it'sbetter to own a car than not; that one'scaris one's
castleand its boundariesare sacred.[2003:70]
The phrase "one'scar is one's castle"derives from a classicU.S. adage:"Aman's
home is his castle,"meaning that home is a smallkingdom where the man is lord.
Today,rather than being kings on a diminutivescale, North Americanmen are
members of a domestic democracywhere women and to a lesser extent children
agitate for an equal say.While home is no longer exclusivelya man's"castle,"his
car still may be. This male identificationis merchandizednightly in ubiquitous
commercialsfor increasinglylargerand more expensivecarsthat most often feature men in the role of proud owners and drivers. What does this gendered
relationto carssignify about currentU.S. self-models?To raisean old questionin
a new guise:if men'sidentity/identificationswith the car and what it representsautonomy, agency,mobility, power, movement, progress-are normative in the

FIGURATIVE
IDENTITIES461
United States, where does this leave women? What do the male roots of this
self-model mean about women's transits and their citizenship in a traveling
culture?
Here Allison's(2001) work on toys offers a point of departure.Allison arguesthat
toy manufacturers-via movies, video games, and action figures-merchandise
subjectivity along Fordist lines of marketing strategies and assembly-line
efficiency.What is autonomy in a Fordist world?Is it a choice among consumer
items, a la Baudrillard(1988), where a system of objects directsdesirevia an overriding hedonistic ethic-"Fulfill yourself' by buying the latest product?
Toys, Allison believes, are about more than simple hedonism: they are fetishes
in the psychoanalyticsense. The fetish is a stand-in, as in the famous "Fort/Da
game" (Freud 1922). Whenever his mother went out, Freud'slittle nephew cast
and then reeled in a spool of thread as he chanted "Fort"(gone) and then "Da"
(here). The game assuaged the child's anxiety about loss through ritualistic
mastery of his mother's transits, her absence/presence. The fetish stand-in,
Allison reminds us, acquiresadditionalmeanings at the Oedipus crisis. Fetishes
also assuage the shock boys feel at the discovery that when it comes to gender
there are haves and have-nots and at their inference that, if have-nots exist, they
could lose their penises. Fetishes do so by standing in for the lost penis, which
boys imagine women once had. Thus, the fetish represents boys' ambivalence
about gender difference through a stand-in that assertsmale gender.
Allison traces the development of toys/fetishes and their affiliated stories from
Superman in the 1950s to the cyborg heroes in the 1990s, which originated in
Japan and became popular among U.S. kids. With Superman,"phallicismcame
in and on his body, but with cyborg heroes it is displaced onto removable or
detachable things-robots, belts, wands, guns. ... Today'sheroes have powers
that reach beyond the body and materialize into tools or machines that could
and are operated by more than just men-women and bugs" (Allison
2001:87-88). Why do girls want to play with toys that assert male gender?
Feminist psychoanalysts have long seen phallic symbolism in sociopolitical
terms, positing that men's privileges are first represented by bodily difference.
Adult toys, too, may be fetishes through which both sexes try to ritualistically
master the anxious politics of gendered bodies. Is the car then a Lacanian
phallus-a detachable symbol of masculine identity and privilege that men can
lose and women can appropriate?As the Beach Boys' song goes, "She'll have

462 ETHOS
fun, fun, fun,"whatpeople do with toys in the United States,"'tilher daddy

takesherT-birdaway."
Car Dreams
We havehit on an ambiguityin a self-modelthatone mightcall"genderedyet
the carself-model,despiteits phallicnature,hasslippedits moorungendered":
in
ings biologicalgender.Again,ambiguityin a self-modelsignifiesthatit is in
historicalprocess.My dataofferwhat I am temptedto call a regionalreport
aboutcontemporarytransformations
of the carself-model.But how does one
speakof regionsin a travelingculture-as siteson a pilgrimageas Cliffordasks
at the conclusionto his essay?Cliffordwrites:
I hangonto"travel"
asa termof culturalcomparison,
preciselybecauseof
its historicaltaintedness,
its association
withgendered,racialbodies,class
beatenpaths,agents,frontiers...
privilege,specificmeansof conveyance,
and the like. I preferit to more apparently
neutral,and "theoretical,"
whichcanmakethe drawingof equivaterms,suchas "displacement,"
lencesacrossdifferenthistoricalexperiences
too easy.... AndI preferit to
termssuchas"nomadism,"
oftengeneralized
withoutapparent
resistance
fromnon-Western
...
...
includes
a
broad
experience. "Pilgrimage"
range
of Westernandnon-Westernexperienceand is less classand genderbiasedthan"travel."
[1992:110]
U.S. universitiesare visitationson careerpaths;studentsfrom an aleatory
rangeof locationstry to makecommunitiesand enduringfriendshipsthere.I
collecteddreamaccountsspringandfallsemesters2004 in two classeson culture and the self at WashingtonState University(WSU). At that time, the
WSU undergraduate
fifteenthousand
populationconsistedof approximately
studentsfrom Washingtoncounties,approximately
fifteenhundredstudents
fromotherstatesmostlyin the West,a fewpeoplefromU.S. territories,several
hundredfrom other countriespredominatelyin Asia, and a roughly equal
numberof malesandfemales.
Crapanzano(2003) stresses that dream accounts alwaysoccur in cultural
context-a contextthatshapestheirnatureandrelationto the experienceof the
dream.Besidesbeinga university
classin thenorthwestern
UnitedStates,thecontext of these accountsis the cultureof what Giddens(1991) calls"highmodernity."
In high modernity, the self becomes a reflexive project "which consists in the

IDENTITIES463
FIGURATIVE
sustaining of coherent, yet continuously revised, biographical narratives"

(Giddens 1991:4-5). These narratives,Giddens believes, have an anxiouscharacter that derivesfrom the globalmagnitudeof threatthatpermeatesmodem life. In
my classes, undergraduatesseemed intensely interested in using the anxious
proto-narrativesof dreamsto reflect on themselves.As their professor,I presided
over this identity project, although work on dreamswas largely self-directed.In
class,I offered students a number of interpretativemethods (Freudian,Jungian,
and several I devised), each method condensed into "steps"and demonstrated
with a dream of my own and those of severalvolunteers. The students were to
analyzea dreamwith a chosen method and write a paper on their findings.I seldom proffered suggestions for interpretationoutside of this context, although
readingsand lecturesoften involveddreamsand their analysisby anthropologists.
I had not yet hit on figurativeanalysisas a way of understandingdreams.
Thirty-five students chose to participate, 18 men and 17 women. They contributed 300 dream accounts: 193 from men and 107 from women. Some
dreamswere the subject of term papers;some dreamsstudents merely recorded
in journals. Cars, trucks, or vans were major dream figures in 47 dreams: by
this I mean that the pivotal dream events revolved around an auto, action in
and through an auto, or something significant happening to an auto. The vast
majority involved "a car" per se: trucks and vans were far less common. Nine
males contributed 18 car dreams, and 12 females, 29: cars were a more persistent dream symbol for these women than for the men, even though cars
sometimes symbolized men. One woman, for example, dreamed of a vintage
truck that belonged to, and she believed stood for, a former boyfriend. I begin
with a thematic analysisof this material.
Car Themes
Who is drivingis an issue in male dreams.One dreamer'sgirlfriend,for example,
asksto drive;he says, "No," gets out of the car, and walks away.When a woman
drivesin male dreams,she may do so badlyand/or need rescuing.In one, a young
man rescues a young woman driverwhose car catches fire after an accident. She
gets mad, tells him to "mindhis own business,"and that "shecould get herselfout
of the car."In another male dream, the dreamerunsuccessfullytries to rescue a
femalepursuedby two murderersin a car.A femaledreamer,in contrast,successfully
overcomes greatobstaclesto rescue a baby.Indeed, there are only three successful
heroism dreamsin my car dream set; all are female dreamsstarringthe dreamer.

464 ETHOS
Males, however,have supercardreams,whereasfemales do not. One young male

drivesa car that travels500 miles per hour only to wake up within the dreamand
discover he was in a coma. In two supercardreams, the car is a spaceship. One
dreamer drives his Jetta past stars and meteors. Another dreamer'scar is a "star
fighter, the spaceshipthat Darth Vader flew."The car has a "wingsbutton" and
glides "downover the sea of cars."
Two crashes occur in male dreams and six in female dreams. A male dreamer
runs, then soars through the air; bicycles speed below and begin to crash into
cars.In one female dream, a "cop,"who is later replacedby a boyfriend,watches
the dreameralmost have an accident. Two female dreamerswitness accidentsa boyfriend's mother in one case and two male friends in another. In a lucid
dream, one female wrecks her car for fun. Her brother, who is riding along,
complains he is hurt; she assureshim it is only a dream.
Who drives is not usually an issue in female dreams, unless a mother figure
drives or the dreamer is attempting to escape the scene of a crime. In many
women's car dream accounts the driver'sidentity is unclear:the dreamersimply
says, "We were driving,"meaning that two people were traveling together. In
"we drove"dreams,the dreamercontrols the car only with difficulty.A "difficult
control"theme sometimes appearsin male dreams,but then the car belongs to a
woman, an overbearing woman is the dreamer'sinterlocutor, or the car is a
spaceship. In women's dreams, control may be a larger issue expressedthrough
carlike symbols. One dream begins with car travel, for example, but later the
dreamer accidentallycauses her girlfriend'sskateboardto "crash."
Car control problems are often associatedwith a "compromisedcar"theme. In
one male'sdream, a female teacher wraps the dreamer'scar in SaranWrap as an
April Fool's joke. A woman dreamernoted:
The carI am drivingisn'tmy carat all. Everythingis madeof wood, andit
startsto fall apart.I try to driveit carefullybackto work and barelymake
it. I then start to franticallysearch for my car, but it is nowhere to be
found. I think to myself that maybe Chuck [her boyfriend]has it, and I
startto go inside.I then get the feeling to look overmy shoulder,andI see
Chuckthere,with my carand a yellow balloon.
This male's borrowing of the dreamer'scar is troubling, but she discovers the
trouble is illusory-even a happy surprise. In a male dream, the dreamer loses

IDENTITIES465
FIGURATIVE
his car;he too becomes frantic, then angry,and rolls down a hill as a ball. None
of my male dreamers steal cars in dreams, but one is the victim of a theft. In
one woman's dream, the dreamerand her friend steal a car,but then it turns out
only the friend has stolen it. In another, a woman steals a car along with a
friend who is driving but who keeps getting depressed and slowing down. The
dreamer takes the wheel, but the car will not go.
In male dream accounts, cars are associatedwith aggression:they may transport
murderers,be weapons, or be symbolicallyreplacedby weapons. Male dreamers
tend to identify with cars: a dreamer referred to the speed the car goes, for
example, as the "speed I am going." This phraseology did not occur in female
dream accounts. Males did not see their conscious personalityas symbolized by
a car, but one did act the role of the car in "dreamplay" (an analytic method
describedbelow). In another analysis,a woman chose to role-play the road.
Car Self-Models
If the car is a trope for the self as free, mobile, and autonomous-a figurative
model with lots of affiliated schemas alluded to by dream themes-in my data,
this trope signifies different problems for the two genders. Male identity is
troubled by female autonomy, as represented by women driving, holding
authority roles such as teacher, not needing or wanting rescuing, and so forth.
This trouble seems to undermine male dreamers'sense of themselves as heroic;
heroic identity seems more assumable for women. Yet male dreamers retained
the auto accessories of heroism, supercars,which females did not dream about.
Women dreamerswere more willing to appropriateautonomy through car theft
and to feel guilt and fear about appropriation,but they were also more willing to
accept autonomy loss in the form of car loss. This accepting attitude together
with the phraseology "we drove" indicates porous boundaries rather than
"sacred"boundaries,as Hollan suggests. I doubt that these women confine this
phraseology to dream accounts. I am reminded here of my fieldworkin Samoa.
After a drive there, a passenger politely remarks,"Thanks for driving"and the
driverresponds, "Thanksfor your support,"as if drivingwere a joint enterprise.
In riposte to theorists such as Gilligan (1982), who distinguishes moral orientations between males and females in the United States, Kondo points out that
Western women are still "solidly within a linguistic and historical legacy of
individualism"(1990:33-34); this is no doubt true. What I see in car dreams is

466
ETHOS
not whatMarkusandKitayama(1991)wouldcalla "sociocentric

self' basedon
an identificationwith groupconcernsbut,rather,a "personal"
selfbasedon an
identificationwith intimacy.To clarify,I turnto some ideasaboutthe self in
WesternEuropeanhistory.
Revolutionprecipitated
themigratory
Levy(1973,1974)arguesthattheIndustrial
employmentpatternthatcharacterizes
capitalism,breakingdownmanystable
communities.
Values
that
had
once residedwithinthe community
agricultural
neededinternalization.
Foucault(1988,1990)seesevangelical
religiouspractices
as achievingthis effect.Evangelicalspreachedthatoriginalsin sulliespeople's
souls.People were good, therefore,only throughconstantintrospectivevigilance (Davidoffand Hall 1987:88).The attentionthus directedilluminedand
differentiated
internalspace,creatinga psychicvalisein whichpeoplecameto
porttheirvalues.I callthisthe "suitcaseself."There aretwo dimensionsto this
self, one thatWesternerstend to associatewith the publicworldandone, with
the privateworld.
Individualsduringthe IndustrialRevolutionandafterlearnedto definethemselvesandtheirinterestsin counterdistinction
to othersratherthanin relation
to a largergroup.Freudcallsthis formof self the "ego."This historicalperiod
alsooccasionedthe developmentof the dimensionof selfthatBenjamin(1988)
calls"intersubjectivity"-asense of self that growsout of mutualrecognition
betweentwo people.Intersubjectivity
is evidentin the flurryof intimateletter
writingamongbourgeoiswomen retiringto the domesticsphereduringthe
Victorianperiod(DavidoffandHall 1987).
U.S. childrearinglaysa basisfor thesetwo formsof self.While
Contemporary
manymotherscanno longeraffordandsomedo notwantyearsathomewithan
infant,in publicimaginationearlylife is oftenpicturedas allaboutmother/child
intimacy.This idealhas provideda researchfocus,for example,in studiesof
attachment(Ahnertet al. 2004;Ainsworths1973;Cassidyand Shaver1999).
Winnicott(1967)documentsfacialinterchanges
betweenWesternmothersand
babesthat precedeverbalcommunication.
This intimatecommunicationfirst
developsthroughthe face-to-facepositionin which Westernmothershold
babies;as babieslearnto speak,motherstreatthemas interlocutorsin a meaningful dialogue-a t&te-i-tate (Ochs 1982). In Samoa, Ochs points out,
caretakershold the child facing outwardtowardthe group;parentsdo not attend
to its early verbalizationsor treat them as meaningful. Children simply imitate

IDENTITIES467
FIGURATIVE
the speech patternsof elders (Ochs 1982:93).Two people gazing into one
another'seyes,asWesternmothersandbabiesandWesternloversdo, I suggest,
is a tropeforthe intersubjective
self.
If an intersubjective
patternof relatinghelpsto developour formof self in the
UnitedStates,Chodorow's
(1974,1978)workimpliesthat,inasmuchasa woman
is a primarycaretaker,
thisis truerfor girlsthanfor boys.Chodorowarguesthat
witha person
girlstendto constructtheirgenderidentitythroughidentification
the
mother.
Because
males
are
often
distant
intimatelyknown,
figures,boystend
to constructtheirsby definingthemselvesagainsttheirmothers.An oppositional
self-definitionlaysthe groundwork
for ego identity-a definitionof self in distinctionto others.At thisjunction,Chodorowbelieves,boysalsotendto reject
whatthe motherrepresentsto them,one-to-oneintimacy,in preferenceforcompetitivepeerrelations.Inasmuchas girlsconstructtheirgenderidentitythrough
an unbrokenidentificationwith theirmothers,they have less reasonto reject
as a basisfor identity.Tannen(2001),in hervideorecordingof
intersubjectivity
in theUnitedStates,showslittlegirlsembracingone
earlychildhoodinteractions
another,gazinginto one another'seyes, andtellingone anotherthey are alike,
whereasboyssit uncomfortably
withchairsparallel,gazingoff into spaceas they
talk.My maleandfemaledreamers'
of carstraveling,specidifferingdescriptions
or
not
the
to
a
fying
specifying driver,speaks
continuityof gendersubcultures
congruentwith those formsof self thatChodorowand Benjaminposit.These
formsreflectdifferentversionsof the carself-model.Thereis an "ego"versionof
this modelthatdreamersconfigureas one driverandwhichfeaturesindividual
versionin whichmorethanoneperautonomy;thereis another,"intersubjective"
son "drives"
andwhichfeaturesan inclusivemodelof autonomy.This statement
seem
WhatI amarguingis thatin the intersubjective
version
may
contradictory.
of the carself-model,peoplesee themselvesasindividuals
who floweasilyin and
out of onenesswith another.Evenwhenboundariesexpandto includeanother,
thislargerentitycanact"autonomously"
on a basisof volitions,desires,andneeds
thatparticipants
In
as
alike.
other
words,the two peopletogetheract
perceive
of others.
independently
How significantgender differencesare among individualshas long been
controversial
(Hyde2005;Tavris1992).Whena majorityof peoplefromeachsex
share a common experience,however,that experienceis likely to become subculturallysalient:that is, the basisfor norms and socializationpraxis.Childrenenter a

468
ETHOS
whentheybeginto playwithpeers.This subculture

gendersubculture
mayeducate them in its standardsand reshapetheir identities,whatevertheir family
a
experienceshavebeen.Evengrantingthisis the case,anyonecanappropriate
model.Thus,whilethepreponderance
of womenin mysampledescribeddriving
as a sharedactivity,not all did.I am not sayingthateitherthe ego or the intersubjectiveversionof the carself-modelis a biologicalor a socialdestiny.Rather,
men and women are likelyto thinkaboutand experimentwith availableselfmodelsin dailylife andin dreamsaswell.
The datasuggestthatthereis a "bug"in the intersubjective
versionof thecarselfmodel:when"thewheel"is sharedor one cannottakeit withoutguilt,theexercise
of controlis difficult.This bug may resultfrom a tendencytowardboundary
confusionrootedin U.S. mother-daughter
experience.Chodorow(1974, 1978)
that
in
argues nuclearfamilies whichchildcareis largelya maternalresponsibility
oftengenerateboundaryconfusionbetweenmothersanddaughters.My female
students'dreamssuggestthatthis confusionmaybe so problematicthatit prohibitstheiruse of the intersubjective
self-model.Whereasmotherfiguresnever
drivein my malestudents'cardreams,theydrivein twowomen'sdreams.In one,
a boyfriend's
motherdriveswildly,wreckingthe carandcausingmanyaccidents.
In the other,the dreamerridesin the passengerseat,andher brothersitsin the
back.Neitherof thesedreamaccountsuses the inclusivereferenceto "driving"
prevalentin femaledreamaccounts.In thelatterdream,thedreamerbelievedthat
hermother'sdrivingrepresented
thematernalpressureshethenfeltto marrysoon
andto marrysomeonemoney-oriented
likeherfather.
A Dream Pilgrimage
I now zoomin on an individualdreamaccountandanalysisthatdevelopseveral
carthemesmentionedabove.I callthisdreamerAnn.ShewasCaucasian,
23 years
old, andin her senioryear.I didnot helpher to interpretthe dreampresented
here andsawher resultsonlyin a finalpaperafterthe semesterwasover:
I dreamtthatI wasin myex-boyfriend,
Arne's,Camaro.My goodfriend,
was
also
there
and
we
were
headed
outon thestartof a roadtrip....
Sheila,
Ourcarwasat a completestopon a roadwithheavy,bumperto bumper
traffic.Suddenlythe groundbeganto shakebeneathus, andthe flat
road ... dramaticallydroppeddownward.The nose of our carnow looked
down a steep hill. ... Our car seemed ... almost vertical to the road.
Somehow,though, our carwas managingto hold onto the road.

FIGURATIVE
IDENTITIES469
Our windows were rolled up, but I could hear screamingall aroundus.
Terrified,I turned to look out the backwindow. Other cars on the road
were beginning to lose their grip and were hurling down towardus ... as
if ... fallingoff a cliff. On the side of the roadway,in a patchof grass,was a
baby carriagelying on its side. Next to the carriagelay a baby,possiblya
one-year-old.I panickedand began screaming,"Oh my God! There's a
baby!There'sa baby!"BeforeArneor Sheilacould turnto look, a minivan
came crashingdown, hitting the baby and the carriage.I began to bawl,
uncontrollably,and coveredmy face with my hands.The van, takingthe
baby,came to a crashinghalt nearly 200 yardsbelow us, where the road
had eveneditself out.
Now our Camaro is parkedin a store lot. Arne stayed in the car, and
Sheilawaited outsidewith me. We both staredup at the cliff, which used
to be our road. I told her, "I have to go up there, and tell someone about
the baby.Someone has to bringsome help."I startedto climb the road,as
if I were a rock climber.The roadwas no longer made of concrete,but ...
of cold, deadflesh.My handsandfeet clung to it, andit would rip andtear
as I climbed. I reachedanotherman on this wall of flesh and I told him
about the baby,and that we needed a rescueteam.He told me therewere
too manypeoplehurt,anda rescueteamcouldn'tbe sent downfor one baby.
I returnedto Sheila,and the two of us decidedto make our way down to
the van, to see if there was anythingwe could do. We reached the van
safely,and I opened the backtwo doors to find a woman. ... She was lying
on her back,dressedin a Quaker'soutfit. To me she looked like a pilgrim.
She had bright red hair and freckles.There was blood coming into her
eyes from her forehead,but her eyes were wide open, staringat me. It was
very gory,and frightening.
I askedher, "Whereis the baby?"She respondedvery softly,"She'sright
here."Crawlingtowardme, fromthe frontof the van, camea toddler,possibly a three-year-old.She crawledright into my arms.I snatchedher out
of the van,holdingher tight to my chest.I placedher down on the ground,
and kneltto look into her eyes. She was the most beautifulchildI had ever
seen. Her skinwas porcelainand her hairwas brightwhite. For manyseconds we just staredat each other, silently.The woman in the van got out
and said in panic, "Where'smy baby?"I yelled, "She'sright over here!"I
pickedup the toddlerandhandedher to the woman.I then awoke.
Insteadof specifyingthedriver,Annsays,"wewereheaded":
herreferenceis inclusive of threepeople-herself,Arne,and Sheila-and evokesthe intersubjective
self-model discussedpreviously.As the car belongs to Arne, one presumes he is
driving,but Ann does not conceive the situationin terms of his agency:he is silent

470
ETHOS
andpassivethroughout-abystander
whomAnn,lateranalyzingthe dream,saw
asa "hole."Anndecidedto usea projective
1(2001)devisedcalleddream
technique
to
this
dream.
The
dreamer
first
chooses
severaldreamfiguresto
play interpret
and
abilitiesin her
role-play thenguesseswhatunexpressed
feelingsandunrealized
consciouspersonality
andculturethe dreamrepresents.
shorthand
for these
My
personalandculturalabsencesis "hole.""Whentryingto guesswhatthe holes...
themissingpartsof thedreamwere,"Annwrote,"Arne's
helpwasmissing,aswell
asthe causeof theroadshaking,anda rescueteam."
If the dreamis a "roadtrip,"it beginswith motionlesscars.For class,Annread
the paperby Hollan,citedearlier,in whichhe analyzesthreecardreamsfroma
client,Steve,whichillustratea "senseof being
depressedmale psychoanalytic
stalledanddamaged"
(2003:71).Did readingHollan'sessay,whichportrayscars
as a symbol for self, bring cars into students'dreams?Less than one-sixth
dreamedof cars.Giventhe prevalenceof carsin youngpeople'sdailylives,one
wouldexpectcarsto be commondreamfiguresforthem.It doesnotseem,therefore, that their readinghad a stronginfluenceon their dreamcontent.Ann's
dream,likeSteve's,beginswithmotionlesscars,butshewasnot depressed.Ann's
dreamcarsaremotionlessbecauseof a trafficjam,evokingscenesfrommodern
citylife-freeways,crowdeddowntownstreets,andso on. Soon her boyfriend's
Camaro"isparkedin a storelot."The traffic-jammed
carsdepicta problemthat
the parkedcar reiterates:the intersubjective
car self-modeldoes not get Ann
whereshewantsto go;it is no vehicleof progressforher.
In cardreams,dreamers
oftenreferto carsasif theyareagents;followingHaraway
(1991),one mightcall them cyborgs.In Ann'searthquake
scene,her car has a
and
"looked
down
a
like
in
"nose"
steephill," cars cartoonsthathaveheadlightsfor
Ann's
car
also
onto
theroad,justasshedoesin theclimbingscene,sugeyes.
hangs
an
betweenAnnandthe car.Overthe courseof the
gesting initialidentification
dreamanddreamplay,however,sheexplorestheproblemswiththisidentification.
ForAnn,the roadis animatedtoo. Whileit appearsdeadassheripsandtearsher
wayupward,it hasbeenaviolentactorupto thispoint,firstshaking,thenangling
Ann'sroad,I suggest,
down,andtheneveningitselfout,andit is madeof "flesh."
posesa travelingidentitythatis feminineratherthanmasculine.Femaleecstatics
in Sri Lanka describe themselves in trance as "shakingbelow" (the waist), and
Obeyesekere (1981) sees this bodily reaction as female orgasm. Inasmuchas the
dream earthquakehas orgiasticimplications(as Hemingway [1940] puts it, "the

IDENTITIES
471
FIGURATIVE
groundmoved"),one mightregardthis as a coming-of-agedream.This viewis

coincidentwithAnn'sown:shewrotethatone "hole"the dreamrepresents
is fear
of letting "go of my youth"and making"the transitioninto adulthood,true
I mustmakethistransitionon my own andfor myself."Fearand
independence.
braveryarethe emotionalpolesof this dream:it beginswith terror,but Annis
Annalsobelievedthe dreamrepresented
a holein
brave/independent
throughout.
mainstream
Americanculturein the UnitedStates,specifically
a
confusionaboutwhenexactlyto let go of ouryouthfulways.In ourculture
thereis no ceremonymarkingadulthood,no specificage, or dramatic
celebration.
makeeveryteenageboya man,
Eighteendoesnotnecessarily
or a younggirla woman.We areleftto wander,andwonder,whatexactly
it is thatmakesus an adult.I knowthatI havereacheda pointin my life
whereI wantverybadlyto feellikea grownup;mycultureexpectsthisof
meat23.ButI donotfeelanydifferent
thanI didfouryearsago.Manyofus
butourworld
maynot be readyat 18to be "grownup"andindependent,
tellsuswe shouldbe,whichformehasledto anxiety,fear,andsomeguilt.
The dreamoffersa coming-of-agesequence:anorgasm,thena baby,andlateran
motherfigureaccompanied
archetypal
bya toddler.It alsorecapitulates
growing
the
accident
the
side
of
the
Ann's
boundaries
road,
up. Witnessing
by
quickly
expandto includethe endangeredbaby.Whenthe minivanhitsit, Annbeginsto
"bawl."
Bawlis a U.S. termforinfantilecrying,identifyingAnnandthebaby-an
identification
thatdevelopswhenthe threeyearold crawlsimmediatelyinto her
armsandgazesintohereyes.I suggestedthatone-to-onegazingis a tropeforthe
Westernintersubjective
self-model.Ann'smodifier,"uncontrollably,"
explicitly
identification
with
the
to
control
conjoinsbawling(her
baby)
problems,evident
in otherwomen'scardreams.A controlissueis impliedin Ann'scar"managing
to
holdonto the road,"whileothercarsare"beginningto lose theirgrip... asif ...
fallingoff a cliff.""Losingone'sgrip"is a colloquialexpressionfor the loss of
control.The intersubjective
versionof the car self-modelseems to leave one
unprotected-asthe babyon the patchof grassis unshelteredandexposed.In the
ego versionof this model,the subjectdefineshimselfin oppositionto others,
andself-defenseis morelikelyto be effective.
policingboundaries,
If the dreamis aboutintersubjectivity,
symbolizedby Ann'sspontaneousbond
with the unprotected infant, it also evokes adventure:it is a visual pun on the
"cliff-hanger,"a U.S. term for a thrilling adventure movie. Ann remarkedthat
"even now when I read it, the dream plays like a movie in my mind." Thrillers

472 ETHOS
are an important genre in U.S. movies, possibly because late modernity, as

Giddens argues, is a high-risk environment in which "reappropriationand
empowerment intertwine with expropriationand loss," generating "programs
of actualizationand mastery,"where dread in the form of "being overwhelmed
by anxiety"threatens "our coherent sense of self' (1991:7, 37). In thrillers, the
audience vicariouslyconfronts risks and dread, symbolized by mortal threats to
a hero and related others, threats that the hero converts into a program of
mastery.Cliff climbing evokes another classic U.S. scenario-the success story
in which one climbs "to the top."
This dream thriller begins with Ann and Sheila standing outside staring at the
cliff together, connoting an intersubjectiveself-model, but Ann tells Sheila, "I
have to go up there,"not "We have to go." Ann is reluctantto assume that status
of heroine/rescuer, saying, "Someone has to bring some help." Here the hero is
singular,individual, but unidentified; this "someone" is an absent identity that
Ann is unready to assume. Then Ann emerges from the duo to undertake the
challenge represented by the cliff-crawling up cold dead flesh. This climb is a
parturitionsequence. Ann'shands and feet cling to the wall as if she and the wall
are one flesh from which she must rip and tear herself away.Not only does this
parturition, I believe, signal an identity revolution, but it also indicates Ann's
remedy for the boundary confusion inherent in the intersubjectiveself-model.
After her climb, Ann again unites with Sheila to go down and rescue the baby,
but her agency is in no way stalled or impaired.
The man Ann meets climbing the wall of flesh abjuresresponsibilityfor rescuing
the baby,telling her that he cannot send a rescue team. This man, of course, is
helping others;but his valuesare collective,whereasAnn'sare interpersonal.The
gender other,I suggest, to a degree alwaysrepresents"theOther";the opposite of
intersubjectivityis not egocentrism(whichis its counterpart)but sociocentrism,a
collective orientation-in this case, triage. This man also underlines that Ann
alone is on the line.
Dream Playing
When demonstratingdreamplay in class, I staged dialogues between individual
dreamersand their dream figures. Ann acted out and dialogued with her dream
figureson her own, not before an audience:her role-playingwas purelyimaginal.3
She first chose to play the three year old; although "a toddler,"she named this

IDENTITIES473
FIGURATIVE
This name,I think,refersbackto the mother/infantdyad,a

character"Baby."
U.S. symbolforintersubjectivity:
BABY:
ME [ANN]:
B:
M:
B:
M:
B:
M:
B:
M:
B:
I am 3 yearsold. I havewhiteskinandwhitehair.I am a
beautifulchild,angeliclooking.
Areyou allright?
Of courseI am.I knewyou'dcomeforme.
Who areyou?
I amyou.Don'tyourecognizeme?
I thoughtI'dlostyou.
No. I'mnothurt,not one scratchon me.
Whois thatwoman?
Shetakescareof me.
I loveyou,andI wasso scared!
Yousavedus,thereis nothingmoreyoucando.
If Ann'sdreamis a mode of, in herwords,"wonder[ing]

whatexactlyit is that
makesus an adult,"she begins regressivelyby identifyingwith Baby.Here
an earlierself,
regressionis a recherche,an effort to remember/recapture
whichthe dreamportraysasthreatenedby the carself-model:it is cars"hurling
down towardus" that appearto crushBabybefore a womblikevehicle (the
minivan)snatchesher.Annfearsthatassumingan adultidentity,whichemphasizesindependence,hasinjuredthis"angelic"self-the self firstsurrenderedin
trustto the mother/childrelationship("Iknewyou'dcome for us").Inasmuch
as the mother-child gaze representsthis intersubjectiveself-model, it is
remarkablethatthe womanmotheringBabyhasbloodyeyes-eyes that"were
comesfromthe crash,reitwideopen,staringat me."This injury,presumably,
threat
cars.
posedby hurling
eratingthe
In the dream,Ann too acts like a mother afterthe Westernmodel, holding
Babyto her chest and then kneelingdown and gazinginto her eyes. If this
dreamis aboutclaimingan adultidentity,is it a motheridentity?As if seeking
an answerto this implicit question,Ann next chose to play the mothering
woman,namingher "Woman":
WOMAN:
I am in my 30's.I havebrightredhairandlotsof freckleson my

face.I amdressedlikea Quaker,wearingonlyblackandwhite.
There is bloodrunningdownmy facefrommy forehead.

474
ETHOS
ME [ANN]:
W:
M:
W:
M:
Is thisyourbaby?
I amresponsible
forher.
Whyareyoudressedlikethat?
BecauseI walkwithGod.
I wasn'texpectingto findyouhere.
W:
M:
Why?
Sheseemedso alone.
Do I makeyouangry?
No, butI amsad.
It is okto loveher.I'msurethatshelovesyoutoo.
I justwantedto keepher.
She'snotyourresponsibility.
W:
M:
W:
M:
W:
"Woman"concatenatesopposites.On the one hand,Womanis a spiritualtraveling figure: Ann said she "looked like a pilgrim."While Clifford likes
as a metaphorfortravelingcultures,he is uncomfortable
withthis
"pilgrimage"
term because "its 'second' [spiritual] meanings tend to predominate"
(1992:110). This dreameris very comfortablewith these meanings:she
the Quaker,to beherpilgrim
appointsa properlyAmericanimageof spiritualism,
who "walkswith God."On the otherhand,Womanis not one of those puritanicalpilgrimswiththeirScarletLettermodelsof femininity.Her redfreckles
and hairimplypassion,and "quake"puns on the earthquakewith which the
dreamopened,an eventthat,psychoanalytically
considered,suggestsorgasm.
The term Quakeris descriptiveof bodilyquaking:it derivesfromits founder's
admonitionto "trembleat the wordof the Lord"(Morris1979:1067).
The Quaker'sbleedingis a terrifyingeventin this dreamthatAnn finds"very
For women,sexualcoming-of-ageis concomitantwith
gory,and frightening."
and
defloration-both
of whichintimateporousboundaries
bleeding-menses
like the intersubjective
self-model.In Ann'sQuakerimage,blood is displaced
fromlowerto upper.Froma psychoanalytic
anupwarddisplacement
perspective,
of sexualsymbolismis classic.Decapitation,for example,maysignifycastration,
or a bignose,a bigpenis.Blood,in fact,fastensWoman'stwoapparently
opposed
meanings, spiritualismversus sexuality."She was bleeding from her forehead,"
Ann wrote, "likeJesus on the cross."While Woman appearsto need saving, she
is actuallya female version of the Savior.In Ann'swords, Woman

475
FIGURATIVE
IDENTITIES
actedas a comfortfor me, letting me know it is ok to love ... who I used to

be ... telling me that God is also watchingover me, takingcare of what I
cannot. ... I like the idea of a higher power,a protector,and sometimes I
forget how importantthis reallyis to me. ... Since our cultureso greatly
encouragesindependence,then it is no wonder why individualsmy age
may feel lost and scaredwhen we cannotlive up to our culture'sideals.
A seminal dream researcher in anthropology, Eggan (1952:478-479), holds
that dreams illumine "disharmonybetween the culturalideal"and what people
actually experience. True to form, Ann's dream illumines a disharmony
between the independence idealized in the car self-model and scary feelings of
abandonment and inadequacy.These feelings are predictable in a world where
everyone is supposed to "standon their own two feet," as Americans say, particularlyfor those who have based their identity on intersubjectivityratherthan
the ego. Ann's dreamwork-by which I mean projective/analytic work on
dreams-moves to resolve this disharmony by transferringprotection (a traditionally male function) to God and to another realm. One might see this
transference as a defense, but in psychoanalysisdefenses help a person remain
unconscious of anxiety;Ann's dreamworkhelps her become clearer about it.
Ann's anxiety, moreover, is not just her own: it is a reaction to a shared selfmodel and thus a problem with meanings. The dream is a world of meaning,
traffickingin signs rather than things; imaginative work there is "real"work in
that it strives to amend problematicmeanings by changing the models that create them. Ann begins to evolve a new way of conceiving the self-model that
engendered her anxiety:she transforms a stalled car into a fecund van harboring a baby and a powerful mother figure, the duo symbolic of intersubjectivity.
Ann carriedthis imaginative work forwardin dream play, transferringher anxious desire for protection from actual men like her boyfriend to a flexible
symbolic concept, God. Ann is thus a symbolic agent-an actor in the realm of
cultural signs-and a good one.
Let me review and elucidatethis view of Ann'sdreamreport and dreamworkthus
far. Ann's dream initially represents an intersubjectiveself-model through a car
that three friends drive on a "roadtrip."The identity accent changes through a
shift in agency symbolizedby a shift in animation:while the car is motionless, the
road shakesviolently.We alreadysaw that my female students'car dreamsfeature
control or guilt problems, and that they dreamed more often of crashes than
male students did. These difficultiessuggest a lack of compatibilitybetween the

476
ETHOS
car self-model and intersubjectivity.In Ann's dream, lack of car control leaves a
baby and a mother figure exposed to a crash. This sequence inspires Ann to
emerge from her intersubjectiveidentity and assume the role of an adventurer
who overcomes a great obstacle (a wall of cold dead flesh) to rescue another.
Baby confirms Ann's identity as a hero, telling her, "Yousaved us"; this plural
again evokes the intersubjective mother/child relation, which Ann fears she
endangered by growing up. As she put it, "I have reached an important part of
my life where change is inevitable, but I am afraidto lose ... relationships as I
now know them." Baby assures Ann, "I'm not hurt, not one scratch on me."
Establishing that what she values in the past is safe, Ann began exploring her
identity as a savior-herothrough Woman. Whereas Baby and what she signifies
are unaffected by the hurling cars, Woman, the dream's personification of
mothering, is harmed. It makes narrativesense, then, that through this identification Ann decides (at least for the present) againsta mother identity:Woman
tells Ann that Baby is "not your responsibility."
Next, Ann developed another aspect of Woman-the pilgrim-or, more precisely, the pilgrimage. She decided to play a charactershe called "Road":
ROAD:
I am a highway.I am made of black concrete with yellow

lines. There is something below that is making me shake
violently.
Pleasestop! You'rescaringme.
ME[ANN]:
R:
This will only last a minute.
M:
But you'rehurtingeveryone.
R:
Youare fine!Youshouldfeel happy,luckyeven.
M:
I feel only panicand horror.
R:
Soon this will all be over,andyou will againbe happy.
Cars are the most obvious figure for U.S. travelingidentities-as in the science
fiction joke where cars are the earth'smost prominent inhabitants, and outer
space beings, observing global life, think all would be well if the cars were not
ridden with those awful parasites!But roads are a venerable figure for traveling
identities as well. At the opening of this article, discussing cars, I inevitably also
invoked U.S. road metaphors-Route 61, Route 66, "my way or the highway,"
and so on. As an example of the road self-model, I turn to a favorite children's
traveling movie, The Wizardof Oz (Langley et al. 1988).

FIGURATIVE
IDENTITIES477
The heroine,Dorothy,beginsher adventureinsidea tornado,passivelyriding

her housethroughthe airlikea wildlyout-of-controlplane,crashinguponand
land,there are no mechanizedmeansof
killinga witch. In over-the-rainbow
is
a
road.
but
there
transit,
yellow
Dorothyfurthersherjourneyby "following"
this road(asGlendathe good witchandthe munchkinsurgeher to do), rather
thanby actingautonomouslyin the sense of "beingher own boss,"to invoke
formof autonomyis inclusive
anotherU.S. colloquialism.Her intersubjective
frombeginningto end:Dorothybecomesthe corememberof a travelingparty,
remindingme of a contemporary
song by Heidi Muller,"GoodRoad":
It'sa calling,a strangecompulsion
That makesus leave our homes and takemusic on the road. ..
Goodroads,goodroads,wishingyoua goodroad
Mayyoufindyourcomfortin friendsalongtheway.[1989]
This song alsoassociates"theroad"with following-"a calling"or "acompulsion."The roadhas long been a majorfigurein U.S. popularmusicbecause,
akinto the car,it offersfreedom-an escapefromthe intractableproblemsof
realsocialcontexts.Does it alsosuggesta travelingself-modelcompatiblewith
Justas therearetwo featuresto the suitcaseself-the ego and
intersubjectivity?
intersubjectivity-thereappearto be two figuresthatconveyit in dreams:the
carandthe roadway.
Like Dorothy,Ann'sfirstreactionto transportis panic,but afterdreamplay
Ann wrote, "The roadlets me know that I shouldbe excitedfor change. ..
Transitionis difficultfor me, but I do knowthatI'll soon be comfortableand
findhappinessin my new adventures."
Throughthis dreamworkAnn realized
that"fearis not failureand ... my subconscious[is]cheeringon my own independence.Beingscaredof the futuredoesn'tmeanit stillwon'thappen."
Ann'sdreamaccountand dreamworkanticipatethe transitionto postcollege
life, practicingfor it like playpracticesfor adulthood-mimingits threatsand
dangers.AsJung (1972),Wallace(1952),andBasso(1987)hold, this dreamis
prospective,supportingthe forwardmovementof Ann'spersonalityand the
forwardmovement of her culture. Independencein the sense of moving
beyond the limiting worlds of home and known relationshipsinto an uncertain
future often seems at odds with protecting one's capacity for love, trust, and
intimacy.This incipient antipathyis the underside of the car self-model and is a

478 ETHOS
problemthatwomenin the United States-embarkingon theirown roadsyet

feeling,as Dorothysays,clickingtogetherher rubyslippers,"There'sno place
likehome"-face dailyand,evidently,nightlyaswell.4
Ann'sdreamplaythroughoutseemsallegorical:
it hasa Pilgrim's
(Bunyan
Progress
because
she
is
cultural
within
her
n.d.) quality
problems
encountering
personal
dream.Dreamplayis usefulin the lastphaseof figurativeanalysis(zoomingin
on individualdreams)becauseit solicitsthe person'swakingmindto discover
relationsbetweendreamimagesand consciouslyheld norms,rules,and conventions.I do not sayconscious
mindhere becausein dreamplaypeople enlist
whatStephen(1989,1995)callsthe autonomousimagination,drawingon ideas
of which they arenot fullyconscious:they cannottell you aboutthem in the
abstractbeforehand.Of course,dreamplaymediatesbetweenpersonalexperience representedin the dreamand socialrealityat a differentpoint than the
dreamitself.And by whatevermeanspeopleaccountfor theirdreams,something is lost in translation.So, manydreamersmakesimilartranslationsuntil
"figurativeculture"bendsandmorphsunderimpact.
Figurative Culture
culture,"I referto a wealthof sharedimagesandtheircareersin
By "figurative
publicandprivateimaginings.It is not coincidentalthatbothCliffordandAnn
as a modelfor travel:theyareborrowingon the
try out the pilgrim/pilgrimage
same culturalcommon.Imagesin culture,like wordsin a language,offer a
sharedarrayof models and schemasfor makingsense of experience,which
members draw on and personalize, rendering them back enriched and
changed.This processtakesplacealonga rangeof locations,butdreamsoffera
specialwindowon how peopleassubjectsuse circulatingfiguresto continually
reconstitutetheirsenseof self andfigurativeculturealongwithit.
Freud(1961)seesthe ego asaimedatsolvingproblemsin reality.Dreams,I have
arguedhere, solveproblemsin meaningby actingon sharedfigures.In other
words, the car self-modelis supposedto mean independentmovementand
progress,but to Annandmanyotherdreamersit doesnot havethisunequivocal significance.Her dreamas well as her accountand dreamworkshow this
discrepancy and act to shift figurative representations to accommodate Ann's
actual experience. This view resonates with Stephen's (1995, 2003:102, 117,
122) that dreams represent an affective memory system that works through

FIGURATIVE
IDENTITIES479
new sensory data by sorting them into and helping to transform emotion
schemas (cf. Ewing 2003; Mageo 2002a, 2003:23-42).
Dreams, dream accounts, and dreamworklike Ann's in this sense do "the work
of culture."This phrase, of course, comes from Obeyesekere (1981, 1990), but
culturalwork, in his view, occurs through the evolution of "personalsymbols,"
not through dream symbols. When individualsexpress private experience with
public symbols, those symbols become personal. As an example, Obeyesekere
presents the Sri Lankan ecstatics mentioned earlier.Their schizophrenogenic
personal histories induce visions in which a god gives them matted locks. In Sri
Lankan religious traditions, matted locks are a public symbol, which Sri
Lankansgenerally see as signs of divine patronage and spiritualpower. By articulating their private traumaswith a culturalcommon of religious images, these
women forge personal symbols, which gradually move them beyond painful
affect and provide a path back into the social world: they become paid religious
specialists. In contrast, Obeyesekere argues, dream symbols are simply products of "deep motivation"-those compulsions that psychoanalysts attribute
to early family relations and see as "biologically based" even if "culturally
influenced" (1981:80).
In light of the foregoing figurative analysis, I question this distinction. Early
family relations effect an internalization not only of quasi-universal family
dynamics but also, in Vygotsky's(1978:57) terms, of the culturally and historically specific social relations in which children develop. The contemporary
culture of boys growing up in the United States, for example, is likely to favor
ego development, while that of girls' usually favorsintersubjectivity.People use
the car as a symbol for self-models that these early relations foster, but Ann's
dream discloses more than these relations and concomitant models: it illuminates her reactions to these models. Cultural models, together with our
reactions to them, constitute deep motivations-motivations that render the
self as a changing system entangled with others in shifting contexts, ratherthan
merely with the verities and vicissitudes of its own biology. This interplayis the
"motivation"behind Ann's dreams and dreamwork.
Many see the conscious ego alone as having motives-reasons and aims for
action. Theorists since Jung, however, have viewed the self as characterizedby
subself systems with identities of their own, identities that people may not recognize (Hollan 2000). Thus, Ann said to Baby, "Who are you?" and Baby

480
ETHOS
responded, "I am you. Don't you recognize me?" Though marginal or

repressedin conscious life, in dreamsthese identities personify people's feelings
about culturally dominant self-models. Ann's dream graphically depicts her
feelings that the kind of independence the car self-model configures is out of
control, injurious,and incompatible with intersubjectivity.These other identities, which I call counteridentities (in Ann's dream: the baby, the woman, and
the road), seek expression in and thus "motivate"dreams.These "deep,"in the
sense of unrecognized, motivations generate culture by impelling people like
Ann to reenvision their worlds. This reenvisioning occurs in dreams and continues in attempts to understandthem.
Why, then, should we use dreams,and specificallyfigurativeanalysis,to understand culture? Would not a survey of conscious attitudes toward gender, for
example, work as well? In a meta-analysis of gender studies, Hyde
(2005:588-590) found that people's self-reports strongly reflect gender norms.
Only in situations of complete anonymity, what researcherscall "deindividuated" situations, did they report violating social expectations in significant
numbers. In ethnographicresearch,too, people are readyto tell an anthropologist about their norms and about how they personally embody them-granting
that norms are a moving target apt to change between generations. But people
are extremely reluctant to disclose thoughts, feelings, or behaviorsthat diverge
from the norms they have internalized.Dreams in which the manifest content is
out of line with culturalmores may suffer the same fate:people are reluctant to
report them (Spiro 2003). In most dreams,however, like those of my car dream
set, personal issues with social expectations are rendered symbolically in what
Eggan (1952:477-478) calls "a safely cryptic manner,"which allows people to
disclose feelings they would not ordinarilybe willing to admit to others or even
to themselves. Dreams can give a unique perspective on cultural self-models
because there is an "I know not of what I speak"quality to these communications that permits people to explore anxiety-provoking topics like gendered
identities under the cloak of obscurity. I do not mean that dreams or their
accounts disguise latent dream thoughts, as in the Freudianmodel. Rather,as in
Barthes's(1977:54) analysis of the filmic image, people sense that there is an
"obtuse"meaning. This obtuse qualityprovidescover even while it "compelsan
interrogative reading."This interrogativereading, exemplified in Ann's dream
play, does more than investigate a mystery;it reconfiguresa model.

FIGURATIVE
IDENTITIES481
How does figurativeanalysissupplementa person-centeredapproachthat focuses

on the personallife and historyof the dreamer?Take,for example,Hollan's(2003,
2005) "selfscape"approachto dreaming.A "selfscape"dream is especiallyvivid
and easy to recall; it depicts the individual'scurrent state of body, personality,
and relationswith others. Hollan (2003:68-69) reports an intriguing dream of a
Toraja elder he collected in the early 1980s in which planes approach and a
bomb hits the elder who later stands up unhurt. The elder dreamed this as a
young adult and said it foreshadowed the time when his parents and first wife
died. At their funerals,he sacrificedmany buffalo and feared financial ruin; the
dream, he believed, forecast his triumph over these circumstances.Hollan persuasively argues that this elder felt his ritual obligations to be as destructive as
aerial bombardment;the dream reflects the high price Torajagenerally pay for
their investment in family and social networks.
In a case such as this, figurative analysismight have added an understandingof
dreams' relation to changing self-models. At the time the researcher collected
this dream, he would also collect dreamsthroughout the village, determining if
planes were salient dream figures and if planes as a symbol had contradictory
features for Toraja.Making a subset of plane dreams, he would look for affiliated themes-possibly aerial bombardment, foreigners visiting, or relatives
departing and returning. Examining plane dreams and their affiliated themes,
when interpreted in relation to major cultural events such as World War II
(was this elder living at that time?), transnationalism,and the encroachment of
modernity, could give a fuller sense of how this elder's struggles with his own
identity were part of reconfiguring models for being Toraja.Planes may represent a foreign self-model for Toraja but, if this elder was representative, one
that they had begun thinking about and indigenizing in dreams, probablyrelating it to older forms of travel. As Clifford (1992) remarks, people the world
over have histories of travel and, I would add, figures that evoke the shifting
sense of self that derives from these histories.5
Ann's dream qualifies as a selfscape dream. She described it as extraordinarily
vivid and wrote that, days later,"Iwas still able to replayits entire content in my
head." Selfscape dreams may be useful in the last phase of figurative analysis
because their images are strikingly clear and well formulated. In a figurative
analysis,however, one collects all availabledreamsbecause sharedfigureswithin
a collection will show a breathof fluctuation.All dreamsin my car dreamset, for

482
ETHOS
example,presentvariationsin the carself-modelthataretellingin themselves

andwhichprovidea contextforunderstanding
individualdreamslikeAnn's.
Wordsandthe meaningsthatattendon them,StraussandQuinnhold,mustbe
the day"(1997:5):if wordshadno stablesignifirelativelystableto getus "through
we
not
Butwhatdo we need to get us throughthe
could
communicate.
cance,
night-throughthattimewhen,asin Freud's(1956)theoryof dreams,ourdiscontents with "civilization"
surfaceand disturbus? We need a constantflow of
self-modelsthataccommodate
personalandhistoricalexperiences
reconfiguring
in
with
we
think
the imagesof dreamsto arriveat
current
models;
incongruent
modelsbleedbackfromimaginalinto discursiveformsover
them.Reconfigured
timewithoutdisrupting
(toobadly)theflowof socialcommunication.
generational
Retracingourroad,my intenthasbeento illustratea figurativemethodof analyzing dream collections and individualdreamswithin them-one that is
in that it revolvesaroundculturallyemergentfigdistinctlyanthropological,
ures ratherthanpreestablished
categories.Carsare a prominentfigurein my
dream collection-a self-model that is symbolically phallic, free and
autonomous,Fordist,a cyborg,andfetishistic-a modelthat, despiteits genderedtalismans,occurredmore frequentlyin femalethanin male dreams.In
my study,this self-modelposed differentproblemsfor the two sexes.In male
dreams,cars were an unreliablesource of self-worth:althoughmales had
supercars,they werenot heroesin car dreams;carsoften representedaggression uncheckedby moralprinciples.Femalesassociatedcarswith controland
boundaryproblemsbut alsowith a developingsenseof self-worth.
Whatis mostsurprising
froma "nightlynews"perspective
is thatdreamingis out
in front of the marketand popularentertainment.Eggan (1952:478-479)
believesthatthereis "adistinctlag"betweenpeople'sconsciouslyheldbeliefsand
a lag thatdreamsbridge.This is certainly
theiractualhistoricalcircumstances,
the casein cardreams.Commerciallymen seemas identifiedwith carsas ever.
The valuesassociatedwith cars-movement, progress,beingbig, strong,fast,
powerful-are still constitutiveof male movie heroism.But my datasuggest
that the psychologicalgroundbeneaththese imagesmay be subtlyeroding.
Ann'sdreamshows,moreover,how one young womanexperiencedcar selfmodels and how, out of this experience, she reenvisioned herself and
participatedin the re-creation of U.S. traveling identities.

FIGURATIVE
IDENTITIES483 )
MARIE
JEANNETTE
MAGEOis Professorof Anthropologyat WashingtonState
Pullman.
University,
Notes
Acknowledgments. I thankJanetKeller,my "Publishingand ProfessionalCommunication"classes,
and StanleyP. Smith for their carefulreadingof the manuscriptand for their generous comments.
1. I see the self as constituted by acts of identification with internal elements of experience, with
persons, groups, and representations in the culturalworld (Mageo 1998:3-36; Mageo and Knauft
2002), and as fluctuatingbetween contexts (Hall 1996). People organize and give culturalmeanings
to these identifications through shared self-models.
2. For examples, see Lohmann 2003; Mageo 2003; Stewart 2004.
3. For a comparison ofJung's (1976) active imagination, Perls's (1971) gestalt therapy,and Rogers's
(195 1) client-centered therapy,see Mageo 2001.
4. Both The Wizardof Oz and "Good Roads"depict opposed urges toward "home"and "the road."
"Homes/houses"are anotherprominent figurein my dreamcollection. Homes might be apartments
and have a variety of rooms that often appearedseparately.In varying forms and ratios, images of
dwelling and of travelingareprobablyimportantfiguresin many culturesthat depictmodels for being
a person. Other common figures in my collection include TVs, planes, forests, pets, guns, and of
coursenumeroustypes of people such as boyfriends,girlfriends,parents,siblings,friends,and spouses.
5. Lohmann (2003) takes traveling to be a uniting theme in Pacific Islands dreaming.
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Figurative Dream Analysis and U.S.

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Figurative Dream Analysis

Abstract Many psychologists and anthropologistsargue that dreams depict

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As in Foucault's(1988, 1990) analysisof discourse,people experienceshared

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In the United States,even Oedipal motifs appearin terms of transits;"myway or

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fun, fun, fun,"whatpeople do with toys in the United States,"'tilher daddy

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sustaining of coherent, yet continuously revised, biographical narratives"

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Males, however,have supercardreams,whereasfemales do not. One young male

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not whatMarkusandKitayama(1991)wouldcalla "sociocentric

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whentheybeginto playwithpeers.This subculture

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groundmoved"),one mightregardthis as a coming-of-agedream.This viewis

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are an important genre in U.S. movies, possibly because late modernity, as

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This name,I think,refersbackto the mother/infantdyad,a

If Ann'sdreamis a mode of, in herwords,"wonder[ing]

I am in my 30's.I havebrightredhairandlotsof freckleson my

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actedas a comfortfor me, letting me know it is ok to love ... who I used to

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I am a highway.I am made of black concrete with yellow

This will only last a minute.

Youare fine!Youshouldfeel happy,luckyeven.

I feel only panicand horror.

Soon this will all be over,andyou will againbe happy.

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The heroine,Dorothy,beginsher adventureinsidea tornado,passivelyriding

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problemthatwomenin the United States-embarkingon theirown roadsyet

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responded, "I am you. Don't you recognize me?" Though marginal or

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How does figurativeanalysissupplementa person-centeredapproachthat focuses

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example,presentvariationsin the carself-modelthataretellingin themselves

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