Why don't People Talk About Their Dreams

The article was written by Dr. Shane McCorristine in September 2015. According to Shame McCorristine, sharing of dreams played a key role in the development of major literature, myths, religious and scientific experience. Human beings are special creatures, they are able to express their feelings and share information as a way of enriching human history, especially when dreams are documented. The articles argue that the sharing of dreams has played a crucial role in the development of myths, literature, religion, and scientific discoveries.

Dr. Shane McCorristine is Postdoctoral Fellow, Historian, and cultural geographer and historian with keen interests in social, literary, cultural, and environmental history. He has interests in visions, dreams, feelings, and images that seem to independently pass in the minds of people when asleep. Other works by Mccorristine include Spectres of the Self, 2010.

The author argues that books about dreams are no longer popular the way the used to be in ancient times. This is because people are no longer interested in perusing literature on dreams and their interpretation.The author also argues that people nowadays people are afraid to share their dreams or they do not want to think. McCorristine always wondered why dreams have such emotional force in his nocturnal life, the origin or sources, their purpose, and what the interpretation of dreams was. At a tender age, he even maintained dream journals and narrated chilling nightmares members of his family and friends. He believed by sharing dreams he was fulfilling moral obligation which was in existence since time immemorial in his society. He argued nightly dreaming is an adaptive feature of the normal brain -functioning which is biologically inherited and serves the purpose of preparing a person of the impending danger. Therefore, since human beings are highly social species they are supposed to share their dreams with others, unlike other mammals that are able to dream that lack the capacity to reflect, talk and document their dreams. While other mammals also dream, talking, writing, and reflecting on dreams are practices that define a human being as a highly social species. Hence people should endeavor to share their dreams because that is what distinguishes human beings from the rest of mammals.

McCorristine, argues there is rich documented the history of sharing of dreams either through talking, painting, documenting, ignoring or repressing dreams tracing back ancient Greece. Unlike ancient times, current generation dreams are perceived as messages sent from external beings to us in order to warn or offer guidance, about particular futures events. Dream-revelations have played a central role in the development of major literature, religions, myths, and scientific discoveries in the world. He states that an average people spend about 6 years of their lifespan having “rapid eye movement" dreams in their sleep, while the non-rapid eye movement dreams(N-REM) and other dreamlike experience are unaccounted for. The author argues that most iconic ranging from the Bible, Jacob’s case, to the contemporary society they were all shared. However, lately, things have changed, with people becoming reluctant to share their dreams. Since psychologists and neurologists perceive dreams as the internal interaction of the brain rather than outside messages to the people and their souls. Western people and other affluent lot do not subscribe to the old perception about dreams. McCorristine advocates that people from all walks of life should share their dreams because in doing so it enables the society to develop myths, literature, religion and scientific discoveries which will go long way in explaining various phenomenons in society. McCorristine wondered why people continued to ignore such a significant life experience’s a historian, the mere fact sharing of dreams was a decline, the archives of subsequent generations were being impoverished.

Precisely, the thesis of this article is; dreams should be shared as they play an influential role in the development of myths, religions, literature, and scientific discoveries all over the world. The authors argue that dreams should be shared and in sharing is what distinguishes human beings as highly social species from other mammals. McCorristine provides two perspectives on the origin of dreams; the traditional perspective argues that dreams are external messages sent by external beings in order to offer guidance or warn about future events and when interpreting such dreams the logic of reversal should be applied. The modern perspectives about dreams argue that dreams are an internal interaction of mind. This is because what a person dreams is a result of the thinking or thought which passes over one’s mind before retiring to bed.

McCorristine, argues that history is enriched by sharing of dreams either through talking, painting, or documenting dating back ancient Greece. Mc Corristine suggests that people should continue sharing their dreams because it is in that way that the world has been able to record remarkable development in myths, scientific development, religion and literature. He concluded that in the recent past sharing of stories has declined simply because people are not thinking or because they feel embarrassed to share their dreams. McCorristine sharing dreams he was fulfilling moral obligation which was in existence since time immemorial in his society. He argued nightly dreaming is an adaptive feature of the normal brain -functioning which is biologically inherited and serves the purpose of preparing a person of the impending danger, Therefore, the decline in sharing of dreams will impoverish the history of future generations.

To start with, Shane McCorristine lacks the technical competence to talk about dreams because he is a historian. The interpretation of dreams is a reserve for psychologists and neurologists because these are the people with the technical know-how on human behavior and working of the human brain. The author, McCorristine, overused past evidence to justify why people should share dreams. For instance, he states,`… census in the 1890s which estimated that around 10% of the population…’. There is a need to use more current information and census to support his article.

It is illogical for McCorristine to argue that sharing dreams played a central role in the development of myths, literature, religion and scientific discoveries. The interaction of people regardless of whether they were sharing dreams or other information about social, political, cultural or economic aspects of life played a significant role for the world to realize the current development in literature, religion, myths and scientific discoveries. The development of religion, myths and scientific discoveries involves so my factors other than dreams which are more pertinent than dreams. This article lacks coherence, for instance, the author starts writing his article by stating personal experience,’ I had the same dream…’, and then at some point he gives the history of dreams, hence his work is not arranged in a chronological manner. The article by McCorristine lacks empirical evidence to support his claims. For instance, he uses the term, I sense that the sharing’ this makes the article be a mere statement of allegations which lacks a scientific basis.

The author used outdated data and purely historical sources to address a psychological topic. The author talks of iconic such as Jacob of the Bible and McCartney's dream of 1964. A clear indication that the information used by Shane McCorristine in support of his thesis is extremely outdated. Furthermore, the author purports to have conducted a survey in 1866 yet the articles was published in September 2015 a clear indication that this currency is devoid of the aspect of the currency. The use of myths of logical reversal to interpret dreams is extremely ridiculous. For instance, the interpretation that if a person had a dream of marriage, he or she will die is laughable. Moreover, the author of the article uses mostly long sentences which can lead to boredom as one reads the article. A mixture of long and short sentences could motivate readers to continue reading the article. Also, the author appears to be more subjective rather than objective, this evident where the author uses a phrase such as, ‘I sense that sharing…’ this compromises the level of serious another author will place on this subjective article. The style of the article is also weak. Ideas do not flow smoothly. The articles also overuse past information to support the main article. The structure of some paragraph is weak. Some paragraph has one only sentence when a standard paragraph is to have at least three sentences. The author also has used inappropriate language, for instance, he talks of, `dream-collector instead of a scientific word such as data collector.

In conclusion, it is extremely Illogical for a historian to write an article on a sensitive psychological topic such as dreams. The author not only lacks the technical expertise to enable write an informative article but he also uses outdated and irrelevant information in his writing. The article overuses past and outdated data to support the article. This structure of the article does not flow smoothly and some program has only once sentence contrary to the standard minimum of three sentences per program. Furthermore, the article lacks currency, although the article was published in 2016, it used past data some dating back to 1866. Therefore, Shane McCorristine could have improved the smooth flow of this article by using well-structured paragraphs with at least three sentences, being objective rather than subjective in his argument, use of current and update materials to support his argument and avoidance of monograph style of narration.