Norwich bulletin., 1920-12-22
LETTERS TO THE EDITOR
Truth About Dreams


 MT. Editor: Last Saturday there was an item on the editorial page. of your pap CT that attracted my attention It was copied from the Milwaukee Journal, and it gave us a learned professors findings about dreams. To explain let us give a sentence or two of the article before We adduce comment:
 When you dream that you ars slaught- ering a flock of potentates it's more than Rrobabble that you're unconsciously ex- pressing repressed desire to kill your mother-in-law. In dreams a man does the things he secretly desired to do in waking but did not dare.
 R"This was the interpretation of the Freu- dian theory of psycho-analysis given by Dr. William J. Durant, former instructor of philosophy in Columbia University in a lecture the other night in Milwaukee.
 ''I4le mask of morality is taken off in dreams and man acts in the primitive and man fashion, Dr. Durant said.''
 We do not hesitate to say that this is rank nonsense, which if put forward by any but an instructor would not deserve attention. l. is, however, of the quality of that psus do-philosopa1y frequently put out in the name of science, hence we criticize it.
 The quality of dreams is not regulated
 
 habits of thought Dreaming is not an abnormal action of the brain, now a rem nant of prehistoric customs. It is a normal function of the brain and m>n's dreams are as different as the diversity of the dreamers An ancient Biblical au- thority tells us that dreams came through 1 the multitude of business and it Is well l known that an over-fuIl stomach will al- so provoke dreaming of an acute kind. l A dream. therefore, is a kind of fiction that may have it's source in very many l causes. All dreams are not of that ma 1 lienant type indicated by Dr. Durant There are good dreams and bad dreams | Men have been known to solve problems 1 in dream, that had baffied their waking l hours, and inventions and discoveries have originated in dreams. Indeed. the | Infinite has-sometines revealed it's puF- 1 poses anrl secrets in dreams.
 To bolster his theory Dr., Durant his this i to say about children:
 'fWe lowe children because they have 1 no rspressiors. whereas. we 1znow we're lied to nine tirnes ont of ten with a-u'fs' ' The conclusian, he said, Is that "hypocris5 and polite nepdacity constitute the es senee of civilization"
 So far from this being true 1t is vel l known that some children are congeni a pTeFa arlcatOrS. We nave Just been read Ing in a magazine in which the sub | ject of Imagination in Children is treat ed by Imelda Octavia Shanklin, whoeve that may be. She makes the same mistake of classi flying all children alike but we will quot' her opinion because it controverts that 0 Dr. DuTant. Here is what she says:
 When a child says, I've been to tn north pole on my new sled. there is n' question of his veracity. It is conceae that he has taken an imaginary trip t that moot region that has produced imag intions in minds of broder experience Quiz the child skillfully. and he will ad init that he not only went to the polt but that he also climbed it. and very prob ably ate of the icicles, crawning it's toa FFe will lso tell many incidents of tn Journey. He will embellish the whol narrative in a way that draws upon a the knowledge and hints he hs receive in connection with polar topics" We may be thankful that this qualit if mind is not common to all chiIIren., N more is it common for all men. To hay dreams of the same quality. Yet thi is the kind of information we get in put lie lectures from men in the name of SC : ence who have had the advantages of eG l ucatien and are credited as instructors. r JOHN TROLAND, Norwich, Dec. 20. 1920.