Why the Unconscious Matters to Writers
Most people reckon that dreams are unconscious things that allow us to make associations that our conscious does not usually allow. But dreams are more complicated than that. Specific brain wave patterns are associated with dreams, and scientists who study dreams still don't know the exact function of dreams. What we do know is that if we are not allowed to dream (meaning, people are woken up right before they go into REM sleep - I've participated in such a study and it was the most absolute, pure torture I've ever experienced, but was in some respects worth it as I received 50 dollars for participating and, being a destitute sophomore in college, that meant lots of pizza from Everybody's [R.I.P.!]..and what a digression we have here...) we experience the following: anxiety, depression, difficulty concentrating, and a general sense of unease.
So, it seems that at a high level, dreams keep us sane. So does writing. Which means, at least to me, that writing is an act of dreaming - a special kind of dreaming where we allow the unconscious associations, biases, and meanings to take form within the written or typed form.
For Freud, dreams are masked bastions of our true desires or wishes; in regards to these desires, it's important to note that in this specific quote, Freud says that the human spirit directs dreams, and that the human spirit has a kinship - not a direct correlation - to the divine. It's not clear if the human spirit is a son or daughter of the divine, or a distant cousin, and it is also not clear what Freud means by using the word divine. It is almost certainly not the divine as we know it from a religious perspective. It more likely means things relating to the universal experience of being a human, as all humans dream (it also helps to know that Freud described himself as an atheist on several occasions, though he clearly was influenced by his Jewish upbringing).
Could it be possible that writing is really just a way to put dreams and desires in some kind of order or disorder? And really, are order and disorder are more similar than different? I think that is something Surrealism points out, regardless of the medium used. The films we have watched in class had some form of plot and sequence, within a setting. They told stories, much as the written word does. There are many interpretations of these films, interpretations that are guided by our personal experiences and our dreams. Dreams are the ultimate personal experience, so it comes as no surprise just how central they are to every aspect of our being. If you take dreams away, you end up with a shell of a human. There's a very rare genetic disorder called Fatal Familial Insomnia (just typing it creeps me out). Basically, over a period of months, people experience more and more insomnia, and less and less dreams. When they do dream it is very vivid - as if our brains were yelling at our unconscious (or vice versa?). Eventually though, they are unable to sleep and dream at all, and then they die. There is no cure.
So, taking this extreme end of the spectrum into account, I think we can say dreams keep us alive, and dreams (with the help of motivation and self-discipline and desire) keep us writing. We cannot have a writing life without dreams, and we cannot be human without dreams. Dreams are the key to who we are, and who we are as writers.