Nonfiction | 2011

Why do we dream? Why do we dream what we dream?

Novelist and essayist Michelle Herman looks at dreams and dreaming every which way: from ancient dream interpretation to Freud, from the way birds dream to the way babies do, from Jung to contemporary sleep and dream scientists, from her own dreams to the dreams of everyone she knows. In this mash-up of science, cultural history, psychoanalysis, and autobiography, we she reckons with the art, the purpose, and the meaning of our dreams.

“The paradox of this piece is that Herman admits that most people aren’t interested in hearing about each other’s dreams, and yet she pulls readers by the hand into her dream life, and her waking life, neither of which escape analysis. But she remains engaging by forcing the random, obscure, and unshapen nature of dreams (and life) into a compelling story.”

—Paul Diamond