VCR

The Dreamer is watching an action film inside a room.

Then the Dreamer’s Father is driving him to the Mother’s house. Then the Dreamer is rewinding the film in a VCR at the Mother’s house. The Dreamer rewinds, fast forwards, then stops, rewinds again, trying to find the right spot. Then the Dreamer is outside, some distance away from the house. He can hear the film over all that distance. Then the Dreamer finds himself on a rock wall: he has a firm grip. The the Dreamer is in the lobby of an apartment complex. There is an unknown woman with a baby. The Dreamer plays with the baby. Then the Dreamer is inside watching the action film. Then the film is in two parts. Then the Dreamer is rewinding, fast forwarding, stopping, rewinding again. Then there is video but no audio. The Dreamer investigates the audiovisual wires that connect the VCR to the TV. The Dreamer tinkers with the wires, and the reception returns. Then the Dreamer has to rewind the film all the way to the beginning.

Then the Dreamer is in the passenger seat of a car in a parking lot outside of an old strip mall. He is waiting for someone to return. He sees in the distance a shop that is advertising pastries and pies. He exits the vehicle and walks up to the shop. The inside is dingy. The counter is like a cafeteria. The Dreamer surveys the options, there are gluten free options. There is a woman who works at the counter: she reminds the Dreamer of his step-father’s daughter, Christina. He asks her if that’s all the pies. She says yes. He asks her to sample. She says no, you have to buy one. He says ok, I’ll have an apple pie. Christina begins shuffling thick pieces of apple pie into a container.

Context: Yesterday I told my Wife, who was going to do some chores, that I was going to watch an action movie, since she does not like them. Instead I watched a comedy. I remember having to tinker with the AV wires of the VCR when I was a boy, shuffling the VCR from the bottom shelf and then plugging it into those yellow and red wires in order to watch a movie on tape.

Motif: tinkering returns as a motif, from “Tinker Toy Car” and from “I Want You” where the Dreamer is tinkering with a technological device

Associations; VCR, nostalgia (I grew up with a VCR, was still using them in the early 2000s); rewind, fast forward, rewind, fun and a little frustrating; rock wall, dangerous (it is one of the activities that I am prohibited from since my shoulder surgery); pie, yum, guilt; Christina, guilt (over my step father’s end of life). I do feel like I need to do more things “hands on”, but I often resist that inclination in favor of consumptive or comfortable activities.

Feelings: fun, frustration, danger, fun, guilt, fun

Interpretation: This is a dream about a (guilty) connection between the father complex and the mother complex. The Dreamer has started a father persona, which includes tinkering, then is interrupted in the construction of that persona and is driven by the Father to the Mother’s complex. There, he has unfinished business: something is in an infantile state (per the baby), an incomplete state (per the two parts of the film), started and stopped again, a dysfunctional state (per the AV wires), an inferior state (per the passenger seat) needs experimentation to become functional. This is a little frightening to the Dreamer (rock wall), like he should not be doing it (prohibition), like he should not become that kind of man, the kind of man who fixes things. Instead he should become the kind of man that eats pies, consumes conveniences of his superior functions, from dingy fast food shops. However, the Dreammaker is suggesting that the Dreamer is quite capable of tinkering; he has started that type of ESTJ behavior before: this should go here, that should go there.