Freud speaks: “In dream censorship, the unconscious mind struggles to express those desires which are too difficult for the waking mind to accept … they are encoded messages, knowing they are subject to interpretation by the waking mind. You, and only you, will determine their true meaning when you are conscious. But only if you so desire … and beware of what you might find.…”
Jung retorts: “How do you explain that, as per my contention, we continually dream even when awake, and according to your belief, distressing thoughts are subdued and overpowered by the unconscious mind? We are receiving encoded messages, then, all the time? How do you explain reality? Is our unconscious mind constantly struggling to suppress anything which is difficult to accept, even in real life? Is our own supposed reality, then, just what we want to see, and nothing more?”
I interject: “I’m trying to sleep, and here you are filling my head with nonsense. Jung, you’re assuming both contentions to be true, and making a deduction from that. You can’t—”
Plato, inexplicably, utilizing his own exact words: “The good are those who content themselves with dreaming of what others, the wicked, actually do.”
I begin again: “You’re saying, Freud, that the unconscious mind disguises things too painful for the conscious mind to experience. You, Jung, are saying that even our reality can be nothing other than what we want to see, because we’re constantly dreaming—if we accept both your premises, that is. And Plato, you are saying that something too painful for us to experience is not as painful for the wicked, if they have a suppressed and distorted view of reality or not.…”
They shake their heads. No, no, no. You are no philosopher, and not much of a psychologist. You are no painter, either.
Kerouac, inexplicably: “Unrequited love. It’s such a bore....”