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Brush Salesman #4

"The time is winter and a group of students and myself are on a field trip. The instructor is telling us about the formation of sand dunes and snow drifts as we walk through the snow. We all have a drawing board and are making a drawing of the areas he tells us about. The lecture then seems to get more artistic than scientific as the beauty of the drifts, trees, and few buildings is pointed out. I remember I was making my drawing with a Bic pen just like the one I am using on this report. I tried to show the way the snow looked as it formed little clouds at the lips of the snow banks as it blew. The ones we were seeing were in beautiful pastels of red, green, and blue. The instructor also pointed out the beauty of the noise of the wind. I made a slight whistle which sounded much like it and someone else did the same. Just before I awakened, the instructor told us about a canoe that was awarded to the student at Yale who could make the best academic recovery and hold it for a month."


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The first character is the group of students coded as J because there is no reason to believe that the group would not be composed of both male and female students. Being identified as students is sufficient to warrant a coding of O, as pointed out in Dream 2. The instructor is coded as a male because in the third sentence, the dreamer uses the masculine pronoun to identify this instructor. Being an instructor clearly qualifies for an O identification code. Had the dreamer indicated he knew the instructor, the coding would have been K, since K takes precedence over O. The remaining character is the someone who whistled after the dreamer whistled. Since no indication of this person's sex was given, an I code is necessary. Although no information is provided as to this character's identity, it seems reasonable to assume that it must have been a student since they are the only persons, except for the instructor, mentioned in the report. It also seems unlikely that anyone else would have been close enough to hear the dreamer's slight whistle unless this person were also a student. If this had been a field trip to a city, it is much more probable that other people would have been nearby, and in that situation, a U code would have been given. The student at Yale was not coded as a character because this is an example of a generic reference as no actual student was referred to.

A friendly interaction was coded for the instructor telling the students about the formation of sand dunes. His explanation is considered as a helpful act and therefore coded F4, even though the instructor is only carrying out his teaching role. This point was explained in the discussion of Dream 1.

The first activity is a verbal one, when the instructor tells the dreamer and the students about the sand dunes. An M code is given for the dreamer, students, and instructor, who are all walking through the snow. The dreamer and the students engage in a physical activity when they make drawings of the areas that are pointed out. No code is given for pointing out because it is not clear whether this is done through physical or verbal means. No additional P code was used for the dreamer explaining in the report how he proceeded to make his drawing, since this was the same drawing activity for which the earlier P code was assigned. An S code was given to the dreamer and the students for seeing the little clouds of snow. The whistling engaged in first by the dreamer and later by someone else was coded as two separate physical activities since it was not done jointly but separately by each character. Another V code was given for the instructor telling the dreamer and the students about the canoe. This was coded as a different verbal activity even though it seems as if there were a continuing dialogue between the instructor and the students, because in this instance it refers to an entirely different topic unrelated to the preceding nature talk and because there were some intervening activities.

Only a single setting is involved in this dream and this is clearly an outdoor one. This setting was coded as being unfamiliar to the dreamer because although he devoted a great deal of description to it, he never at any point indicated that any part of it was familiar to him. The more lengthy the description of a setting becomes without any indication of familiarity being provided, the greater is the likelihood that a setting is unfamiliar to the dreamer.

Objects will be taken up in the same order that they appeared in Dream 4. Two NA codes were given for the sand dunes and snow drifts. The next reference to snow was not coded separately as it was felt that snow and snow drifts were not different objects, just as the water and pools of the previous dream did not receive two separate NA codes. The two CM codes were given for the drawing board and the drawing. An RG code was given for the areas the instructor tells them about. This represents borderline acceptability as a more specific designation of some region should generally be provided to receive such a code. The next NA code was given for the trees, but the drifts were not coded because they were coded earlier. The buildings are given an AM code because no information is provided as to what types of buildings they might be. The two CM codes are for the Bic pen and for the report. No code was allowed for snow or snow banks since snowdrifts had previously been coded. Clouds were not coded because they were clouds of snow, rather than celestial clouds, which would have received an NA code. Similarly, lips were not coded because they obviously do not refer to a body part. Neither noise nor whistle are codeable items because it was pointed out in the chapter on coding objects that sounds and things with temporal boundaries were not included in the object class. The final item which was coded was the canoe as a TR object. Yale is not scorable as an object because it does not have a specific enough referent such as a campus or building.

Although a success theme was mentioned in the latter part of the dream, no SU coding was introduced because no specific character experienced it. The Yale student was treated as a generic nonscorable character and therefore cannot be associated with any other elements in the dream. Success, in our classification system, can only be dealt with when it is achieved by some scorable character.

The first modifier is an E+ for the reference to the beauty of the surroundings. S- was given for the little clouds and another E+ for the mention of the beautiful pastels. Red, blue, and green are each given separate C+ codes since they refer to different colors. Another E+ code was entered for the reference to the beauty of the noise of the wind. I- was used for the mention of the slight whistle that the dreamer made.

Two temporal codes were given: one for indicating the time is winter, and the second for the mention of one month in the last sentence. No negative codes were present, which is unusual in a dream report of this length.


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Char. Aggression Friendliness Sexuality Sett. Modif.
2JOA
1MOA
1IOA
 
1MOA4>D +
2JOA
  OU



E+
S-
E+
C+
C+
C+
E+
I-
Obj.
NA
NA
CM
CM
RG
NA
AM
CM
CM
TR
Activities
1MOAV>D +
2JOA
D +
1IOA + 
2JOA
M 
D +
2JOA
P
D +
2JOA
S
DP
1IOAP
1MOAV>D +
2JOA
Temp.
2
 
Neg.
 
 
Success Failure Misfortune Good Fort. Emotions  
           
 
 
 
 


The brush salesman: 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10
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