Unlocking the Importance of Dreams: A Psychoanalytic Reading in Inception
Dwi Setianingsih Rahardjo
Abstract
Using Freud’s Pychoanalytic criticism, this paper will examine the relation between dreams and unconscious in Inception. One of Freud’s famous saying
about dream is that they are the royal road of the unconscious. Based on this notion, several scenes at the movie will be analyzed to prove that unconscious
thoughts, feelings, and memories are really projected in a dream. In the movie, the notion of unconscious is never introduced; instead they use the notion of
subconscious. However in this paper, distinction will be made between unconscious and subconscious, based on Freud’s theory of what unconscious
is. After investigating the relation of dream and unconscious, this study comes to a conclusion that dream is important because it sometimes affects our
actions. Keywords: Inception, Freud, Psychoanalysis, Dream, Unconscious, Subconscious
1. Introduction and Summary of the Text
In mid 2010, I was driven to a cinema by my sister to watch a movie entitled Inception
. I was reluctant to see it because I did not like the lead actor and the synopsis was uninteresting; however, my sister forced me to see it and she succeeded. It turned out that the
movie was out of my expectation and I liked it very much. It required the audience to think throughout the story about the new concept proposed by this movie – dreams within a dream
– which was very innovative. I was amazed by the story even after I walked out from the cinema.
Inception is a psychological thriller movie filled with action and spiced up with a
little romance. The story also deals a lot with the main character’s Cobb’s emotion that affect the whole story. The ending is an open-ended ending that made me curious and fall in
love with this movie. It is unclear whether Cobb manages to go back to the real world or
whether he is trapped in the unexpected fourth level of dream when he is searching for Saito. I debated over the ‘right’ ending with my sister and friends, and there was no agreement
among us. This matter attracts me into making some research about the ending. During the quest, I found many interesting articles related to not only the story, but also the other things
from the movie. From one of the articles that I read, Christopher Nolan the writer and also the
director of the movie, had been working on the script for almost 10 years. He said in an interview, “About 10 years ago, I started thinking about fusing a film about dreaming with a
heist-film structure Taubin 32.” He first got the idea of writing about this dream-story from his lucid dream – dreams in which the dreamer has complete consciousness and awareness
about the fact that one is dreaming and can therefore interfere or influence, even create the dream as he or she wishes Holzinger 216. In other interview, Nolan said that he had lucid
dreams one night and he attempted to manipulate the dream. However, this attempt was “frustratingly elusive,” a hint that such things are possible on a grander scale Hurd.
Up to this point I became more and more fascinated of how this man could produce such an intriguing work because of a dream. I was always fond of dreaming; I could imagine
a story inside my mind after I had an interesting dream. However, this was merely a simple imagination, a continuation from the dream I had before; I never thought that one can really
make a story from having a dream. This fascination arose once again when I took a literary theory class in 2012. The subject of psychoanalysis attracted me more than other theories
given by my lecturer. The things that happen within one’s self such as unconsciousness and dreams are not an exact science. You cannot tell what is inside someone’s mind or predict
what dreams you will have when you are sleeping, or the connection between these two. There is always room for discussion and possibilities. Therefore, I am going to discuss my
favourite movie using Freud’s 1856 - 1939 psychoanalytic theory.
The topic related to dream is always drawing attention and is interesting to be discussed further. Dream themed stories are produced from time to time. Movies such as
Requiem for a Dream, Avatar, Vanilla Sky, and Inception are a few examples of box office
movies that have dreams as its theme. There are also some classic children stories which explore wonderful worlds inside dreams, such as Wizard of Oz and Alice in Wonderland;
both remain popular until now. Why do these so-called children fairy tales and some unrealistic, extraordinary settings in the stories still exist nowadays? Because dream world is
indeed an exciting world that one cannot stop looking into. Sigmund Freud, who was the first to introduce the psychoanalysis theory, is often
criticized and considered crazy. However, his theories are still popular and his name is still frequently used when talking about dreams. All of Freud’s work depends on the notion of the
unconscious, which refers to the mind beyond consciousness that has a strong influence upon our actions. Therefore, this notion will be discussed in the paper and used to examine several
scenes in Inception’s dream world in order to unfold the link between the dream world and the characters’ mind. Dream work and the unconscious are closely bound: dream
interpretation in psychoanalysis is a tool assisting in the discovery of psychic contents within the unconscious mind. Freud, himself, termed dreams as the ‘royal road to the unconscious’.
I am going to analyze Inception using psychoanalysis because the whole movie is about dreams, and according to Freud when we talk about dreams, our unconscious plays an
important role in forming it. Interpreting dreams has become an appealing subject for some people. People in Asia, such as Indonesians, believe that dreams could harbour special
meaning, which is called as Primbon Mimpi. There are many books produced to help people deduce the meaning of their dreams. Other country such as Japan also believes similar things
like this. Japanese is particularly known for their hatsu-yume the first dream in a new year belief. It is said that if a person has a dream about Mount Fuji, hawks, or eggplants or the
combination of these three, that person will gain a good luck throughout the year. Those are a few examples from numerous superstitious beliefs about dreams that I believe exist in many
countries. The existence of those beliefs in the societies implies that dreams really are powerful
and significant in people’s lives. Inception also suggests that dreams are influential; they are very powerful and can affect one’s behaviour through an idea one’s get from a dream. This
writing is also made in order to convey a message that dream is indeed meaningful because it helps us to get a better understanding of ourselves and sometimes influences our actions.
2. Summary of the Text
