To Sleep, Perchance to Dream

[Mikhail Thatcher]

Mikhail Thatcher smiled as he made his way onto his classroom and placed his briefcase on his desk. He was happy to return to the normality of teaching, if his class could ever be called normal.

Taking papers out of his bag, he placed one on each of the tables around the room. He then walked back to the front of the room and pulled a box out from under his desk, opening it, he took out and stacked a variety of spiral-bound notebooks and splayed them on an extra table that he had put at the front of the room near the white board. He then grabbed a marker out of his top drawer and wrote:

Where do you think dreams come from, and why do people dream?
What have some of your past dreams meant to you?

He then moved away from the board, and closer to the door to greet the students as they entered and for them to select a notebook that they would like to use as a dream journal. He didn't mind if they went through every single book there until they found one they liked (as he hoped they would be more likely to use it if they like the look of it).

"You can feel free to answer the questions on the board in your books if you want." He offered. "We'll talk more about the notebook you have just chosen when class starts." He didn't mention the paper on their table, but he didn't tell them not to touch it either, so if they wanted to read through New Clues to Why We Dream, while they waited for class to start, he wouldn't stop them.

Calling:
Ben Ayers
Bridgette Iris Beaumont
Gladys Madoc
Katherine Lorelia
Piper Wilson
Sina Aleardi

OOC: The notebooks can have any design on them that you like, so feel free to describe the cover to your heart's content

[Sina Aleardi]

The new year was off to a pretty decent start, Sina decided. Cheer was coming along, and now it was time for classes. The routine, even if not every subject, would at least be nice. She and Derecho made their way to psychology, and she grinned at the teacher as she walked in, "Hey Mr. Thatcher!" She nodded at his instructions and headed for the table with the notebooks, grabbing one with a shepherd silhouette in pink ombre on the front cover.

With that, she found herself a seat on the edge of the first row, and then settled Derecho against the wall before she set down her backpack. She considered the paper in front of her first, then considered the questions on the board as the teacher brought them up. She flipped open the notebook and considered. Finally, she started to write.

[Ben Ayers]

Ben walked to the Psychology classroom and greeted the teacher with a quiet nod, then stopped by the notebooks to pick one out - After a brief moment of deliberation, he picked one with a subtle plaid patterning. Then he took a seat and set the notebook in front of him, as well as a pencil.

He considered the questions on the board, but was distracted from them by the printed sheet of paper, and picked that up instead. He started to read while he waited for the class to start.

[Serulis Keller]

Walking in to the room Li noticed the books, writing was something he loved. He greeted the teacher with a hair flick and a smile before making his way over to them. He looked through pushing them around until he found what he wanted, a black background with a water-coloured galaxy unicorn silhouette. Searching around the room he walked towards a seat at the back, near a window.

He read the board, he opened the book titled and dated it then started to write, he wrote the question first then answered them. When he was done he grabbed the paper and started to read that while he waited patiently.

[Gladys Madoc]

Gladys selected a notebook decorated with something that struck her as being vaguely calligraphic, but she was no expert so it was quite possible that she was entirely mistaken. And having done so, she took a seat and regarded the questions on the board with a thoughtful eye. Dreams, huh? Well, she wasn't really sure. Presumably, she did dream, since she'd heard that everyone did, but she never remembered them when she woke up and so she suspected that she was going to have some considerable difficulty in answering the second of the two questions.

[Piper Wilson]

The notebook which Piper picked up had a bright and poppy colour scheme, chiefly because it would make it far easier for her to find it in the chaos of her desk. She then made her way back to her seat- she wouldn't say to her desk, that would confuse people- and examined the questions on the board with a thoughtful air. Well, she wouldn't say that any of her dreams meant anything particular to her. They were generally highly abstract, or, as she preferred to put it, completely loopy. Still, this should be a fun class!

[Mikhail Thatcher]

Once the bell sounded, Mick walked over and closed the door. He could have left it open, but he didn't like the distraction of people walking passed an open door while he was talking, so it was just easier to have it closed. "Now we're going to take the time to read New Clues to Why We Dream, which you will find on your desk. Then, in your class books, not the note book you collected at the start of class, I want you to answer the following questions I'm going to write up on the board."

a. What was Sigmund Freud’s theory on the nature of dreams?
b. How does the 1960’s- 70’s model of dreaming (based on REM sleep) relate to Freud’s theory?
c. How do psychoanalysts support that “today, what we know about the brain mechanisms of dreaming is far more compatible with what Freud inferred”?
d. What “new insights into dreaming” have researchers gained through neuroimaging techniques? How did different areas of the brain react throughout the sleep cycle, particularly during REM sleep? What do these insights add to the notion of “the subjective experience of dreaming”?
e. What consistencies with Freud’s dream theory does Dr. Braun offer? What inconsistencies still exist?
f. What are Dr. Hobson and Dr. McCarley’s ideas on the “role of emotions in dreaming,” as in their activation-synthesis model?
g. How does the article address the answer to the question: “If the vivid scenes of night are set off by the pre-programmed flip of a chemical switch, what room does that leave for the stirring of unconscious desires, the replaying of childhood traumas, the acting out of psychological conflict – in short, for all the dream material that therapists and their patients routinely interpret?”
h. What are Dr. Foulkes’ ideas on the “correspondence between dreaming and REM sleep,” and how do they relate to previous theories discussed in the article?
i. What did Dr. Solms study and what did he learn? How does he argue his points in relation to the Freud and Hobson models of the origin of dreams?
j. What points do Dr. Solms and Dr. Hobson make in their debate about the nature of dreams in the interdisciplinary journal Neuropsychoanalysis?

Mick decided that he would explain about the journals once they had finished this part.

OOC: Feel free to read through the given link, but you do NOT have to answer all those questions, unless you feel like it.

[Sina Aleardi]

Sina had another sentence to write for the last question posed, but she listened to Mr. Thatcher as she finished her thought. After the last period had been thrown down, she set down the pen and picked up the article they were supposed to be reading. As she read, she was vaguely aware of Derecho shifting next to her, but she ignored the dog, finishing the article and then looking up to read over the questions.

That done, she looked back down at the article, this time with a highlighter in hand, and read it again, picking out the relevant sections. From there, she set down the printed paper and picked up her pen again, writing down the first answer. Instead of rewriting the question, she restated it, using that to start her answer: Sigmund Freud's theory on the nature of dreams was that dreams contained meaning about instinctual motives and desires. She continued down the list, answering everything in a similar method.

[Ben Ayers]

Ben had already finished reading over the article once by the time Mr. Thatcher started class, which made him feel pretty good about the class. The article had been interesting, and he waited patiently as he watched Mr. Thatcher write the questions on the board, going down the list and answering them. He checked back with the article as much as was necessary, although he was proud to notice that he'd retained most of the information on the first read-through.

[Serulis Keller]

Serulis had finished reading by now and was looking over the questions that were written on the board in front of him. After titling and dating his class book he wrote the questions out, he skimmed for the answers. He wasn't a fan of reading for long periods of time, unless it was the horse & hound magazine. He wrote what he thought were the right answers for the first five questions and then decided to have a break -give up- he watched around the room at the others.