Psychoanalytical Analysis Of Lisa Mcmann's Wake

The story “Wake” by Lisa McMann plays on the interest of the unknown and kept me interested as the plot twist never stopped. It is a fast paced story based on timelines of the dreams of Janie Hannagan. Her mind is incapable of ignoring another’s dreams when they fall asleep in her presence. Her determination and strength of living with this is captivating and almost beyond belief. At times throughout the store, I think it would be so mysterious to be able to know what others are dreaming; however, it would be like your mind is never at peace. It appears that Janie’s dreams may be her mind at work to discover experiences that others are having and to learn more about them without having to “know” them. Determination and strength can help …show more content…
He considered dreams to be the royal road to the unconscious. In essence, this is what Janie was experiencing. As the story unravels and intensifies, we see Janie’s strength and ability to help others in her dreams. This is a lot like what happened to Freud in July 1895. Freud had a dream to form a theory. He was worried about a patient, that he had treated and was not doing well. However, in his dream he saw that her sickly condition was because of a dirty syringe used by another doctor. He discovered that this was dream work. It was the ability to transform the dream into a non-threatening form which reduced anxiety. In the same way, Janie has to develop strength to overcome her dreams so that they don’t destroy her life. We see this type of dream work in action on page 133. She is stuck in a dream of drowning when Miss Stubin, who has recently passed, appears. In the dream, Miss Stubin smiles and says “It’s your dream.”... “Concentrate,”... “Change it”. She realizes that she can make the dream do anything she wants it to do. It is a small step but it gives her hope and more determination to understand her dreams and how to stop