Sunday, May 18, 2008

I Had A Dream

Note: You might want to read this fascinating article to understand the context of this post.


I had a dream this morning.

It was a gloomy day. The air was stagnant. I was having a bland breakfast at home, worried about something. I was going to volunteer as a subject in an interesting experiment organised by some students. The experiment sounded simple enough: I was to be confined alone in a room for three days, while being guarded by the students all the time. I was free to bring in some food and books to my liking. Apparently there's going to be TV too. There's no goal to achieve, no mission to accomplish. Just solitary confinement.

The more I thought about it, the more fear of the unknown crept in. What if it transformed into the Stanford's Prison? What if I were to be manipulated and brainwashed during the short stint? What if I couldn't stand it all, and crashed under claustrophobia and sensual deprivation?

I did not know. But deep inside, I was confident of my capacity to brave through the challenge. I knew that when the time came, I was able to call off the experiment, regardless of what the Milgram experiment suggested. I knew I was tough. With that thought, I departed. And I woke up.

Freudian dream analysis, anyone? :P


Image Credit: The Reel McCoy - The Green Mile

6 comments:

Anonymous said...

Awesome article. Loved the bit about non-conformists in conformity.

Alvin Ooi said...

i love the milgram experiment. I will totally electrocute the puppy too. i am having fun just by imagining it

changyang1230 said...

You guys fail at dream analysis. :P

Anonymous said...

I dont mind if they serve buffet in the cell. I can volunteer undertaking the experiment for a month....

p/s: but there must be internet too....

YP

Jin Ye said...

I learned all these when I took Social Psychology in college. Very interesting topic. We actually watched a documentary of the Stanford prison (and the Milgram experiment) and it is quite hard to watch because it surprises you and you feel so sad for them.

As for your dream analysis, Freud's
interpretation always has to do with
1) You had a bad childhood, suppressed memories
2) You wanna have sex with someone

Are you sure you want a Freudian analysis?

changyang1230 said...

YP: Haha you surely haven't read about the Stanford prison experiment I linked to leh.

Jin Ye: Haha so terrible lah. It actually was a dream reflecting my feeling at that time. I was quite stressed about my research which was going to be due in one week or so. And to make it worse, my supervisor was away for a week or so, so I felt that so many things were unknown and not sure whether I was going to come out of the challenge. Fortunately I did. :)