I had one of my frequent dreams about BBC Television Centre last night. I was walking round the circle of the building passing through dark, grubby, technical areas. As so often in my dreams the building was in various stages of dismantling and disrepair. I was trying to find a colleague and ended up in a huge staging area which was being set up for a band.
When I started working there in the eighties I used to walk around the viewing galleries on the second floor to see programmes like The Two Ronnies, Top Of The Pops, or Black Adder being made. It was such an exciting place to work and full of life and energy.
But my recent dreams have all been melancholy. Something is not right. The building is dark and brooding, like a scene out of Bladerunner!
The Obvious? 
I wonder if dreams mean anything. I often dream – well, always dream, of my Navy days. I always seem to go back to those days and usually I’m wondering around the building (usually the Wardroom) looking for my cabin and looking for someone to help me. No one is ever about, I look down to realise that some part of my kit is missing. Or I’m wearing summer uniform when I should be wearing winter uniform. Or vice versa. Or that I’m missing a belt or my hat or some such. I’ve never dreamed I was in the correct uniform or met anyone in the building!
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My wife and I both keep having recurring anxiety dreams based on our days in operations in radio. There’s always something going wrong with the technology and we’re about to go on air and everyone is expecting us to work out a solution!
My other common anxiety dream is turning up from my final exams in Lower College Hall in St Andrews feeling confident that I have “got away with it“ when I notice that everybody else is carrying books that I’ve never seen in my life before!
The scars we bear…
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That’s funny. I sometimes have newspaper-related anxiety dreams. I can’t scribble the story fast enough in my notebook to ring the copytakers and file the story. In my unqualified way, I know this is because I spent years polishing and getting good at a particular craft that I don’t use anymore. My sub-conscious is asking me why I’m not using it and is puzzled. The roots that early rule learning put down were so deep that they’re still there even if the detail has been forgotten. When in a crisis we responded to fight or flight and so we do in dreams.
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2/24/67. The big majority of my dreams do restorative work. They repair. What a blessing! They also prepare for anxieties, giving me a worse picture than what the reality is going to be.
— Patricia Highsmith, “Patricia Highsmith: Her Diaries and Notebooks: 1941-1995.″ Anna von Planta (Editor). (Liveright, November 16, 2021)
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Again, spot on from Patricia.
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