House of Games: Shadows in Dreams

Dr. Margaret Ward: What is the animal?
Incarcerated female patient: The animal?
DMW: You said in your dream, you saw the face of an animal.
IFP: I don't know how to say it. It was...
DMW: Yes?
IFP: It was a... I...I want to say... I don't know how to say it.

Dr. Margaret Ward: Listen to this. In her dream, she saw a foreign animal.
Dr. Maria Littauer: What is the animal?
DMW: She cannot think of the name. The animal is saying "I am only trying to do good."
I say "What name comes up when you think of this animal?" She says...
DML: Yes?
DMW: It is a lirg. It is called a lirg. If we invert "lirg", a "lirg" is a "girl". So she is the animal and she is saying "I'm just trying to do good."

Ward did some wordplay, which is a fun way to derive meaning from dreams.

Let's look at some more.

First, it's an interesting technique to ask for the name of a foreign dream animal. It's a difficult question to answer: What name comes up when you think of this animal? I wouldn't know whether to invent a name for it or to say who I thought the animal represented. If I were doing this, outside of a Mamet screenplay, I would probably start out with, what's that foreign animal like, and get more of a description and a better sense of the dreamer's reaction to it.

Second, in keeping with the spirit of the film, which runs in the underworld, in the shadows - "foreignness" is another sign of possible shadow emergence in dreams. The Shadow is part of us. It's the stuff we'd rather not know about ourselves, the stuff we'd rather not exist. We may fear it or despise it, try to ignore it or dispose of it. But it's ever there.

"I'm just trying to do good." If something strange, feared, or reviled said this to you, where would you go with it - What would you think? What would it mean to you?