The Social Life of Dreams: A Thousand Years of Negotiated Meanings in Iceland

"An ethnographic text is a niche wildcard I admit, but this long-term ethnographic study by a Dutch anthropologist is a fascinating endorsement of the importance—contemporary and historic—of dreams and dream sharing in Icelandic culture, and their ability to influence the future. It stood out to me because it embraces a kind of ‘messiness’ of life that some ethnographic studies attempt to tidy up, holding space for coexisting approaches to dream interpretation. Though this is an academic work, the book is accessible in tone and full of intimate lived examples. Heijnen sets out the background to the study of dreaming, and walks through historical and literary sources of Icelandic dreaming and dream sharing before discussing examples of contemporary dream practices to demonstrate that ‘not only is history constructed in the present, but the past is generative of life.’ She notes that this is also true of Icelanders’ ‘bookish’ approach towards their society, identity and history. That is to say, historic accounts of dream sharing are taken seriously by Icelanders and inform and legitimise contemporary practices. Heijden’s central point is that dreams are not only experiences to be taken note of, and shared, but are used to reveal future events and inform social action. They do not belong to the individual as such, but are part of a fabric that implicates Icelandic society as a whole, and which remains interwoven with the past. Overall I find this book to be a fascinating glimpse into what might be considered a collective Icelandic psyche, which navigates time vertically as well as horizontally."