European Stars and Stripes (Newspaper) - October 8, 1990, Darmstadt, Hesse                                Scientist Calls musings daydream  Ilii Lilloll Iii Iii i Iii Quot  tools of understanding believes amps Susan Harris by Don Oldenburg Washington Post awakened once again after Midnight by music blaring from the apartment upstairs a Magazine editor lies in his bed eyes open. He fantasizes about making an elaborate contraption resembling a 12-foot hand Drill to bore through the ceiling and into the Bottom of the offending stereo. Kaboom it explodes. The image repeats itself Over and Over. A retired accountant fearful to tend her Garden near the tall Fence separating her tomatoes from a neighbor s Rothweiller sits on a nearby Patio chair ashamed that she could even think the unthinkable a lobbing a Mickey finn Tbone Over the Fence. Quot i could never do such a thing. Never Quot says the mortified grandmother. Quot but it does keep coming to  during his commutes Home after late hours at the office confided the lawyer to his therapist the idea of steering his car into the headlights of oncoming traffic has occurred to him. A often. Now this mini drama of a loitering mind haunted and depressed him. How could a responsible husband and a Loving father such As himself entertain such a bizarre notion so frequently a that steering into the opposite Lane one is probably relatively common Quot says Eric Klinger a professor of psychology at the University of Minnesota who admits the notion also has crossed his mind. Though seemingly suicidal and destructive thoughts of accelerating into a tree into an abutment or off a Bridge Are the pulp fantasies behind the wheel he explains. And they re All characteristic of the gremlins of consciousness he labels Quot obsessional  the Black sheep of common daydreaming these fitful flights of fancy Quot run a Range of brutal responses and brutal misadventures Quot and occur to Quot substantial percentages of people a says the author of daydreaming Tarcher $18.95a Book that combines his findings of three decades of research into mental Dalliance. Typically off key and violent sometimes frightening or disturbing almost always contrary to the Daydreamer a own mores and values they Are figments of imagination that Blip onto the mental screen like a teaser for a Chainsaw massacre flick. Quot it is what the analysts Call ego  they seem to come from outside of what you a like to do and How you d like to think of yourself Quot says Klinger. To make matters worse they tend to repeat themselves. But the Good news says Klinger is that no matter How often such wicked whimsy occurs a a whether throwing a crying baby out the window or parroting the office bore a people Seldom act on it. A in and of itself it is probably not going to go anywhere Quot says Klinger. A it is a signal an indication of something else going on in your life. That May be a matter of concern but the fact that you Are having a thought need t  in that respect daydreaming has come a Long Way from the Days when it was considered a sure sign of laziness and a classroom nuisance. So has the scientific study of daydreams. Once they were seen Only in strict freudian terms As regressive activity infantile and neurotic a defense mechanism against the pressures and anxieties of everyday life. Increasingly scientists such As Klinger who have taken this subject into the Laboratory have come out daydream believers. Their research attributes to these spontaneous and Short bursts of invention such functions As easing boredom acting As mental bulletin boards triggering creativity boosting sexual pleasure stimulating emotions and generally flagging unconscious Agenda. Klinger encourages people to View daydreams As tools of self understanding even if they seem like the musings of Walter  evil twin. But wandering minds want to know what do the negative daydreams mean the bloody ones the lurid ones Klinger warns against trying to translate them too literally a a mistake that obviously can be very upsetting. He recounts the Story of one therapy patient who was tormented by his obsessional daydream As he walked Down the Street he imagined himself choking the women he saw and grabbing at the men s genitals. Quot id have these thoughts probably hundreds of times a Day Quot the patient reported. Quot these thoughts sometimes terrified me. I was afraid id do it. Yet i knew i did t want to. Quot if the meaning of such episodes can be Quot quite different than what they seem Quot that does no to absolve them of any important meaning at All says Klinger. To imagine momentarily cutting your Mother in Laws Throat Isnit necessarily conspiracy to murder he says but it should raise some questions about the relationship. The notion of dropping your Newborn does no to mean you wish the baby harm but it might invite some introspection about How you see yourself As a Parent. The woman strangling patient neither hated the opposite sex nor did he want to sexually attack men a but he did discover through therapy that his emotions toward both sexes had been blocked and stymied. A i try to put these obsessive daydreams into a broader context Quot says Klinger emphasizing that daydreaming has not been thoroughly researched and some conclusions Are speculative. A daydreams seem to be triggered by things that remind of us what we want or what we fear which then plays through our head components of that thing. But it is necessary to say that no one interpretation is going to be valid for  consider the Highway daydream. One explanation says Klinger is that the person at some level is worried about head on collisions Quot particularly if the traffic is hairy or you Are tired. So that could easily trigger the daydream a because it is what we fear and not because it is what we  it also could result from stress in another part of the persons life that shows up when on the Road again he says. A if you Are anxious about something else anxiety tends to spill Over and sensitize us to react to cues of other things that we  a freudian might Well interpret the head on daydream As an expression of a death wish. Quot or perhaps suicide is an option and you Are aware of it and you Are afraid of it Quot says Klinger. Quot you could also interpret it. As a fear of losing control Quot not just of your car but of your life. In most cases says Klinger people  worry that these miniature Quot Day mares Quot indicate that they re prone to self destruction or violence. Quot if it scares them that much to have the thought then that a a very Good indication that on the balance they re not suicidal Quot he says. A on the other hand somebody who is particularly ambivalent who is closer to being suicidal might also have some thoughts like that. So we can to simply exclude it  monday october 1990