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contents page

1ntroduchon 7

mind The Need to Dream 9

Dreams Explained 14
and More About Dreams 19
body Sleep's Mysteries 23

human Sexual Attraction 27

relationships A Matter of Looks 69
Choosing Partners 87
Falling in Love 102

changing Freud and Sexuality 32

Kinsey: Confession Was Good for the Poll 74
view Jung : Every Symbol Has a Value 96
of man Masters & Johnson: Seeing's Believing 117

man 1n Territory and Defense 36

Man , , , or Beast? 40
society How Necessary Is Aggression? 44
The Fiercer Sex 49

Extrovert or Introvert? 54
the How Many People Are You? 62
1ndiv1dual The Cleverer Sex? 83
Who Pecks Whom? 111

question All You Want to Know About Stress- 1 59

All You Want to Know About Stress- 2 78
and All You Want to Know About Stress- 3 93
a11Swer All You Want to Know About Psychotherapy-1 108

self- Improve Your Thinking 67

improvement Visual Perception 81
101
Words or Numbers?
Test Your Vocabulary 116
introduction
Since time beg_an man ha~ restlessly sought the answers
to a~ e~dless hst ~f questions concerning that most
fasc1nat1 ng of subJects- himself. What makes him think
and act the way he does? Why does he love one person
yet hate another? Why are some people aggressive
others submissive? '
Understanding Human Behavior has been designed
to help solve the mystery. Its main purpose is to entertain
and inform the reader in a new, crisp and compelling
manner. Textbook dryness has no place in the series
but at the same time it is presented in an academically
responsible and authoritative way.
In our determination to sift the significant from the
superficial high standards have been set. These will be
maintained by using contributors and consultants who
believe- as we do-that it is possible, and indeed
essential, to communicate knowledge in lucid and vital
terms.
To sustain the interest of the reader, heighten his
awareness of his role as an individual and his place in
society, each volume is broken down into seven sections.
These are as fol lows:
1. Mind and Body: How the brain and body interact,
the bodily processes that make activity or behavior
possible. We explain in detail the complex workings of
the brain .; our physiological needs and urges such as
hunger, thirst and sex; our senses-smell, touch, hearing,
vision; the physical changes associated with
pregnancy, adolescence and old age and the way in
which they affect our behavior.
2. The Individual: Each person is a unique individual,
a product of his particular heredity and environment.
Here we look at some of the factors which produce these
differences-the most obvious of which are personality
and intelligence. We explain what makes a person behave
the way he does: the psychopath, the alcoholic, the Don
Juan or the compulsive gambler.
3. Human Relationships: No man is an island. We are
born into a family and in turn form our own . '!'Je a~e
concerned here with our closest human relat1onsh1ps-
sexual attraction, falling in love, marriage, parent-child
relationships.
4. Man in Society: Two 's company and three's a .
crowd. We are all members of society yet each of us 1s
affected differently by social attitudes. Do_ ~e beh~ve
differently in groups? What forms our political att~tudes?
Are men more dominant than women? These are Ju.st
(continued)
some of the questions we.will be answering.
5. Changing View of Man: Throughout history there
have been men who have contributed greatly to the
advancement of man 's thought about and understanding
of himself: men such as Darwin, Freud, Jung and Pavlov. ·
And more recently, Kinsey, B. F. Skinner and Benjamin
Spock. You will meet them all in Understanding Human
Behavior.
6. Question and Answer: Here you will find the
answers to all the questions you've ever wanted to ask
about sexual behavior, stress, psychotherapy, mental
illness, intelligence, these and many more ...
7. Self-Improvement: This section directly involves
the reader in such areas as increasing his memory power,
speeding his reading ability, overcoming shyness and
improving his vocabulary. ·
This first volume of Understanding Human Behavior
begins with dreams and the strange world of sleep. Why
do we dream and what do our dreams mean? Are they, as
man once believed, glimpses of the future? Or do dreams
reflect our innermost feelings? What happens if we-are
deprived of dreams? Volume One solves some of the
mysteries and gives you a completely new insight into
what happens when your unconscious mind takes over.
Are you an extrovert or an introvert? Do you like
going to parties, driving fast cars and generally looking
for excitement? Or would you rather stay at home and
lead a quiet life? Discover the kind of personality you
really are. We all want to be thought attractive by the
opposite sex. But is this really necessary? Do we worry
too much about the way we look?
Volume One of Understanding Human Behavior
contains many other fascinating and informative articles.
These include a study of man's aggressive instinct; an
in-depth examination of stress; what dictates our choice
of marriage partner; a discussion on whether men are
more clever than women-or vice versa-and why falling
in (ove sometimes proves a wild goose chase.
This is merely the beginning. Each successive volume
will enrich and enhance your knowledge. Above all, this
series is concerned with people and the fact that every
one of us is a unique individual.
-The Editor
MIND AND BODY

The need to dream

Researchers are beginning to solve some of the mysteries that surround our dreams. Experimental
work has shown the disturbing physical and mental effects on subjects deprived of dream-sleep. But
what do our dreams mean? The psychoanalysts have some answers. For example, when a person
dreams of being naked in public it could mean a fear of displaying innermost feelings.

Dreams have been a favorite subject hauntingly bizarre and even disturbing. Further experiments by Kleitman
of poets and philosophers for cen- Here, too, scientific signposts exist and other researchers have indi-
turies. Only recently, however, have which point to some explanation of cated not only that REMs are a sign
scientists and researchers begun to what these characters really sym- that the subject is dreaming-follow-
pierce this mysterious world and dis- bolize, and why we may have a ing with his eyes the pictorial develop-
cover the first clues to answering the particular dream at a particular time. ment of the " dream story" - but also
simplest and yet most intriguing of We know also that dreams may be that REMs last from two to ten minutes
questions surrounding this universal able to tell us something helpful about in the early part of the night and,
phenomenon. ourselves; about our deepest fears as morning approaches, become
Everybody dreams, though not and most secret wishes which may much longer, some lasting for as long
everybody is able to remember having be affecting our behavior without our as an hour.
done so; and we are beginning to conscious knowledge. So quite a considerable amount of
know now not only when and for how our total sleep is spent dreaming. a
long we dream, but also why. And Flickering Eyes phenomenon that seems to be essen-
experiments have demonstrated that First, how do we know how much of tial as well as normal. Once the
when an individual is deprived- not our sleep is occupied by dreams, and scientists knew when someone was
of sleep- but of dream-sleep, it has why we need to dream? Research by dreaming they were able to set up
catastrophic effects on mental and an eminent physiologist, Professor experiments in which subjects were
physical health. Nathaniel Kleitman , has demonstrated awakened just as soon as REMs were
What, then , of the substance of our that during sleep there are periods detected.
dreams? What about the strange cast when our eyes flick backwards and The results of these deliberate
of characters which emerge to play forwards under closed lids as though dream-deprivation experiments prov-
out their dramas on the stage of we were watching the action of a ed quite startling.
sleep? Some seem to be members of play. In fact by arousing subjects After a relatively short time the
our families , past and living ; others while observing these movements subjects began having daydreams.
friends ; many appear total strangers. (called Rapid Eye Movement), Kleit- mild hallucinations, and suffered
Then there are animals, weird settings, man established that REMs always from considerable disorientation. The
situations at once familiar and yet accompanied a dream period. lo nger the period of deprivation. the

9
3.

1. Deprivation Dreams wet dream of adolescents is an

Sex dreams are obviously linked with obvious example. People who under-
deprivation. Dreaming about food if go periods of sexual abstinence are
you are on a diet or smoking if you likely to have sex dreams.
have given it up are clear cases of
deprivation. Such dreams indicate 4. Prophetic Dreams
that the habit or urge, although over- You dream about something that
come consciously, has not been later takes place- a long lost friend
thoroughly repressed. writes to you, or appears on your
doorstep. Does this suggest that
2. Anxiety Dreams some kind of extrasensory com-
Dreams In which you have lost some- munication has occurred? In most
thing important represent anxiety cases it seems doubtful, although
although the subject of the dream is psychologists are now investigating
not necessarily the cause of your such phenomena scientifically.
anxiety. If, for example, you lost your
wallet this could indicate worry 5. Flying Dreams
about your own or your husband' s Dreams where you appear to be
job. If it was your passport perhaps floating effortlessly indicate escape.
you are anxious about your identity. When, however, there is some effort
If in your dreams you have not carried involved in your flying, rather as if
out some important task, it could be you were swimming breaststroke,
1. that you are taking on too much. this could represent ambition or
Another common anxiety dream is striving. Falling, or losing height,
one of taking examinations, or being could mean a return to reality, or that
interviewed. This represents a fear you have been overambitious.
of being judged and found wanting
and could occur at "testing" times 6. Terror Nightmares
in your life. In this dream you are being pursued
by some "thing." You have no idea
3. Sexual Dreams what it is but are terrified just the
You may find yourself in a sexual same. You find that you are unable to
situation with a most unlikely person. run away-perhaps your limbs be-
This could be someone you stood come rigid- but you always wake up
next to in the elevator, or an acquain- just before the terror gets you. This
tance you do not overtly desire. dream could represent some part of
Possibly this person attracts you at yourself that frightens you. Maybe
an unconscious level or perhaps you have an aggressive or sexual
represents someone more significant wish which is unacceptable to your
in your life who is at the same time conscious mind. And because per-
forbidden. Sex dreams can also be haps it is a strong, deep-seated wish
necessary for physical relief. The you cannot escape from it.

10
more severe these symptoms became, to most dreams. At the time, they
until these experiments had to be seem very real. But that reality often
abandoned for fear of permanently bears no relation to the waking
11 damaging the mental and physical world. In our dreams we can be all-
health of the subjects. powerfu I. We can fly; we can scorn
A few years ago Peter Tripp, a New convention ; we can ignore morality ;
York disk jockey, kept himself awake we can meet with presidents, kings
eight days for charity. He sat in the and queens ; we can fall from great
window of a Times Square store, and heights without harm ; we can have
there-for every passer-by to witness illicit affairs without scruple and we
-was the gradual but inexorable can experience both fear and ecstasy
descent of one individual of sound to a degree unlikely in real life. In a
mind and body through initial con- dream, wrote Plato, a man may mate
fusion to final mania. Following this his own mother. In a dream, the Bible
stunt, Tripp suffered a three-month tells us, young Joseph had his entire
depression. It seems the longest a family, including his dead mother.
human being can survive without bowing and kow-towing to him.
REM sleep is ten days. After that
permanent mental disability-and Holiday from Reality
eventual death-will follow. It is almost as if the dream is some
But why should dreaming be so kind of holiday, an escape from every-
vital? To answer that we have to ask day restraints, from the moralities,
some more questions. What is a conventions and social niceties that
dream? Where does it come from? all of us have to observe to some
Who writes the scripts and assembles extent. Freud, the first man who
the characters which our eyes follow seriously attempted to solve the
so diligently behind their closed lids? mystery of dreams, suggested that
How can we be in the dream and they were, in fact, a kind of safety
watching it at the same time? valve ; a way of giving expression-
Try to remember a few of your but in a disguised way- to feelings
~ dreams: enter that dream world for a and emotions which , because they
·r moment, if you can, and think of a are so antisocial or simply too awful
few things that seem to be common to contemplate, we have locked away

5.

11
in the depths of our unconscious. situations are not what they seem. A control its own " dissident" elements,
The mind. as Freud saw it, is not father, perceived as a stern, authori- it, too, begins to break down, and
only a mechanism for thou ght, but a tarian figure , in a dream may appear the result is manic behavior. Normally
vessel containing feelings and emo- in the guise of a judge, a policem an a government tolerates a certain
tions ranging from the most gentle or a teacher. A dream in which we are amount of dissent from its own sup-
and loving to the most vio lent. Now taking examinations or bei ng inter- porters; indeed a government prob-
some of these feelings, of hatred, of viewed may reflect anxiety and lack ably wou Id riot be considered " heal-
jealousy, perhaps of extraordinary of security in a real-life work situation. thy" if it did not allow differences to
meanness, wh ich compose our total The value o f dreaming , therefore, be expressed.
personality are so beyond the pale of apart from that of providing psyc ho-
acceptable human behavior that the analysts and psychiatrists wit h clues Outward.Unity
individual dare not even ackn owledge to possible underlying causes of But if the dissidents go t oo far, they
their existence. seriously d isturbed behavior in an wi ll prob ably be banished from the
So our conscience- o r what Freud individual, is t hat it is an ave nue of government altogether- and so, too,
called the super ego - keeps these escape fo r feelings that demand ex- w ith the p ersonality, which outwa rdly
feelings banished in t he depths of our pression but which cannot be ex- presents a u nity but which is in fact
unconscious. There, in the darkest pressed in outer reality. co mposed of conflicting elements.
dungeons of the mi nd, th ey seethe Withou t that release, as expe riments Deprived of any opportunit ies for
away, prisoners seeki ng their escape. have shown, these feelings begin to dreaming the personal ity begins to
There, in another inner real ity, they i ntrude o n our waking life in the form degenerate into d isorder; and be-
exist just as surely as the feelings of of fantasies and halluci natio ns until cause no ne of us is without re-
which we are consciously aware and the mind is unable to exercise any pressed fears and desires ou r dreams
indirectly affect our behavior. control over these " unruly" elements are usually quite normal and certai nly
of o ur personality. If a government necessary.
Shameful Vice can not exercise law and orde r, if Indeed much of' humanity shares
For example a man who believes there is such dissension within its these fears and desi res, and research
that meanness is a particu larly shame- own ranks t hat it ca n no lo nger has shown that there are standard
ful vice- that it does not " bear think- maintain a united front and act with dream situ ations common to millions.
ing about " - may in fact him self be authority, the resu lt is breakdown and The illustrations cover a selection of
extremely mean at heart. But becau se anarchy. " standard " dreams with w hich you
of his at titude this fee Ii ng has never If the human personality can not may we ll be familiar.
been permitted to reach conscious-
ness. He never becomes aware of his A typical night's sleep (top) shows tense, and heartbeat is regular. In
inner feelings but is forced to pay a dream (paradoxical) sleep and dreaming (right) the brain is much
high pri ce fo r his ignorance. orthodox sleep. In orthodox sleep busier, eye movements become
Only by publicly putti ng his hand in (left) brain activity is slow, eye rapid, throat muscles are relaxed,
his pocket can he hide from himself movements few, throat muscles and the heartbeat is irregular.
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 HOURS
what is in his heart. He becomes the
man in the bar who is always em-
barrassi ngly eager to pour drinks
down the th roat of the slightest
acquaintance w hile his wife says:
" I can't understand him. He buys
drinks all around, bu t resents buying
the kids a bar of chocolate.''
And he complains: " People take
advantage because I'm so generous."
He is angry at being exploited but
helpless to prevent it. The psycho-
analyst s would say he is suffering
from a re pressio n.
Now d reams, suggested Freud, are
an expression of repressed emotions,
of our innermost fears and desires.
Wh ile we sleep these influential
specters arise to haunt the battle-
ments o f the mind, pressing upward
to find expression in the action of the
dream. There, the mean m an may
gloat over his meanness; there we
are prey to the " unthi nkable " terror;
there we may give reign to our desires
for unlimited power and sexual
behavior free from the co nst raints of
morality.
However, even in the dream, these
fears and desires are expressed in
symbolic form. The characters and

12
Ralph Waldo Emerson, the essay-
ist and philosopher, said, " A skillful
man reads his dreams for his self-
J OIN THE
H
knowledge." Each night, you dream
at least once and probably three or
four times. Some people remember
their dreams in detail but most of us
forget them within a few minutes. It
is difficult to interpret a single dream,
.~(
Hi
but often the same theme will reoccur.
Leave a notebook and pencil by your
bed (a tape recorder is even better)
and write what you remember each
morning for at least two weeks - the
longer you keep it up the more in-
formation you will get. When you have
E&u
-
written down or recorded all that re-
mains in your mind, add the date, and
leave it unread for another two weeks.
You may find file index cards or plain
postcards more convenient than a
notebook.

Inner Reality
i
Your dreams reflect your inner
reality, hidden attitudes, fears and
wishes -you are the best person to
interpret them in the light of your life
as it actually is. When you first read
through your series of dreams, some
themes may become immediately
apparent -a particular character, or
type, may pursue you through differ-
ent situations; a landscape may be
recurrent. To help sift the varying
contents of your dreams, use the
following classifications.
Setting: This may portray the ways
in which you look at the world. If you
feel that the world is closing in on you,
you may dream of cramped , confined
pl aces. This could be a temporary New York disk jockey Peter Tripp ing on a faucet for him and awoke to
feeling, related to specific frustrations, went without sleep for eight days as a find that he had ejaculated. A woman,
o r a more general need to escape, charity stunt. He suffered a resulting instructed under hypnotic suggestion
expand, seek new opportunities. The three-months' depression. to dream of homosexuality, reported
setting may be beautiful but danger- that she had entered a " ladies only"
ous, a rolling landscape with perilous father had died while she was at compartment in a train. Events mean
ravines. Again , the setting could be school, and the other children had different things to different people-
normal , indicating a level of accept- been much struck by the event. you must apply what you know of your
ance and relative content. To know Examine carefully the qualities dis- own life.
whether a particular setting is signifi- played by your dream people. Who do Emotion : Often, the events of a dream
cant, you would need to keep records they remind you of? Who have you fade quickly, leaving you with an
over some considerable time-six had the same feelings toward? impression of emotional tone. Appre-
months or a year. Plot: Some dreams have a strong hension and anxiety account for 40
Characters: Relatives, friends or narrative line. You may seem to be in percent of dream feelings. showing
acquaintances? Apart from yourself, the cinema watching a drama in which that most people have a consi derable,
who figures in your dreams? It is you are not involved. What is the though normal, level of anxiety. In
likely to be the people close to you , nature of the interaction? Hostility is times of particular stress, this would
but we know that strangers and peri- common. Who is the aggressor? What increase. Did you know consciously
pheral characters often invade your is the outcome? What of friendly that you were wo rried? Can you think
night world. What could they stand contact? You can gain considerable of a possible cause? It is less trying to
for? Let your thoughts roam freely insight into your suppres:;ed fears and face fears rather than pretend they
around the people who appear. One wishes by analyzing these events. do not exist. Anger, happiness and
woman , in the months following her Are you being blocked or frustrated excitemen t account for about 18
father's death, dreamed, not of him, in some way? Or are you powerful in perce nt each of studied dreams. What
but of an old classmate she had not dreams? In men, sexual dreams are is the predominant feeling of your
seen for years. This puzzled her until common, but not always overt. One d reams? How is it related to your li fe?
she remembered that the other girl' s man dreamed of a lady plumber turn- Only you can tell!

13
Dreams explained
Have you ever dreamed about airplanes, taking a journey, cats or dancing? If you have, do you
understand their meaning? Our A to Z of dream symbols will give you a ne~ insight into the
strange world of sleep. Do you dream in color? How long do your dreams last? Does eating cheese
give you nightmares? We answer these and other questions.
Once, men believed that dreams were In many cases the messages from see the messages from his uncon-
g limpses of the future, visions of a the unconscious are simple and there- scious for what they really are, he can
world in which the boundaries of time fore appear in the dream in straight- then take steps to act on them. This
had collapsed. Others believed that forward fashion-for example a man ingenious theory of course provides
they were memories of the nightly ad- who is having difficulties with his wife a framework for the interpretation of
ventures of the soul or spirit which will probably dream about quarreling all dreams-when they are straight-
during sleep was freed from the with her. Occasionally, however, the forward the message is taken as
shackles of the physical world. But it raw material of the dream may be " read." When the meaning is unclear
was left to Sigmund Freud to produce more threatening. Let us suppose that at first glance, then symbolism must
the first real insight into their signi- the man really hates his wife and yet be involved and the dream has to be
fi cance. He realized that their role was denies this even to himself. In such
not mystical but severely practical, cases some part of the unconscious
sending man messages from his un- mind " senses" and "disguises" the This man was probably consciously
conscious mind. psychologically distressing contents quite willing to help his wife
of the dream so that they appear in by washing the dishes. But
Keys to the Unconscious " symbolic" form. Freud said that this tonight he may dream of being
Our true motives, he argued, could was to prevent an unpleasant dream imprisoned in a cage by a cat who
be determined more readily by the from waking the sleeper. holds the key around its neck.
study of our dreams than of our con- In psychoanalysis, therefore, part The cat symbolizes his wife, and
scious thoughts. The weird nature of of the strategy is to examine the sym- his dream is an unconscious
dream material he explained by in- bolic content of the dream and at- expression of his resentment and
troducing the notion of " disguise." tempt to interpret it to establish its frustration, feelings he might not
This can be explained as follows : true meaning. Once the patient can know he harbors against her.

14
translated first, then interpreted. explained by the fact that Freud among the followers of any single
The weakness of the theory of gathered his material from the case school and thus it is almost impos-
course is that interpretation is largely histories of his patients, noticed that sible to provide a comprehensible
a matter for the psychoanalyst and his certain imagery recurred constantly catalogue of dream interpretation.
patient and is therefore highly sub- and " interpreted" the imagery in the With these reservations however the
jective. In fact few hard and fast rules light of what he believed were the following " A to Z " of dream symbols
for decoding the symbols exist and patient's psychological problems. may serve as a useful guide. Its prin-
even fewer are generally accepted by Jung on the other hand tried to relate cipal purpose is not to allow instant
all schools of psychoanalysis. Fol- the imagery to ancient myths and sym- dream interpretation. but rather to
lowers of Carl Jung, for example, bols and therefore decoded the dream give a general sample of the vast
accept the symbolic basis of much of in terms of the mythological signifi- range of potential dream symbols and
our dream life but propose many radi- cance of these images. the way in which they are interpreted
cally different interpretations from by psychoanalysts. Bear in mind,
those of the Freudians. Personal Interpretation however, that, in the final resolution .
The highly significant differences But whether one looks at the dream dream interpretation must be a matter
in the nature of the Freudian and in Freudian or Jungian terms there is for the individual and his own
Jungian interpretations are partly still considerable disagreement even u nconsc iou s.

Dream symbols A·Z

AIRPLANE Jungian terms may refer to a deep problem of a mystical
In all dream interpretation the "mood" of the dream is of or spiritual nature, a deep psychological secret.
tremendous significance. If the mood is pleasant and re-
laxed, aircraft can be seen as signs of liberation, denoting DANCING
contentment and a feeling of general satisfaction. When, In Freudian terms, dancing may represent sexual inter-
as is more often the case, the aircraft appears as an course or love-making. Other interpretations stress the
ominous object, the reverse interpretation applies and the joyful features of the dance and also of the sense of
dreamer may be aware of a threatening situation building liberation that it brings.
up in his waking life.
EXCREMENT
BIRD Curiously, both modern psychologists and the ancient
For thousands of years the bird has been taken as sym- dream interpreters equate excrement with money. Freud in
bolizing a woman, but in more recent psychoanalytic terms particular believed that a child's obsessive interest in
can depict the female orgasm. Other interpretations see it feces was equivalent to the preoccupation that adults
as a symbol of peace-the dove is used here-or, possibly, show with money. For those who seek ancient origins to
of wisdom. It is interesting to note how frequently the bird dream symbolism, it is worth noting that the lncan ex-
features in surrealist paintings, which draw heavily upon pression for gold was " excrement of the gods" !
dream imagery.
FISH
CAT According to Freud the fish has a strong sexual signifi-
The essential feminine quality of the cat as an animal in- cance, with the fish itself probably being equated with the
evitably identifies it with women and specifically with a penis. Jungians take a more archetypal point of view, ob-
woman close to the dreamer. In mythology the cat has al- serving that the fish is the symbol of Christianity and of
ways had magical associations and as much of the Jungian wisdom . Dreaming of fish therefore may denote mental
dream interpretation is based on mythology, the cat in tranquility and perhaps some sort of psychological insight,

15
The Whys and Wherefores
DO WE DREAM EVERY NIGHT? skeptical of his cla1
ims. The most re- period generally lasts no more than a
Yes. all human beings dream every cent experimental work by Ors. few seconds but it could be as much
night for up to a fifth or a quarter of Montague Ullman and Stanley Kripp- as half a minute or a minute. These
the sleep period. This is even true of ner at the M~imonides Hospital in New " experienced dreams" are therefore
people who claim that they never York claims to have found proof of pretty brief, and must be measured in
dream - by which they mean either telepathic and " precognitive" dreams. seconds rather than minutes or hours.
that they never experience or never
remember a dream. Psychologists can I SOMETIMES DREAM OF A FIRE DO PEOP.LE DREAM IN COLOR?
tel l when people are dreaming by ENGINE RACING ALONG RINGING Yes, most people have had dreams in
strange movements which are made ITS BELL AND WAKE UP TO FIND color at some time or another but
by their eyes (REMs or Rapid Eye THE ALARM CLOCK RINGING. HOW these tend to be the exception rather
Movements) and also by certain IS THIS? than the rule. The rule seems to be
changes in the patterns of their brain What happens here is that an on- that the more use we make of color in
waves. In experimental tests, people going dream {which may be about our daily life, the more likely we are to
who claimed never to have dreamed anything) is interrupted by an alarm dream in color. Women are more
were taken into sleep laboratories and or, say, the telephone. This causes the likely to dream in color than men,
were woken as soon as the REMs ap- brain to move out of sleep into wake- and creative people, particularly art-
peared. All immediately reported that fulness and the conscious mind im- ists, are most likely to dream in color.
they had been experiencing a dream, mediately comes alert. Simultaneously
though most were very surprised it becomes aware of the dream. which WHY IS IT SO DIFFICULT TO REMEM-
when they realized this! is part of its internal world, and the BER YOUR DREAMS?
alarm, which is part of the external Most dreams, as we.have said, are not
WHAT IS A DAYDREAM? world. For a few seconds it is unable experienced and therefore cannot be
Daydreams are not really related to to tell the difference between the two remembered. The brain evidently
" night" dreams and the use of the and molds them together as best it can keeps its sleeping and waking selves
word " dream" in the former case is in the form of an amalgamated dream. strictly separate-presumably to pre-
misleading. Daydreams are conscious- vent confusion of their different me-
ly controlled fantasies which allow DOES EATING CHEESE BRING mories. Thus even when sleep has
us to plot out a course of action in NIGHTMARES? been interrupted and a dream experi-
advance, or explore the various pos- Not in itself. Eating cheese or any food enced, some mechanism comes into
sibilities which are open to us. We in sufficiently large amounts to cause action which deliberately sets out to
may occasionally get " lost" in fan- indigestion will often provoke a rest- erase or repress the memo ry of the
tasies, when we suddenly come down less night in which the individual is dream. Occasionally some event dur-
to earth with a bump. Daydreams constantly awakened by complaints ing the day will trigger the memory
serve a function which may be useful from his stomach. This will mean that off but this does not happen too often.
but is completely different from the he is more likely to experience his It would obviously be very inconven-
function of dreams during sleep. dreams, many of which will be ient if one did remember too many
"colored" by the indigestion and will dreams for in the course of time they
CAN WE DREAM OF EVENTS IN THE be nightmares. Equally, an easily di- would become confused with memor-
FUTURE? gestible snack which impedes sto- ies of " facts."
Of course we can, but whether the mach contractions during the night
dreams come true or not is another can prevent this kind of sleep dis- DO ANIMALS DREAM?
matter. Scientists have been attempt- turbance and make nightmares less All high animals, and in particular
ing to study this topic for decades. Al- likely. A warm milk drink before re- warm-blooded ones, dream regularly
most everyone has heard anecdotes tiring can be helpful!. and substantially. The amount of
about people who were forewarned dreaming seems to be related to the
in a dream about some disaster, or HOW LONG DO DREAMS LAST? general complexity of their brains and
more simply dreamed of a long lost Psychologists now know that we therefore it is not surprising to find
friend who subsequently turned up dream for up to a fifth or a quarter of that the animal who sleeps and dreams
the next day. There is no doubt that the night but we are unaware of doing the most is man, with the other pri-
thousands of stories of this kind have so and do not remember most of the mates-chimpanzees, monkeys, etc.-
been told, but the dangers of misre- dreams. In this sense therefore dreams not far behind. Next on the list come
porting, exaggeration, errors of me- may last for as much as 30 minutes or the carnivores-cats, dogs, lions,
mory, and so on are obvious. One of an hour, but they would not normally tigers, etc. - and rodents, whose life-
the most famous books written on be dreams which we experience. The styles cause them to put their brains
this topic, Experiment with Time by dream which we talk about when we to constant use. Sheep and less in-
J. W. Dunne, who claimed that most remember it in the morning is in fact telligent animals sleep less, as do
of his dreams foretold the future, has an interrupted dream and is only reptiles and fish. Very simple crea-
led to a considerable popular interest experienced in the transitional period tures such as insects, whose brains
in the topic. but once again psycholo- between being completely uncon- have little flexibility, find time for
gists and scientists. have tended to be scious and fully conscious. This neither sleep nor dreams.
More about dreams
We have long been fascinated by the meaning of our dreams. But it is only comparatively recently
that we have begun to understand them. We are now aware, for instance, that if we have a sexual
dream about someone we hardly know, it could represent a forbidden love. And that men dream
twice as much about other men as they do about women.

Dream interpretation can explain in the content. Since then he and his disguise. A person who sees his
whole areas of your waking life and associate, R. L. Van de Castle. have father as a stern authority figure may
give meaning to recurring dreams continued their research on dream transmute him into some other
which may puzzle you. To help you to content. Most people move in their authority figure, a policeman, a
understand your dreams, we present dreams, walk, run or ride-but we teacher, a judge. A sexual dream
the second part of our "A to Z" guide hardly ever carry out mundane chores about someone you know slightly and
to dream symbols. Once again we like washing dishes. Dreamers travel , are not in reality attracted to could
emphasize that the guide is not in- socialize and play, but rarely work. stand for a forbidden love. Most
tended to give instant interpretation Passive, quiet activities are more people commonly dream of people
but only to indicate what certain common than strenuous ones. their own age-about 42 percent of
symbols are thought to mean. This If you are aged between 18 and 28, the time. Children dream of their
meaning is based on research into there is a 43 percent chance that a parents, parents of their children, and
the dream life of men and women in stranger figures in your dream. Older
many parts of the world. people tend to dream more of family Dream symbols have an other-
In the early 1950s Calvin Hall, an members and less of strangers and worldly quality; even the most
American psychologist, studied 10,000 friends. Why so many strangers? mundane objects and actions take on
dreams and found some consistencies Probably they are people we know in surreal dimensions.
husbands and wives about each other. the character of women 's dreams- sexual partners are frequently un-
Different patterns reveal themselves the colors red and pink are more often familiar women.
in the dreams of men and women. noted (women tend to have more Male and female ad.ults do not
Women often fi nd themselves indoors, colored dreams than men in general), dream much about animals-of 4,000
in familiar settings ; people appear referen ces to the human body in- adult dreams only 7.5 percent involved
more frequently, and are remembered crease, roOITlS within structures crop animals. But children do. Young
in considerable detail; men and up. Social interactions change - men children dream frequently of being
women figure in roughly equal in a woman's dreams are much less frightened by animals and insects like
numbers. As we might expect, rather friendly than at other times in her cycle. jungle creatures, bears, alligators and
fewer aggressive dreams are report- spiders. Their parents dream occa-
ed, and aggressio n tends to be verbal Animals and Adventure sionally of dogs, horses, cats and
not physical. In the early months of Hall and Castle found that men birds. As children grow older the
pregnancy, wome n d ream a great dream twice as much about men as percentage of their animal dreams
deal about their husbands, but in the they do about women. Their dreams decreases dramatically. This may be
last three months babies appear seven are often concerned with their job ; because as the child matures other
times more frequently. and success and failure and ambition more sophisticated dream symbols
Sometimes, too, labor is magically dreams are common. On the whole are available, to represent the threat-
over and the baby has been born and men have relatively adventurous ening forces around him.
is walking or even talking. Anxiety is dreams, a lot of them featuring Now check the guide which follows
shown by the dreams about babies physical activities, e.g. mountain and see if any of the symbols occur in
weighi ng only ounces, or being giants cli mbing, baseball and so on. Half of your dreams. This may help you to
of 35 pounds. Occasionally, women all their aggressive encounters involve explain away a dream that has been
dream of giving birth to animals or a physical violence-usually with un- bothering you for some time or it may
whole series of babies. The physio- familiar males. Men report more overt give you an insight into your experi-
logical changes of menstruation alter sex dreams than women and their ences by day.

Dream symbols A-Z Part 2

LAKE concept of wisdom. Any statements made (in dreams) by
In Freudian terms water is rather literally equated to the elderly people should therefore be taken very seriously and
waters of the uterus and such dreams therefore suggest an acted upon wherever possible!
unconscious wish to retreat from life and return to the
womb. Hence water may also refer to female sexuality and PREGNANCY
c learly here the context of the dream is tremendously A dream of being pregnant may have a number of different
important to its interpretation. In the case of a lake a interpretations in traditional analytic terms and reminds
sense of placidity is implied. Jung incidentally sees ex- one again of the importance of context and mood in
panses of water as denoting the unconscious into which assessing the portent of the dream. In the case of a child-
the dreamer is preparing to dip himself. Once again there less couple the dream may be straightforward "wish ful-
is a suggestion of a desire to retreat from reality. fillment." Many young girls who do not wish to become
pregnant however often experience this dream at about
MONSTERS the time they begin to lead a sexually active love life. In
In both Freudian and Jungian terms, monsters are seen as such cases it may either be connected with anxiety or
being the personification of the " baser" emotions of anger, possibly guilt. More symbolic interpretations see preg-
fear and desire. When monsters feature in the nightmares nancy in dreams as implying the acquisition of knowledge
of children they are presumed to indicate the child's grow- and power.
ing awareness of these powerful and "antisocial" drives
within him. QUEEN
Freudian and Jungian interpretations are basically similar.
NAKEDNESS For Jung any mature or authoritative figure (see Old Age)
Contrary to general belief this is not a sexual dream in the stands for a source of wisdom. For Freud the queen
ordinary sense. The Freudian view is that a dream of nudity specifically represents the mother, who to the child
is a signal from the unconscious telling the dreamer that represents the source of stability and authority. Simi-
he should be more liberated in one way or another in his larly kings, emperors, judges and other ritually signi-
daily life. Classically the dreamer is often naked in a public ficant figures stand for the father and his all-powerful
place-and yet is not embarrassed. Both Freud and Jung authority.
agree that the unconscious is advising the dreamer that
his " liberation" will not be unfavorably received. RING
The ring, whether it is the stone circle of the ancient
OLD AGE Druids or the gold band which symbolizes the traditionally
Freudian analysts often see dreams of old age in a rather unbreakable bonds of marriage, has long had enormous
direct way-a reminder from the unconscious of the in- ritual significance. It is one of the most powerful images
evitable process of aging which none of us can ignore. drawn from the collective unconscious described by Jung
Jung takes a radically different view and sees the presence and when it figures in dreams is, without exception, con-
of an old person in a dream as being associated with a sidered to be a sign that an event of quite exceptional

20
and essentially alien. From this he inferred that it rep-
resented the psychic world, foreign and potentially danger-
ous to human beings.

TEETH
Most dreams about teeth feature them cracking or falling
out. A straightforward explanat.ion which requires no
symbolic interpretation is that the dreamer is suffering
from mild toothache whose signals are disturbing sleep
and being cast into the form of a dream. Freud, however,
believed that the loss of teeth essentially denoted sexual
impotence or the fear of it. For Jung the loss of teeth
symbolized childbearing or the coming of adolescence.

UNIFORM
A uniform is a ritual and highly stylized form of clothing,
the most positive indication, so to speak, that the indivi-
dual is fully clothed. In psychoanalysis any dream featuring
uniforms or elaborate costumes may be explained by the
rule of " reversal." Here the clothing actually stands for
nakedness and the dream is basically sexual in origin.

VASE
All containers of this type, including cup.l:>, bottles, pockets
and so on, refer in Freudian theory to the female sex or-
gans and are the counterpart to the classic male equiva-
lents in which sticks, towers or snakes refer to the penis.
Jungian theory takes a quite different view and sees any
container, cave, tunnel, etc. as implying something hidden
or secret. Thus the unconscious itself might also be indi-
cated, though a secret anxiety or wish on the part of the
dreamer is more likely implied.

WAVES
Many analysts see waves, particularly when stormy and
large, as symbolizing sexual intercourse and the orgasm.
To Jungians however waves represent a stirring of the
unconscious which is symbolized by large expanses of
water. Mood is tremendously important here again ; if the
tides or waves are gentle, the creative powers of the
unconscious are at work, if strong and turbulent, then
serious conflicts are indicated.

XMAS
The festive aspect of Christmas is only marginally helpful
in interpretation here. For Freudians any highly decorated
object such as a Christmas tree has strong sexual connota-
tions. All forms of gifts and presents which may be asso-
ciated with Christmas in the dream similarly refer to the
granting of sexual " favors. "

YACHT
While boats having a passive role in the dream are sugges-
tive of female sexuality, yachts have a different connota-
tion. Most frequently they represent the dreamer himself,
plotting his course through life. While to some degree he
is at the mercy of the wind, broadly speaking he is able
significance is taking place in the unconscious mind. to control his own progress and destination. Dreams of
Freudian analysts invest it with less universal significance this kind imply great confidence and self-approval.
but when it appears it is taken to imply a tie or bond.
zoo
SPIDER Almost invariably visits to zoos in dreams are coupled with
For Freud the spider refers to that aspect of a mother's a sense of foreboding and anxiety. To most psychoanalysts
personality which is most unpleasant and terrifying to the a collection of animals, dangerous and at the same time
child. At the root of the symbol is the notion that the eager to escape from their insubstantial prisons, symbo-
spider/ mother wi shes to imprison her son so he can never lizes the torrent of animal desires and motives which
get another woman of his own. Jung took a strikingly eagerly await their moment to overwhelm the so-called
different view, seeing the spider as both cold-blooded civilized conscious self.

22
~ - - -'.__
...,_ , •...__;;.;;._,__ .,,__~t-.,....

Sleep's mysteries
To sleep, perchance to ... well, not just dream. All sorts of things are going on while we enjoy
what Macbeth, quite rightly, called "the chief nourisher of life's feast." Sleep is so essential that,
deprived of it, we would first become irritable and disorientated, then die.
About one-third of our lifetime is spent The recent growth in research on the brain waves become progressively
in sleep. But why is it necessary? What the subject is due to the discovery of slower and less regular- he is now in
does it do for us? In general, this still an effective new tool for observing the state called orthodox sleep. After
remains largely a mystery, although brain processes during sleep-the about an hour, however, the brain
we are now in a position to make some electroencephalogram. known col- waves begin to show a more active
suggestions. loquially as EEG. This is a machine pattern again, even though the person
Historically there have always been which records the electrical activity is apparently asleep very deeply. This
great difficulties in the study of sleep. in the brain. known as brain waves. is called paradoxical sleep because
There are limits to the amount of in- it has much in common with being
formation that can be obtained by Two Kinds of Sleep awake.
direct observation of people asleep, When a man is awake his brain During orthodox (or passive) sleep
while the trouble with questionnaires waves show a fairly regular rhythm of the brain is apparently resting : its
is that people can remember little of about ten cycles per second. This is blood supply is reduced and its tem-
their experience during sleep. the alpha rhythm. As he falls asleep perature falls slightly. Breathing and
heart rate are regular. The muscles, in fact that we can probably expect Some researchers deprived their
however, remain slightly tensed . Para- them to have different brain mecha- volunteers of paradoxical sleep only,
doxical (or active) sleep is marked by nisms and different purposes. permitting them the usual amount of
irregular breathing and heart rate, in- There is a theory that we spend part orthodox sleep but wakin·g them every
creased bl ood supply to the brain and of the night wo rking on the brain time the EEG indicated that a period
increased brain temperatu re . Most of (paradoxical sleep) and the rest of the of paradoxical sleep was beginning.
the muscles are relaxed . There are night wo rki ng on the rest of the body Such selective sleep deprivation re-
various jerky movements of the body (orthodox sleep). Presumably these sulted in a kind of " rebound effect" -
and face, including short bursts of two restoration jobs would be taken the amount of paradoxical sleep was
rapid eye movement (REMs) which in turns so that at whatever time it is subsequently increased relative to
occur behind the closed eyelids. necessary for us to wake we will have orthodox: apparently in order to make
received some benefit from each of up for what was lost.
Sweet Dreams, Sweet Temper them. This is almost certainly an over-
Orthodox sleep is broken up by simplification but there is some Sleep, Nature's Restorer
about five periods of paradoxical sleep evidence that fits quite neatly. For The typical human sleeping pattern
which are of progressively longer dur- example, it has been shown that is based on a 24 hour cycle and aver-
ation throughout the course of the athletes, whose life style presumably ages at about 8 hours, say between
night. Overall, about one-q uarter of puts a great deal of strain on their 11 p.m. and 7 a.m. This is slightly
our sleep is of the paradoxi cal kind. bodies, need more orthodox sleep. determined by biological factors, but
Interestingly, t he proportion of sleep Children need a greater amount of unlike the menstrual cycle in women,
that is paradoxical is g reatest in the both kinds of sleep to allow for the timing of it appears to have been
newborn child (constituting more than growth, and especially paradoxical established largely by habit. It is con-
half the total sleep du ration) ; it de- sleep in the early weeks when the gray venient for us to sleep at night and
creases with age, most steeply in the matter of the brain is developing very work during the daylight hours when
first few weeks after birth, and again quickly. we can see what we are doing.
in senility. It is generally very low in What happens if we are prevented How about people who work night
mentally defective persons. from sleeping? Initially, nothing very shifts, like doctors, nurses and watch-
Paradoxical sleep seems to be a much. But our performance soon men? Are they able to perform their
higher evolutionary form : it does not begins to deteriorate, particularly on work with equal proficiency? Yes, pro-
occur in reptiles; appears only very tasks that require sustained co ncen- vided they are used to it. But if they
briefly in birds ; but is strongly evident tration. As sleeplessness progresses, have acquired a normal night-sleep
in mammals, particularly the newborn behavior becomes mo re and more dis- pattern and are asked to work through
of the species. organized, while the person becomes odd nights, then their level of com-
Clearly, in studying sleep we are incoherent and irritable. After a few petence w ill almost certainly be
dealing with two completely different days without sleep he is likely to have below par.
phenomena. It is not simply a matter delusions and hallucinations. Further It is widely believed that sleep has
of going to sleep at night and waking deprivation of sleep would probably a restorative function , both psycho-
up again in the morning -we spend lead to full-blown psychosis and even- logically and physically. According to
the night alternating between two tually death. The biological necessity Macbeth it is " sore labor's bath, balm
different types of sleep, so different of sleep is unquestionable. of hurt minds, great nature's second
Right: Most of us can sleep through
Neonates 14-20 6· 12 2·3 3· 5 5-45 50and quite loud noise. This is because we
(1· 5days weeks months years years years more
old) have been "switched off " by a
control center in the brain. When
you hear a sound while awake (top),
the Reticular Activating System alerts
the brain. In light sleep (also known
as orthodox or passive sleep), the
Raphe System, in a part of the brain
stem called the pons (bottom left),
secretes serotonin, a hormone. This
switches off the fast cortex wave
(which makes the brain active) and
eye movement. Muscle tone is left
" on. " In deep dream sleep (paradoxi-
cal or active sleep), another system
in the pons, the locus coeruleus
(bottom right), sends out the hor-
mone noradrenalin which cancels the
effects of serotonin. Noradrenalin
cuts muscle tone signals off while
switching on eye movement and the
fast cortex wave. During this time
the brain is restored. Left: It is deep
dream or paradoxical sleep we need
most when we are young and
~ growing and less as we grow older
~ (see chart).

24
LIGHT SLEEP l DEEP DREAM SLEEP

25
Sleep patterns. The red areas indi-
cate sleep, the peaked black line
wakefulness. A baby sleeps fitfully
by night and day. Between the ages
of one and four the child has a longer
night sleep and naps by day. By
age ten only a night sleep Is
necessary. Then normal adult sleep
becomes fixed.

to sleep for two or three nights in a

row . Sooner or later the sleep drive
overcomes them however and their
cycle returns gradually to normal.

IS IT POSSIBLE TO HAVE TOO MUCH

SLEEP?
For the normal healthy person the
answer is no-one will sleep just as
much as o ne's brain requires. Very
heavy and excessive sleep -say over
ten hours at a stretch- if it occurs
frequently is often a sign of depres-
sion and in some cases may denote
a physical illness of so me kind. There
are some illnesses of a tropical origin
in w hich people sleep more or less
"~ perpetua lly.
i CAN YOU PAY OFF A SLEEP DEBT
6pm. 12 6am. 12 6pm ~
WITH AN EXTRA LONG NIGHT'S
SLEEP?
course, chief nourisher in life's feast." HOW MUCH SLEEP DO YOU NEED? It depends on how g reat is the sleep
The truth in this popular notion seems A reasonable average is eight hours a debt, but if o ne is talking about just
undeniable, but w hat precisely is night but anyth ing between six and missing o ne or possibly two nights·
being restored during sleep? Pre- ten is normal. Ten might be a little on sleep, t hen a single really good night's
sumably the cells that make up our the long side, only because it cuts rest will get rid of the backlog. Some-
body. They are not static: they in- rather a lot into the day. Some healthy times mo re than one night is required.
crease in numbers by a process of people can get by on as little as five People w ho have been under immense
d ivision, especially in o ur early years, and, at a stretch, four hours' sleep, but strain -say the survivors of some
and they are rep laced when damaged. these are exceptions. The main thing major accident o r disaster- may sleep
Sleep probably facilitates the pro- is that there is no hard and fast ru le for 24 or 36 hours at a stretch.
cesses of cell growth and the re- and the real question to ask yourself
generation of bodily funct ions. is how you feel after your average CAN YOU LEARN WHEN YOU ARE
night's sleep. ASLEEP?
Recharging the Batteries Recent research has shown that the
To some extent, this might also WHY DO WE SLEEP LESS AS WE brain is highly active t hroughout sleep
occur whi le we are awake, but ideally GET OLDER? and is performing all kinds of opera-
it requires a redirectio n of our energy As one gets older one tends to do, tions vital to its survival. For this rea-
resources away from the organs in- on the whole, fewer and fewer " new" son, even if you could feed in informa-
volved in waking activity. Thus most things and the sleep process of filing tion during sleep, the results mig ht be
of the body's machinery shuts down and reorganizing becomes less and more harmful than beneficial. As it
for the night in o rder to conserve less signif icant and fewer and fewer happens. t he experimental evidence
enough energy for cell growth and hours need to be set aside for this t hat we can learn when we sleep is
regeneration. Like recharging the purpose. Thus as we get o lder so our very thin. Experiments which claim to
batteries of an electric car, it does not sleep requirement falls off. show that sleeping subjects had ab-
matter exactly when it is done pro- sorbed information fed to them
vided it occurs w ith some regularity IS IT POSSIBLE TO DO WITHOUT throug h a pillow speaker have been
- otherwise performance becomes SLEEP ALTOGETHER? discounted by most scientists. be-
progressively slow and unreliable. The answer is definitely no. Many cause the experimenters have not
Even though we now know some- people claim not to sleep at all but taken sufficient precautions to ensure
thing about the mysteries of sleep, we when investigated by scientists it has that their subject s really were asleep.
are still a long way from unde rstand- been found t hat they do fall asleep When the experiments were repeated
ing it completely. Great strides have though they are not aware of it! Some while the subjects' brainwaves were
been made in understand ing the peopl e, for psychological reasons. monitored to determine whether they
" what." " when" and " how," but may go th rough periods of having were sleeping or not. and info rmation
" why" remains one of the most veiled immense difficulty sleeping and after was only fed in when the brain waves
mysteries of sleep and brain functions a period of intense shoc k, such as the indicated sleep, no evidence of sleep
in general. loss of a close relative, may be unable learning was found .

26
j

f~;,;: ~
~- ------~1
Sexual attraction
You know the feeling. But do you know that the body has a " language" all of its own; a signaling
system that says " You excite me" ? It's a fact that two people can "speak" to each other without
saying a word.
The joys, pleasures, agonies and the erotic fantasies of wishful ing intimacy, and finally to bring about
ecstasies of sexual attraction have for dreamers are all expressions of a copulation.
centuries been the topic of poets and sexual drive common to our species. This may not sound too romantic,
philosophers, playwrights, painters Indeed, sex, in terms of procreation or even enchanting, and hardly the
and, of course, pornographers. as opposed to recreation , is essential stuff that Shakespeare's Romeo and
The flicker of mutual attraction be- to our survival; and in that respect we Juliet were made of; but balconies
tween a cou pie meeting for the first share, with much of the animal king- are not essential prerequisites to
time " across a crowded room ," the dom, a behavior pattern designed sexual gymnastics though they may
ardent pursuit of the seducer, the initially to attract male and female, be a handy prop for poets.
more stable relationship of adult love, second to engender a state of increas- Our immediate concern here is not
with magic, black, white or otherwise, He, when he first saw her, involun- of course, the only form of eye con-
but with the highly sophisticated and tarily tightened his muscles and stood tact. The wink may be interpreted as
no less intriguing ways in which we, more erect. When she returned his a direct invitation to sexual inter-
like many animals, employ techniques glance she blushed-or at least looked course. The demure dropping of the
to arouse physically a member of the more " flushed," and this was because eyes also transmits its message
opposite sex - tec hniques whose ulti- her arteries and veins had dilated to in the female as does fluttering of the
mate purpose is the natural objective allow a greater flow of blood from the eyelashes.
of sexual intercourse, whatever the deeper regions to the surface areas Another fascinating eye signal is
actual intentions of the couple. of the body. pupillary dilation. Under the influence
Scientific experiments have demon- This " sexual glow" is most com- of strong ~motions of a pleasant kind
strated that when two people are monly seen in the female and is more the pupil (the small dark spot in the
sexually attracted physiological obvious during intense sexual arousal. center of the eye) grows much larger.
changes occur as the body gears In both instances. however. our Centuries before it was ever studied
itself for the encounter; and these couple were unwittingly increasing scientifically Italian beauties were
changes, like the more overt be- their physical attractiveness. known to create the effect artificially
havior patterns that accompany them, Albert Scheflen of Bronx State Hos- with belladonna and Chinese jade
are largely automatic. pital in New York has drawn atten- dealers used this response as a means
Take a pair of strangers at a party. tion to items of " agitated" behavior, of assessing the degree of interest
He, on his way to get a drink, sud- which, he suggests, might be doing shown by customers.
denly notices her. He does not know precisely the same thing. When a In a study by the American psy-
her, has not spoken to her, but can- woman touches her face, pushes her chologist Eckhard Hess, a group of
not stop glancing at her. He is sexually hair back or adjusts her clothes she is men were shown two apparently
attracted to her. enhancing her own attractiveness and identical photographs of the same girl.
At this point he is unaware that his drawing the other's attention. Simi- One, in fact, had be~n retouched so
pulse rate, which normally stands at larly, a man may adjust his tie or that the girl's pupils were enlarged
70-80 per minute, has increased to jacket or comb his hair. Scheflen calls and it was this one that the men
around 90; that his blood pressure has this preening behavior and proposes preferred, found more attractive, al-
increased and that he is breathing t hat it occurs as a direct result of one though they were unable to say why.
more rapidly. Imperceptibly, he has individual's attraction for another. Yet another eye change occurs
tensed his muscles and is standing There are obvious parallels in animal under intense emotion and that is a
in a more erect posture. Shou ld some- life-the ruff bird who displays his small increase in tear production.
one speak to him now he will probably intricate collar or the cob from Weeping with joy is not a common
be startled and not so easily able Uganda his glorious throat for his occurrence but the obvious glisten-
to make natural conversation as he is intended's delight. ing shiny eyes of lovers are a by-
distracted and slightly " agitated." product of this physiological change.
She, from the other side of the room, Eye Contact Because eye contact is so directly
returns one of his glances with a slight By far the most powerful signal in linked with sexual intimacy there is a
smile and with that a two-way com- sexual attraction is the face and par- strong social taboo prohibiting it
munication has tentatively begun. ticularly the eyes. The face is, without among strangers. Most of us have
Their behavior thereafter fol lows an doubt, the most expressive region in experienced embarrassment and
exploratory pattern in sexual com- the entire body. Through it we reveal sometimes outrage at being stared at
munication which is amazingly direct the entire range of human emotion. in public places or when in a bus or
yet carried on without the aid of real As a device for inviting intimacy it is train. When two strangers do acci-
verbal communication. of major importance. A face that is dentally find that their eyes meet they
soft, relaxed and smiling or one that quickly avert their gaze or find some-
Pair Formation is alert and excited in response to our thing else to look at. Reading a news-
Desmond Morris, the well-known physical presence obviously finds us paper in a crowded bus or train pro-
zoologist, describes three phases of attractive. vides the perfect defense against the
sexual behavior in our species: pair It is the eyes, however, that see such discomfort of eye contact.
formation, precopulatory activity and signals as the smile and it is the eyes
co pulation. The pair formation stage, that transmit on their own the most Bodily Contact and Touching
usually referred to as courtship powerful sexual signals. In Western culture there is, likewise,
(though not necessarily in the old- Of course we all need to look at a taboo on touching strangers. If we
fashioned sense of preparation for people with whom we are talking in brush against a stranger in a crowded
marriage), is remarkably prolonged by order to learn their reaction, to check street, one or the other of us usually
animal standards, frequently lasting their changing moods. If, however, we apologizes, we lower our eyes and
for weeks or months. It is the stage continue to gaze or stare at another hurry away. Bodily contact is o nly
our imaginary couple are about to for a prolonged time we are engaging permissible in certain circumstances.
embark on. in intimate behavior. We shake hands as a formal greeting ;
As with many other species there is Initially, our couple probably held we may kiss an acquaintance of either
a tentative ambivalent behavior in- their g lance a little longer than is sex affectionately on both cheeks; on
volving fear, aggression and sexual usual, thereby testing each other but the dance floor we permit embraces
attraction. The nervousness and hesi- at the same time hinting at the desire which in other circumstances we
tancy is slowly reduced if the subse- for further contact. If they continue would consider highly intimate.
quent behavior pattern- the mutual to gaze at each other, thereby indica- In the initial stages of sexual attrac-
sexual signals- is strong enough. So ting mutual feelings of attraction, they tion touching behavior remains with-
what are the sexual signals involved are engaging in what is called eye in conventional boundaries but at the
and how do we interpret them? contact. The prolonged gaze is not, same time subtle signals are trans-

28
mitted and received. Perhaps the
handshake contains an almost im-
perceptible caressing of the fingers;
she may touch his hand as he lights
her cigarette or thread her arm
through his as they walk from the
dance floor. As the relationship deve-
lops touching increases and the parts
of the body accessible to the partner's
touch become more numerous.
Linked w ith touching is another
signal which we wi ll call orientati on.
This refers to the angle in which
people position themselves when
talking. Among strangers this is
usually at an angle so that they can
look at each other yet at the same
time keep an eye on what is happen-
ing around them and, when desired ,
more easily move away.
Attraction is, as often as not, sig-
naled when a couple directly face
each other. It shows exclusive interest
in each other and this way they can
more easily make eye contact. As the
relationship progresses they may
move to a side-by-side position be-
cause this allows greater bodily
contact.

Space between People

Important, also, is the distance
which people observe between each
other. The American anthropologist
Edward Hall suggests that there are
distinct zones which people adhere to
- the intimate zone (0-18 inches);
personal distance (18 inches-4 feet) ;
social-consultative distance (4-10
feet) ; and public distance (10 feet up-
wards). When sexual attraction exists
between a couple they adopt a dis-
tance at the closer end of the zone
range for a particular situation.
At their party our couple would
have tended to stand about 18-20
inches apart, thereby positioning
themselves at the closer end of the
personal distance zone. Had they
met at a business meeting they would
have signaled their mutual attraction
by standing only 4 feet apart. In this
area, however, cultural differences
occur and to the unaware the signals
can get misinterpreted. The normal
distance for conversation is much
closer in Southern European coun-
tries than in the United States and
Northern Eu rope.
Consequently, an English woman
may feel discomfort in Italy where, in
fact, closer distances are perfectly
normal because she misreads the

In the later stages of their

relationship lovers cannot resist
engaging in frequent body-to-body
and face-to-face contact.
Blushing and an increase in the size of the pupils are Distance and the angle at which people stand at parties
uncon scious forms of communication : in the woman were studied by Australian scientist Glen McBride. He
on the right they indicate strong interest, and also make o bserved that people stand roughly at 45 degree angles to
her seem more attractive. Throughout the ages women each other and constantly adjust their position to retain
have used cosmetics to create this effect artificially. that angle. Interestingly, McBride found the same
Similarly, advertizers touch up photographs of model arrangements among hens in a fairly crowded chicken
girls, to make them more appealing. Pupil size has been yard. When a couple break this convention by standing
studied i n the laboratory with interesting results - face to face it allows them to engage in eye contact and
women 's pupils grow big seeing the picture of a baby; indicates their exclusive interest in each other.
men's enlarge tor a nude woman.
dis_tance as a kind of sexual signal.
T~is can and does lead to serious
misunderstandings because we feel
that a taboo has been violated.

Tone of Voice and Speech

Per_haps the least important of sig-
nal~ in _s~xual attraction is the one
which distinguishes us most from the
animal kingdom-speech. Indeed we
o~ten find it very difficult to ~ake
" intelligent" conversation in the initial
stages of attraction and find ourselves
stutt~ring and hesitant. Speech can
thus interfere with the effectiveness of
body language, although at a later
stage when nervousness is reduced it
can lend credibility to our nonverbal
signals.
Of vital importance, however, is
tone of voice. A courting couple is
often referred to as " murmuring sweet
nothings" and this phrase sums up
neatly the significance of the tone
of voice as opposed to what is being
spoken.

Male and Female Differences

in Dealing with Sexual Attraction
In our society, at least, it is tradi-
tional for the male to be the initiator
of sexual approaches, although
some women would like it otherwise.
This is indirectly supported by a New
York newspaper, The Village Voice ,
which conducted a survey on women 's
views of male attractiveness. They re-
vealed that the women questioned
thought it somewhat irregular to be
asked to view men as sex objects.
When pressed they did give their
views, but it is the male, still, who. by
and large, sees a " sex object" and the
female who responds according to the
customs of her society.
By looking at a woman whom he
finds attractive a man is, in effect, put-
ting a proposition to her. She can
respond by either returning his gaze.
thereby signaling she is not averse to
} further contact, or looking away and
.c: thus rejecting his advance. The same
I approach-response sequence will op-
~ erate with other forms of sexual
signals.
The intense emotions communi-
cated through nonverbal signals can
Touching is an invitation to intimacy, invitation without embarrassment, either be satisfied once and for all in
but at first it is likely to be disguised since such behavior is socially sexual intercourse or they can be the
as politeness or good manners. acceptable. The woman can thank basis for an ongoing sexual and
Holding a woman's arm or hand to the man and leave, or respond with emotional involvement of a less
help her cross a street, clutching her a gesture of encouragement. Only dramatic kind. This. however, brings
arm as support if she slips or trips, when they are confident in their us to the complex question of what
guiding her through a crowded room mutual attraction does touching and who is attractive to us? What
are examples. Such disguises are and hand holding increase. ft is then attracts us sexually and why we
necessary at this stage so that no longer a supporting or guiding sometimes seemingly inexplicably
either party can reject or accept the act but undisguised intimacy. choose the partner we do are intrigu-
ing subjects in themselves.