[[Dreams]visions in Hoffmann's «fairy tales»: An experience of phenomenological description].
Zhurnal nevrologii i psikhiatrii imeni S.S. Korsakova January 1, 2025 B A Maksimov
In Hoffmann's fantastic stories, dreams and visions occur in borderline, twilight states such as half-asleep, intoxication, creative ecstasy, or fever. These dreams are not escapist other-realities but one of two constitutive modes of perception, sharing a common source with everyday awareness. They are characterized by hypermateriality, animation, dynamism, plasticity, and infinite productivity. While romantics believed immersion in dreams could overcome splits between human and nature or inner and outer worlds, Hoffmann emphasizes the ambivalent nature of dreams: they cause sensory exhaustion, increase the dreamer's dependence on unbreakable connections, lead to loss of identity through bodily disintegration and vampiric rapport, and turn spontaneous energy against the subject. Hoffmann suggests that dynamic balance and plasticity of spirit are necessary for successfully processing dreams.