Through the introduction of “Water and dreams”, Gaston Bachelard makes a discrimination of two types of imagination: one which gives life to the morphological cause, and one which gives life to the cause of matter, which means that imagination of form is separated from imagination of matter. The philosopher also supports that we dream of images of matter in an inward and substantial way. All the direct images of matter have a mental and dreamy value which is superior to the images of form.
Freud’s theories have had a sufficient impact on Bachelard’s intellect, who becomes a follower of psychoanalysis. For Bachelard, psychoanalysis is a way of pedagogy. Some desires are hidden to the unconscious. Every kind of matter conceals something hidden, familiar, warm, precious, dangerous, and sacred. Freud considered dreams as concealed forms of suppressed desires. Thus, in his work “The dream”, he notes the importance of the dream, which has a double meaning : both mental, and analytical. Through the example of the dream, and by following a chain of associations, one is leaded to thoughts and memories in which he recognizes precious manifestations of his mental life.
Books, paintings and works of art are creations of dynamic imagination. Reading a work of art means reviving it’s history, the history of it’s own battle with matter. Architects discover the potential of human science, but philosophers have to understand that philosophy begins with household activities and cupboards. Poetics of space can find here new space of development.
