Interpretation of Dreams in David Lynch’s Mulholland Drive

Interpretation of Dreams in David Lynch’s Mulholland Drive

Although dreaming is a phenomenon that occurs to most people, there is only a few who can fathom out its meaning. Interpretation of dreams for individuals has covered a wide area of curiosity and investigation, from common people and superstitious beliefs to psychoanalysis and academic studies in twentieth century. The most outstanding figure in the field is, undoubtedly the Austrian psychologist Sigmund Freud, whose ideas helped shape a new science of studying the hitherto unknown and unexplored part of human mind. Freud’s system of thought was continued by his colleagues and students, among whom Otto Rank, who contributed to the mythology studies and dreams that a nation or group of people have about their lives. David Lynch’s movie Mulholland Drive (2001), is an exceptional example of the dream world intersecting the real life in a cinematic experience, at the first sight completely eccentric as Freud’s theory itself. Through implementing concepts and terminologies of Sigmund Freud and his pupil Otto Rank, (including the format of a dream after the events happened in the consciousness and the personality of the dreamer), this article attempts to analyze Mulholland Drive’s use of specific elements in the plot that has led to a convoluted story.