I Love You –or- Tales of Love and Happiness

Jason, 25

I was walking around this garden a bit and was really impressed with it. I met up with Mary (my girlfriend) in the garden just before the dining room. She kissed me. I kissed her back and we kept on kissing. She wanted me to tell her name. I said it was Mary. She was happy with that. She then wanted me to say I love her. I said that to her. She wasn't happy with that so I screamed at the top of my lungs "I love you" and "I love Mary" several times. What does it mean?

Mr Hagen's Reply: I Love You -or- Tales of Love and Happiness

"When lovers are in the opening phases of love, they revel in it and believe it will last forever." Dreams of Love and Fateful Encounters, Ethel Person

Those three simply words, "I love you", are difficult to say and even more difficult to practice. If you look at those three words from a parts of speech (grammar)  perspective, you come to realize that "love" in this sentence is a verb, something you do. In this sense of "I love you", love as an action mutually connects I-You. Mary wants you to "tell her", her name, she also wants you to profess your love, for all the world to hear, your love and your devotion to her. This diegetic literary device, tells the story of your love, while the mimetic aspect shows your love. Your dreams amounts to what most of us learn to do as small children at school during "show and tell" time. The substance of your dream, is about showing and telling her that you love her, and what makes her happy. Your dream, has informed you of what makes her happy and unhappy.

In Dreams of Love and Fateful Encounters: The Power of Romantic Passion, Ethel Person tells us about the rituals of courtship and dating, the pleasures and the agonies (emotional pain) of romantic love. In your dream, when you meet Mary, she kisses you. The kiss has been a staple of folk poetry and Dream Vision most likely since the dawn of language. The dialogue of love begins with the so-called "first love", however it does not usually end there. For Person, the dialogue of love, provides the foundation for mutual love. From a popular music perspective Faith Hill's This Kiss fits the sentiment of your dream. It also occurs to me that while you say "I love you" in your dream, popular music artists like Jim Croce I have to say I love you in a song have said it in music.

Person correctly points out that some people get stuck in past dialogues of love, which diminishes the "capacity to love". Other dream interpretations posted at this website, such as The Ex-Files attest to the problem of unfinished business and emotional baggage of past relationships. While the word "love" is often found in the International Institute for Dream Research dream database, the three words "I love you" strung together only appear 10 times out of nearly 5000 dreams.

All material Copyright 2006 International Institute for Dream Research. All rights reserved.