Samuel Taylor Coleridge (1772-1834) remains one of English literature’s most profound thinkers and poets, known for his complex imagination and explorations of the human mind. Among the many fascinating concepts linked to him are his reflections on dreams, nightmares, and the intricate relationship between our internal states and the images they produce. A particularly striking idea, often attributed in the form of compelling samuel taylor coleridge quotes, suggests a reversal of conventional thinking about fear and imagery: that we don’t feel horror because we see a frightening image, but rather we conjure the image to explain the horror we already feel. This concept, captivating in its psychological depth, leads us on a journey through literary interpretation and the nature of perception.
This intriguing idea recently appeared in Zachary Mason’s 2017 science fiction novel, “Void Star.” A character articulates the concept: images in dreams represent the sensations we believe they cause. Citing Coleridge, the character states, “We don’t feel horror because we see a sphinx, but dream of a sphinx to explain our horror.” This is linked to a broader discussion about reality itself being an illusion, a shared dream composed of words and memories filling in the gaps.
Samuel Taylor Coleridge, a prominent figure in English Romantic poetry and philosophy.
The novel’s exploration of words as illusions resonates deeply with philosophical and psychological ideas about language acting as a filter on direct sensory experience. Thinkers like Jacques Lacan proposed that the entry into language involves a separation from the raw, unmediated sensory world. Once we name something – say, a “dishwasher” making a noise – the richness and complexity of the raw sound signal are compressed into a concept, and the sound itself might fade from conscious attention because it’s been categorized as “irrelevant.” Similarly, identifying objects as “chairs” allows us to process a room quickly, but we might lose awareness of the unique details and differences between each chair. This leads to the fascinating consideration that some individuals, perhaps those on the autism spectrum, might remain more connected to the raw sensory world, less filtered by linguistic categorization. This could manifest as heightened sensitivity or distractibility but also as a greater ability to notice subtle changes and differences.
Sensations Shaping Dream Images
This idea – that internal states or sensations prompt the mind to create external images – finds compelling echoes in personal experiences of dreams and nightmares. Consider how external stimuli or internal physical feelings can be woven into elaborate dream narratives. A sudden noise might be incorporated into a dream as a car crash or a falling object, or a physical discomfort might manifest as a monstrous presence. The mind seems to work backward from the sensation, constructing a plausible (or implausible) visual explanation.
Recurrent nightmares, particularly when tied to physical vulnerability, vividly illustrate this. Recovering from surgery, the physical reality of stitches and healing could manifest as terrifying dreams of organs exploding or hooks lodged internally. These weren’t random fears appearing from nowhere; they were the mind’s attempt to find images that could somehow explain or represent the underlying physical sensation of fragility or the anxiety surrounding healing. Even when consciously recognized as irrational in waking life, these images provided the dream’s narrative structure for the felt vulnerability. Facing these fears, sometimes by engaging directly with the reality (like photographing the surgical site), can help ground the mind and counter the dream-generated horrors.
Tracing the Source of the Sphinx Quote
The prevalence and psychological resonance of the “sphinx” quote make it seem undeniably like one of those classic samuel taylor coleridge quotes that capture a complex idea succinctly. However, a search through Coleridge’s extensive writings for mentions of sphinxes, lions, or this specific formulation regarding fear and dreams often yields no direct match. This suggests the quote might not be his words exactly, but perhaps an interpretation or rephrasing of his ideas.
Further investigation points strongly towards the renowned Argentinian writer Jorge Luis Borges (1899-1986). Borges frequently engaged with philosophical themes, labyrinthine narratives, and the nature of reality, often referencing other authors and ideas. In his 1959 short story “Ragnarök,” Borges attributes a very similar concept to Coleridge:
“The images in dreams, wrote Coleridge, figure forth the impressions that our intellect would call causes; we do not feel horror because we are haunted by a sphinx, we dream a sphinx in order to explain the horror that we feel.”
Borges uses this idea to underscore the difficulty of conveying the subjective, emotional experience of a dream through mere description of its images. He reiterates this point even more explicitly in his 1984 work “Seven Nights,” again crediting Coleridge:
“Let us return to Coleridge. He says it doesn’t matter what we dream, that the dream searches for explanations… We feel oppressed, and then search for an explanation. I, absurdly but vividly, dream that a sphinx has lain down next to me. The sphinx is not the cause of my fear, it is an explanation of my feeling of oppression.”
Borges clearly attributes the idea to Coleridge, even if the specific phrasing and the sphinx image are his own elaboration. This highlights how ideas travel through literature, sometimes becoming distilled or re-imagined by later writers while still bearing the original author’s name.
Coleridge’s Actual Thoughts on Nightmares
While the “sphinx” quote might be Borges’ interpretation, Samuel Taylor Coleridge did write extensively about dreams and nightmares, offering insights that resonate with the core idea. In his lectures on Shakespeare and other poets, particularly Lecture XII, he discusses the nature of dreams and, crucially, the “Night-mair.” Coleridge distinguishes nightmares from ordinary dreams, placing them in a state of “rapid alternation” between sleeping and waking. He describes how, in this state, the mind, “deceived by past experience,” attributes a “painful sensation received to a correspondent Agent.”
Here is a relevant passage from his lecture:
“It is a general, but, as it appears to me, a mistaken Opinion, that in our ordinary Dreams we judge the Objects to be real. I say, our ordinary Dreams: because as to the Night-mair the opinion is to a considerable extent just. But the Night-mair is not a mere Dream, but takes place when the waking State of the Brain is re-commencing, and most often during a rapid alternation, a twinkling as it were, of sleeping and waking . . . the mind, I say, in this case deceived by past experience attributes the painful sensation received to a correspondent Agent – An assassin, for instance, stabbing at the Side, or a Goblin sitting on the Breast, &c – . . . Add to that the Impressions of the Bed, Curtains, Room &c received by the Eyes in the half-moments of their opening blend with, & add vividness & appropriate distance to, the Dream-Image when they close again: and thus we unite the Actual Perceptions, or their Immediate Reliques, with the phantoms of the inward Sense – and thus so confound the half-waking, half-sleeping Reasoning Power, that we actually do pass a positive judgement in for the reality of what we see & hear: tho’ often accompanied by doubt and self-questioning…”
This passage provides a powerful, first-hand account that strongly supports the core concept. Coleridge describes a physical sensation (pain, pressure) that the mind, in a transitional state of consciousness, attempts to explain by creating a visual agent (an assassin, a goblin). This perfectly aligns with the idea that the felt state (horror, oppression, pain) comes first, and the image (sphinx, assassin, goblin) is generated as an explanation. It is precisely this phenomenon – the blending of real physical sensations with dream imagery to create a terrifying, seemingly real scenario – that characterizes many intense nightmares and waking panics.
Conclusion
While the famous “sphinx” phrasing might belong to Jorge Luis Borges’s interpretation rather than being one of the direct samuel taylor coleridge quotes, the underlying concept is deeply rooted in Coleridge’s own exploration of dreams, particularly nightmares. His observations on the mind’s tendency to attribute physical sensations to imagined agents resonate profoundly with the idea that our felt states precede and shape the imagery we conjure to explain them. This journey through literature, philosophy, and personal experience reveals the complex and often counter-intuitive ways our minds process reality and create meaning. Exploring these ideas, whether through poetry, psychological reflection, or personal anecdote, highlights the enduring power of literary insights to illuminate the mysteries of human consciousness.
Magnified view of intestinal villi, illustrating the complex and often unseen biological realities that can underlie physical sensations and anxieties.