If you were judged on the basis of your darkest dreams, what could you be found guilty of' Moral debasement' Murderous intent' Desperate, cringey behavior' Thankfully, no one can spy on the sordid or embarrassing acts that may transpire in other people's sleep. But two recently published books connect dream behavior to real-world implications. The reissued Third Reich of Dreams, by Charlotte Beradt, documents the dreams of Germans during Hitler's rise in the 1930s; Laila Lalami's novel, The Dream Hotel, imagines a woman who is incarcerated in part because of her nightmares. Together, these two very different works propose an intriguing argument: Dreams, though beyond our conscious control, might be our purest expressions of free will. Beradt's dream catalogue, first published in 1966, shows how deeply the Nazis infiltrated the minds of ordinary Berliners: The city's residents regularly reported being forced to sing songs or perform salutes in their sleep. In a recent essay about the...
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