For the past month, we have been reading Frankenstein by Mary Shelley. At the beginning of the novel, we learn in the Author’s Note that the idea for Frankenstein came to her in a dream.
In AP Psychology, we started Unit 3, which is about unconscious behavior. One type of unconscious behavior is dreaming. We watched a documentary on the importance of dreams. It discussed people who have come up with their ideas to win a Nobel Prize. Then, 10 seconds later, it said that Mary Shelley came up with her plot for Frankenstein. Immediately, I looked at another person who was in my class at the time who was reading Frankenstein and I mouthed “OMG”. It was ironic because we just learned in the previous period that this is what happened, then I learned it again in AP Psychology.
These two connections complimented each other and made my understanding of the subject at hand better.
This helped me in AP Psychology because it made me understand that dreaming is not just a random occurrence. The idea that Mary Shelley wrote a whole book about a dream that she has made me realize just how important dreams were. Also, it helped me win in-class Jeopardy because one of the questions was “Mary Shelley came up with her idea for Frankenstein in what altered state of consciousness”. Immediately, I knew the answer was in a dream because of what I learned in English. I ended up getting 3 extra credit points. Also, on my test, there were questions related to why dreams were important. One of the options that had something to do with creating ideas for conscious awareness. I knew that could be one of the answers because of what I learned in English about Frankenstein and Mary Shelley.
This also helped me in English because when we went over the Author’s note in class the next day, I remembered that it was in a dream because I just reviewed it in Psychology.
I was able to utilize this connection between my two classes. It was extremely beneficial because it reinforces the materials that we have gone over, without taking time out of either class. It allows for a more in-depth understanding of the subject we are going over. For me, it is always a positive thing because it helps me understand concepts from multiple perspectives.
Here is the video if you are interested in watching it https://youtu.be/XL5F-1ZG3hU
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sofie's blog 
The connection between these two classes are great! I have not taken psychology but your post gave me an understanding of how helpful it could be. I also have a question, if Mary Shelley dreamed this situation how was she able to write a detailed story if our brains forget what we were dreaming moments after?
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I was wondering this too as I was working on my blog. Using my knowledge from psychology, it is possible that when she woke up she recorded her dream so she could write about it later, considering it was a challenge (one that she wanted to win). We were taught in psychology to remember our dreams was to write them down we when wake up. This could’ve been how she wrote her novel based solely off of a dream. Also, it could’ve been a dream that just naturally stuck with her and it was easy for her to recollect for writing later. I know that from my life there are dreams that I never forget and this could be alternate way of her remembering her dream
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I found it really interesting how you learned that Mary Shelley came up with the plot in a dream and how that information overlapped in two classes! What a coincidence. Good job!
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