What dreams

I often have dreams in which I am telling people off. For example, last week I dreamt that I got into it with one of my brothers and ended up telling him that I thought he was an arrogant S.O.B. who never took more than a ceremonial position in family matters. People who really care, I told him, are there when the crowd isn't there to notice what a supportive sibling you are. I actually believe that sometime I will say something like this to my brother.

However, last night, I had one of those dreams which occurs every month or 2, in which I was actually physically violent toward a member of my family. Unlike the dream described above, I know that these dreams are just fantasy. In fact, a large segment of my violent dreams is spent building up the emotional state that leads to me banging people's heads on walls, etc. They are curious dreams because I have never felt so violent in waking life and I wonder what they are for. I suspect many of my most emotional dreams are occurring to exercise neural pathways that don't get a lot of use - just to keep me primed in case I ever need to kick someone's ass.