To me, one of the most interesting questions that Solaris posed was to what extent everything we think we know is filtered through our own prism of how we perceive reality. It isn't a particularly new or revolutionary concept, but what Lem did was to show extremely well how we tend to do that. It's one thing to recognize it in the abstract, it's another thing to see its direct consequences.

This is one of those times when I think the "alienating" effect of a science fiction setting helps make the point of the story. Ultimately, the book seems to be saying we are born, live and die alone, and we think we're communicating with other people but the communication is always flawed because we impose our own ideas on everything.

Harey (I'm going to use the Polish spelling, as I understand it, for names) killed herself and is gone. The Harey that shows up on the station is the Harey of his memories. This Harey is flawed because she is (by her own admission, even) not acting as she really did, but has Kris has selectively remembered. He chose to remember certain things about her and ignore others. He did so because he wanted to make her adhere more to certain ideas he had about who she should be - who she should be as a woman, as a lover, as a friend, etc. He may have subconsciously ignored things about her in order to make the "emotional connection" possible. The real Harey likely did the same thing, but the faux Harey on the station may not be doing that.

We don't even know what that Harey is. Is she a result of natural phenomena on Solaris? Is Solaris alive and interacting by pretending to be her? We don't know. Kris is forced to confront the idea that he has projected upon Harey what he wanted to. Does this mean he loved the idea of Harey that he built up in his mind and not the "real" Harey back on Earth? The realization seems to break the dangerous nostalgia that he fell into by allowing the proximity of the faux Harey.

The other question is: is the faux Harey real? Is she self-conscious? We don't know. We only know what we hear her say, but we're not sure if her emotions, thoughts, ideas, words, etc. are the result of a sentient Solaris, or the result of an independent, sentient being that was generated, or the result of Kris's own thoughts somehow taking form.

Either way, it is clear that all of the scientists are dealing with very difficult memories. It could simply be that, by virtue of suppressing the painful memories in order to be able to live and experience joy, those memories have become the strongest "signal" for Solaris to pick up (if that's what it's doing - either as a sentient entity or as a chemical or physical reaction).

Thoughts?