Psychology of Dreams
To many people, dreams are the thoughts that occur while sleeping, having almost mystic qualities. For millennia the significance of dreams has escaped even the brightest of philosophers and intellectuals. Many people have speculated about why people dream and what meanings the dreams have but in recent times two theories have gained credibility in answering those questions. The first theory is Sigmund Freuds and the other is known as the cognitive theory of dreams also known as biological determinism.
Freud presented his theory about dreams in the book The Interpretation of Dreams in 1899. In it he sets out to prove "there is a psychological technique which makes it possible to interpret dreams" and that
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Freud outlines methods of interpreting dreams. The first is a symbolic interpretation of the dream. This method identifies symbols in the dream that represent something in the waking life, making the dream simpler to understand if done correctly (Freud 129). The second method is to "decode" the dream. Symbols are said to be universal and every symbol has a counterpart that it represents in the waking life. In effect the real meaning of the dream is encoded into universal symbols and must be decoded to understand it (Freud 130).
Freud found two meanings in a dream: the manifest meaning and the latent meaning (Freud 168). The manifest meaning of a dream is what is remembered upon waking (Felluga). The manifest meaning can reflect a situation that follows common sense and unfold in a way possible in waking life. Other times it can take its own wild path that follows little or no logical sequence when viewed at surface level. Despite this vast difference, both of these are influenced by the superego, a part of the mind that Freud believes houses the knowledge of the structure of society and what is acceptable in the dreamers culture. The dream takes place on a stage or backdrop that makes sense and relates to waking life (Freud 216-17). While the manifest meaning is useful and can itself contain a message, interpretation of it can reveal more than seen at face value.
The second meaning in a dream Freud labels the latent meaning. The latent meaning
Many people believe their dreams are a manifestation of their subconscious. Dream analysis is the process of evaluating dreams to determine their meaning. The process of analyzing ones dreams dates back to ancient Egypt. The ancient Egyptian people believed dreams were a message from the Gods. Furthermore, in the 20th century Sigmund Freud and Carl Jung gave way to greater scientific advancements through developed scientific theories and disciplines. Freud believed that dreams were the unconscious mind hiding repressed wants and desires from the conscious mind to protect the conscious mind from disturbing thoughts. However, Jung who at the time was a colleague of Freud’s disagreed. Jung thought that dreams were a means for the unconscious mind to bring to light inner desires to the conscious mind. In either case, by analyzing dreams a person has
In his lecture, “Revision of the Theory of Dreams” Freud makes it apparent that this theory alone stands as the basis for the entirety of Psycho-Analysis, he writes, “Whenever I begin to have doubts of the correctness of my wavering conclusions, the successful transformation of a senseless and muddled dream into a logical and intelligible
He explained dreams as manifestations of our deepest desires and anxieties, often relating to repressed childhood memories or obsessions. Furthermore, he believed that virtually every dream topic, regardless of its content, represented the release of sexual tension. In The Interpretation of Dreams (1899), Freud developed a psychological technique to interpret dreams and devised a series of guidelines to understand the symbols and motifs that appear in our dreams. Opinions about the meaning of dreams have varied and shifted through time and culture. Most people today appear to endorse Freud’s theory of dreams that dreams reveal insight into hidden desires and emotions. Other prominent theories include those suggesting that dreams assist in memory formation, problem solving, or simply are a product of random brain activation. The earliest recorded dreams were acquired from materials dating back approximately 5000 years, in Mesopotamia, where they were documented on clay tablets. In the Greek and Roman periods, the people believed that dreams were direct messages
The point of view of which Freud interprets and examines the manifest of dreams content to obtain their latent meaning is of a professional psychologist and clinical observer who looked for a way to explain how our minds work and how the individual psychology functions. He based his work on clinical experiences and clinical neurosis of the matter of his own interpretations to be able to confirm his theories as a proven fact. The result Freud gets from the patients he observes and interpretation of their dreams are stereotyped to the complete human condition.
The best part of a long, hard-working day is when you finally get to lay in your bed, close your eyes and let your imagination run free. As you sleep your mind takes you to another place far away from the real world. You begin to dream. Over the night, you may have several dreams. In the morning, you may wake up and wonder what your dreams were suppose to mean for you and your life. By analyzing your dream, it "gives a true picture of the 'subjective state'-how we really feel about ourselves-which the conscious mind cannot or will not give" (Wietz 289). In order to find the meaning of a dream, you have to pick out the most important symbols and define them. But you may be wondering what exactly is a symbol?
Sigmund Freud, the father of psychoanalysis, titled his landmark work, The Interpretation of Dreams. He asserted that every dream is the fulfillment of a wish. Imagine, for example, one who is sleeping but who becomes thirsty. The sleep pattern will be disturbed by thirst. A subsequent dream will likely involve liquids in an attempt to get rid of the disturbance. Only when the dream fails, will you wake and visit the kitchen.
Another dream theory is the psychoanalytic perspective, which is a part of Freud’s theory, are dreams that are a representation of the unconscious motivations, desires, and thoughts. The thoughts are consciously expressed and also suggested that we find the way into the awareness through
Consequently, to study Freud one must investigate his theory of manifest content and latent content. While reading Freud, a student learns that the actual content of the dream is referred to as manifest content. That is to say, the exact subject matter of the dream is the manifest content. At the same time, Freud believed that the latent content was the true meaning of a dream. The latent content appears to be left open to personal interpretations. It was Freud’s belief that dreams come from deep in the unconscious mind. Perhaps even from things suppressed since childhood. Freud studied dreams as a means of psychoanalyzing people and believed dreams were a kind of wish fulfillment. The view Freud took explained dreams as a window into an individual’s unconscious including their deepest desires and anxieties. In 1931 Freud wrote, as quoted in Schön (2016), “The Interpretation of Dreams . . . contains the most valuable of all the dream interpretation in theory discoveries it has been my fortune to make” (76-77). Dr. Freud was proud of his literary contributions to society. In today’s world dreams might be considered a pathway to a person’s true thoughts, actions and
Sigmund Freud’s theory of dreams suggested that dreams represented unconscious desires, thoughts, and motivations. According to Freud’s psychoanalytic view of personality,
Are your dreams really meaningful, or are they just an appearance in your sleep? This is a common question that many of us tend to overlook. “Are dreams really meaningful?” by Kelly Bulkeley and “Why dreams mean less than we think.” by John cloud, are two insights that will help in gaining knowledge about the meanings of our dreams. The scientists around the globe have been researching our meanings behind our dreams for quite some time now, “The findings from these studies provide compelling evidence that dreaming is not meaningless “noise” but rather a coherent and sophisticated mode of psychological functioning.” (Bulkeley). Although many researchers claim that dreams are just our imagination going to sleep, or our brain replaying past and
Sigmund Freud was an Austrian neurologist best known for developing the theories and techniques of psychoanalysis. Freud's studies, theories and techniques have had more impact on the world of psychology than any other single person in history and is widely recognized as one of it's founding fathers. His most well known and successful proposal is the theory of dream interpretation. Freud believes that dreams represent wish fulfillment, unconscious desires, and conflicts. When dreaming these repressed issues of our waking life come forth. Dreams contain both manifest and latent content. Manifest content includes information of the dreams, or in other words the literal main subject from the dream as the dreamer remembers it. Latent content represents
All of the approaches to understanding dreams reflect the movement of societal thought. The initial beliefs involved gods, temples, and faith. At the times when the cultural beliefs on dreams were established the explanations for most worldly events involved these elements. As time passed society, particularly Western society, became more individual oriented. With this came the psychological approaches to dreams. These approaches reflect the general tenets of the psychology of the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. They look for answers to the workings of the human psyche by delving into the subconscious, which was presumed to be shaped by either childhood experiences, repressed desires, or a collective unconscious. Finally, the
We can say that when dreaming, we jump to a different world plenty of our deepest feelings and sensations. Despite the fact that we do not always remember all the details of our dreams or even do not recall them at all, it is certain that dreams are part of us. This mixture of images, feelings, and thoughts can tell us much about our inner-self and give us a hint of what is happening inside our minds. The author Ed Struzik in his article “Sweet dreams; A mirror of our most intimate secrets or just a random bombardment of brain signals: [FINAL Edition]” makes reference to Sigmund Freud, one the first persons to study the science of dreams, suggesting that “dreams revealed our most intimate secrets, and are a method by which stress and psychological
Freud believed that dreams represent repressed desires, dears and conflicts. He distinguished two aspects of dreams: the manifest content (Actual event) and the latent content (symbolic meaning of the event). In Freud’s latent content all of the symbolic meanings had a sexual background. He viewed dreams as revealing conflicts in a condensed and intensified form.
Sigmund Freud, born in the Austrian Empire as Sigismund Freud, was a renowned neurologist and also the founding father of psychoanalysis, who brought about a completely unique perspective on understanding human personality. He is reputed as the most dominant and controversial intellects since the turn of the century. He has produced multiple innovations that have been quite influential in the field of psychology. His book titled “The Interpretation of Dreams,” or “Die Traumdeutung,” in which Freud introduced the significance of the unconscious mind, later became the paramount in psychoanalysis. Afterwards, Freud published a more succinct explanation on chapter three of his previous book, The Dream as a Wish-Fulfillment, which he titled, “On Dreams.” This classic further explains where dreams came from, their mechanism and the relation of dreams to the mental processes.