Sigmund Freud 's The Interpretation Of Dreams Essay

It is universally known that dreams are full of meanings and emotions. In Freud’s theory, all dreams are wish fulfillments or at least attempts at wish fulfillment. The dreams are usually presented in an unrecognizable form because the wishes are repressed. Freud proposes there are two levels in the structure of dreams, the manifest contents and the latent dream-thoughts. The manifest dream, a dream

Throughout history, numerous people have studied the human body and its many functions. One area of the body that causes much confusion and controversy is the mind. Many parts of the brain baffle scientists, but a specific aspect of the mind that is fascinating and puzzling is dreams and their functions. It is surprising that an average person dreams for at least six years of their life, but scientists still do not know the role of dreaming (Shaw). Several theories have been presented to provide a reason for dreaming, and attempt to explain what most do not understand. Although dream research has been prominent lately, no agreement has been reached on which theory is correct on the purpose of dreams. Some believe that dreams are only

Sigmund Freud is considered the father of the dream theory. His book, The Interpretation of Dreams (1900), was very influential in the twentieth century and continues to captivate people today. Over many years of psychoanalysis, Freud found a correlation between socially unacceptable desires and the content of dreams (Freud, 1900). This lead him to the conclusion that dreams are the manifestation of wishes that are suppressed by the person because they are not socially acceptable (Freud, 1900). He separated content into two categories, manifest and latent (Freud, 1900). Manifest content of a dream is the actual literal subject-matter presented in the dream while latent content in the underlying symbols a dream is trying to present to the dreamer

Many will argue that Freud’s ideas have exerted a profound influence on twentieth –century thought and culture, though his work has come under scrutiny, it has shape the fundamentals of society view on civilization and discontents, dreams, psychoanalysis and the unconscious. For this paper, I will be discussing Freud’s fundamentals of dreams, what dreams represents, how dreams are constructed and its significance while paying close attention to the following areas of dreams, manifest and latent content, condensation and displacement, and censorship and repression.

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.

Freud’s wish fulfillment theory began because he believed that the wishes in adult dreams were disguised in order to reduce their anxiety tendencies. Freud theorised that dreams are disguised by a “censor” of sorts, in four cognitive processes he collectively called the “dream-work” (Freud, 1900) these include; displacement, whereby highly charged thoughts are transferred to minor elements in the impending dream. Condensation then compresses several different dream thoughts. These two are then joined together by the regard for representability, which changes abstract thoughts into a form that is applicable for the sensor. Finally the dream is shaped by secondary revision which basically gives the dream content an understandable pattern. (Freud, 1900).

There are many theories about why we dream, some say dreams have no meaning or purpose, others say dreams are required for emotional, physical and mental health. According to the activation- synthesis model of dreaming theory circuits in the brain become activated during the REM cycle, which causes areas in the limbic system involved in memories, emotions and sensations become activated (verywell.com/why-do-we-dream-top-dream-theories-2795931). Sigmund Freud’s theory on dreams suggested that dreams represented unconscious desires, thoughts and motivations (verywell.com/Freudian-theory-2795845). Though these thoughts are not consciously expressed, Freud suggested they make their way into awareness via dreams.

After a friend told me about some weird dreams he had been having I decided to research the meaning of dreams. I will focus on Sigmund Freud’s idea that understanding our dreams can help us to understand ourselves, and live a much happier and fulfilled life. Freud was known as “the father of psychoanalysis” and in 1899 he wrote his most famous work, The Interpretation of Dreams, and

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

Briefly present Freud's theory on dreams and how his ideas are distinctly different from the philosophy of the Activation-Synthesis Model. Freud believed manifest content/dream images brought out repressed wishes/wish-fulfillment and urges, and latent content/ disguised psychological dream meaning. Also, dream functioning was a release of unconscious and inappropriate urges. Images in dreams had different symbolism's such as, an elongated object represented male genital organ and ovens represent the female genitals. Researchers Robert McCarley and J. Allan Hobson created a model called Activation-Synthesis in which it suggests dreams are a way the brain makes sense of the activities while sleeping.

“Dreams are a series of images, ideas, emotions, and sensations occurring involuntarily in the mind during certain stages of sleep.” This is the true definition of what dreams are according to Free Dictionary.com. Although many people are unaware of how dreams actually work there are two psychologists that have been able to pinpoint the true meaning of dreams. These two men are Carl Jung and Sigmund Freud. There are many different perceptions on how people dream, what dreams mean, and why people dream.

The second evidence we can find is the action or losing or mislaying objects, according to

Freud brought his idea of infantile sexuality to be the mainstream of all dreams and neurosis. However, not all dreams followed his accusations and theories because simple dreams or traumatic dreams did not need to be interpreted. Anxiety dreams and sexual dreams also fall into this category. Therefore, the dreams up for interpretation contained ‘Freudian symbols’ representing genitals. Storr explained, “Thus, hollow containers, like caves or handbags, may symbolize the female genitals; while swords, umbrellas, or pencils may be taken as indicating the penis” (Storr, 1989, p. 36). These symbols are projected into dreams as more acceptable versions of genitalia. Not a lot of Freud’s works on dreams are accepted today because theorists have done

In the article, “What Dreams are Made of,” it was interesting learning about the science behind dreams, and the research neuroscientists and psychologists composed as they looked in detail towards the aspect of how people problem solve throughout their dreams. I was surprised when I read that colleagues and psychologists at the University of California in Santa Cruz have taken their time to catalog over 17,000 dreams, which is an outstanding amount! In addition, I was fascinated to learn about the primary messages behind dreams, which were seen as signs from the gods thousands of years ago. I was intrigued by an important theory in the science behind dreams theorized by Sigmund Freud that dreams were the center of unconscious aspirations that

Sigmund Freud created strong theories in science and medicine that are still studied today. Freud was a neurologist who proposed many distinctive theories in psychiatry, all based upon the method of psychoanalysis. Some of his key concepts include the ego/superego/id, free association, trauma/fantasy, dream interpretation, and jokes and the unconscious. “Freud remained a determinist throughout his life, believing that all vital phenomena, including psychological phenomena like thoughts, feelings and phantasies, are rigidly determined by the principle of cause and effect” (Storr, 1989, p. 2). Through the discussion of those central concepts, Freud’s theory of psychoanalysis becomes clear as to how he construed human character.