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Freuds interpretation of dreams
Freuds interpretation of dreams
Freuds interpretation of dreams
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Dream Therapy
Dreams have been considered and debated since people have existed. Research on dreams began in the 19th and 20th centuries. However, nothing has proven why dreams happen or what they do. Freud suggested that dreams are an expression of subconscious desires, from which all sorts of strange animal impulses come. He believed that he would be able to find out what bothered people by analyzing their dreams. While dreams reveal troubles much older than Freud, he was the first to try and rationalize dream therapy (Dreaming of a better life).
According to American Health (April 1997) about three-quarters of people who use dream therapy are women. They speculate this is due to hormonal differences. Other reasons to speculate that women are more inclined to use dream therapy are because they seem more connected to the dreaming world than men, women dream more often than other times during their menstrual cycle (which helps them recall their dreams more clearly at those times) and women tend to dream more during pregnancy (Waking).
People who suffer from frequent nightmares also use dream therapy. Dream therapy may help those who suffer from frequent nightmares find underlying signs of other illnesses or perhaps drug reactions (Dream Therapy: Nightmare).
Danya C. MacKean, student at Augustana University College, stated in a paper for a psychology paper that dream therapy is used by patients who are treated for post traumatic stress syndrome These patients use dream therapy to make his or herself aware that they are dreaming to lessen the resistance of confrontation with the figures or situation in which they are dreaming (MacKean).
Dream therapy can b...
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...oing on in my life. I had fun doing this paper and will more than likely start my journal again.
SOURCES
Colors in Dreams & Their Meanings. From journal: Dreams Obscure.
Common Dream Symbols. Infotrac at Concord Library.
http://www.dooyoo.com 7 February 2001. Dreaming of a better life. Pearson, Bryn.
http://www.dooyoo.com 10 August 2001. Dreams are the language of the soul… Whitehorse.
http://www.garynull.com/Documents/spectrum/waking_up_to_dream_therapy.htm Waking Up To Dream Therapy.
http://www.iris-publishing.com/sleep/sleep_help/nightmare_reduc.html 12 November 2003. Dream Therapy: Nightmare Reduction Training.
http://ma.essortments.com/dreamstherapya_rfrf.htm 12 November 2003. Dream therapy & alternative psychology.
http://www.sawka.com/spiritwatch/mackean/htm. April 1997. MacKean, Danya C.
Symbols. Infotrac at Concord Library.
Whitman, R. M., Ornstein, P. H., & Baldridge, B. J. (1964). An experimental approach to the psychoanalytic theory of dreams and conflicts. Comprehensive Psychiatry, 5(6), 349-363. doi:10.1016/S0010-440X(64)80045-6
...f the waking state; it is built up by a highly complicated intellectual activity. Freud went beyond the boundaries of education. Freud explains his reasoning about dreams, “[Dreams] are not meaningless, they are not absurd; they do not imply that one portion of our store of ideas is asleep while another portion is beginning to wake” (330). He took a different approach about the way he analyzed people. His liberally educated mind allowed him to get past the typical mental analysis and utilize dream interpretations to fabricate theories.
This theory is from Sigmund Freud, an interesting psychologist with a different aspect of the human psyche. Part of Freud 's theory I find most intriguing is the dream analysis portion. I believe that dreams are the link to the unconscious. Which makes it easier to understand where Freud is coming from with his logic in using this technique to analyze what a person is feeling. The psychoanalytic theory looks closely into the unconscious portion of a person 's mind, which I agree can reveal multiple troubles that would not be found if you didn 't look deep into the patients thoughts and memories. The theory had some downfalls as well as these great aspects.
...heory, reverse learning theory, and activation synthesis model, others focus on the mental exercise and simulations that dreams bring to us in the evolutionary theory of sleep. While many of the theories agree that dreams are a representation of ideas and thoughts from the unconscious mind, no single theory has been formed as the single primary authority on the matter of dreams despite more support for some of the theories. The fact of the matter is that despite the rampant research and discourse on the concept behind dreaming, these theories are merely speculations. But these speculations feed the curiosity on dreams and will hopefully lead to the expansion of dream analysis to not only better develop the current understanding of dreams, but also to help people around the world by possibly expanding dream analysis to become an early identifier of mental illness.
The history of dreaming began in the early centuries. “Dreams were often considered prophetic” (Comptons by Britannica). That means that dreams were seen as a message from the gods. Thousands of years ago, “Greek sick people slept in temples in order to receive dreams that would heal them” (Kantrowitz, Babara; Springen Karen). Current dream science started at the end of the 19th century. Dreams were seen as a kind of “desires” (Kantrowitz; Springen) stemming from childhood. Scientists still don’t know for sure why we are dreaming and what are dreams made of; howe...
In 1900 , an Austrian psychologist Sigmund Freud produced a work entitled The Interpretation of Dreams, reviewing the idea that dreams allow psychic examination, that the dreams that are happening contain some sort of psychological meaning which can be brought on by interpretation. Freud says that every dream will release itself as a emotional structure, full of importance, and one which may be assigned to a designated place in the psychic activities. According to Freud's original thoughts dreams have two contents, a manifest content which is the dream that one actually experiences and a hidden content which is the meaning of the dream as discovered by interpretation.
Freud argued that dreams are a disguised expression of the inner repressed self that is manifesting itself in a visual context (Summers 2006) A good understanding of dreams how dreams work would be to think of a photograph. Hebbrecht (2013) suggests that dreams are like a photo of the inner workings of a patient in that it does not give the entire story, but rather a snapshot of the turmoil inside at one particular point. In the case of dramatic trauma, a dream often can give therapists a look at what happened in the past, which may be causing negative effects on the patient. Habbrecht (2013) suggests that in working through trauma, dreams can be a vital tool in therapy. Habbrecht (2013) however, does not articulate that dreams are fully truthful; instead arguing rather that the difference between Freud and Meltzer leaves room for debate. Perara (2013) disagrees with Hebbrecht suggesting that dreams not be necessarily truthful, rather Perara (2013) argues that dreams should be treated similarly to one conscious experience. The articles also argue that dreams themselves are interwoven through our memories and experiences.(Perera 2013) Dreams also give therapists the opportunity to cause positive change in our unconscious mind. Hebbrect
There are many facts that are unknown about dreams and their meanings. For centuries, philosophers and scientists have tried to understand the meaning of dreams. They have all been fascinated by the fact that the content of dreams may have meanings relating to one's life. Are dreams just thoughts in people's minds, or are dreams in fact representations of different areas in people's lives? Dreams represent many different areas of one's life in physical, emotional, and mental ways. Dreams can relay to people facts about their lives that they are not even aware of. There are also many ways that dreams can help cure different physical, emotional, and mental problems in one's life. This paper will discuss dreams and their meanings, and ways of interpreting a dream using such methods as hypnotherapy and psychoanalysis therapy that can help a person in physical, mental, and emotional ways. The first fact that will be discussed is what dreams are and how they work for people in allowing the person to discover more about himself. Dreams can be defined as "a conscious series of images that occur during sleep" (Collier's, vol. 8). Dreams are usually very vivid in color and imagery. They reveal to the dreamer different wishes, concerns, and worries that he or she has. Dreams usually reflect every part of who the dreamer is. The content of the person's dream is usually made up according to how old the dreamer is and how educated the he or she is (Collier's, vol. 8). Dreams are not planned out or thought up. The unconscious part of the mind brings out bits and pieces of information in the dreamer's mind and places them together. According to Encarta, dreams are almost always visual. Forty to fifty percent of dreams have some form of communication present in them and a very small percentage of dreams give the dreamer the ability to use his or her five senses (Encarta). Dreams allow one to take a closer look into his mind and himself in a quest for self-discovery. Dreams can be used to solve all different types of problems. In Sigmund Freud's book, The Interpretation of Dreams, Sigmund Freud states: "As regards the dream, all the troubles of waking life are transferred by it to the sleeping state […]" (Freud 113). They relay things about a person that the person may not be able to see.
Psychology, neuroscience try to explain them, 2012). He studied dreams to better understand aspects of personality as they relate to pathology. Freud believed that every action is motivated by the unconscious at a certain level. In order to be successful in a civilized society, the urges and desires of the unconscious mind must be repressed. Freud believed that dreams are manifestations of urges and desires that are suppressed in the unconscious. Freud categorized the mind into three parts: the id, the ego, and the superego. When one is awake, the impulses if the id are suppressed by the superego, but during dreams, one may get a glimpse into the unconscious mind, or the id. The unconscious has the opportunity to express hidden desires of the id during dreaming. Freud believed that the id can be so disturbing at times that the id’s content can be translated into a more acceptable form. This censor leads to a sometimes confusing and strange dream image. According to Freud, the reason one may struggle to remember a dream is because the superego protects the conscious mind from the disturbance of the unconscious mind (Dream Theories,
Based on On Dreams, written by Sigmund Freud, and Spellbound, directed by Alfred Hitchcock, provide the most psychological significant aspect of dreams through the theory of dreams made by Freud. I partially agree with Freud’s theory on dreams and the dreaming process. Dreams have the ability to form a bridge from reality to transfer over to the unconscious mindset. Throughout his article, On Dreams, he gives explanations behind his theory. The human psyche has a vital role in psychology, including the way humans interpret dreams and their sequence.
All over the world different people, scientists, and civilizations have different dream theories. For instance, the Senoi tribe in Malaysia has a fascinating tradition of dream telling. Every morning the people of the tribe begin their day by discussing and interpreting their dreams with each other. The children, as they grow older, actually learn to control their dreams by simply wishing bad dreams into positive ones. It is observed that, by paying tribute their dreams, the people of the Senoi tribe learn to have faith in themselves. Also, they have very few, if any, mental problems “could working constructively with dreams be part of the answer” to mental issues? (Peirce)
During the transition from the nineteenth to the twentieth century, a psychologist named Sigmund Freud welcomed the new age with his socially unacceptable yet undoubtedly intriguing ideologies; one of many was his Psychoanalytic Theory of Dreams. Freud believed that dreams are the gateway into a person’s unconscious mind and repressed desires. He was also determined to prove his theory and the structure, mechanism, and symbolism behind it through a study of his patients’ as well as his own dreams. He contended that all dreams had meaning and were the representation of a person’s repressed wish. While the weaknesses of his theory allowed many people to deem it as merely wishful thinking, he was a brilliant man, and his theory on dreams also had many strengths. Freud’s theories of the unconscious mind enabled him to go down in history as the prominent creator of Psychoanalysis.
In the first chapter of Freud's The Interpretation of Dreams the master himself explains to the reader that every dream divulges itself as being a structure of psychological nature. Freud goes on to describe that each dream is meaningful and that some dreams may be designated to a precise point in the activities of the wake mind.
In society, dreams can evoke lots of fascination; furthermore for many years philosophers and scientists have tried to resolve the riddle; why do we dream? As human beings we devote so much time to dreaming, so much so that we don’t remember many of our dreams that get disoriented in the realms of us sleeping. Chances are of those dreams we do remember, tend to be difficult to understand; therefore, leading us to wonder why we even dream at all? Throughout the progression of time, many theories have been presented, the two most famous ones being: the psychoanalytic theory of dreaming and the activation synthesis model of dreaming. The psychoanalytic theory of dreaming by Sigmund Freud’s suggests that dreams are nothing but our unconscious longing, judgment, and incentive. On the other hand the activation synthesis model of dreaming by J. Allan Hobson suggests that dreams are a result neural impulses that occur during your dreams, that trigger different areas in the brain which result in dreams that he claimed to be the “most creative state” we as human beings take part in. Based on my own series of dreams, my own personal theory is very similar to that of Sigmund Freud; conversely, I believe dreams strive to do what we as human beings struggle to do, which is make up our minds. Dreams serve as little flares that clarify our conflicts; likewise to Sigmund Freud our dreams do include our unconscious desires, but these are only present to show us as human beings that the answers to our conflicts are already present; present in the back of our minds, secluded from everything else.
During prescientific days, dreams were interpreted as ‘manifestations’ of a ‘higher power’. Since the introduction of psychology, dreams have had 4 distinct interpretations. The first interprets dreams as a “liberation of the spirit from the pressure of external nature”. The second interprets dreams as “accidental disturbances from ‘internal organs’. The third interprets dreams as a foretelling of the future. The last interpretation is Freud’s. He interprets dream as an expression of subconscious desires.