Most of us have experienced a dream, be it a nightmare or a pleasant walk in a forest. It was frequently believed that dreams encompass a coded message that might be expressing our hidden wishes, things that happened in the past or even predict the future. In the past, there have been many attempts to unravel the secret hidden behind the dreams and so far the world came up with three main theories of interpreting the dreams (Freudian, Jungian and Cognitive)(Wade, Travis 1998). In this essay I will attempt to analyze my dream by using each of the theories mentioned above, then compare the outcomes as well as their possible connections to my life and in the end determine, which one of these theories is the most accurate and thus as a laic may say the “best” one. However, I have never believed that my dreams have any meaning and in the course of this analysis I will try to prove that the Cognitive view alone offers the most reasonable explanation of my dreams.
My dream had begun on a deserted shore. After a while, I was able to find a little cottage that belonged to a fisherman. I needed from him a boat in order to get to an island (it looked like a great mountain that was rising from the water and was covered with snow). All of a sudden, I sat in the boat with four of my roommates as well as with my father and grandfather. However, only then have we found out that we do not have enough food to get to that island, so we turned our boat back to the harbor. Upon our return, we had gone into a forest that was covering almost all of the land that we were able to see. After a period of time, the length of which I was not able to determine, we have found an arbor and there were many deer running around it. But instead of shooting any of them, I shot an old ugly pig with six bullets. That was the end of my dream. The next day in the morning I wrote it down as soon as I woke up.
Sigmund Freud, in his famous book “Interpretation of Dreams” (1900) presented his new theories about determining the real meaning of our dreams. According to his book, our dreams in their core represent our deepest wishes, desires and instinctual thoughts. However, as these dreams in their original form (latent contents) were unacceptable for our consciousness, the “censor”(an unconscious mechanism) shaped them into an acceptable and symbolic form (manifest content). These symbols may...
... middle of paper ...
...ne of his lectures: “The best interpretation (of a dream) is the one that has the greatest logical meaning and is mostly helping you to solve these problems.” (Johnson 2002). From this point of view, the best logical and reasonable explanation of my dream has provided the Cognitive View, which, as it was mentioned in the paragraph above, assumes that all of our dreams are just leftover memories. In my personal opinion it is true, because I was truly able to find in that dream of mine certain aspects that belonged to my past. Of course, I am not claiming that the theories of dream analysis of Sigmund Freud and Carl Jung that worked for decades are wrong, but in my case the outcome of these two theories was too general as well as obscure for me to believe that they represent the best way of dream analysis.
Works Cited:
Freud, S. (1900). Interpretation of Dreams: NY, New York.
Gifford, T. (n.d.). Myths Dreams Symbols. Retrieved October 15th, 2002 from
http://www.mythsdreamssymbols.com/
Johnson, M. (2002). Lecture, General Psychology, University of New York / Prague, Prague,
Czech Republic.
Wade, C. & Travis, C. (1998). Psychology (5th Ed.) New York: Adison Wesley
My ideas resemble a mixture of Rosalind Cartwright and Sigmund Freud’s theories on dreams. Freud believed that the purpose of our dreams is to attain a
The interpretation of dreams developed by Dr. Sigmund Freud is a theory that is still believed by many. Freud thought the function of dreaming was to allow the discharge of repressed instinctual impulses in such a way as to preserve sleep. He also believed the instigating force behind dreams was always an instinctual and unconscious wish. Dr. Freud considered these wishes to be predominantly sexual in nature. In "Introductory Lectures on Psycho-Analysis," he wrote: "Though the number of symbols is large, the number of subjects symbolized is not large. In dreams those pertaining to sexual life are the overwhelming majority…They represent the most primitive ideas and interests imaginable." Every dream according to Freud, is created by an instigating force/ unconscious wish, that sexual or otherwise is a meaningful message in disguise. The fact that dreams so regularly contained sexual and other unacceptable wishes explained why dreams are so regularly and so easily forgotten. This is why many dreams that contain repressed and unacceptable wishes remain in the unconscious (according to Freud's theory).
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.
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 with understandable contents, is a substitute-formation that hides latent dream-thoughts, which are the abstract ideas in dreams. This translation of latent dream-thoughts to the manifest dream-content is defined by Freud as “dream-work”. Dream-work consists of certain types of transformation.
Dreams have been thought to contain significant messages throughout many cultures. A dream is an unfolding sequence of perceptions, thoughts, and emotions that is experienced as a series of real-life events during sleep. The definitions of dreams are different among studies, which can also lead to quite different results. Perhaps, the dream interpretation has becoming increasingly popular. In this paper, I will talk about what I have learned about three different views of dream interpretations. One theory made by Sigmund Freud who believed that dreams are triggered by unacceptable repressed wishes, often of a sexual nature. He argued that because dreams we experience are merely disguised versions of people real dreams. The other theory called activation–synthesis theory, made by Allan Hobson and Robert McCarley, based on the observation that during REM sleep, many brain-stem circuits become active and bombard the cerebral cortex with neural signals. The last theory, proposed by William Domhoff, is called the neurocognitive theory of dreaming, which demonstrates that dream content in general is continuous with waking conceptions and emotional preoccupations. Thus, dreaming is best understood as a developmental cognitive achievement that depends upon the maintenance of a specific network of forebrain structures. While each theory has different belief system and approach method, it is a great opportunity to know how former psychologists contributed to the field of dream interpretation.
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,
The human psyche has a vital role in psychology, including the way humans interpret dreams and their sequence. Humans do not want to remember the truth of reality so we try and hide it in order to forget about it through the process of dreaming. Except, while trying to forget about the past, it leads to
In conclusion, I hope you learned something about dreams that you didn’t previously and that you now realize that it’s not “just a dream.”
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.
II. (Introduce Topic) Since the beginning of time, people have been trying to understand the different functions of the human body, how we move, talk, and even act. Many of these physiological behaviors have been explained to some extent. However, one area of the human body that has baffled researchers, is that of the mind. Many things that go on inside the mind that don’t make sense, and serves no real explanation as to why or how things happen. One of the most fascinating and mysterious sections of psychology is that of dreaming. Even though there are numerous theories about dreams; whomever you are, wherever you live, you will dream. Whether it's a good dream or a nightmare is up to your mind, but there must be some reasoning behind dreams, right?
Porter, Laurence M. The Interpretation of Dreams: Freud's Theories Revisited. Boston, Mass.: Twayne, 1987. Print.
Through research and collection of dreams from different cultures and people, Jung was able to note that dreams have common themes and are of two types: Big and Little. The former is characterized by universal prototypes, while the latter by human’s own thoughts and experiences. According to him, dreams are symbolisms of one’s aspirations and history that are beyond our consciousness. He believed that we must carefully think about our dreams from our subconscious minds as it sends messages on how we can live a meaningful
I also watch A LOT of true crime series and I have since I was around the age of 7. Also my favorite television series is “Dexter” and in the series Dexter has a sister named Deb who is a detective and before the dream I was watching “Dexter”. Another latent part of the dream was the involvement of a young child. I desire to be an elementary school teacher after I graduate so I think that is how that aspect worked it’s way into the dream. Another piece of latent content in my dream was how it took place during the “back to school” season. That makes since because I had this dream during the month of September which is when everyone usually goes back to school especially the younger kids. The City in my dream symbolizes where I live today so that is how it worked it’s way into my dream. Lastly, my biggest fear is of being shot. So, the part where I got shot symbolized my worst fear. That part of the dream also caused me to wake up
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.