Dreams The Portals to the Subconscious Himashi Pemasiri 10/18/2014 Table of contents Introduction...........................................................................1 Procedure...............................................................................2 Findings..................................................................................3 Objective #1..............................................................................3 Objective #2..............................................................................5 Objective #3..............................................................................7 Conclusion..............................................................................9 …show more content…
A variety of dream theories will be analysed after which a number of benefits to dreaming will be explored. It will implicate different possible dream applications drawing information from dream-themed books and movies. The ethical concerns of such innovations will be scrutinised. • Limitations The report is limited to a scientific perspective mainly due to the word count. Only the most important dream types, theories and benefits will be disclosed. The possible future applications are also limited to the most momentous innovations. Procedure This report was written after drawing information from 17 different sources and the information disclosed is from a combination of primary and secondary researching. The primary research includes material from encyclopaedias, newspapers, journals, abstracts, scholarly articles and established websites. The secondary research was derived mainly from a survey. The majority of the information originates from primary research. Sources were selected on the basis of being well established and reputable. The earliest resources were published in 2005 while the most recent resources are from 2014. Findings Objective #1 - The process of dreaming and different dream …show more content…
2014]. • Medical benefits Studies indicate that dreams help heal the mind. Dreaming cleanses the mind and the frequencies of the brain in the dream state is far lower than when an individual is awake. The dreamer is in a restorative state. It is a well known fact that sleep helps people in this manner but recent studies suggest that dreaming too has this property [The dreams foundation, 2012]. Dreaming is now used to cure depression. Experiments on rats showed that they produced more nerve cells when they were not deprived of REM sleep. Further studies on divorced women indicated that there might be a link between curing depression and dreaming. Women who dreamt about their ex-husbands and their marriage life woke up happier than those who didn’t [WebMD, 2009]. • Inspiration and Personal growth Dreams help individuals to process what they learnt that day. In an experiment where people were asked to toss a coin into a coffee cup 2 meters away, the people who dreamt about the task the night before performed far better than those who didn’t [Erlacher, D.
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
...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.
be examined as a whole process, the decay and ultimate elimination of a dream. Self
This brings me to the next point of using dreams to help us heals our minds. “Since dreams are so visual, they hold an image related to that subject in your mind as you fall asleep.” (Roberts, 2011) If we fall asleep with a thought in mind that we don’t talk about, then it’s possible for us to dream about because we were not able to speak about it. When we don’t let things out or we are having problems, then it’s possible that we dream about them as well. “About one half of the students dreamed about the problem and one-quarter of them solve it.” Dreaming is a problem solver for those who can’t think about solutions or just don’t know wh...
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...
It is very important that people dream if they want to remain in good health. Sleepers can cycle through five stages of sleep continuously throughout the night, one of the most important being Rapid Eye Movement (REM). REM sleep can last for up to five minutes at a time, and is entered multiple times throughout sleep. On the other hand, the brain stem, which controls a person’s emotions, memory, and desires, is very active during sleep. However, the “reasoning brain” is shut down. A person’s brain also cuts off all signals from the senses and blocks messages sent to the muscles, which prevents someone from acting out his or her dreams (Andre-Clark). Dreams occur during the REM phase, the most restful time of sleep. For this reason, scientists have concluded that dreaming is beneficial to an individual’s health. Robert J. Hoss, author of Dream Language, states, “dreaming is...
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
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.
...n and development throughout history. After the research, I learned that while most dreams are fairly coherent, patterned, which include everyday settings, people, activities, and events, they may involve relatively unusual and perhaps bizarre aspects. Altogether, these images would allow people to have the most revealing and distinctive view of who they are and what they know in daily life by telling stories in the brain. However, while I still feel that no theory can exactly interpret what dreams’ meanings really are, it is interesting to know more how human brain’s activity (dreaming) function when people sleep. Moreover, I have decided to see my dreams as a television show with different episodes at night. That way, I will be able to enjoy the dream without ruining the fun that my brain offers because I would love to see what and how my brain wants me to see.
Hall categorizes dreams into five principles. The first is concepts of self which refers the number and type of roles one plays in their dreams. The second concept is of other people. This mentions the roles others play in one’s dream and how one interact with them. Concepts of the world is the third principle. This represents the dreams surrounding and landscape. Hall believes that this concept describes how one views the world. The fourth is the concepts of impulses, prohibitions, and penalties. This concept refers to the way behavior is governed by both impulses and punishments. The last concept is the concepts of problems and conflicts. This concept symbolizes ones struggles and difficulties of the waking life. Hall believes that by utilizing all five concepts, one is able to evaluate dream content and better understand the unconscious mind (Dream Theories,
When humans wake up from sleeping, we do not always recollect our dreams, yet the brain is still dreaming of what has actually happened. Dreams are formed through various processes, with the past being transformed into content that is thought to be not creative. Freud mentions in the On Dreams that dreams do not make things up that the psyche has not already experienced. As Freud states our dreams are not creative works, “…dream-work is not creative, that it develops no phantasies of its own, that is makes no judgements and draws no conclusions…” (Freud 162). In his terms, dream-work is known as the transformation process that dream-thought shifts to dream-content; consisting of both latent content and manifest
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)
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?
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.
Despite the large amount of time we spend asleep, surprisingly little is actually known about sleeping and dreaming. Much has been imagined, however. Over history, sleep has been conceived as the space of the soul, as a state of absence akin to death, as a virtual or alternate reality, and more recently, as a form of (sub)consciousness in which memories are built and erased. The significance attributed to dreams has varied widely as well. The Ancient Greeks had surprise dream encounters with their gods. Native Americans turned to their dreams for guidance in life. Shamans dreamed in order to gather information from the spirits.