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 …show more content…
She also suffered from night terrors. Her spouse often spoke of her screaming in her sleep, getting up and running, or crying out panicked. She has had the same dreams repeatedly for the past two weeks. She has had dreams of running often in the past as well. It is important to note that during therapy she has admitted to sexual abuse from a step-parent as an adolescent and recently moved closer in proximity to him. In the dream she says she feels panicked, like she is being chase, she sees the deep reds and blacks, and never feels like she reaches safety. Through analysis of her dream, her therapist was able to help her cope with the sexual abuse trauma, because her dream was her subconscious mind working through the trauma. The colors red and black are possibly symbolic of her anger towards the step-parent, and her panicked running was her minds way of trying to stop the sexual abuse. Through therapy with dream analysis the woman was able to better understand the meaning behind her unconscious mind and work towards a healthier sleep
Both Freud and Jung provided important and interesting theories on dreams; encompassing their functions, their roots, and their meanings. Freud looked at dreams as a result of repressed memories, particularly repressed sexual memories from our childhood. Jung however, believed that dreams delved beyond sexual repression during younger years, to other problems, be it trauma, anxiety etc. Jung also believed dreams changed predominately through middle adult years, while Freud believed the opposite. There is little empirical evidence to reinforce either Freud or Jung’s theories, however, their contributions to the study of dreams in psychology cannot be lessened or denied.
A series of thoughts, images, and sensations that occur during a person’s mind during the time that they sleep is known as a dream. Dreams go way back until the beginning of mankind, even to the BC era during the time that Egyptians and Greeks were the leading force! The Egyptians examined the meanings behind the dreams we have and analyzed the symbols. There are a numerous amount of reasons behind our dreams. People must ask all the time, what is the reasoning behind dreaming? Why do we dream? What is the meaning behind the dream I had? In an average lifetime, approximately six years is spent dreaming. Every single person on this planet dreams and just because one might not remember doing so, it was still done. One might have several dreams occur throughout a normal night of sleep that lasts from about seven to eight hours. Everyone has dreams and each experience is distinctive and personal. Some can contain vivid pictures or memorable illustrations of reality and others can be unreal or abstract. In a way, they all have certain meanings to them and there can be messages hidden that are trying to tell someone something. An abundant amount of people are always curious as to why they dreamed what they did and spend time looking for those answers.
Carl Gustav Jung (a.k.a. C.G. Jung) was born in 1875, in Switzerland, and worked closely with Freud for many years, he learned many things from him in this time. Eventually Jung split from him because his ideas and concepts of psychoanalysis began to differ from those of Freud. Jung was a convectionist, unlike Freud who was a reductionist. Jung saw dreams as a way to come up with solutions to problems you are facing in your waking life. Jung took Freud’s one technique of “free association” and expanded on it. Unlike Freud, he saw this concept as being extremely important. He thought that the dreamer’s thoughts and opinions on what the dream could mean are even more important than anyone else’s, including many times an expert. Dreams, to Freud, are a way of interacting with your unconscious. Carl Jung’s methods to interpreting dreams could be a very important step to help people lead happier and healthier lives. He believed that the manifest content in our dreams is just as important as the latent content when it comes to interpreting our dreams. Freud took a very hands on approach when interpreting people’s dreams, but Jung put forth less information from himself because he thought dream interpretation relied heavily on the dreamer himself. A college student who is experiencing nightmares consistently may visit a psychologist who knows about the meanings of dreams. A psychiatrist who believes more in Freud’s ways may take the dream as being
Freud also listed the following results from his studies, dreams can have multiple layers of meaning, nearly all dreams are wish-fulfilling, and all dreams have a unifying motive that accounts for all random images and events. Freud concluded that dreams are the way an individual 's unconscious mind tries to express itself and that dreams “may only have a chance of reaching our consciousness if they are somewhat disguised”. Which explains the sometimes absurd and bizarre dreams that someone can get. Sigmund Freud uses the following analogy to explain his theory, “a political writer may criticize a ruler, but in doing so may endanger himself. The writer therefore has to fear the ruler’s censorship, and in doing so “moderates and distorts the expression of his opinion”. The writer serves to represent the unconscious mind, while the ruler is the conscious mind that stops an individual from doing certain things. Dreams and daydreams are practically synonymous, except dreams occur when an individual sleeps, and daydreams are when the person is awake, but both allow for the mind to wander, so the theory can apply to both, but Freud mainly focuses on the aspects of dreams.
Psycho-analysis, the brain child of Sigmund Freud, is an attempt to conceive an entirely new field of science based on the constructs set forth by its creator, it deals with all manners of the human psyche, from the human ego, to our dreams, and to our unconscious and conscious minds. In his work, “Revision of the Theory of Dreams” Freud’s unwavering persistence to cement psycho-analysis, and his method of dream interpretation, as an established science becomes apparent. He implies that only a psycho-analysist is capable of correctly analyzing dreams, and in making this implication he commits a series grievous mistakes, he overestimates the value of the psycho-analyst’s interpretation and the values of the associations which the dreamer makes during the process, he then, in accordance with his newfound science and procedure, attempts to pass off these supposed analyses as definitive fact. These mistakes are a result of Freud’s own ego, in his desperation to prove the validity of his science he forgets about human nature and its impacts on the unconscious mind, which he claims to know much of, and the subjectivity of all interpretation.
“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.
I wrote this paper to get a better understanding of Sigmund Freud’s method and theory of dream analysis. The purpose of the paper will be to show the principals of Freud’s dream related theory that focuses on the physiology, interpretation, and psychology of dreams and to explain concepts such as latent and manifest content of dreams, the part of unconscious process, and the nature of dreams role in the determination of dream content. I would like to explore Sigmund Freud’s explanations of psycho-analytic and psychological theory and method to reveal whether Freud’s continuous revising to sexually based conclusions are able to support his own arguments. One of his themes was the amount of activity that goes on in our brains without us even
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?
An individual’s unconscious mind combines bits and pieces of information and places them together. 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 their mind in a quest for self-discovery. In ancient Greece dreams were believed to be messages from the gods. Hippocrates and Aristotle believed that dreams contained physiological information that may be cause of future illnesses. Dreams can be used to solve a number of different types of problems. In The Interpretation of Dreams, by Sigmund Freud he states “As regards the dream, all the troubles of waking life are transferred by it to the sleeping
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
The humankind throughout history has tried to learn and figure out the meaning of dreaming. The interpretations and true meanings of dreams has expanded and has varied over centuries and cultures. Many of the earlier studies were based on culture’s and the interpretation of dreams, but also used as a form of prophecy, inspiration, and guidance. Many people still believe this such, people today beliefs and theories have opened up to a more vast interpretation, they are made up of; dreams are rare brain activity, dreams allow people to reflect on themselves, or that dreams are too massive to be correctly interpret. Although, not a single theory has been proven to this day, science as of why dreams occur is still a mystery.
When Freud famously referred to dreams as being the ‘royal road to the unconscious’, he meant that dreams were a way in which to access the unconscious mind. Dream analysis in psychoanalysis is the process used to explore the role dreams play in the unconscious (Corey, 2005). The
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.
In his book, Modern Man In Search Of A Soul, C.G. Jung gives a layperson insight into his ideas on dream analysis. Jung's primary objective in this book is to educate the reader as to what a psychoanalyst does when analyzing a patient's dreams. The principal message in the section of the book centered on dream analysis is that dreams should never stand alone. Dreams are meaningless in a vacuum, but on the other hand when put against a strict set of rules, they are oftentimes misunderstood. The unconscious is a fluid entity and cannot be handled either in isolation or with a static set of guidelines. Dreams are reflections of the unconscious and can represent many different things inside of
Like Freud, Carl Jung believed that dream analysis allowed for a window into the unconscious mind. However, unlike Freud’s theory about dream interpretation, Jung didn’t believe that content of all dreams were sexual or that they disguised their true meaning. Jung thought that dreams were more symbolic, that dreams could have different interpretations according to