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III The Interpretation of Dream
The Relationship Between Dream and Reality
Method of dream interpretation
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I chose to research a topic that can relate to anybody: dreams. It is something people are less inclined to think of as socially applicable; rather, they think dreams are personal. Perhaps through further analysis and study, more applications for dreams in social life can be found. Dreams may tell a lot more about how a person functions in society than might be originally thought. In this paper, I will review some of the ways people interact with others in and through dreams.
Overall, the articles supported the idea that people use dreams, whether during or after dreaming, to relate how they feel or think about other people. How they act in real situations can be mirrored in how they act in dreams (Domino, 1976). Some societies place a greater emphasis on what they think in their dreams than when they consciously make judgments and decisions. Gender and age also play a role in applying and sharing dreams (Morewedge & Norton, 2009). There may be a gender difference in the number of dreams a person shares. Who a dreamer shares their dreams with may indicate how closely they feel to a person (Szmigielska & Holda, 2007). Lastly, the gender of the dreamer may determine which sex they dream about more (Hall, 1984).
Predicting Behavior in Dreams
Domino (1976) assessed Jung’s theory that when people dream, their behavior is opposite what they usually show in an awakened state. His study included seventy-three men, ages 18-25, from a single university. They were asked to keep a dream journal for two weeks, and after the two weeks they were given multiple psychological tests. Since a majority of the participants had at least three dreams over the course of two weeks, only three dreams from each participant were used.
Domino used tw...
... middle of paper ...
... in real life. Using dreams as a way to explain society may not be as unreasonable as what was previously thought.
Works Cited
Domino, G. (1976). Compensatory aspects of dreams: An empirical test of Jung’s theory. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 34(4), 658-662.
Hall, C. S. (1984). “A ubiquitous sex difference in dreams” revisited. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 46(5), 1109-1117.
Morewedge, C. K. & Norton, M. I. (2009). When dreaming is believing: The (motivated) interpretation of dreams. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 96(2), 249-264.
Szmigielska, B., & Holda, M. (2007). Students' views on the role of dreams in human life. Dreaming, 17(3), 152-158.
Urbina, S. P., & Grey, A. (1975). Cultural and sex differences in the sex distribution of dream characters. Journal of Cross-Cultural Psychology, 6(3), 358-364.
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
But to me, dreams are a way of guidance to what is next after this life. Ultimately, we also may never know the true meaning behind dreams. However, I believe it is important that every human being has their own logical interpretations of dreams in order to understand themselves in a deeper and more enhanced way. Stephen King’s belief that our conscious goes deeper than we have been thought to think hints that our personalities, emotions, desires and overall-selves can be understood to a greater degree with the help of dreams. Not only do I agree with King, but I also believe that it is a great achievement to be able to understand ourselves in ways other people
Dreams are not just empty ideas, they give people ambition, and it is the pursuit of that ambition, which shapes a person. However, society instils an illusion about what can be achieved. Dreams can be tied to identity, but they can be good or bad. The Great Gatsby [F. Scott Fitzgerald] and Shattered Glass [Teresa Toten] share the similes in which both main characters dream of finding themselves and reach their end goals, through pressure and love. Both authors imply that dreams should be verified that they are possible before you start following them, otherwise they can ended up deadly.
... R.W. (1977). The brain as a dream state generator: An activation-synthesis hypothesis of the dream process. The American Journal of Phychiatry, 134, 1335-1348.
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,
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.
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
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.
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. Sleep and dreams define eras, cultures, and individuals. Sigmund Freud’s interpretation of dreams revolutionized twentieth-century thought.
First, let examined the definition of dream according to Sigmund Freud “dream is the disguised fulfilment of a repressed wish. Dreams are constructed like a neurotic symptom: they are compromises between the demands of a repressed impulse and the resistance of a censoring force in the ego” (Freud, 28). This simple means that all dreams represent the fulfilment of a wish by the dreamer. Dreams are the mind way of keeping an individual asleep and to digest and work out all that we have going on inside our brains, the negative, positive, fear and unclear thoughts and actions. This set the framework for dream work. Freud also stresses that even anxiety dreams and nightmares are expressions of unconscious desire. Freud further went on to say that, “the general function of dreaming is to fending off, by a kind of soothing action, external or internal stimuli which would tend to arose the sleeper, and thus of securing sleep against interpretation” (Freud, 28). With this, it shows that a dreamer can take apart his dream and analysis it, if he or she remembers, once conscious.