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Dream psychology by sigmund freud
Dream psychology by sigmund freud
Critical Analysis of Sigmund Freud's Interpretation of Dreams
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« The interpretation of dreams is the royal road to a knowledge of the unconscious activities of the mind ».1 While Freud already used hypnosis and free association with his patients, he soon felt the need to include the interpretation of dreams in psychoanalysis as well. Freud decided he would developped his 'theory of dreams' to go further in his analysis. According to Freud, dreams allow unconscious desires, fears or emotions to express themselves in a disguised way. Dreams are an expression of wish fulfilment communicating through symbols.
Throughout this essay, we will ask ourselves how dreams and their interpretation can be useful to psychoanalysis. Why pay attention to night unconsciousness to go deeper in the analysis? How and why do we dream? What relationship is there between sleeping, dreaming and stimuli? How far can the interpretation of dream lead? Are there limits to Freud's theory of dreams?
Freud's theory of dreams completes the method of psychoanalysis : free association and interpretation when studying the meaning of dreams allow a deeper understanding of the patient. Through his theory's 'dream-work' process, Freud explores the mechanisms of unconsciousness to analyse the process of imaginary wish fulfilment.
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Dreams and their interpretation appear to be a controversial issue never reaching consensus. Before focusing on the elaboration of his theory of dreams, Freud noticed there were three different appreciations commonly made of dreams : (1) dreams are the expression of a superior state where repressed fantasies reappear ; (2) medical experts believe dreams respond to sensorial and stomatic stimuli ; (3) the public consider dreams have a meaning.2 On those premises, Freud has developped and strenghten...
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...or the understanding of dreams and the psychoanalysis research, it seems to have its limits and uncertainties. The arbitrary involved in the interpretation and the generalization relevant to Freud's seduction theory can be easily criticized.
Works Cited
FREUD, Sigmund, Sur le Rêve, (Gallimard Paris : 1998)
FREUD, Sigmund, 1. Introductory Lectures on Psychoanalysis, translated by James Strachey, (Penguin Books : 1991)
FREUD, Sigmund, Beyond the Pleasure Principle, The Standard Edition, (W.W. Northon and Company : 1989)
FREUD, Sigmund, The Interpretation of Dreams, translated by A.A. Brill in 1911, Plain Label Books, (Chumley P. Grumley:1913)
LACAN, Jacques, The Four Fundamental Concepts of Psychoanalysis, The Seminar of Jacques Lacan, Book XI, (W.W.Northon and Company : 1998)
LAPLANCHE, PONTALIS, Vocabulaire de la Psychanalyse, 4e édition (Quadrige : 2004)
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
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Of the copious number of topics in the world today, nothing captivated Sigmund Freud’s attention like psychology did. Known as the founder of psychoanalysis, Sigmund Freud laid the foundations for comprehending the inner workings that determine human behavior (1). Through his involvement with the hypnosis, dream analysis, psychosexual stages, and the unconscious as a whole, Freud began a new revolution that faced its own conflict but eventually brought the harvest of new knowledge and clarity to the concept of the mind.
Freud, Sigmund. New Introductory Lectures on Psycho-Analysis. Ed. James Strachey. Trans. James Strachey. Standard. Vol. 22. London: Hogarth Press, 1964.
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
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 a person. Modern Man In Search Of A Soul describes the techniques of dream analysis that a psychoanalyst following Jung's ideas would ideally follow.
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.
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 realizing it is happening. Freud studied dreams looking for a better understanding of certain features of our personalities, mainly the features that developed into disorders and psychological problems. He believed nothing a human being did, could happen by chance, and every action, if it was big or small, was in some way motivated by the unconscious mind.
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.
In this paper I hope to open a window to the vast and mysterious world of dreaming. To most people, information about dreams isn’t common knowledge. In researching this subject though, I found that everybody has and reacts to dreams, which are vital to your mental health. You will also find how you can affect your dreams and how they affect you.
During Freud’s time, society typically viewed dreams as an intervention of a higher being or entity (Freud, 1900, p.4). However, Freud made the claim that dreams are the product of the dreamer and also that it serves two purposes. First, dreams form to keep a person asleep at night by blocking out external stimuli, much in the same way a person consciously does when turning off the light and minimizing noise before going to bed (“Freud’s Approach,” 2000). Next, Freud (1900) viewed humans as having grotesque sexual urges that “are suppressed before they are perceived” (p.37) in order to protect the person and allow him or her to get along in society; however, dreams serve the purpose of releasing these repressed desires as wishes which are disguised in the dream. Because a person cannot readily be aware of the unconscious wish, the dream is divided into two ...
Freud felt that if a person began to desire something hard enough the desire would take over ones inner mind and cause it to be enacted in the form of a dream. He goes on to say that this all begins by us going through out our normal lives taking a few fragments from every moment and having them subconsciously tucked away in our minds. The fragments kept are typically ones we find interesting or things we like to an obsessive amount. Then by the end of the day when we go to rest, we pull those fragments out and a dream is formed. In this dream, our obsession is put into a clear picture which gives us the feeling of being inside our dreams going through that moment (Freud