Critical Analysis Of Freud And Freud's Interpretation Of Dreams

1269 Words3 Pages

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.
He goes further with his interpretation. He compares dreams to psychopathological conditions since both refer to thoughts on a subconscious level, and thus decides to break down dreams through the process of psychotherapy. This process requires the dreamer to record the dream (on paper or to a therapist) “without self-criticism”, analyze the dream and draw a conclusion. To demonstrate this process, Freud records one of his dreams, which is given below:

Next is the analysis. The dream seems bizarre to Freud, since he only distantly knows Mrs. E.L. and feels no desire to strengthen their connection. To simplify the dream, he breaks it into elements.
The first element for analysis is the table d’hôte …show more content…

Condensation states that an element of the manifest content can draw more than one latent thought, and that one latent thought can be derived from more than one element of the manifest content. Realization of desire usually takes place through the condensation of two contradictory latent thoughts. This is exemplified through Freud’s dream, since the caress under the table from the dream reminds him of a similar instance with his wife while courting her and a contradictory instance where they were separated for a day during the courting process. Both instances indicate a desire for attention from his wife. ‘Dreams never utter the alternate either-or, but accept both as having equal right to the same

Open Document