Jung and Freud On Dreams

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Why do people dream? What do dreams mean? What relevance do dreams have? What relevance, if any, even if nothing more than chemical activity while asleep? Are dreams a mystical message from a greater source? Are dreams merely biological work? Why are some dreams and fragments remembered while others are forgotten? How does one understand dreams? All of these questions and more have been raised by people for as long as human beings have been around on the Earth (Springett, 2000). The proceeding is just a partial listing of the questions that may be asked by people even today, as dreams continue to remain a great mystery.
In this paper, two traditions in psychology that still have quite a bit of influence, especially in Euro-American cultures will be looked at. This will be out of the work of Sigmund Freud and Carl Jung, two people who had a major part in the studies of dreams and psychology. Here, some legacies that came out of their traditions will be looked at in regard to dreams. In conclusion this paper will be joined with a critical sociological and anthropological perspective, primarily from the Aborigines and Shamans.
Freud started as a physiologist. The traditions of his day dealt with a mechanical approach to the human body and mind. Most conditions, such as "neurosis," were considered to be based on a biological base in the sense that symptoms sprung from a biological origin. Over time as Freud began to study matters like hypnotism on patients declared neurotic or psychotic, he began to broaden his practice of medicine and theory of how he understood the practice. Freud went beyond a neurological basis and developed a more distinctive psychological theory that was both normal and ab...

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...s represent a signal need of retrieval of a larger awareness of human identity. In that sense, dreams become part of an ability to imagine something different than what people are or have been trained in conscious waking life.

References
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Springett, B. (2000) Philosophy of dreaming. Retrieved from http://www.iep.edu
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