Theory of Dreams by Sigmund Freud - Research Paper Example

? Sigmund Freud: Theory of Dreams At the turn of the last century, Sigmund Freud exploded the field of science with his concepts of the psychoanalytic theory. He was working in a time when many other scientists were attempting to find solutions to common ailments that seemed more associated with the mind than with the body. An example of this can be found in two of Freud’s contemporaries, Jean-Martin Charcot and Hippolyte Bernheim, who each used hypnosis as a means of treating hysteria but had little concept of why such treatment seemed effective (Kihlstrom, 1998). Freud’s work stood out from these others because of his approach. Rather than trying to find solutions to the problem, he attempted to discover the mechanisms involved, eventually identifying several functions of the mind (the id, the ego and the superego) and various developmental processes that function in all humans as well as self-defense processes that occur differently among humans as responses to life events, all of which could be housed deep within the mind at a preconscious level. This, of course, led to the consideration of the dream state and just what it means when we dream. Just as Freud’s concepts of the various elements, developments and defense mechanisms of the mind continue to be challenged and elaborated upon, theories have continued to emerge attempting to provide a definitive answer to the question of what does it mean when we dream with no indisputable ‘correct’ answer in sight. Scientific theories have ranged from speculation that we dream as a means of learning more about ourselves through the revelation of repressed desires to the concept that dreams are a means of the subconscious providing the conscious mind with seemingly prophetic warnings developed through thousands of unconscious signals received during the waking hours. Other theories have suggested that we dream as a means of further developing our mental abilities and spiritual concepts, slowly assimilating what we’ve learned into our established worldview while still others have indicated that we dream as a means of dealing with our daily experiences by either getting rid of the memories or storing them away in our mental memory banks. What the various scientists have revealed in their dream studies is that there are a wide variety of ways in which dreams might have meaning to an individual, whether they realize it or not. However, it seems plausible that dreams will have more meaning to an individual who has a particular belief regarding what they might mean than an individual who reports they don’t dream at all or who believes that dreams have no meaning and doesn’t bother to remember them.           Sigmund Freud is perhaps the most recognized individual in the field of dream theory. In developing his model of the mind, Freud determined that the dream functions as a sleeper’s defense against the disturbing thoughts and emotions of the subconscious mind (the id) by acting as a censor (Wilson, 2005). During the night, the mind battles such stimuli as our deepest fears, our petty dissatisfactions, our forbidden desires and the emotions of our previous day’s events. Placing the dream in terms of the psychoanalytic theory, “dreams occur in a state of ‘ego collapse’ when the demands of the Id (imperative bodily needs) and Superego (conscience ego ideals) converge upon the Ego (personal desires and mediator between the Id and Superego)” (Hutchinson, 2000). In other words, when an individual is unable to cope with these internal stimuli during their waking hours, it becomes attached to their preconscious mind. As a defense mechanism to help discharge this excess energy, the Superego works with the Id through the dream to allow these messages egress. Without this ‘safety valve’, Freud suggests, people would not be able to function within a civilized society. A build up of too much emotional energy of this sort can create an intolerable psychological state in waking life and lead to such disorders of the mind as hysteria, one of the most common disorders among especially female patients in Freud’s period (Kihlstrom, 1998). Coping with too much denial, regression or repression (as many women in the Victorian period were attempting to cope with) would cause a great deal of internal conflict which must be worked out in some way if the individual were to remain functional. Because it can’t be worked out in waking life for whatever reason, the dream is created to safely allow the mind to work through these issues in its own way and time (Wilson, 2000). In addition to daily or recent events, Freud believed that the dream state was where many of these emotions from childhood, particularly those that were intensely felt, may still be working themselves out in the mind. In order to protect the mind from these intense feelings, the dream hides these messages in symbolism and innuendo, meaning that the dream actually has two content messages which Freud identified as the manifest and the latent content, the first of which acts as defense (Wilson, 2005). Manifest content is the events of the dream that the sleeper would remember upon waking, such as ‘we were stuck on the roof in a flood and had to start swimming for our lives, then I was climbing out of the swimming pool at grandma’s old house and you were there even though you never knew grandma and we were having a barbeque with all of our neighbors.’ Rather than interpreting this as reliving an experience (as is denied by the inconsistencies of time) or as being prophetic regarding an upcoming disaster, Freud felt that manifest content was nothing more than the mind’s means of disguising the real issues that were being dealt with on a deeper level and thus blunting the emotional impact. Latent content, on the other hand, refers to the true meaning of the dream and is where these emotions reside. If one can interpret the dream correctly, one can learn a great deal about the individual’s true self and what they are currently dealing with. Freud also identified four ways in which latent content could be hidden (Porter, 1987). These included condensation, in which two or more thoughts are combined into a single image or situation; displacement, in which the emotion is directed toward a meaningless or unrelated object; symbolism, in which the word or object bears some relationship to a different object in real life which Freud usually felt was sexual in nature; and secondary revision in which the dream organizes these various messages into a relatively coherent whole that would make sense to the dreamer (Wilson, 2005). If one correctly interprets the flood in the above example to be a condensed image of common marital problems displaced into the symbol of water and identifies the ending barbeque with family and friends as the desire that everything should work out in the end, the latent content has been revealed and the individual, who may be highly confused and distraught in waking life, now has an indication of how they really wish or interpret things to be. Thus, the dream was at once a safety valve for emotions as well as a faceted window to the subconscious.           Although once a student to Freud, Carl Jung disagreed vehemently with Freud’s theory and quickly developed his own as it existed in opposition to Freud.  Unlike Freud, who felt that dreams were less frightening manifestations of subconscious horrors, Jung felt that they were revelations that uncovered not only our own emotional issues and fears of the personal subconscious, but also link us to the collective unconscious, “the reservoir of our experiences as a species, a kind of knowledge we are all born with. And yet we can never be directly conscious of it. It influences all of our experiences and behaviors, most especially the emotional ones, but we only know about it indirectly, by looking at those influences” (Boeree, 2006). Like Freud, Jung felt that dream messages were couched in symbolism, but differed regarding what these symbols represented. He felt that dreams would continue to present carefully selected symbols as a purposeful means of communicating specific meaning to the dreamer rather than attempting to hide these concepts. At the same time, he felt unconscious symbols were often used as well to help us understand and accept those aspects of ourselves that we have ignored or attempted to disown or to present archetypal figures that help us connect with the collective. “Jung thought that dreams could help us grow and heal through use of archetypal symbols. … Various archetypes are represented within myths, fairy tales, and religions, as well as dreams” (Bixler-Thomas, 1998). An archetype is described as an “unlearned tendency to experience things in a certain way” (Boeree, 2006) and Jung identified several, such as the mother, mana (or spiritual power), the shadow (or the unknown) and the persona (or public mask). Through the various ways in which these archetypes appeared and interacted in conjunction with replays of daytime events or other impressions, Jung suggested the individual could interpret their own dreams to learn more about themselves and their connection to others. Jung believed the most effective method for dream interpretation was the use of series correlation (Hutchinson, 2000).  He gave hope to all dreamers who were looking for the meaning in their dreams without having to hire a ‘professional.’ Series correlation is a process involving the analysis of dreams over time.  Jung suggested keeping a dream journal and attempting to merge them into a big picture by determining whether they resemble any waking life experiences or situations and then figuring out physical action that might resolve these issues (Jung, 1976).  When attempting to determine the meaning of dreams, Jung frequently sought to define the shape and function of the image, analyze the alterations and actions the image goes through, identify personal positive and negative feelings regarding the issue and what the image might be associated with in real life. Thus, the biggest differences between Jung and Freud’s dream theories are the ability of the individual in interpreting their own dreams, the direct connection with waking life and the lack of focus upon instinctual desires in preference of more complex issues such as power and comfort. Having come to no hard and fast conclusions through the available literature and modern theories, it remains up to the individual to determine what their dreams might mean to them. Are they junk stored up in the brain through the day that must be thrown out at night, a mere mechanical process of which we are only vaguely aware? Or perhaps they are the mental filtration system suggested by Freud and others that allows us to work through repressed emotions and past events without causing additional mental injury. There is, however, a growing body of science that suggests our dreams are hints of future and past, working through old issues and preparing us for new ones about to arrive. While the future does not seem to be set in stone, as some fortunetellers might attempt to suggest, there is some evidence that dreams can warn people of impending disaster. Applying the question of whether dreams can predict the future, the author of “Telling the Future” (2005) examines the role of the psychics and mediums who claim to have this gift in waking life. “Actually, we can all predict the future to a degree, simply based upon our general understanding and knowledge of present conditions … [In the case of psychics and mediums] Perhaps they can pick up an internal conflict in one football team, but a much greater sense of purpose and harmony in their equally matched opponents. Then the psychic has an edge in predicting the result of a match between the two, but might still be wrong” (“Telling the Future”, 2005). Thus, the miraculous-seeming ability of the psychic is presented as being little more than a hyperawareness of small details that typically pass unnoticed and an appropriate interpretation of what these signals indicate. In attempting to understand the reason why we dream or what our dreams might mean, researchers such as Freud and Jung have indicated that the symbols that appear in our dreams have more or less identical meanings regardless of who is sleeping. While it has been found that people experiencing similar traumatic events, such as surviving a deadly house fire, may have similar dreams, such as finding themselves on a beach and being swept away by a tidal wave, it is also true that the symbols used to depict emotions can vary widely depending upon a person’s emotional state and cultural identity, which relates to the myths and stories they grew up with. In attempting to help people learn how to interpret their own dreams, many self-help experts emphasize the importance of individual interpretation as only the individual can identify what various symbols and connections might be made within their dreams. Many scientists have come to realize that society plays a very important role not only in determining what dreams might be trying to tell us, but also in how we think, act and believe within the broader world context. “It is exceedingly rare for individuals to devise psychological phenomena (meanings, symbols, emotions, needs, motives, perception, reasoning, personality) which transcend prevailing social activities. Even when they do, they are still inspired by the actual possibilities which the social system make possible” (Ratner, 2000). The idea that culture plays a tremendous role not only in how our dreams communicate meaning to us but how we interpret this meaning has been recognized in fields outside of the psychology arena as anthropologists have for many years recognized the similarities that exist between dream and myth in which each helps to shape and define the other. Thus, in researching what dreams mean to us, it is important to take into consideration the role that culture plays in the interpretation. While it seems clear that dreams can function on occasion to predict events of the future, many of these premonitions are based strongly upon feeling and are given little to no context until after the event has occurred. This is the reason why organizations dedicated to attempting to prevent disaster by analyzing dreams have had such little success. It seems clear that the messages passed to the dreamer are defined by what the dreamer knows, what the dreamer understands and what the dreamer remembers. This begins to suggest, again, that the nature of dreams take on their shape and mode of communication based upon the cultural beliefs and knowledge of the individual dreamer rather than being easily defined by some kind of coded dream book. However, it also refutes arguments that suggest our dreams are nothing but mechanical detritus left over after a day full of experiences and impressions. In the end, however, it seems impossible to come to a final conclusion regarding just why we dream. Researchers throughout history have continued to propose theories that seem more or less applicable based upon new discoveries and technologies, but little proof is offered as to the nature of the dreams, how to tell dream from reality or past baggage from future warning. What we believe about our dreams seems to have a large bearing upon whether or not we remember them and whether or not we are able to learn from them as well as what we learn from them. They seem to act in much the same way as a disjointed film in that we are presented with a variety of images and how we choose to connect the dots upon waking seems to determine what the dream meant. However, they are provided with an added element that eludes our conscious thought, perhaps through the details that are not remembered, that nevertheless seems to reside in our emotional state. We may not interpret our dreams correctly, or even remember them as such, but we may still suffer the emotional effects of these dreams long after waking, realizing later that these emotional conditions have either saved us from disaster or launched us into an area of exploration well worthy of further research. References Bixler-Thomas, Gail. (November 1998). “Understanding Dreams.” On Dreaming. Avialable April 20, 2011 from < http://www.ondreaming.com/theories/index.htm> Boeree, C. George. (2006). “Carl Jung.” Personality Theories. Shippensburg, PA: Shippensburg University. Hutchinson, Linton. (2000). Dream Lynx. Available April 20, 2011 from < http://www.dreamlynx.com/thefreud.html > Jung, Carl. (1976). The Portable Jung. New York: Penguin. Kihlstrom, J.F. (1998). “Hypnosis and the Psychological Unconscious.” Encyclopedia of Mental Health. Vol. 2, pp. 467-477. Academic Press. Porter, Lawrence. (1987). The Interpretation of Dreams: Freud’s Theories Revisited. New York: Twayne Publishers. Ratner, Craig. (2000). “In Defense of Activity Theory.” Trinidad, CA: Institute for Cultural Research and Education. Available April 20, 2011 from “Telling the Future.” (2005). New Age Spirituality. Available April 20, 2011 from Wilson, Kevin. (2005). “Introduction to Sigmund Freud’s Theory on Dreams.” Insomnium. Read More