Dream Interpretation: What Do Dreams Mean?
Dreams can be mysterious, but
understanding the meaning of our dreams can be downright baffling. The content
of our dreams can shift suddenly, feature bizarre elements or frighten us with
terrifying imagery. The fact that dreams can be so rich and compelling is what
causes many to believe that there must be some meaning to our dreams.
While many theories exist to
explain why
we dream, no one yet fully understands their purpose, let alone how to
interpret the meaning of dreams. In fact, some prominent researchers such as G.
William Domhoff suggest that dreams most likely serve no real purpose.
Despite this, dream
interpretation has becoming increasingly popular. While research has not
demonstrated a purpose for dreams, many experts believe that dreams do
have meaning.
According to
Domhoff:
"'Meaning' has to do with
coherence and with systematic relations to other variables, and in that regard
dreams do have meaning. Furthermore, they are very "revealing" of
what is on our minds. We have shown that 75 to 100 dreams from a person give us
a very good psychological portrait of that individual. Give us 1000 dreams over
a couple of decades and we can give you a profile of the person's mind that is
almost as individualized and accurate as her or his fingerprints."
Freud: Dreams as the Road to
the Unconscious Mind:
In his book The
Interpretation of Dreams, Sigmund
Freud suggested that the content of dreams is related to wish fulfillment.
Freud believed that the manifest content of a dream, or the actually imagery
and events of the dream, served to disguise the latent content, or the
unconscious wishes of the dreamer.
Freud also described four
elements of this process that he referred to as 'dream work':
Condensation – Many different ideas and
concepts are represented within the span of a single dream. Information is
condensed into a single thought or image.
Displacement – This element of dream work
disguises the emotional meaning of the latent content by confusing the
important and insignificant parts of the dream.
Symbolization – This operation also censors
the repressed ideas contained in the dream by including objects that are meant
to symbolize the latent content of the dream.
Secondary Revision – During this final stage of
the dreaming process, Freud suggested that the bizarre elements of the dream
are reorganized in order to make the dream comprehensible, thus generating the
manifest content of the dream.
Jung: Archetypes and the
Collective Unconscious:
While Carl
Jung shared some commonalities with Freud, he felt that dreams were more
than an expression of repressed wishes. Jung suggested that dreams revealed
both the personal and collective unconscious and believed that dreams serve to
compensate for parts of the psyche that are underdeveloped in waking life. In
contradiction to Jung's assertions however, later research by Hall revealed
that the traits people exhibit while they awake are the same as those expressed
in dreams.
Jung also suggested that archetypes
such as the anima, the shadow and the animus are often represented symbolic
objects or figures in dreams. These symbols, he believed, represented attitudes
that are repressed by the conscious mind. Unlike Freud, who often suggested
that specific symbols represent specific unconscious thoughts, Jung believed
that dreams can be highly personal and that interpreting these dreams involved
knowing a great deal about the individual dreamer.
Hall: Dreams as a Cognitive
Process:
Calvin S. Hall proposed that
dreams are part of a cognitive process in which dreams serve as ‘conceptions’
of elements of our personal lives. Hall looked for themes and patterns by
analyzing thousands of dream diaries from participants, eventually creating a
quantitative coding system that divided the content of dreams into a number of
different categories.
According to Hall’s theory,
interpreting dreams requires knowing:
The actions of the dreamer
within the dream
The objects and figures in the
dream
The interactions between the
dreamer and the characters in the dream
The dream’s setting,
transitions, and outcome
The ultimate goal of this
dream interpretation is not to understand the dream, however, but to understand
the dreamer.
Domhoff: Dreams as a
Reflection of Waking Life:
G. William Domhoff is a
prominent dream researcher who studied with Calvin Hall at the University of
Miami. In large-scale studies on the content of dreams, Domhoff has found that
dreams reflect the thoughts and concerns of a dreamer’s waking life. Domhoff
suggests a neurocognitive model of dreams in which the process of dreaming
results from neurological processes and a system of schemas. Dream content, he
suggests, results from these cognitive processes.
Popularizing Dream
Interpretation
Since the 1970s, dream
interpretation has grown increasingly popular thanks to work by authors such as
Ann Faraday. In books such as The Dream Game, Faraday outlined
techniques and ideas than anyone can use to interpret their own dreams. Today,
consumers can purchase a wide variety of books that offer dream dictionaries,
symbol guides and tips for interpreting and understanding dreams.
Dream research will
undoubtedly continue to grow and generate interest from people interested in
understanding the meaning of their dreams. However, dream expert G. William
Domhoff recommends that "...unless you find your dreams fun,
intellectually interesting, or artistically inspiring, then feel free to forget
your dreams." Others such as Cartwright and Kaszniak propose that dream
interpretation may actually reveal more about the interpreter than it does
about the meaning of the dream itself.
"A dream is a work of art
which requires of the dreamer no particular talent, special training, or technical
competence. Dreaming is a creative enterprise in which all may and most do
participate." – Clark S. Hall
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