For more information
Call 1-800-351-0222
Call 1-800-351-0222
DREAMS.
Term Paper ID:18370
Get This Paper Free! or
Essay Subject:
Covers functions, conditions, & interpretations of thoughts, images & emotions experienced in sleep.... More...
7 Pages / 1575 Words
6 sources, 21 Citations,
APA Format
$28.00
More Papers on This Topic
Paper Abstract:
Covers functions, conditions, & interpretations of thoughts, images & emotions experienced in sleep.
Paper Introduction:
Sigmund Freud published his pioneering work on dream studies, entitled The Interpretation of Dreams, in the year 1900. In that book, Freud claimed that dreams represent messages which are transmitted from the unconscious mind to the conscious mind. Specifically, Freud believed that the function of dreams is to take the repressed fears and wishes of the dreamer, which are stored in the unconscious, and then articulate them in a conscious form. In this regard, it has been noted that "Freud saw dreams as stemming partly from the need to work out ideas, and work through feelings, that had been provoked by some aspect of the previous day's experience, and which there had been no opportunity to deal with during the day" (Richards, 1989, p. 63). Freud believed that these messages from the unconscious can only be expressed in a disguised form, since the conscious mind is not
Text of the Paper:
The entire text of the paper is shown below. However, the text is somewhat scrambled. We want to give you as much information as we possibly can about our papers and essays, but we cannot give them away for free. In the text below you will find that while disordered, many of the phrases are essentially intact. From this text you will be able to get a solid sense of the writing style, the concepts addressed, and the sources used in the research paper.
The first school emphasizes the psychoanalytictheories of Freud, in which dreams are seen as a form of communicationbetween the unconscious and conscious minds. New York: Chelsea House, 77-87.----------------------- 9 Subsequent researchers in the field have made furthercontributions which have expanded on Freud's basic ideas and have thusenriched the world's current knowledge on the purpose and meaning ofdreams. (1989). Martin's. These studies have shown that two phases of sleep occur inalternating intervals throughout the night. 169). 68). Hudson states: "Like many dreams,the poetic sentence consists of ideas and images that have several meaningsrather than a single meaning, and yet are locked together into structuresthat are formally coherent" (Hudson, 1985, p. New York: Chelsea House, 19-49. In this regard, Freud made a distinction in dreams between whathe called "manifest content" and "latent content." The manifest content ofa dream "is that which we experience or remember; it constitutes thesubject of the dream report" (Wollheim, 1971, p. Dreamingis a malleable mind-brain state, whose very plasticity can be a means bywhich individuals can change their fundamental hypotheses about self andworld" (p. For example, it has been notedthat "even if dreams contain very exciting events, the feelingsaccompanying them are strikingly subdued, and their intensity does notcorrespond in the least to the drama of the situation" (Borbely, 1986, p.51). Richards, B. NewYork: Basic Books. . . Other writers have taken a somewhat more mystical approach toward theinterpretation of dreams. 22). 5 ).The evidence for this assertion comes from studies in which subjects wereawakened during the REM-phase of sleep. 169). Erikson, E. 63). Whichever theory of dreams one favors, modern research studies haveaccurately described the conditions which are necessary for the productionof dreams. Thus, it hasbeen claimed that "the lucid dreamer can maintain his awareness that he isdreaming. Allan Hobson, with his physiological perspective, hascommented on the value of the technique. During the twentieth century, this research split into twobasic schools of thought. 1987). In this regard, it has been claimed thatas much as 95 to 99 percent of all dreams are forgotten upon awakening(Hobson, 1989, p. Images of Freud: Cultural responses toPsychoanalysis. Dreams. Based on his belief that the repressed thoughts of the unconsciousare unacceptable to the conscious mind, Freud developed his idea that thesymbolic images of dreams are actually disguised manifestations of thosethoughts. New York: Scientific AmericanLibrary. 166). 3). . NewYork: St. Jung felt that, in addition to being vehiclesfor the expression of repressed thoughts and emotions, dreams enable peopleto experience things which they would normally not be able to experiencewhile awake. By contrast, thelatent content, or "dream-thought," represents the actual repressedthoughts which have been censored by the conscious mind. For example, Carl G. Thus, the techniqueswhich are used for the analysis of poetry may also be applied as a basisfor dream interpretation. In this regard,emotions such as fear, anger and anxiety are reported more often, or atleast are remembered more often, than pleasant emotions are. In that book,Freud claimed that dreams represent messages which are transmitted from theunconscious mind to the conscious mind. Martin's. Sigmund Freud's: Theinterpretation of dreams. Sleep. Sigmund Freud's: The interpretation of dreams. As such, dream interpretation can provide a usefulguideline for psychological and emotional growth. As a general rule, people tend to be better ableto remember those dreams which contain strange or emotionally-chargedmessages. Even scientists who believe strictly in the physiological basis fordreams accept the validity and importance of dream interpretation. The other phase of sleep, nonREM or deep-sleep, ischaracterized by a lack of dream activity. That's all" (Hobson, 1989,p. Sigmund Freud published his pioneering work on dream studies,entitled The Interpretation of Dreams, in the year 19 . Secrets of sleep. Forexample, J. The other school of thoughtemphasizes the idea that dreaming is a purely physiological process basedon the brain's automatic manipulation of memories during sleep. One of these phases, calledthe rapid-eye-movement (REM) phase, is the time during which dreamsactually take place. This awareness, in turn, is supposed to liberate his mind fromthe dream's control and allow him to move freely in his 'dream landscape'"(Borbely, 1986, p. 166). Thus, according to Hobson, "I would like to retain the emphasis ofpsychoanalysis upon the power of dreams to reveal deep aspects ofourselves, but without recourse to the concept of disguise and censorshipor to the now famous Freudian symbols" (p. The idea of dream interpretation has been more fully developed sincethe time of Freud. The dream specimen ofpsychoanalysis. For example, Jung argued that not all dream images arerepresentations of repressed personal thoughts, but that some of them mayinstead pertain to "archetypes," which are universal symbols that areunconsciously understood by people of all races and nationalities. Theanalysis of messages contained in dreams is important because such messagesserve as a reflection of the things which are meaningful to a person in hisor her waking life. (1985). Allan Hobson (1989), writing on the "activation-synthesishypothesis" of dreams, has claimed that dream images, because they arebased on memories, are important to the dreamer for their personal meaning. D. Freud used theterm "dream-work" to describe "the unconscious process of thought wherebythe latent dream is translated into a form that the censor will accept"(Hudson, 1985, p. 166). Thistechnique, called lucid dreaming, virtually discards the concept ofinterpretation in favor of a higher level of dream awareness. 49). References Borbely, A. Although this sounds like a mystical approach todreaming, J. (1971; rpt. (1986). .found patterns of personal meaning, threads of association which could bewoven together into a restored fabric of experience" (Richards, 1989, p.63). From that, it wastheorized that the interpretation of dream images would give insights intothe repressed thoughts and feelings stored in the unconscious. Schneider, trans. Freud believed that these messages from theunconscious can only be expressed in a disguised form, since the consciousmind is not able to handle the direct input of its own repressed thoughts.This theory helped to explain the rather strange symbolism which is usuallyattached to dreams. . Bloom, ed. Wollheim, R. In either case, it is apparent that the emotionsin dreams, like the rest of their content, is usually bizarre in contrastto what is considered normal while awake. Thus,Freud, "looking beneath the imagery of the dream, which multiplies thebizarre juxtapositions and disconnections of waking life in the city . 166). Specifically, Freud believed thatthe function of dreams is to take the repressed fears and wishes of thedreamer, which are stored in the unconscious, and then articulate them in aconscious form. Thus, "My tendency, then,is to ascribe the nonsense to brain-mind dysfunction and the sense to itscompensatory effort to create order out of chaos. A great deal has been written about the interpretation of dreams,beginning with Freud's landmark text. Night life: The interpretation of dreams. According tophysiological point of view, on the other hand, "dream feelings, like dreamplots, are seen as the undisturbed product of the autoactivated brain"(Hobson, 1989, p. Even then, it may be difficult to preciselyremember the content of a dream. H. The reason why most people consider dreams to be strange asopposed to boring is because the weird, symbolic dreams are much easier toremember upon waking. In Hobson's words, "Since we canlearn to be conscious of our dreams while they occur, we can also learn toinfluence them, that is, shape or change the plots at will . Hobson notes that dreamstend to reorder memories in nonsensical ways; however, personal meaning canbe derived from the isolated images themselves. New York: St. Even the most rationalviews on dreaming take this factor into account. In contrast to these psychoanalyticaltheories, there are many contemporary scientists who have adopted aphysiological explanation of dreams. 1987). (1954; rpt. 79). Jung argued that dreams thus serve a positive function bycreating a sense of balance which helps a person to grow psychologically.Erik Erikson (1954) likewise believed in the positive function of dreams,as seen in his statement that: "Dreams, then, not only fulfill nakedwishes of sexual license, of unlimited dominance and of unrestricteddestructiveness; where they work, they also lift the dreamer's isolation,appease his conscience, and preserve his identity, each in specific andinstructive ways" (Erikson, p. Somestudents of dream interpretation have focused on the fact that the contentof dreams is generally emotional as opposed to rational. 144). That order is a functionof our own personal view of the world, our current preoccupations, ourremote memories, our feelings, and our beliefs. Research into dreams and their interpretation has come a long waysince Sigmund Freud first published his theories on the subject at the turnof the century. According to Freud's theory, the interpretation ofthe images contained in the manifest content of a dream will help thedreamer to understand the repressed thoughts which are contained in thelatent content. This fact directly contrasts the observation of researchers that"in most cases dreams are banal and uninteresting" (Borbely, 1986, p. It has been discovered thatpeople generally have no recollection of their dreams unless they areawakened during the REM phase. Another recent trend in the interpretationof dreams relates to the idea that the conscious mind may actually be ableto control the unconscious processes which occur during dreaming. 166). H. In bothways of thinking, however, it is agreed that the interpretation of dreamsplays an important part in the development of the human personality. Just as a poem may be interpreted by anunderstanding of the imagery contained in it, so too may a dream beinterpreted by similar means. . 5 ). According to this hypothesis, "the brain synthesizes a dreamplot by combining information from sources entirely chemical changesradically alter internal to itself and . chemical changes radicallyalter the way [the] information is processed" (Hobson, 1989, p. An example of this can be seen in the"activation-synthesis hypothesis," which rejects the idea of theunconscious feeding symbolic messages to the conscious mind and arguesinstead that dreams are simply composed of memories which are combined inunusual ways. (1989). The analysis of the resultant dataindicated that "only a small percentage of the dreams contained the bizarreand fantastic elements that we usually associate with them" (Borbely, 1986,p. According tothe psychoanalytic theory of dreams, this selective presentation of theemotions is related to the censoring activity of the mind. Freud noticed that dreams consist ofa series of images, and he related those images to the messages which theunconscious is trying to send to the conscious mind. In this regard, it has been noted that "Freud saw dreamsas stemming partly from the need to work out ideas, and work throughfeelings, that had been provoked by some aspect of the previous day'sexperience, and which there had been no opportunity to deal with during theday" (Richards, 1989, p. Hudson, L. For example, Liam Hudson (1985) has noted thatsimilarities exist between dream symbols and images and the types ofsymbols which are contained in poetry. Bloom,ed. Hobson, J.A. Thus, to again citeHobson, "When demystified and depathologized, dreaming is surely an avenuefor both entertainment and creativity" (p. In addition,it has been noted that, "although we don't know why, sadness, guilt, andshame are considerably less common" (Hobson, 1989, p.
If this paper is not what you are looking for, you can search again:
or
We can write a Custom Essay just for you.
Browse Essays by Subject