User:Ccapece/sandbox

Dreams are things that happen when people sleep. By definition, dreams are a series of thoughts, images, and sensations that enters someone's mind when they sleep. There are many types of dreams. Some of which include daydreams, lucid dreams, nightmares, reoccurring dreams, etc. The history of dreams dates back to ancient times where cultures believed more into supernatural and religious beliefs. The history of dreams began with the ancient Egyptians thinking dreams were messages sent from the Gods. The Greeks also thought dreams were divine messages that were being sent to the villagers. The Romans were the first to publish a book on interpretations of dreams. Spatel815 (talk) 22:56, 4 December 2013 (UTC)

Pre-Freudian Interpretations of dreams

 * Hippocrates 460 to 370 BCE:

As others before him, he interpreted dreams as something divine from beyond. He believed dreams to be an ability that allowed the universe to communicate with our person. According to him “dreams were a representation of one’s personal situation in relation to the universe and vice versa: a dialectic between the microcosm, and the macrocosm”(Resnik,pg.25). This according to him meant that dreams were reflections of one’s internal system, which he used to diagnose his patients. Known as the father of modern medicine he used dreams to create criterion for diagnosis. Dreams of one’s past viewed in an illogical unreal manner would be considered abnormal and would be diagnosed for immediate therapy. Therapy would consist of patients retelling their dreams so that they would be aware of their inconsistencies. His goal was finding how the therapeutic use of dreams could be used to reveal illnesses and also how illnesses affect dream content(Biele,pg.12-13).


 * Aristotle 384 to 322 BCE:

Aristotle is one of the first to discuss dreams as something that doesn't come from the divine but something physical. Aristotle's On dreams questions "whether the affection is one which pertains to the faculty of intelligence or to that of sense-perception; for these are the only faculties within us by which we acquire knowledge"(Aristotle,Part 1). As early as 350 we have accounts of Aristotle questioning the purpose and process of dreams. He concludes that dreams are not the result of sense-perception since our senses do not functioning as we sleep. Yet, debates this notion since in our dreams we have the ability to see images and identify colors so some type of sense perception is occurring in dreams. The dreams are believed to be asserted by the soul which is what controls our ability to dream. Aristotle also mentions how our personal opinions also reflect in dreams since we still maintain the ability to think we interpret what we saw in our dream state through personal perspective. So these dreams are evolving since we able able to think exercising our opinions thus proving that dreams aren't simply a static image. Our dreams are a different type of sense-perception.


 * Artemidorus of Daldis 2 AD:

Known as probably having on of the most popular dream books in history, he wrote a treatise on oneirocristism or interpretation of dreams. He divided dreams into two categories insomnia or clear dreams and the second as dreams in relation to the future or premonitions. The first category refers to dreams that are of the present or ‘fantasies’ such as exaggerated fears or incredible tendencies. The second are dreams that can be read as symbolic. For him “the dream is a living thing, a movement of the mind and when if refers to the future may have a positive or negative premonitory meaning”(Resnik,pg.25. He also went into further classification of dreams by detailing personal dreams and the non personal dreams, as well as specific and generic dreams. A personal dream is specific to only the dreamer almost like a monologue while a non personal is more generic and interactive with others in the dream. He also was one of the first to notice a connection between dreams and their fulfillment classifying dreams into categories of interpretation according to theme. His books of interpretation were highly regarded since dream interpretation was viewed as an important way to achieve insight on one's future. Dreams were looked as omens and signs on the decisions one should take in life or as a reflection of one's past life.

ClovenBunny326 (talk) 07:26, 17 November 2013 (UTC)

Dreams Have Meaning
The father of psychoanalysis, Sigmund Freud, interpreted dreams in quite a unique way. He believed that all dreams have a meaning and being able to understand the content of dreams consisted of breaking the dream into parts. Freud’s interpretation of dreams required high levels of investigation from remembering the events of the dream either by scenes or as a whole, and finding the ideas that connect parts of the dream together. He found it possible to realize certain connections which were not obvious in the dream as he thought about the dream more; Freud believed dreams could be influenced by emotional and mental thoughts, as well as influenced by unimportant matters in one’s daily life (Freud, Ch.1). Ccapece (talk) 09:34, 17 November 2013 (UTC)

Freud suggested that dreams consist of manifest content and latent content. Manifest content is what one remembers about the dream and latent content is the hidden meanings, which we seek to discover through dream analysis. He labeled the process of latent to manifest content as dream-work and the process of manifest to latent content as work of analysis. Freud broke down dream-work into three classes. The first class consists of dreams which are short, numerous, and not very noticeable. The second class of dreams are those which have distinct meaning, but we are not quite sure how they fit with our mental life so we may regard them as odd. The third class of dreams are complicated and offer no meaning. Freud found the different classes of dreams, which seem different from each other, to have the common link of satisfying unrealized wishes from the day (Freud, Ch.1). Ccapece (talk) 09:34, 17 November 2013 (UTC)

Dream Mechanism
Freud proposed that there must be one or more common factors in dreams. By the process of condensation themes, images, figures, and ideas are combined into one. Making the dream more compact allowed Freud to view the meaning from a series of elements; to him, dream elements represented all the dream content. Analysis of dreams reveals an important idea about the relationship of dream thoughts and dream content, that one dream thought can serve to represent multiple dream elements and one dream element can give rise to many dream thoughts; one does not just come from the other, but they blend. When dreams were more complicated to analyze, Freud realized that key information in manifest content could seem to be about one thing but latent thoughts could show it was really about something else. He labeled the difference between dream content and dream thoughts as displacement. Displacement is essentially the idea that emotions associated with one idea or experience can be detached from it and attached to another one; this process is the main factor in the concealment of the meaning of dreams (Freud, Ch.2). Ccapece (talk) 09:34, 17 November 2013 (UTC)

Through analysis of dreams, Freud found they all are linked with our impression of either the day or the previous day. The impressions formed might be very important which is why they were carried into our dreams, but Freud also noted that at the same time dreams could be concerned with insignificant thoughts from the day. Analysis would show that through displacement that which we consider unimportant in dream content could grab our attention instead of the day’s impressions. Freud believed the formation of dreams could be a mixture of condensation and displacement. When and if displacement is added to the common factors, there is a formation of a common mean (Freud, Ch.2). Ccapece (talk) 09:34, 17 November 2013 (UTC)

He postulated yet another factor in the formation of dreams as the dramatization of dream content, which has to do with the idea that dreams work in pictures. According to Freud, the visual scene has heavy influence on dream content; it includes scenes, conversations, fragments of images, and even thoughts. He understood that elements had connections of what they represented if they were displayed closely in a dream and thought that the dreams of one night must come from the same thought (Freud, Ch.2). Ccapece (talk) 09:34, 17 November 2013 (UTC)

Dreams Disguise Desires
Freud concluded that the meaning of dreams were unclear because of the desire to hide certain thoughts, which is also known as repression. He maintained that dreams are concealed realizations of repressed desires. This goes along with the idea that dreams are a way of seeing into the future; not that dreams tell us what will happen, but in a way they tell us of what we would like to happen. Freud divided dreams into three classes based off the realization of desire. The first was non-hidden desires which are dreams related to infancy. The second was repressed desires which Freud believed made up the majority of dreams and could only be understood through analysis. The third class consisted of repressed desires, but without or with a little concealment (Freud, Ch.3). Ccapece (talk) 09:34, 17 November 2013 (UTC)

Freud considered it easier to understand how dreams worked when thinking of dream content as realized desires. He saw dreams as a way for people to some how release repressed desires; many in his opinion were sexual desires. Freud theorized that manifest content appears to be innocent by not fully exposing sexual desires in dreams, but displaying them instead as symbols; there are a number of symbols which represent males and females. He used symbols to understand repetitive dreams and ones that many people typically reported having (Freud, Ch.3). Ccapece (talk) 09:34, 17 November 2013 (UTC)

Dream Analysis
Dream analysis refers to the interpretation of dreams and it allowed Freud to gain insight on the inner workings of his patients’ minds. It required listening to the patients’ stories, asking questions, and then interpreting the information. Freud aimed to find the hidden meaning behind the stories and saw the dream as the disguised fulfillment of repressed wishes (Freud, Ch.4). Ccapece (talk) 09:34, 17 November 2013 (UTC)

Sex in Dreams
As previously mentioned, Freud understood the majority of adult dreams to be related to sexual desires. He felt that out of all the impulses, sexual impulses were the most restrained ever since childhood. Freud thought the powerful strength of these desires would act out in our sleep producing dreams. He regarded the innocence in dreams as hidden sexual wishes; after analyzing dreams he could find a number of sexual wish-feelings. Various symbols were used to disguise thoughts; for example, female genitalia are symbolically represented with hollow objects that can contain things, male genitalia are symbolically represented with elongated objects, and rhythmical activities symbolize the act of sexual intercourse (Freud, Ch.5). Ccapece (talk) 09:34, 17 November 2013 (UTC)

Wishes in Dreams
According to Freud, wish-fulfillment in dreams came from the struggle between what goes on in the mind during the day and the mental activity that remained in the unconscious that made itself obvious at night. Freud speculated that a wish must have been aroused during the day, could have been suppressed or unfulfilled, or could have nothing to do with daily life. All wishes can form dreams if they are able to excite a similar unconscious wish; unconscious wishes are always active and waiting for the chance to become part of conscious life (Freud, Ch.6). Ccapece (talk) 09:34, 17 November 2013 (UTC)

Function of Dreams
Dreams function to fulfill the wishes of our perceptions as well as the wishes of our mental processes. Freud described the function of dreams as a way of providing relief for the excitement of the unconscious and allowing the part of the mind that is readily available to be called into consciousness to rest. The foreconscious, previously described, wants to sleep and dreams can serve as a helper to keep the unconscious in check at night (Freud, Ch.7). Ccapece (talk) 09:34, 17 November 2013 (UTC)

Carl Jung
Carl Jung, born in 1875, was a Swiss psychiatrist and psychotherapist who founded analytical psychology. It is the branch in psychology that is focused on meaningful life emphasized by developing a personality and giving back to society. He contributed greatly to dream analysis and symbolization. Jung became familiar with Freud’s idea of the unconscious through Freud’s The Interpretation of Dreams. He worked closely with Freud, who eventually became his mentor, because they both believed in the existence of the unconscious. According to Freud, unconscious is a place where thoughts, feelings, and urges lie outside of your awareness. Jung however did not see it as animal like or sexual as Freud saw it. He saw it more as spiritual, which caused Jung and Freud to stop working together because they did not agree on that subject. Spatel815 (talk) 10:15, 17 November 2013 (UTC)

Psychoanalysis
Before Freud and Jung split, Jung supported psycho-analysis. According to Jung, dreams are a way of communicating and getting familiar with the unconscious. Dreams are not ways to hide your true feelings from your mind, but they are a porthole to your unconscious. Sometimes dreams offer solutions to problems in your life. Jung views the ego as your sense of yourself and how you show yourself to the world. Part of Jung’s theory is that all things can be viewed in opposites. Examples are hot/cold, good/bad, and male/female. So, to oppose the ego is the counterego. The counterego is what he calls the shadow. The shadow represents the parts of your life you don’t want to talk or think about. It is sometimes awkward and unrefined. Spatel815 (talk) 10:15, 17 November 2013 (UTC)

Dreams are a way of making contact with your unconscious. Jung believed that dream images tell something about yourself, your relationship with other people, and situations in your life. Dreams can guide your growth and help in reaching what you are capable of. Jung also believes that dreams obvious and hidden meanings are equally as important. Jung believes by talking about what is going on in your life, it can help you understand what you are dreaming. Jung places dream interpretation on the dreamer-he believes that you have everything to interpret your own dreams. This means the interpretation is left up to the person interpreting. Spatel815 (talk) 10:15, 17 November 2013 (UTC)

Jung also mentions that there are some symbols in dreams that have the same meaning no matter who dreams of it. He called this term the collective unconscious”. He says that sometimes your personal experiences touch on themes and symbols seen universally. Jung identifies what he calls the three major archetypal characters: Spatel815 (talk) 10:15, 17 November 2013 (UTC)

Spatel815 (talk) 06:58, 17 November 2013 (UTC)


 * The Persona: This is the image you put forward into the world. It is your mask that everyone sees.  In dreams, it is represented by the self.


 * The Self: The self is the combination of consciousness and unconsciousness in a person, and represents the psyche as a whole. According to Jung, the self is the result of individuation. Spatel815 (talk) 06:07, 6 December 2013 (UTC)


 * The Shadow: This is the part of yourself that you do not want to think about.  It is the rejected part because you say it is. In dreams, it could be a bad person and can leave you feeling angry or scared.


 * The Anima/Animus: This is the female and male aspects of yourself (everyone possesses male and female traits). In dreams, the anima is feminized and the animus is very masculine.  This appears depending on how well you incorporate the male and female qualities within yourself.

Archetypal dreams usually happen at important times or difficult periods in your life. They leave you wondering sometimes or perhaps help you learn something about yourself that you did not realize while you were conscious. These dreams are usually vivid and are detail oriented and stay in your mind even after you wake up from the dream. Spatel815 (talk) 07:02, 17 November 2013 (UTC)

Post Freudian Dream Theory

 * Dr. Ernest Hartman:

His work is on the contemporary theory of dreaming which he describes a “neurocognitive state” or mental functioning. This functioning in the cerebral cortex ranges from waking thought and dreaming on the other end of the spectrum. He mentions how the connections are not made randomly but are made in relationship to the dreamer which is guided by their emotions, and emotional concerns. He found that in the “Central Image (CI) ..,the intensity of the imagery is a measure of the power of the emotion”(Hartman). He hypothesizes that these emotionally triggered dreams may have an adaptive function. He states that the connections are guided by emotions because they, “weave in” or integrate this new material during the dream state. In other words new experiences, especially if they are traumatic, stressful, or emotional, are integrated, and interconnected into existing memory stores located in the cortex. With these new connections it creates an easier accessibility to discovery, creation and self knowledge.

ClovenBunny326 (talk) 10:10, 17 November 2013 (UTC)