The interpretation of dreams is something that psychologists have trouble agreeing on. Many believe that dreams point to unconscious desires. While others advocate a cognitive approach in which dreams reflect different parts of our waking life.
The truth is that dreams are vital for living beings, according to some research. Interrupting the dreaming process could cause serious damage to our health and could even endanger our lives. Do you want to know what is the interpretation of dreams according to psychology? Or, if there is some psychological explanation for what we dream? Read on! Next, we will tell you what the most important psychologists and psychoanalysts say about the interpretation of dreams.
First, what are dreams?
Dreams are a series of images, emotions, thoughts and sensations that occur when we sleep. They are involuntary and usually occur during the rapid eye movement stage of sleep, known as REM sleep. Although dreams can occur at other points in the sleep cycle, they are more vivid and memorable during this phase.
Not everyone remembers their dreams, but researchers believe that everyone has three to six dreams in one night and that each dream lasts between 5 and 20 minutes. Even people who remember their dreams are believed to forget 95% of them when they wake up.
What does psychology say about dreams?
Psychologists offer many reasons why we dream. Some suggest that it is simply to erase the useless memories of the previous day and enter the important ones in long-term storage. On the other hand, many psychologists, especially those involved in therapy, argue they are more than that and insist on the value of their analysis.
Therefore, while dreams can help sort information in our brain, they can also help us consider information that we ignore when we are awake. So maybe during the day, we focus on tasks that had nothing to do with what we dream about, but that night during our dreams we work on how we feel about the information.
Psychologists like G. William Domhoff, affirmed that our dreams do not have a psychological function. However, he also said that dreams have meaning because their content is unique to the individual and therefore analysing an individual’s dreams can provide a very good psychological portrait of the individual.
What is the interpretation of dreams according to psychology?
Many psychologists and psychoanalysts have dedicated themselves to explaining the interpretation of dreams. Each has their own theory about whether what we dream has any meaning in our lives or if they are simply a reflection of our unconscious. Let’s see what three of the most important: Sigmund Freud, Carl Jung and Calvin S. Hall raise about dreams and their meaning.
Freud’s “Interpretation of Dreams” is a mere literary exercise.
Freud’s perspective on the interpretation of dreams remains popular today. Freud believed that dreaming was a way of fulfilling wishes that reflected a dreamer’s unconscious. He also stated that the real or visible content of a dream disguises the symbolic or hidden meaning of the dream. For example, if a person dreams that they are flying, it may actually mean that they yearn to break free from a situation that they consider oppressive.
Freud called “dream work” the process of transforming the hidden content of a dream into visible content and suggested that it includes several processes:
- Condensation: it is about combining several ideas or images into one. For example, a dream about an authority figure could represent parents or the boss.
- Displacement: involves changing what really concerns us into something else. For example, if an individual is considering leaving the country or buying a house, they may dream of two large animals fighting, which represents the dilemma they feel for the decision.
- Symbolization: it has to do with one object replacing another.
- The secondary review: it is about rearranging the elements of a dream into a comprehensive whole. This takes place at the end of a dream and results in the actual content of the dream.
Freud also made some suggestions about universal symbols that can be found in dreams. He suggested that the individual was often symbolized by a house, while the parents appear as royal figures or other highly respected people. Meanwhile, water often refers to birth and going on a journey represents death.
However, Freud did not attach much importance to universal symbols. He said that symbolism in dreams is often personal, and therefore the interpretation of dreams requires an understanding of the individual circumstances of the dreamer.
Carl Jung’s approach
Like Freud, Jung believed that dreams contained a hidden meaning disguised by a content that is evident. However, Jung also believed that dreams symbolized a person’s desire to maintain balance in their personality, not wish fulfilment.
Jung gave more weight to the visible content of a dream than Freud, since he felt that important symbols could be found there. Furthermore, Jung postulated that dreams were expressions of the collective unconscious. And, they could help anticipate future problems in your life.
Jung approaches the analysis of dreams in three stages. First the personal context of the dreamer is considered. Second, the cultural context of the dreamer, including their age and environment. Finally, any archetypal content is evaluated in order to discover links between the dream and humanity as a whole.
Calvin S. Hall’s Approach to the interpretation of dreams
Unlike Freud and Jung, Hall did not believe that dreams had any hidden meaning. Instead, he proposed a cognitive theory that claimed that dreams are simply thoughts that appear in the mind during sleep.
As a result, dreams represent our personal life through the following cognitive structures:
- Conceptions of the self or how we see ourselves. A person can dream of becoming a successful person who loses everything. This suggests that they see themselves as strong, but is concerned that they may not be able to maintain that strength.
- Conceptions of others or how the individual views other important individuals in their life.
- Conceptions of the world or how your environment looks. For example, if the individual finds the world cold and unfeeling, their dream may take place on a snowy and desolate tundra.
- Conceptions of impulses, prohibitions and penalties or how the dreamer understand their repressed desires.
- Conceptions of problems and conflicts or conceptions of the challenges that one faces in life. For example, if someone views her or his mother as grumpy, his or her dream may reflect their dilemma in dealing with what they perceive as irrational demands from their mother.
Psychology gives us some explanations about the interpretation of dreams, some have to do with their hidden meaning, others with a more cognitive approach. At present, dreams and their interpretation are widely used in behavioural therapies. Since, according to the experts, this can help to overcome an unresolved problem or to assimilate a situation that is difficult for them to face.
ALFA