Question:

Heart of the essay and should be the longest

Describe Freud’s theories of dreams

How and why he set about analysing them

What important concepts did Freud use to develop his theory of dreams?
E.g. (repressed) wish fulfilment, guardians of sleep, royal road to the unconscious, the censor….

Describe the dream (manifest content)

Interpret your dream (latent content)

Use concepts such as: condensation, displacement, compulsion to repeat, wish fulfilment etc….

Context of dream – present circumstances and personal history

Evaluation – did it help you to understand your dream?

(Don’t forget to include references).
Essay Structure
Describe Freuds theories of dreams
How and why he set about analysing them
What important concepts did Freud use to develop his theories of dreams
Describe the dream (manifest content)
Interpret your dream (latent content)
Use concepts such as condensation, displacement,compulsion to repeat , wish fulfilment etc..
Context of dream – present circumstances and personal history
Evaluation – did it help you understand your dream

Answer:

Introduction

Dreams are the representatives of the non-existent fulfillment of a wish or a compulsion in early childhood, before it is repressed. The images in the dream mainly represent the unconscious wishes or thoughts hidden through symbolization as well as other distorting mechanisms. Freud has made an attempt where he has divided the mind into unconscious, preconscious and conscious parts and distinguished them by their connection to consciousness. Therefore, Sigmund Freud through his interpretation of dreams has claimed to find the ‘royal road’ to reach the unconscious (Mannoni 2015). In this report, I will analyze my dream with the help of Freud’s theories and concepts of dream analysis.

Freud’s theories of dreams

According to Sigmund Freud’s theory of dream, it suggests that dreams are mainly the representations of unconscious desires, thoughts as well as motivations (Alexander and Sachs 2017). As per Freud’s psychoanalytic viewpoint of personality, individual are driven by aggressive as well as sexual instincts, which are repressed, from their conscious awareness. Therefore, when these repressed thoughts are not expressed consciously, Freud said that they make their way into the awareness through dreams. In his theory, he has further described two different element of dream, which is manifest content and latent content. Manifest content is built up with the actual images, thoughts as well as the contained that is involved within the dream. On the other hand, latent content represent the secret psychological meaning of dream. Freud (1900) observed that in dreams the ego’s defenses are decreased so that some of the materials that are repressed come through to awareness in distorted form (Hobson 2013). Thus, dreams play an important function for the unconscious mind as well as perform valuable guide to how the unconscious mind works. Freud has further categories the aspects of the mind into three parts, which are the ID, EGO and the SUPEREGO. Freud also gave the reason why people struggle to remember their dreams then superego is at work.

How and why he set about analysing them

Sigmund Freud did wide research into the human mind so that he can explain human behaviour. Freud’s focus was mainly on dream analysis because he felt that dreams are pathway to the unconscious mind (Freud 2013). He further believed that through his analysis of dreams everyone can gain an insight into an individual’s motivation and wishes. For understanding Freud’s ideas about dreams and where it originated from, one need to understand the three component of mind first. These aspects are as follows-

• Id- This is the unconscious level of mind which centers on the ‘pleasure principle’. According to Freud here lies the life and death instincts.
• Ego- This area develops during infancy out of the Id. It goal is to fulfil the urges and needs of the id in a safer and socially acceptable manner. Freud has further said that this is a part of both conscious and unconscious mind.
• Superego- In early childhood superego emerges in an individual and motivates individuals to behave in a socially acceptable manner.

Freud’s dream analysis mainly started with a personal dream that he had in 1895 about a patient of his named Irma. This dream actually pushed Freud to develop his theory of dream analysis (Jung 2015).

Important concepts in Freud’s theory of dreams

• Wish fulfilment- this concept of developed because Freud believed that dreams mainly expressed unfulfilled wishes. According to Freud’s “The Interpretation of Dreams” he has made this concept simple for the readers to understand by an instance that if an individual goes to bed thirsty after eating the meal, then he/she might dream of drinking huge amount of water. Freud further explained that dreams are a means through which the unconscious wishes are revealed because it is repressed and unbearable (Hall 2016).
• Guardians of sleep- Sigmund Freud have defined dreams as ‘the guardian of sleep’. Thus, the REM stage of sleep is known as the dream stage. In this period of time there is rapid eye movement and this phrase occurs after a period of deeper sleep. Dreams are said to have occur in 90-minutes of a sleep cycle throughout the night. Therefore, it is assumed as the guardian of sleep not a disturber (Horne 2016).
• Royal road to unconscious- Sigmund Freud was the first one to state dreams to be the royal road to unconscious. Dreams are a medium through which the mind reorganizes itself. Further it can use fear, happiness or sexual arousal which can directly affect the conscious behaviour. Dreams however, plays a necessary function for the unconscious mind as the repressed materials in the unconscious get expressed through dreams.
• Censorship- The impulses of the unconscious often utilize the nocturnal relaxation of repression to push their way into the consciousness with the help of dreams. But the repressive resistance of ego is decreased in the sleep. However, some of it remains in the shape of censor of dreams and prohibit the unconscious impulses to convey itself in the form that it would properly assume. Therefore, censorship guards the unconscious which plays a controlling and selective action.

Description of the dream (manifest content)

The dream that I see often is that I am falling. Though I have very vague pictures of my dreams after waking up but mostly it is about falling. Last night as far as I remember I again had a dream that I am standing on a cliff and all of a sudden I am falling into nothingness. There was no one around me; I was all alone on the cliff. I was scared as well as panicked and was desperately trying to stop falling towards the ground. How I reached the cliff or when I started to fall was not very clear to me. Though after waking up I tried very much to remember the clear picture of my dream but I failed and could only gather some parts of it. This type of dreams are very common for me as sometimes I see myself falling from stairs, at times I see myself falling from escalators and then last day I dreamt of falling from the cliff. I often get up in the middle of the night being thirsty, pounding heart beat and increased blood pressure and after such a dream I find it difficult to fall asleep again that night.

Interpretation of my dream (latent content)

As per the theories of Freud, falling indicate that one is contemplating giving in to a sexual urge or impulse and thus, lacking carelessness. After reading about Freud analysis I can interpret my dream by saying that it might signify a lack of control because I am overwhelmed with a situation and may be that in my unconscious mind I want to give up in that situation. As I see in my dream that as I am falling I am not able to hold on to something or neither stop nor control my falling downwards. This might interpret that I am worried about work or a relationship because this falling without getting any support is indicating being powerless to stop myself falling in the ground. Moreover, falling dreams can also reflect a sense of failure or inferiority.

Thus, the concept of condensation comes into the forefront which has been stated by Freud as one of the methods which brain uses to convert the content. Condensation mainly means that two or more latent thoughts are concentrated into one manifest dream or image. Thus, interpreting my dream I can use this concept because my dream of falling can have latent thoughts like ‘lack of control’, ‘I want to give up in some situation’, ‘inferiority or failure’ and ‘worry about work or relationship’. Therefore, from the Freudian point of view, I can reach a conclusion in interpreting my own dream is that dreams are mainly the entrance of one’s unconscious and through our dreams we get to know our deep rooted fears, desires, motives as well as other things that we pay attention to in the day time.

Context of dream

As per my personal history is concerned I can say that I get easily anxious and feel insecure at times when I am under immense pressure at my workplace or in any of the relationships. I take stress in small things when in am working under pressure. Currently, I have shifted from the parental home to stay alone in another city for my higher education purpose. Thus this change can be another cause of such dreams where in my unconscious I might feel that this change or shifting has not yet provided me a solid ground under my feet. Along with this in my current situation I am also going through a lot of work pressure at my work place. Due to immense deadline pressure by my boss in many situations I feel that I am very much incapable for this work that I am in. At times I do feel like giving up and run away when the pressure of studies as well as work goes above my threshold point. Thus, I can say that because of my current situations and personal history of anxiety and stress this repeated falling dream is occurring.

Evaluation

Definitely Freud’s theories, concepts and interpretation has helped me to understand and interpret my own dream because earlier I use to think that the dreams we see have simple interpretations and also believed about the various myths that are associated with dreams. I came to know the difference between manifest and latent content once I researched for this essay. Though the concepts of ID, EGO and SUPEREGO are not new to me but their association to our dreams are something that this essay rather Freud taught me. Understanding my dream became easier to me because I got to know that dreams as Freud has said are the royal road to our unconscious. Moreover, now I am also aware that the content that is reflected in our dreams are mainly the repressed thoughts, desires or needs in our unconscious which somehow make their way and tries to enter the conscious through our dreams

Conclusion

To conclude this report, it can be said that Freud mainly focused about dreams because he wanted to explain human behavior. According to Freud, dreams are mainly representations of unconscious desires, thoughts as well as motivations. The manifest content of my dream is mainly that I am falling from cliff, stairs or even escalators and I cannot hold anyone or stop myself from falling down. However, the interpretation of my dream suggests that it can be because of my personal history of anxiety or pressure at my workplace and my studies.

References

Alexander, F. and Sachs, H., 2017. Sigmund Freud. Studies in Gender and Sexuality, 18, p.2.

Domhoff, G.W., 2013. Finding meaning in dreams: A quantitative approach. Springer Science & Business Media.

Freud, S., 2013. The interpretation of dreams. Read Books Ltd.

Freud, S., 2014. A general introduction to psychoanalysis. The Floating Press.

Hall, C.S., 2016. A primer of Freudian psychology. Pickle Partners Publishing.

Hobson, J.A., 2013. Ego ergo sum: Toward a psychodynamic neurology. Contemporary Psychoanalysis, 49(2), pp.142-164.

Horne, J., 2016. REM Sleep: Food for Thought?. In Sleeplessness (pp. 183-194). Springer International Publishing.

Horney, K., 2013. New ways in psychoanalysis (Vol. 16). Routledge.

Jung, C.G., 2015. Freud and psychoanalysis (Vol. 4). Routledge.

Mannoni, O., 2015. Freud: The theory of the unconscious. Verso Books.