Preview

What Do Dreams Mean

Good Essays
Open Document
Open Document
288 Words
Grammar
Grammar
Plagiarism
Plagiarism
Writing
Writing
Score
Score
What Do Dreams Mean
Dreams and What They Mean

Psychologists seem to fall into two groups regarding dreams. The first group believes that dreams have no real purpose; while the second group believes they do have a purpose, although this group cannot reach a consensus on what the purpose might be.
Sigmund Freud is probably the most famous of the dream theorists. He believed that dreams helped to preserve sleep by keeping individuals from waking as a result of physical urges such as needing to go to the bathroom or feeling hungry. This theory was developed before the knowledge of REM sleep.
Carl Jung, an early follower of Freud, broke away from that theory to develop one about dreams compensating for under-developed areas of our personalities. This theory
Continue Reading
View Writing Issues

You May Also Find These Documents Helpful

  • Good Essays

    Sigmund Freud: Understanding The Mystery And Meaning Of Dreams
    • 160 Words
    • 1 Page

    Sigmund Freud: Understanding The Mystery And Meaning Of Dreams

    Although the exact meaning behind dreams has not been proven, there has been great progress in the psychological understanding of why they occur. Sigmund Freud’s dream theory was one of the first and most detailed theories, and continues…

    • 160 Words
    • 1 Page
    Good Essays
    Read More
  • Good Essays

    Activation-Fulfilment: The Psychoanalytic Theory Of Dreams
    • 233 Words
    • 1 Page

    Activation-Fulfilment: The Psychoanalytic Theory Of Dreams

    Rosalind Cartwright’s dream theory, problem-solving view, states that dreams let people creatively think about their problems while they are asleep.…

    • 233 Words
    • 1 Page
    Good Essays
    Read More
  • Better Essays

    Psy 250 Psychoanalytic Personality Assessment
    • 1442 Words
    • 6 Pages

    Psy 250 Psychoanalytic Personality Assessment

    When comparing Freud, Jung and Adler and their beliefs. Unfortunately the main theory they all somewhat believed that dreams are important. Freud and Jung did believe that dreams…

    • 1442 Words
    • 6 Pages
    Better Essays
    Read More
  • Good Essays

    Sigmund Freud Interpretation Of Dreams
    • 846 Words
    • 4 Pages

    Sigmund Freud Interpretation Of Dreams

    Sigmund Freud is known for founding psychoanalysis. Freud worked many years with Albert Einstein. He used his years on this earth to revolutionize dreams. Sigmund even wrote “The Interpretation of Dreams”. This book is well known throughout the world today.…

    • 846 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Good Essays
    Read More
  • Satisfactory Essays

    Exploratory Paper Dream 2
    • 459 Words
    • 2 Pages

    Exploratory Paper Dream 2

    The psychological approach is based on a more Freudian idea. Freud believed that dreams were repressed desires and impulses. Many Psychologists today, though they do not all embrace Freud's theory entirely, believe that dreams are in fact related to our day-to-day lives. There are many studies that support these sorts of theories. There have been studies on Universal dreams and dreams of recovering alcoholics that prove dreams are related to experience. There have also been studies done on the Senoia people. These people are an aborigine people that have dream rituals. They believe dreams are very important. They work on controlling their dreams. Psychologists call dreams that we can control lucid dreams. Patricia Garfeild has done studies on universal dreams. Universal dreams are defined as dreams shared by all people. There are some dreams that are most commonly shared by all. These dreams include dreams of death, death of a loved one, running in terror from someone or something, or being naked in public. Everyone, regardless of spoken language, shares these dreams. Everyone will have these sorts of dreams at some point in their life. Though these dreams are universal their details can…

    • 459 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Satisfactory Essays
    Read More
  • Good Essays

    Sigmund Freud's Psychological Theories Of Dreaming
    • 1089 Words
    • 5 Pages

    Sigmund Freud's Psychological Theories Of Dreaming

    Sigmund Freud is the first modern psychologist to look at dream. He developed “his psychological theory of dreams, from his experience with his troubled patients and his own life events” (Moorcroft pg. 200). According to Wayne Sproule, Freud argued that a dream is like a safety valve that harmlessly discharges otherwise unacceptable feelings. He believed that dreams had hidden meanings that can be showed through symbolic images and even puns. Dream was seen as a language of its own. Freud’s theory of dreaming has three basic aspects (Hunt, 1989): why dreaming occurs, (2) how dreams are formed, and (3) a method of dream interpretation (Moorcroft 173). Freud believed that all behavior, including dreaming, is motivated by powerful, inner, unconscious…

    • 1089 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Good Essays
    Read More
  • Good Essays

    Activation Synthesis Theory
    • 529 Words
    • 3 Pages

    Activation Synthesis Theory

    Two common theories about dreams are the Freudian theory that dreams are repressed desires and Hobson's activation-synthesis theory that dreams are the result of random brain stem circuits actively overwhelming the cerebral cortex (Pinel, 2007). The two common sleep theories that attempt to address the purpose of sleep and sleep habits: recuperation and circadian. Recuperation theory works off the principle that sleep restores the body to a state of and sleep renovates energy levels. Recuperation theorists believe that the very act of being woken causes one to become tired and sleep deficiency may cause developmental disorders so that we sleep until the body is physiologically sound. Circadian theorists believe that we become tired when it gets dark outside, the function of sleep is to preserve energy, sleep depends on whether one is vulnerable to predators, and sleep is based on an internal timing mechanism. The main difference between recuperation and circadian theories is that circadian theory focuses primarily on when a person sleeps and the circadian sleep cycles, while recuperation theory focuses primarily on why we sleep and the recuperative value of…

    • 529 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
    Read More
  • Powerful Essays

    PSYCHOLOGICAL THERAPIES FOR DEPRESSION
    • 2777 Words
    • 12 Pages

    PSYCHOLOGICAL THERAPIES FOR DEPRESSION

    A second method Freud used to access the unconscious is dream analysis. He claimed we are much more likely to gain access to repressed material while dreaming than…

    • 2777 Words
    • 12 Pages
    Powerful Essays
    Read More
  • Good Essays

    Paper
    • 772 Words
    • 4 Pages

    Paper

    We've all been there -- dead asleep, caught up in the middle of a cinematic dream that feels so real you think you've actually experienced it, even after waking. Maybe it was a nightmare that left you in a cold sweat, heart pounding. Or if you're lucky, it's a liaison with your favorite movie star. Sigmund Freud believed that dreams are a window into our unconscious, and some studies indicate that he may have been onto something. For example, in one study, amnesiacs reported dreaming about activities that the scientists knew the patients had participated in before they'd gone to sleep -- even though the amnesiacs had no memory of those activities, outside of dreaming about them. This validates Freud's theory to a certain degree, but there are hundreds of competing theories about what dreams are and what their purpose is.…

    • 772 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Good Essays
    Read More
  • Good Essays

    Argumentative Essay About Dreams
    • 735 Words
    • 3 Pages

    Argumentative Essay About Dreams

    Scientist Sigmund Freuds believed that dreams function to fulfill wishes that you yet have to experience.…

    • 735 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
    Read More
  • Powerful Essays

    Dream Perspectives
    • 2132 Words
    • 9 Pages

    Dream Perspectives

    The recorded history of dreams dates back to 3100 B.C. through clay tablets describing the story of king Gilgamesh who reported his recurring dreams to his goddess-mother Ninsun, who made the first known dream interpretation (Seligman, 1948). Babylonians and other ancient cultures divided dreams into good ones that came from the gods and bad ones that came from demons (Oppenheim, 1966). Various other ancient cultures believed dreams to be spiritual and or demonic depending on the dream’s content. It was not until the Greek philosopher Aristotle, around 350 B.C, who interpreted dreams to have a physiological meaning. He believed that dreams could predict disease and analyze illnesses (O’Neil, 1976). Into the 19th Century there was still no scientific approach to understanding dreams or their meanings.…

    • 2132 Words
    • 9 Pages
    Powerful Essays
    Read More
  • Powerful Essays

    Dream Analysis
    • 1676 Words
    • 7 Pages

    Dream Analysis

    Dreams are often derived from the inner thresholds of an individual’s thoughts and repressed emotions. My dreams have been significantly complex, converging into metamorphic symbols that relate to significant past and present events. After a week of dream analysis, I believe dreams have an effect on both my conscious and unconscious thoughts. Analyzing these dreams has begun to reveal the inner meanings behind my thoughts, and lead to prosperous revelations. To correlate the meaning and reasoning of the concept of dreams, I have analyzed my most significant dream from the points of view of Sigmund Freud, Carl Jung and the activation synthesis methods. Upon the conclusion of my research, the theories of both Freud and Jung contain the most valid perspective as to the true meaning of my dream.…

    • 1676 Words
    • 7 Pages
    Powerful Essays
    Read More
  • Good Essays

    Psychodynamic Theories
    • 1273 Words
    • 6 Pages

    Psychodynamic Theories

    Allows the clients to understand what they have learnt as a child into adult hood, helping clients understand now why they do what they do. According to Freud, our inner world is mostly developed during childhood and is based not just on occurrences then, but- and this is key- on how the individual person perceived and responded to them, he regarded dreams as "the royal road to a knowledge of the unconscious activities of the mind", dream interpretation is then a central component of classical psychodynamic therapy.…

    • 1273 Words
    • 6 Pages
    Good Essays
    Read More
  • Satisfactory Essays

    Dream Meaning
    • 383 Words
    • 2 Pages

    Dream Meaning

    The first theory is Sigmund Freud's, psychoanalytic perspective. Freud thought that our dreams come from our most inner desire. A desire that we are unconcious of. In Freud's most famous book The Interpretation of Dreams, he wrote that dreams are "disguised fulfillments of repressed wishes." Which basically means that when you don't know what you want, your dreams do.…

    • 383 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Satisfactory Essays
    Read More
  • Good Essays

    Why Do We Dream?
    • 290 Words
    • 2 Pages

    Why Do We Dream?

    His theory is that dreams are repressed, secret, often sexual, desires in the unconscious mind of the dreamer. While dreaming, these secret fears and desires make themselves known. After listening to some dreams from patients of his, Freud said “What is common in all these dreams is obvious. They completely satisfy wishes excited during the day which remain unrealized. They are simply and undisguisedly realizations of wishes” (Freud).…

    • 290 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Good Essays
    Read More

Related Topics