Freud
The Interpretation of Dreams
• In November of 1897, Freud began writing about dreams and his self-analysis discoveries. The writings would become his famous book, The Interpretation of Dreams, published in November, 1899
• Freud’s first paragraph of the book stated: o “In the pages that follow I shall bring forward proof that there is a psychological technique which makes it possible to interpret dreams, and that, if that procedure is employed, every dream reveals itself as a psychical structure which has a meaning and which can be inserted at an assignable point in the mental activities of waking life.” o Emphasis on dreams o Dreams have access to our unconscious mind o Forbidden memories are in the unconscious mind o Dreams can represent what is anxiety-producing to us, memories that are threatening to us o Theory: dreams exist to deal with wish fulfillment; resolve it
• One of the keys for the understanding of dreams is to separate the manifest dream content from the latent dream content. Also dreams are often triggered by the “daily residue” o Manifest dream content is the actual depiction of the dream; the action; what is happening in the dream o Manifest content is masking the real meaning of the dream o Real meaning of the dream has to be discovered with the help of a therapist o Latent dream content is the real meaning of the dream o With Freud latent dream content has to do with sexuality o Why do we have to mask our dreams?
• Freud says if we really dreamt what bothered us, we would never be able to sleep. Dreams would wake us up. Anxiety would bother us. To protect sleep, dream has to be disguised. o Freud’s dream – The Examination dream:
• Freud has to take a test like in college but there’s all sorts of roadblocks for him to get to where the test is going to be.
• Manifest content of the dream – scenes
Feel emotions in the dream; real as real can be when in the dream
• Latent content of the dream
Freud’s interpretation:
• In November of 1897, Freud began writing about dreams and his self-analysis discoveries. The writings would become his famous book, The Interpretation of Dreams, published in November, 1899
• Freud’s first paragraph of the book stated: o “In the pages that follow I shall bring forward proof that there is a psychological technique which makes it possible to interpret dreams, and that, if that procedure is employed, every dream reveals itself as a psychical structure which has a meaning and which can be inserted at an assignable point in the mental activities of waking life.” o Emphasis on dreams o Dreams have access to our unconscious mind o Forbidden memories are in the unconscious mind o Dreams can represent what is anxiety-producing to us, memories that are threatening to us o Theory: dreams exist to deal with wish fulfillment; resolve it
• One of the keys for the understanding of dreams is to separate the manifest dream content from the latent dream content. Also dreams are often triggered by the “daily residue” o Manifest dream content is the actual depiction of the dream; the action; what is happening in the dream o Manifest content is masking the real meaning of the dream o Real meaning of the dream has to be discovered with the help of a therapist o Latent dream content is the real meaning of the dream o With Freud latent dream content has to do with sexuality o Why do we have to mask our dreams?
• Freud says if we really dreamt what bothered us, we would never be able to sleep. Dreams would wake us up. Anxiety would bother us. To protect sleep, dream has to be disguised. o Freud’s dream – The Examination dream:
• Freud has to take a test like in college but there’s all sorts of roadblocks for him to get to where the test is going to be.
• Manifest content of the dream – scenes
Feel emotions in the dream; real as real can be when in the dream
• Latent content of the dream
Freud’s interpretation: