Psychology
Theories of Dreams
Theories of dreams in psychology encompass various perspectives on the purpose and meaning of dreams. These theories include Freud's psychoanalytic theory, which suggests that dreams are a window into the unconscious mind, as well as the activation-synthesis theory, which proposes that dreams are a result of random neural activity. Other theories explore the cognitive and emotional functions of dreaming.
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11 Key excerpts on "Theories of Dreams"
eBook - PDF- Simon Green(Author)
- 2017(Publication Date)
- Red Globe Press(Publisher)
One area where he developed very different ideas to Freud was in the meaning and interpretation of dreams, and there is no easy way to decide which of them is correct. One way to assess the validity of Freud’s theory of dreaming would be to see how successful dream analysis has been in helping clients under-going psychoanalytic therapy. Unfortunately, systematic and controlled studies of the effectiveness of dream analysis are rare, and what we have in the main are the personal accounts of case studies. As with many of Freud’s ideas, his model of the functions of dreams is easy to dismiss as non-scientific and non-testable, but it has had a tremendous influence on cultural and social attitudes to dreams and dream imagery. Even the fiercest critic of Freud would have to admit that, when thinking about dreams, it is hard to ignore Freud’s interpreta-tion of their symbolism, even if deep down we don’t believe in the underlying model. Problem-solving theories It is a common observation that dream imagery reflects current events in the person’s life, and as we shall see later, some neurobiological theories emphasize that the brain is integrating the day’s events with previous stored memories. Another approach to this aspect of dream imagery is to see the dream as a time when the brain is actively trying to solve prob-lems in the person’s life, and to come up with solutions. This is linked to the popular idea that dreams can be creative, although evidence for this is largely anecdotal. For instance, the chemist Kekule is said to have discov-ered the chemical nature of the benzene ring when stimulated by a dream of a snake biting its own tail. One of Coleridge’s most famous poems, the Rubaiyat of Omar Khayyam , was said to have come to him in a dream. A more systematic approach was taken by Cartwright (1984). She proposed that dreams are important in helping us to cope emotionally with major life stresses.
- Kelly Bulkeley Ph.D.(Author)
- 2017(Publication Date)
- Praeger(Publisher)
These are complex and sophisticated models, and their greatest benefits only emerge when they are applied in a very thorough and systematic fashion. But the primary goal of the above exercise has been a modest one—namely, to give readers a concrete illus- tration of how the different psychological theories presented in this book would be used to interpret and explain a sample dream. Major Areas of Debate A second goal of this comparative dream analysis is to highlight the major areas of debate among psychological theories of dreaming. Despite, or perhaps because of, more than 100 years of concentrated study, mod- ern psychologists disagree on many fundamental points about the forma- tion, function, and interpretation of dreams. Formation There are at least three major debates regarding the formation of dreams. First, what is the nature of the unconscious forces that work to form our dreams? Are these forces dark and destructive (Freud), or are they positive, creative, and even spiritual in nature (Jung)? Second, can 130 An Introduction to the Psychology of Dreaming dream formation be explained without using the imprecise notion of “the unconscious”? Many psychologists (Adler, Boss, Piaget, Hall) argue that a better explanation of dream formation refers to those same basic struc- tures of personality and cognition that operate in our waking lives. Third, what is the role of REM-sleep physiology in the formation of dreams? Some researchers (Hobson, Crick and Mitchison) assert that the neural activities of REM sleep dominate the process of dream formation, while other psychologists (Foulkes, Hartmann, Hunt, LaBerge) see a complex interaction of REM physiology and cognitive-emotional forces at work in the formation of dreams. Function There are at least four major positions on the question of what function dreams serve.
eBook - ePub- Umberto Barcaro(Author)
- 2018(Publication Date)
- Routledge(Publisher)
A first motivation for this poor interest is, according to the authors, the preference of cognitive psychologists for phenomena characterized by intrinsic organization and rationality, while “dreaming seems so puzzling and messy a thing” (p. 1).A second motivation, conceptually close to the first, is that dreaming appears as a phenomenon difficult to be controlled by the experimenter. In other words, assuming the point of view of computer science, which is important as a reference paradigm for cognitive psychology, it seems hard to establish clear and certain relationships between the input and the output of the dreaming process.Then the authors add a third motivation which is historical and psychological at the same time: cognitive psychologists have accepted the idea that two other disciplines, and not proper psychology, are appropriate for the study of dreaming: psychoanalysis and psychophysiology. “Most cognitive psychologists are not at all familiar with either of these disciplines, and the study of dreaming therefore seemed outside their professional bounds” (p. 2). The authors claim that it is a mistake to consider dreaming as a subject reserved to Psychoanalysis or to Psychophysiology.With regard to Psychoanalysis, the authors consider its criteria for dream interpretation lacking of any scientific and empiric support, but, at the same time, they underline the aspects of the Freudian method which are important from the viewpoint of cognitive psychology. In fact, Freud implicitly considers the reported dream as the output of the dream processing system, and the Freudian method of free associations allows identifying the input, consisting of specific memories.The authors then examine the idea, stated by many physiologists, that dreams occur only during REM sleep, that is, the sleep stage characterized by Rapid Eye Movements (a topic which we will consider later). They do not agree that the study of REM sleep and of its relationship with dreaming implies that purely neurobiological means are able to explain the phenomenon of dreaming. First of all, they state that the equation equalling REM sleep to dreaming is wrong, because: a) REM sleep epochs exist without dreaming; and b) dreaming exists in sleep stages different from REM sleep. They add that lab studies on dreams evidence the need of a psychological and not physiological, more precisely a cognitive-psychological, explanation. They underline that, according to the results obtained by the analysis of dream reports elicited after forced awakening in the lab, “dreamlife is surprisingly mundane” and this suggests that a remarkable continuity exists between dream mentation and wakefulness mentation. We have already discussed this important idea of continuity in Section [Other possible dream sources outside the mind of the dreamer: Subliminal stimuli (26)], while considering the model of the dreaming system proposed by Fiss. In Section [The generative role played by the metaphor system in dreaming according to Lakoff’s Theory (32)] we mentioned the debate about the validity of lab dreams.
eBook - PDF- Laura Marcus(Author)
- 2024(Publication Date)
- Manchester University Press(Publisher)
2 It is also the most important and influential text of psycho- analysis itself. The British analyst Ella Freeman Sharpe, in her study Dream Analysis (1937), described it as 'the first text-book for psycho-analysts',3 and the function and significance of dreams and dream-interpretation (in analytic training, practice and theory) continue to preoccupy psychoanalysis to the present day. 4 In The Interpretation of Dreams Freud provided the most com- prehensive account of the psychoanalytic conception of the mind. The leading metaphor of the text is that of the journey, with Freud guiding the reader through the landscape of mental life. The text is divided into seven chapters which explore: (I) the existing literature on dreams; (II) the 'associative' method of dream- interpetation, in which Freud analysed one of his own dreams as a 'specimen' dream; (III) the overarching thesis that 'a dream is the fulfilment of a wish'; (IV) the role of distortion in dreams; (V) the material and sources of dreams, including typical dreams; (VI) the 'dream-work', the means by which the 'latent' (unconscious) dream thoughts are disguised and transformed into the' manifest' dream content; (VII) the metapsychology of the dream-processes, including the workings of 'regression', 'wish-fulfilment' and 'repression'. While Chapters II to VI primarily explore the workings of both dreams and dream-interpretation, Chapter VII investigates the nature of the mental apparatus which not only produces dreams but seems to require them for its effective functioning. Freud's theories postulated two central theses: first, that dreams have a meaning accessible to interpretation; and second, that they have a function. Dreams are 'compromise formations', expres- sions of wishes and of defenses against those wishes.
- Ömer ?enormanc?, Güliz ?enormanc?, Ömer Şenormancı, Güliz Şenormancı, Ömer Şenormancı, Güliz Şenormancı(Authors)
- 2018(Publication Date)
- IntechOpen(Publisher)
Chapter 6 Dreams in Cognitive-Behavioral Therapy Dagna Skrzypińska and Barbara Szmigielska Additional information is available at the end of the chapter http://dx.doi.org/10.5772/intechopen.70893 Abstract In recent years, cognitive-behavioral-oriented therapists have found a new interest in work with dreams. Dream analysis within the framework of cognitive-behavioral ther-apy (CBT) seems to be fully justified if the cognitive processes involved in the dream -ing process are considered. The aim of the chapter is to introduce three perspectives for working with dreams within the realm of CBT. The first perspective is dedicated to the historical view on the use of dreams in CBT. The second includes an analysis of the conceptual functions of working with dreams in CBT. The third presents practical issues related to dream analysis in CBT. To sum up, the chapter presents systematic and comprehensive information about the therapeutic work with dreams within CBT from a historical, functional, and processual perspective. Keywords: dreams, cognitive-behavioral therapy, dream analysis, continuous hypothesis, cognitive content-specificity hypothesis 1. Introduction Since the birth of psychotherapy, work with dreams has been mainly developed in the realms of psychoanalysis, psychodynamic therapy, and less commonly within humanistic or existen-tial therapy. Within the framework of cognitive-behavioral therapy (CBT), very few dream analysis concepts have been elaborated on. However, in recent years, cognitive therapists have found a new interest in work with dreams [1]. Referring to dreams in CBT is fully justified if the cognitive processes that are involved in the dreaming process are considered.
eBook - PDF- Oleg V. Khlevniuk, Vadim A. Staklo(Authors)
- 1983(Publication Date)
- Yale University Press(Publisher)
C H A P T E R 1 1 Revising Dream Theory The interpretation of dreams is the royal road to a knowledge of the unconscious activities of the mind. —(Freud 1900, p. 608) // it ain't broke, don't fix it; patches may do. Virtually all the cognitive neuroscience reviewed in chapters 6, 7, 8, and 10 was unknown in 1900, when Freud published his dream theory, and this was still the case at the time of his death in 1939. Despite—or perhaps because of—the fact that he was first and al-ways an empiricist and avid student of physiology and neurology, he chose to base the theory solely on empirical psychological obser-vations, since no relevant physiology of the brain was then avail-able. That he expected his theory to be explanatory in the psycho-logical realm only must have been a disappointment to this Biologist of the Mind, as Sulloway (1979) calls him, and we know from his writings that he anticipated the possibility that better explanations might be forthcoming from biology in the future. 173 THE INTERFACE OF MIND AND BRAIN This [confusion] is merely due to our being obliged to operate with the scientific terms, that is to say with the figurative language, peculiar to psychology (or, more precisely, to depth psychology). We could not otherwise describe the processes in question at all, and indeed we could not have become aware of them. The deficiencies in our descrip-tion would probably vanish if we were already in a position to replace the psychological terms by physiological or chemical ones Biology is truly a land of unlimited possibilities. We may expect it to give us the most surprising information and we cannot guess what answers it will return in a few dozen years to the questions we have put to it. (Freud 1920, p. 60) Relevant physiology of the brain was not available then, but it is now. And some of it does not correspond exactly or readily with important aspects of Freud's theory.
eBook - PDFThe Limits of Dream
A Scientific Exploration of the Mind / Brain Interface
- J. F. Pagel(Author)
- 2010(Publication Date)
- Academic Press(Publisher)
One of the primary functions proposed for dreaming is as an emotional regulatory system. Disorders of emotional processing can result in disordered dreaming. Such diagnoses are amenable to modern medical approaches to diagnosis and treatment with some of the approaches used in therapy directly addressing and treating disease-associated disordered dreaming. What our brains do is think. And it is difficult for most of us to stop thinking when we are awake. The thinking that occurs in dreams is both similar and different from waking thought. The brain-based CNS correlates for the processes of thought are poorly described with our current technical capacities. In approaching the process of thought we will again find ourselves reaching the borders of scientific knowledge. Aspects of thought appear to be mind based rather than brain based. The emotional, memory, and visual components of dreaming are primarily brain based and amenable to modern scientific study. We can use the knowledge and techniques of modern neuroscience to understand much of these components of the dreaming. The emotion and visual imagery components of dreaming are brain based and amenable to currently available techniques of scientific study. It is only at the limits of these areas that we approach components of each process that approximate aspects of mind – the global feelings associated with emotions, and the hallucinatory imagery of the visual system. However, the cognitive process of thought, particularly the associative thought characteristic of dreaming and cre-ative process, is poorly described by modern neuroscience. When we look at the cognitive processes involved in dreaming, it is through study of the intangible and invisible process of thinking that we most quickly approach the borders of what we do not understand. In the story and content of dream we find aspects of mind. 90 The Cognitive Process of Dreaming
eBook - PDF- Humberto Nagera(Author)
- 2022(Publication Date)
- Taylor & Francis(Publisher)
Furthermore, the capacity to comprehend and the level of insight possible for any given person or group of persons engaged in such work increases as the work proceeds. Thus certain formulations become more meaningful, are suddenly understood in a new light, assume a different significance, etc. Because of our realization of 13 potential shortcomings we hope that future readers of these con- cepts will contribute to complete and clarify the work which the Concept Group has started, by drawing our attention to relevant material which has been either overlooked, misrepresented or not understood in its full significance. It is hoped that in this way the Concepts will become more and more representative and complete in the course of time. DR HUMBERTO NAGERA. T H E T H E O R Y OF D R E A M S 14 THE CONCEPT OF DREAMS Definition of Dreams A dream is the (disguised) fulfilment of a (repressed) wish.1 This formulation may be regarded as Freud’s most concise definition of a dream. A comprehensive definition of dreams, as conceived by Freud, should cover the total phenomenon of which the latent dream content, the dream-work and the manifest dream are the several, component parts. The dream-work is the most ‘essential’ part.2 Only through understanding its laws and conditions can we reach the latent dream content which contains the true and dis- guised wish.3 Dreams are the fulfilment of wishes4 in the service of the preservation of sleep.
eBook - PDFMapping the Mind
The Intersection of Psychoanalysis and Neuroscience
- Fred M. Levin(Author)
- 2018(Publication Date)
- Routledge(Publisher)
This work involves a variety of mechanisms, including condensation, displacement, symbolization, and pictorial metaphor formation. Once produced, the hidden meanings of the dream continue to be protected from discovery by the continuation of defensive mechanisms. These include forgetting part or all of the dream, forgetting dreaming itself, secondary revision of the dream at the time it is remembered or retold, and even conscious withholding in relating the dream to others. The early stages of psychoanalysis were directed toward reversing these processes and getting at the unconscious sexual, aggressive, and other wishes thereby exposed. Gabel (1985) contrasts Freud's view of dreams, for what they con- Sleep and Dream Research — 131 ceal, with Jung's view of dreams, for what they reveal of purposive, adaptive, and even prospective cognitive patterns. Gabel's inspiration comes from Montague Ullman (see Gabel, pp. 190-191), who, along with researchers such as Greenberg (1970), Berger (1967), and others, has formulated theories that seek to explain how dreams relate to such specific brain functions as sensory perception, the coding of experience, and the storage, retrieval, and organization of memory. Before I continue, however, I would like to note some important issues. One is the problem of dealing with the information-processing aspects of dreams without shifting the focus so as to destroy the meaning of dreams as described by Freud, which has proven monumentally im-portant in clinical psychoanalysis. In addition, we also do not want to gloss over the differences between Freud and Jung, which are considerable and which add another problem of deciding how to consider the possible meanings of any particular dream. Finally, in any synthesis we want to bridge the humanistic and scientific traditions represented within each relevant theoretical approach. To begin, it is clear that Freud unequivocally rejected Jung's view on dreams.
eBook - PDF- Rachel B. Blass(Author)
- 2012(Publication Date)
- SUNY Press(Publisher)
C H A P T E R F O U R ———————— ———————— Developments Regarding the Dream Theory and Its Justification after Freud’s The Interpretation of Dreams I feel sure you are impatient to hear what changes have been made in our fundamental view on the nature and significance of dreams. I have already warned you that precisely on this there is little to report to you. —Freud, New Introductory Lectures on Psychoanalysis Dreams aren’t what they used to be! —Pontalis, Frontiers in Psychoanalysis The term experiencing . . . will have to be understood theoretically if one wishes to avoid mistaking it for a reference to the unutterable. —Pontalis, Frontiers in Psychoanalysis A considerable psychoanalytic literature on dreams has accumulated since the time of Freud’s 1900 The Interpretation of Dreams. While in the past quarter of a century there may have been a decline in the interest this topic arouses (Flanders, 1993, p. 13), nevertheless, a wide range of clinical and theo- retical innovations have been put forth in numerous articles, books, and 153 debates. As a rule, however, this literature has little relevance for the epistemo- logical question that the present study is dealing with. This chapter will be composed of three parts. In the first part I will briefly describe the nature of the theoretical and clinical innovations that have been put forth and explain why they are irrelevant to this study. In the second part I will describe the post-1900 psychoanalytic attempts—all of which were carried out by Freud—to justify the psychoanalytic theory of dreams. Here we will see that no significant advance has been made in securing a foundation for the dream theory and that it is still in dire need of justification. And in the third part I will take a closer look at one kind of development that has taken place in the under- standing of the meaning of the dream—the development of what I refer to as the Affective-Experiential approach to the meaning of the dream.
eBook - PDFThe Herald Dream
An Approach to the Initial Dream in Psychotherapy
- Richard Kradin(Author)
- 2018(Publication Date)
- Routledge(Publisher)
In addition, this approach can theoretically serve to defend against affects that are embedded in the specific dream images. Jung remarked that if a patient dreams of a “deal table”, then all efforts must be expended towards understanding why that specific table, and not another, was selected by the psyche for its dream narrative. Notes 1. Rabbi Chrispa in the Talmud expressed his skepticism concerning dream interpretation as follows: “The sadness of a bad dream is sufficient to it, and the joy of the dream is sufficient to it.” 2. This is not exactly accurate. Whereas most dreams appear to occur during REM sleep, dreams occur during other stages of sleep as well. 3. Consider the results of the following experiment, in which a subject is told to voluntarily move his arm. Electrodes attached to the musculature of the arm indicate that motor activity begins before the subject is aware of having made the decision to move the arm. It appears that unconscious processing has already prepared the arm for movement before consciousness is aware of its “decision”. 4. This is also a relative statement. Dream research demonstrates that the majority of dreams for most people are best described as “mundane”. 5. Interestingly, this is how feelings are also defined in Buddhist psychology. 6. I stress the conventional experience as experienced meditators report time and events as moments that come and go without clear continuity, more in line with the idea of time as a cyclic phenomenon. 7. Fraser’s text is particularly fascinating. He divides the psychological experience of time into several categories that can be relevant in the practice of psychotherapy. DREAMS IN THEORY 37 8. The term “psychoid” was introduced by Eugen Bleuler and appears repeatedly in the works of C.G. Jung. It refers to those aspects of psycho-somatic function that are beyond the range of experience. This would include all that is unconscious as well as the physical underpinnings of the mind.
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