The Psychology of Dreams

Dreams have been a part of man's life ever since the beginning of time and we have been studying them for almost as long. We will forever wonder what they are, what they mean, and what purpose they have. Many theories have been concocted but no single theory has been proven to be completely accurate. As long as man exists, there will be psychologists trying to determine what relationships man has with his dreams.

In my paper, I plan to discuss a few areas in the dreaming world and I plan to cover the following questions:

1. What are dreams?

2. How probable is that dream theory?

3. What do nightmares mean in reference to dreams?

4. Can Sigmund Freud's work really be trusted?

Answering these questions should give a little more insight on dreams and make them more understandable.

What are Dreams?

"When a dream is fully structured-a true dream-its structure can be understood not only as pictures in motion, but usually as metaphor in motion," Ernest Hartmann M.D. said on The Association for the Study of Dreams' website in his Outline for a Theory on the Nature and Functions of Dreaming, in the section titled "Dreams as Explanatory Metaphor" (paragraph 5). In a sense, he is saying that dreams are metaphors.

James W. Kalat said in his book, Introduction to Psychology, "Sigmund Freud maintained that dreams reveal a person's unconscious thoughts and motivations" (166). Combining the information above, I have gathered that dreams are metaphors for unconscious thoughts.

Hartmann also said:

Dreaming allows the making of connections in a safe place. I reviewed many similarities between dreaming (whether or not remembered) and the process of psychotherapy, especially after trauma. Both good psychotherapy after trauma and dreaming first provide a safe place for work to be done. In therapy the safe place is much more than the physical setting; it involves the safe "boundaries" of the therapeutic situation and the gradual trusting alliance formed between patient and therapist. In dreaming-especially in REM sleep-the safe place is provided by the well-established muscular inhibition which prevents activity and the acting out of dreams. ("The Functions of Dreaming", paragraph 1)

Thus said, dreams are therapy for the metaphors of the unconscious mind.

In the book Our Dreaming Mind, the author, Robert L. Van de Castle, Ph.D. reported, "The following quotations show how fully Freud committed himself to the

position that most [dream] symbols had a sexual referent:

...Steps, ladders or staircases, or, as the case may be, walking up or down them, are representations of the sexual act....

...It is highly probable that all complicated machinery and apparatus occurring in dreams stand for the genitals....

...Nor is there any doubt that all weapons and tools are used as symbols for the male organ: e.g. ploughs, hammers, rifles, revolvers, daggers, sabers, etc. In the same way many landscapes in dreams, especially any containing bridges or wooded hills, may be clearly recognized as descriptions of the genitals....

...The genitals can also be represented in dreams in other parts of the body: the male organ by a hand or a foot and the female genital orifice by the mouth or and ear or even an eye" (122-23).

G. W. Domhoff said, "The most common emotion in dreams is apprehension or fear...", as quoted by Kalat, (166-67).

After analyzing the information given by all of these respected scientists, I have come to the conclusion that dreams are therapy for our unconscious sexual thoughts, which have been made metaphorical because of our fear of them. Deep down every individual is afraid of his or her sexuality, his or her sexual relations (or lack there of), or the sex act itself in some vicinity. Dreams are a release of the tension and fear. It is our "unconscious thoughts and motivations" surfacing, but being covered over through metaphors as a way of protecting the part of us that fears what we do not know or do not understand (Kalat). This whole process is therapy in a sense that dreaming lets your

unconscious mind express ideas that may otherwise be consider improper in a non-damaging manor-through metaphors in dreams.

How Probable is That Dream Theory?

As reputable as Sigmund Freud may be or may have been, one does have to question his work somewhat. He seems to have an obsession with sex and sexual issues. So, he either has a firm grip on human sexuality and its reference in dreams or he is expressing deep sexual repression. I personally believe that it is the latter. Kalat says about Freud, "Contrary to what you may have heard, Freud did not see sexual symbolism in all dreams. Curiously, however, the examples he gives of dreams with nonsexual symbolism are his own dreams, and his example of dreams containing sexual symbolism are described as other people's dreams" (570). Clearly there is something deeply wrong with Freud.

In light of this "evidence" I am forced to reexamine my previous statement, "dreams are therapy for our unconscious sexual thoughts which have been made metaphorical because of our fear of them." Perhaps dreams are therapy for all our secret or unacceptable unconscious thoughts, which have been made metaphorical because of our avoidance of our fears. Still, it is difficult to determine exactly what our dreams represent. Keeping in mind Freud's thoughts on dreams, I give to you a dream taken from Jill Morris's The Dream Workbook:

I have brought something inside, or allowed something to enter, that is a type of hornets' nest. I am not alone; someone else is there with me. An enormous hornet crawls out of the nest, lands on the back of my neck, lodges in, and draws blood. It is slightly painful. I have the feeling it has gone in deep, and that it should be more painful than it is. I don't move. More nests appear. They look like water bombs I made as a kid. The other person there is my mother; she pierces each nest and a blue fluid oozes out. (20-21)

What possible unconscious sexual thoughts could this individual be having? Perhaps dreaming is more of a method the body uses to entertain and preoccupy the imaginative part of the mind during the brain's resting and recuperating period.

What Do Nightmares Mean in Reference to Dreams?

Nightmares, and the liking, I believe, are somewhat different than "regular" dreams. Nightmares do not deal with entertainment, however they involve fear. Morris explains, "Dreams provide the ideal arena in which to work past fear because they are ultimately safe; we can't be physically harmed, and our psyches prevent us from delving deeper into a dream than we can handle" (152). This theory makes far more sense in comparison to Freud's sexually related theory, which is also presented in Morris's book, "According to Freud, every dream represents the fulfillment of a repressed wish. When the nature of the wish is extremely unacceptable (sexual, especially incestuous) and yet

the force of the desire threatens to overcome the repression, a nightmare occurs and the conflict is interrupted by the dreamer's waking up" (149). It is pretty hard to conceive how nightmares are directly related to sexuality and/or sexual incidents when most nightmares consist of "paralysis, suffocation, falling, drowning, death, public nudity", and other humiliating or life threatening situations (Morris, 151). Yet, Freud stood by his work and his beliefs.
Dreams, I believe, are linked to fear. I have personal experience that causes me to believe this. I was never afraid of falling when I was a kid. I used to climb anything and everything, especially trees. I was never afraid even when I did fall. Then I dreamed about falling. That is when I became afraid of it. My dreams of this were so real that I could feel the sensation of falling and feel the impact when I hit the ground. There is no doubt in my mind that dreams are somehow related to fears. They either cause them or cause them to surface. Rosemary Ellen Guiley says in her book, The Encyclopedia of Dreams, that falling means something a little different. "When you fall in a dream, it could symbolize a feeling of failure, a fear of failure, or anxiety that you are in a situation over which you have no control" (27). Dreams are directly connected with fear, or rather some of the content in dreams is directly related to fears. This does not, however, explain why I am both afraid of falling and failure, so the theory cannot be completely solid. Can Sigmund Freud's Work Really be Trusted?

After reading what Sigmund Freud has contributed to the world of psychology, one often wonders if he has really contributed anything at all. He was clearly missing something and obviously obsessed with sex and made it referent to all aspects of psychology, but that does not make it necessarily true. Kalat reports:

"Sigmund Freud...would have liked to become a professor of cultural history or anthropology...As a Jew in late 19^th-century Austria, however, he knew that he had little chance of becoming a university professor. The only professional careers open to Jews...were in law, business, and medicine. Freud chose medicine with out any deep commitment to the field." (485)

Freud was not even interested in psychology. It seems to me that it was just something to do. So it is conceivable that his work might not be all that accurate due to the simple fact that he just was not interested in the subject. Freud said that ladders and bridges in dreams were related to sex (Van de Castle, 123). Ladders, according to Guiley "unite heaven and earth" and bridges are a "transition from one state to another" (148, 96). This is just one more reason to question Freud's work. Unfortunately, Freud is no longer on this earth, so we are unable to question his work. We will probably never know just how accurate is work really is or is not.

I am maintaining my original theory with one slight modification. Dreams are therapy for all our secret or unacceptable unconscious thoughts, especially those dealing with sexuality, which have been made metaphorical because of our fear of them, and the dream's purpose is to release that fear and tension in a non-threatening manor, but they also somehow help to either cause the fear or cause it to surface.

References

Guiley, Rosemary Ellen. (1993). The Encyclopedia of Dreams: Symbols and Interpretations. New York: The Crossroad Publishing Company.

Hartmann M.D., Ernest. (1996). Outline for a Theory on the Nature and Functions of Dreaming. The Association for the Study of Dreams. [Online]. Available: http://www.asdreams.org/journal/articles/outline.htm [1999, November 26]

Kalat, James W. (1999). Introduction to Psychology. (5^th Ed.) California: Wadsworth (Canada) Publishing Company.
Morris, Jill. (1985). The Dream Workbook. Canada: Little, Brown and Company Limited.

Van de Castle Ph.D., Robert L. (1994). Our Dreaming Mind. New York: Ballantine Books.