WHAT DREAMS MAY COME
May 16, 2004 | 12:00am
Sigmund Freud, Viennese psychologist and medical doctor, founder of psychoanalysis and interpreter of dreams, is a favorite among psychology students and teachers. His book The Interpretation of Dreams is his seminal work in understanding the human mind. Published by Avon Books in June 1998 and edited by James Strachey, it explains Freud’s method of interpreting dreams. Furthermore, it presents Freud’s ideas on the purposes of dreams in our lives, the meanings of common dreams and the most typical symbols in dreams. This book provides an enriching experience for medical doctors, college professors, psychologists, guidance counselors and psychiatrists, but can be understood by any layman who loves to read psychology books and articles.
The scientific literature dealing with the problems of dreams contained in the first chapter brings forward proof that there is a psychological technique that makes it possible to interpret dreams; and that, if that procedure is employed, every dream reveals itself as a psychical structure that has a meaning and can be inserted at an assignable point in the mental activities of waking life. Freud, therefore, endeavors to elucidate the processes to which the strangeness and obscurity of dreams are due and to deduce from those processes the nature of the psychical forces by whose concurrent or mutual opposing actions dreams are generated. His description of dreams breaks off and has reached a point at which the problems in dreams merge into more comprehensive ones; the solution of any problem must be approached upon the basis of the material of another kind.
The distinguishing psychological characteristics of dreams include scenes of actions of dreams different from that of waking ideational life. It has been remarked that one of the principal peculiarities of dream life makes its appearance during the very process of falling asleep and may be described as a phenomenon heralding sleep. Dreams are presented essentially as images and with the approach of sleep, it is possible to observe how, as voluntary activities become more difficult, involuntary ideas arise, all of which fall into the ideas of images. While the waking state is characterized by thought activity taking place in concepts, images are the essential features of dream life. These images are identical to hypnologic hallucinations occurring in hypnotism.
Theories of dreams include that of Dexboeuf (1885), according to which the whole of psychical activity continues in dreams. The mind, he assumes in this theory, does not sleep and its apparatus remains intact since it falls under the conditions of the state of sleep which differs from those of waking life, its normal functioning necessarily produces different results during sleep.
Another theory is that dreams imply a lowering of psychical activity, a loosening of connections and an impoverishment of the material accessible in the real world. Sleep according to such theory has a far-reaching influence upon the mind: It does not consist merely of the mind being shut off from the external world, it forces its way rather to the mental mechanism and throws it temporarily out of use.
The theory most popular with medical writers and other authors in the scientific world states that only a fragment of mental activity finds expression in dreams, since the mind has been paralyzed by sleep. It regards a dream as the result of a partial awakening. Freud’s further explanation about dreams states: "A dream is a fulfillment of a wish." They are psychical phenomena of complete valid fulfillment of wishes. They can be inserted into the chain of intelligible waking mental acts, and are constructed by a highly complicated activity of the mind.
Freud’s further explanation may be summarized as "a second dream may turn out to be a fulfilled fear; the content of a third might be a reflection; while the fourth might merely reproduce a memory." The frequency of my dreams of seeing my friends from 20 years before whom I have not met ever since may be my longing to see them once again, an unfulfilled desire that has been kept hidden within myself. They appear vivid in my dreams, the scenes more beautiful and more memorable. The more I see them in my dreams, the more I long to see them in reality and renew acquaintances, for pleasant memories are worthy treasures.
Dreams can be insights – knowledge and ideas that can guide us through life and can solve our problems. They may be messages from God, as Joseph had interpreted dreams while in prison and which led to his freedom and later became ruler of Egypt.
Sometimes our relatives in the great beyond communicate with us in dreams, and this way we must obey. When my father died years ago, he always talked to me in my dreams, telling me what I would do with the family, and there I obeyed him. Oftentimes I would consult the book Interpretation of Dreams so Freud can share with me the meaning of my dream. Furthermore, pray to God, ask something from Him and He will answer you in your dreams for through them He gives His guidance.
The scientific literature dealing with the problems of dreams contained in the first chapter brings forward proof that there is a psychological technique that makes it possible to interpret dreams; and that, if that procedure is employed, every dream reveals itself as a psychical structure that has a meaning and can be inserted at an assignable point in the mental activities of waking life. Freud, therefore, endeavors to elucidate the processes to which the strangeness and obscurity of dreams are due and to deduce from those processes the nature of the psychical forces by whose concurrent or mutual opposing actions dreams are generated. His description of dreams breaks off and has reached a point at which the problems in dreams merge into more comprehensive ones; the solution of any problem must be approached upon the basis of the material of another kind.
The distinguishing psychological characteristics of dreams include scenes of actions of dreams different from that of waking ideational life. It has been remarked that one of the principal peculiarities of dream life makes its appearance during the very process of falling asleep and may be described as a phenomenon heralding sleep. Dreams are presented essentially as images and with the approach of sleep, it is possible to observe how, as voluntary activities become more difficult, involuntary ideas arise, all of which fall into the ideas of images. While the waking state is characterized by thought activity taking place in concepts, images are the essential features of dream life. These images are identical to hypnologic hallucinations occurring in hypnotism.
Theories of dreams include that of Dexboeuf (1885), according to which the whole of psychical activity continues in dreams. The mind, he assumes in this theory, does not sleep and its apparatus remains intact since it falls under the conditions of the state of sleep which differs from those of waking life, its normal functioning necessarily produces different results during sleep.
Another theory is that dreams imply a lowering of psychical activity, a loosening of connections and an impoverishment of the material accessible in the real world. Sleep according to such theory has a far-reaching influence upon the mind: It does not consist merely of the mind being shut off from the external world, it forces its way rather to the mental mechanism and throws it temporarily out of use.
The theory most popular with medical writers and other authors in the scientific world states that only a fragment of mental activity finds expression in dreams, since the mind has been paralyzed by sleep. It regards a dream as the result of a partial awakening. Freud’s further explanation about dreams states: "A dream is a fulfillment of a wish." They are psychical phenomena of complete valid fulfillment of wishes. They can be inserted into the chain of intelligible waking mental acts, and are constructed by a highly complicated activity of the mind.
Freud’s further explanation may be summarized as "a second dream may turn out to be a fulfilled fear; the content of a third might be a reflection; while the fourth might merely reproduce a memory." The frequency of my dreams of seeing my friends from 20 years before whom I have not met ever since may be my longing to see them once again, an unfulfilled desire that has been kept hidden within myself. They appear vivid in my dreams, the scenes more beautiful and more memorable. The more I see them in my dreams, the more I long to see them in reality and renew acquaintances, for pleasant memories are worthy treasures.
Dreams can be insights – knowledge and ideas that can guide us through life and can solve our problems. They may be messages from God, as Joseph had interpreted dreams while in prison and which led to his freedom and later became ruler of Egypt.
Sometimes our relatives in the great beyond communicate with us in dreams, and this way we must obey. When my father died years ago, he always talked to me in my dreams, telling me what I would do with the family, and there I obeyed him. Oftentimes I would consult the book Interpretation of Dreams so Freud can share with me the meaning of my dream. Furthermore, pray to God, ask something from Him and He will answer you in your dreams for through them He gives His guidance.
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