Dream Interpretation and Sigmund Freud
In the early part of the 19th century, dream interpretation had
fallen out of fashion, and almost no one practiced this art
seriously. In the early part of the century, dreams were thought
to have no meaning at all, and to be simply the result of a
heavy meal before bedtime, noises heard in the night and other
trivial causes. By the latter part of the 19th century, however,
Sigmund Freud would revolutionize the world of dreams and dream
interpretation with his radical new ideas incorporating dreams
and deep seated childhood fears. Born in 1865, Sigmund Freud
revolutionized the world of psychiatry and dream interpretation
with his seminal work "The Interpretation of Dreams". Freud
started to analyze the dreams of his patients, and he used this
dream analysis to diagnose and treat their psychiatric ills.
Freud also studied dreams as a way to understand certain aspects
of the personality, especially those aspects that lead to
psychological problems and disorders. Freud believed that
nothing human beings did happened by chance, and that every
action, no matter how small or seemingly trivial, was at some
level motivated by the unconscious mind. Of course in order for
a civilized, modern society to function, certain primal needs
and desires must be repressed, and Freud's theory was that these
repressed urges and desires were released by the unconscious
during dream sleep. Doctor Freud saw dreams as a direct
connection to the unconscious mind, and he studied that
connection through the interpretation of symbolic objects found
in dreams. The theory was that with the conscious mind acts as a
guard on the unconscious, preventing certain repressed feelings
from coming to the surface. During sleep, however, this
conscious guard is absent, and the subconscious mind is free to
run wild and express its most hidden desires. Freud was
especially interested in the sexual content of dreams, and he
often saw ordinary objects in dreams as representations of
sexual desire. To Freud, every long, slender item encountered in
a dream, from a knife to a flagpole, was a phallic image, while
any receptacle such as a bowl or vase, represented the female
genitalia. Freud believed in five stages of personality, and he
saw dreams as manifestations of desired stemming from each of
these five stages. To Freud, personality formation consisted of:
Stage One - Oral/Dependency Freud's theory was that any needs
not satisfied during the oral/dependency stage would cause the
person to go through life trying to meet them. Thus, to Freud,
habits such as overeating, drinking to much and smoking were all
oral fixations. People suffering from these oral fixations often
dreamed about their unmet needs and desires.
Stage Two - Anal/Potty Training Freud held that improper potty
training could traumatize a child, and cause him or her to
become anal retentive, rigid and controlling. Such traumatized
children often develop obsessive compulsive disorders as well.
Recurring dreams of being out of control, such as dreams of
falling were common in such people.
Stage Three - Phallic According to Freud, the personality is
completely developed by the time stage three rolls around. The
third stage of personality is identified with the Oedipus and
Electra complexes. The Oedipus complex represents the love a
male child feels toward the mother, coupled with fear and
jealousy of the male parent. The Electra complex is the female
version of Oedipus, in which the female child feels anger toward
the mother and develops "penis envy".
Stage Four - Latency Unlike the other stages, the latency period
is a time of relative calm. During this stage, the aggression
and sexual urges are less intense, and little psychosexual
conflict is exhibited.
Stage Five - Genital This is the period of sexual maturity and
the creation and enhancement of life. The stage of sexual
maturity is where reproduction, intellectual activity and
artistic pursuits take place.
Freud believed that wish fulfillment was the source of dreams,
and that dreamers used dreams as a way to satisfy the fixations
they had developed during childhood. In addition, issues like
power and control frequently manifested themselves in dreams.
The central part of Freud's dream theory was that thoughts and
desires repressed during the day were free to run wild during
the dream stage.
Since Freud's death, many have criticized him for seeing sexual
motivation behind every dream object. Many have pointed out that
Freud was born into the sexually repressed Victorian era, and
his preoccupation with sexual matters could have been as much a
product of the times in which he lived as a valid scientific
theory. Even so, many of Freud's dream interpretations have
proven valid and are still used by psychologists and dream
researchers today.