Dream Analysis Essay

The question of why we dream has fascinated people for centuries. In Freud’s book The Interpretation of Dreams published in 1900, he introduced his theory on the meaning and purpose of dreaming. To Freud, dreams were “the royal road to the unconscious.” According to his ideas about dreams, the dream serves as a road into our unconscious. His theory gives us insight to the unconscious mind and allows us to satisfy our urges and desires while protected by sleep. These urges and desires are translated into symbols while dreaming, which causes the dream to be nonsensical. Freud believed that dreams serve three main purposes. He believed that by dreaming, we are able to fulfill our urges and desires, even if only in our unconscious mind in a symbolic
Through dream analysis, psychoanalysts try to make sense of the imagined symbols in the dream. Due to the symbolic nature of dreams, a dream where one imagines themselves as a superhero who can turn invisible and apparate on command does not mean they wish to be a superhero. In order to find the deeper meaning to this superhero dream, we turn to dream analysis. The content of dreams can be divided into two categories; latent content and manifest content. The manifest content of a dream is the actual content of the dream. If a dream analyst can get through the manifest content of a dream, they can begin to discover the latent content. Latent content is what the symbols in the dream mean and represent. In the superhero dream above, the manifest content would be the superhero that could turn invisible and apparate, while the latent content would be what the invisible, apparating superhero actually represent in the conscious
Psychoanalysis, developed by Freud, is still largely used today as a means to treat a vast array of mental disorders. It is well known that Freud was extremely fascinated, almost fixated, on sex, so it comes as no surprise that he believed that sexual desires were represented in dreams. I agree that some dreams are symbolic of wishes, desires, and anxieties experienced or desired by the conscious mind, but I think that there are times when dreams lack the significant deeper meaning that Freud believed all dreams possessed. Since sleep serves as a way to consolidate memories, I think dreams are impacted by our day in addition to our wishes. Freud’s theory focused on deciphering the symbols in dreams, and I agree that often we dream in symbols which cause our dreams to become incomprehensible, but I also think sometimes we just dream things as they are. Everyone reports dreaming differently, some dream in black and white while others dream in color and some recall dreaming every night and other rarely recall dreaming. In my opinion, dreaming can serve different purposes for different people, and the purpose can change from day to day. Some people may dream to make sense and fulfill their unconscious wishes as Freud proposed, but others may dream to consolidate memories from the day, leading