Interpretation of Dreams- Freud method

Psychoanalyst Sigmund Freud believed that the interpretation of dreams was the “Royal Road to the unconscious.” In examining the content of dreams, Freud developed a number of theories. Amongst these was the interpretation of subconscious thought and how this was expressed in a symbolic language in dreams to avoid the potentially disturbing or harmful content of the unconscious mind.

In his work, Freud categorised the mind into three main parts:

· The Id – which holds all desires, unchecked urges and the fulfilment of wishes;

· The Ego – this is interpreted as the conscious mind;

· The Superego – this exists to maintain censorship over the Id.

During wake time, the Superego functions to control the Id and to keep in check the impulses and desires it develops. In this way, the Superego could be seen as the ‘conscience’ of the mind. Conversely, during sleep periods and through the function of dreaming, one can be aware of the unconscious mind, the Id. Because dreams exist without the normal state of consciousness and conscience, the Id has the opportunity to push all hidden desires to the fore. However, such raw and unchecked desires can be so psychologically virulent that a ‘censor’ is employed by the mind to translate the Id’s values into a more acceptable form of symbolism. This self-induced protection functions to preserve the quality of sleep and prevent adverse reaction to uncontrolled dream imagery. Resultant, cryptic and confusing dreams can occur.

Therefore, if the dream itself can be understood more clearly this could lead to better understanding of the subconscious mind. Fundamentally, Freud believed that dreams constituted “the fulfilment of a wish.” He further proposed that dreams were comprised of two parts:

· Manifest content;

· Latent content.

Manifest content was that which a person could remember upon waking and which they could later describe to another person when recalling their dream. Freud proffered that this manifest dream content was itself meaningless since it only existed to represent the true thought underlying the dream. Freud strongly believed that it was latent content which held the true meaning of the dream – that is, the forbidden thoughts and unconscious desires rendered by the Id. Although these are contained in the manifest content, they are masked and unrecognisable as their true form.

The process which occurs in order for latent dream content to be transformed into more mundane manifest content was described by Freud as ‘dreamwork. ’This dreamwork process exists to re-interpret latent thoughts in four main ways:

1. Condensation
Two or more latent thoughts are combined to make one manifest dream image. A number of dream elements such as themes, images, figures and ideas, are combined so the dream becomes more condensed.

2. Displacement

Emotions and desires are transferred onto a meaningless or unrelated object in the manifest dream and hence avoid the true target of intention.

3. Representation

Complex or very vague concepts are converted into the imagery and the mind may adopt similar words or objects instead of portraying its true intent. Freud stated that dream symbolism was mainly derived from sexual intention which suggests most dreams have a sexual correlation.

4. Secondary revision

In this final stage of dreamwork, Freud advised that absurd and incoherent elements are lost. Thereby, secondary revision can be interpreted as the organisation of the dream into a pattern which is relative and synchronised with the dreamer’s experience of everyday life.

Freud insisted that dreams were inherently formed as a means for the mind to fulfil its otherwise suppressed wishes. If a wish, most likely to be sexual in origin, was unsatisfied during the daily life of the dreamer, then the mind would react to this internal stimulus by creating a visual and explicit fantasy in dreamtime in order to satisfy root desires. He posited that this would create an internal equilibrium and therefore allow for a peaceful night’s sleep

In interpreting the meaning of dreams, Freud used the ‘free association’ method to unearth the underlying latent content behind the dream itself. His patients were asked to describe their dreams in detail and relay the manifest content. They were then asked to focus on a particular element of the dream and form as many associations to this as they were able. This process was continued until all manifest content associations had been discovered and essentially allowed for the ‘dreamwork’ process to be peeled back to reveal the core latent content.

There are many ways to interpret dreams and different psychoanalysts have used various methodologies to analyse what our dreams could possibly represent. Dreams can mean a multitude of things and there are different theories on how to interpret them and the importance that dreams should be afforded. Using Freud's methods of interpretation the results were clear but not finite and could be totally different from the conclusions reached if another methodology, such as that of Jung, was used.

Try it with your friends. I believe it's a nice, funny exercise (as long as the dream is not painful memory). You never know, it may reveal the unconscious truth about you. Good Luck.

PS. The style of this article in not conversational because it was part from my essay.