For thousands of years, many philosophers have been fascinated by dreams, but it has only been recently that empirical research that concentrated on the scientific study of dreams has been started. Almost every person is puzzled by dreams and the big question is why people dream. Though a lot of explanations have been made to try and explain the basic question about dreams, a lot is still not satisfactory explained and the need for the answers is still an expectation by many dreamers. What is the meaning of a dream and why do people dream? These are just some of the many questions in many dreamer's mind.
Sigmund Freud suggested the psychoanalytic theory of dreams which is considered to be consistent with the psychoanalytic perspective. According to Sigmund, dreams are a representation of unconscious motivations, thoughts and desire. Sexual and aggressive instincts are a driving factor to people, and they are observed to be repressed from the conscious awareness (Sigmund F, 2011). These thoughts according to Freud are not consciously expressed, and hence they are able to find their way into a person’s awareness through dreams.
A dream is a disguised fulfillment of a repressed wish(Sigmund F, 2004). There are two significantly different components of dreams:
- Manifest content.
- Latent content.
The manifest content component of the dream is described to be made up of actual thoughts, images, and content. On the other hand the hidden psychological dream meaning is represented by the latent content component of dreams.
Dream interpretation in the modern day society acknowledges Freud as a significant contributor to dreams and its interpretation in his theory. However, though Freud has been able to explain the content of dreams and why people dream, he was not able to demonstrate that the dreams real psychological significance is disguised by the manifest content component of the dream.
References
Sigmund F, (2004),The Interpretation Of Dreams, Kessinger Publishing, LLC.
Sigmund F, (2011),The Interpretation of Dreams, Empire Books Publishers.
