Outline
1. It is a scientifically proven fact that everyone dreams; however, why people dream remain unresolved.
2. Different theories explain why people dream; Sigmund Freud dream theory, Carl Jung's Theory, Alfred Adler theory, Calvin S. Hall, and Fredrick Perls theory of dreams.
3. Sigmund Freud's Theory on Dreams suggests that people dream because of the activities that they do throughout the day together with their wishes.
4. The id, ego and super ego form part of an individual’s brain.
5. Sigmund Freud's theory of id, ego and super ego, notes that people dream as defense mechanism due to the failure of the ego to balance both super ego and id.
6. Carl Jung believes that dream is a way through which individuals communicate and acquaint themselves with the unconscious.
7. There are seven reasons why people dream as postulated by Jung.
8. According to Adler, dream is an important tool that helps in mastering control over an individual’s waking life.
9. Hall believes that dreams are thoughts that provide a route or map to the mind’s inaccessible regions (unconscious mind).
10. According to Perls, dreams are about the disowned and rejected parts of an individual.
11. An individual’s perception caused by imagination guides of the world results in dreams
12. Diverse imagination guides result in bio-physical logic of consciousness.
13. Robert McCarley and Allan Hobson view dreams as a result of random electrical impulses of the brain during sleep that pulls imagery from activities or experience stored in an individual’s memory.
14. Dreams are also caused by a mere reflection of an individual’s aroused state during the REM sleep.
Scientifically, it has been proven beyond any reasonable doubt that everybody dreams. However, the cause of the dream or why people dream has no scientific fact and has not been proved. This is the reason why various theories that try to explain why people dream and the meanings of such dreams have emerged. Dream theorists such as Sigmund Freud, Carl Jung, Alfred Adler, Calvin Hall Jr. and Frederick Perls have flexed their muscles in this endeavor. Besides these theories, other causes of dream have been postulated, such as the perception. People’s dreaming about things or what they have recently seen is caused by their perception, which arises from their diverse imagination guides. Stress and anxiety are also considered as reasons why people dream. Highlighted hereunder are the extensive reasons why people dream and the meanings of such dreams.
Sigmund Freud, the world’s father of psychoanalysis is believed to be one who revolutionized the understanding of why people dream. Sigmund analysis of dreams helps in the understanding of personality aspects and their relationship to pathology. According to Sigmund Freud, nothing occurs by chance. At a particular level, an individual’s actions and thoughts are aggravated by their unconscious. Further, individuals hold back their urges and repress their impulses solely to live peacefully in a society. Nonetheless, the impulses and urges must be released in certain ways. Sigmund Freud, in his theory of dreams, thus asserts that those urges and impulses are released through dreams. According to Freud, the contents of the dream may be harmful or disturbing. Therefore, the unconscious articulated in a symbolic language--the dream. Sigmund Freud's Theory on Dreams proposes that people dream because of the activities that they undertake throughout the day together with their wishes. Thus, everything that an individual dreams is the effect of his or her experiences and instincts in life (Eddy 2010).
Equally, Freud’s theory of the Id, the Ego and the Superego clearly explains why people dream. The Id, the Ego and the Superego are basic elements of personality and extensively explain why people dream. It is these elements that Freud categorizes as parts of the mind. He notes that the Id follows on primal desires, impulses, unchecked urges, pleasures and wish fulfillment. The Id does not understand any inhibitions and norms. Usually, the Id opposes the superego. The Ego is responsible for the rational, the moral, and the conscious and self awareness aspects of an individual’s mind (Eddy 2010). On the other hand, Freud notes that Superego’s part of the mind censors the Id and is concerned with the reinforcement of Ego’s moral codes. The conscience part of the brain is the superego and usually stands in opposition of the Id’s desires (Eddy 2010). In between the Superego and the Id stands the ego. This stage is where the Id becomes repressed.
According to Freud, the ego is concerned with controlling the uncontrollable Id as well as toning down the inhibitions of the superego. Freud believed that the ego intercedes between superego and the Id. In reaction to an extreme pressure from super ego and id, ego collapses. The failure of the ego to balance both super ego and id makes the mind trigger a defense mechanism usually referred to as dreams. Therefore, according to Sigmund Freud theory of the Id, the ego and the superego, people dream as a result of the failure of the ego to balance both super ego and Id parts of the brain (Dream Moods 2012).
When an individual is not sleeping, the desires and the impulses of the Id are highly suppressed by the superego. Nevertheless, through dreams, an individual is in a position to have a glimpse into his/her unconscious (the id). Freud also believes that dreams manifest covert content. Basically, people dream to as a result of having a glimpse of their unconscious. During the day, the superego perfectly controls the ego and thus an individual acts and behaves in a socially suitable manner (Eddy 2010). When one sleeps, he or she releases all the desires which are socially unacceptable. They thus form the dreams.
According to Freud, people also dream because of their desires, quite often sexual in nature, that are suppliant to be articulated. He suggests that people dream because of their emotions. Quite often, when an individual have a suppressed desire, he or she dreams intensely. During a sleep, a person’s Id needs offer a way to release all unaccepted social desires and urges (Dream Moods 2012). For this reason, an individual’s emotional arousals not expressed whilst awake are likely to make him/her have dreams.
In addition, Sigmund notes that dreams are simply spy holes into people’s unconscious. His theory on dreams adds that people dream basically to relieve sexual nuisance resulting from repressed desire, letting them to act on prohibited impulses. Desires, fears and emotions that an individual is unaware of in effect manifest themselves in form of dreams. As a result, people dream fundamentally to fulfill wishes (Eddy 2010).
Carl Jung believes that dream is a way through which individuals communicate and acquaint themselves with the unconscious (Dream Moods 2012). A dream is not an attempt to conceal the true feelings of an individual, but rather a window to self conscious. Dreams guide the waking mind in achieving wholeness, besides offering solutions to the problems experienced by the waking mind. Ego, according to Jung, is the sense of self and how individuals portray themselves to the outside world. The concept of shadow is acknowledged herein. Jung says that everything can be viewed as a pair of two opposites (contrasts): love or hate, good or evil, or male or female, among others. Therefore, shadow works in opposition to the ego, and represents an aspect of oneself that is rejected, primitive, awkward, and uncultured.
In his theory, Jung postulates that dreams reflect the individual’s self, situations, and relationships during the waking life (Dream Moods 2012). They guide the personal growth and substantially help in achieving the individual’s full (maximum) potential. The meaning of a given dream can therefore be derived from discussing the current events in an individual’s life. Jung gives seven reasons why people dream (Dream Moods 2012). These are the very tools that can be used in interpreting the dreams.
The first reason why people dream is to bring out the persona in them. This is the image presented to the world during the waking life. It is an individual’s public mask and represented by the self. In individual would dream to reflect his/her waking image. Secondly, people dream to bring out the shadow in them. This is the primitive, awkward, uncultured, disguising, and ugly part of oneself that is not revealed to the world. Such dreams result from an individual’s weakness, anger, or fear. The third reason for dreaming is to bring out the feminine or the masculine nature of oneself (anima or animus). The dream reflects how well an individual is able to integrate these qualities. Besides, such dreams serve as a reminder to the dreamer that his/her masculine/feminine qualities need to be expressed. Another reason why people dream is to bring out their true self in the purest form. Such dreams symbolize an individual’s innocence, vulnerability, and helplessness. These dreams also represent an individual’s full potential and aspirations.
The fifth reason why people dream is to bring out the helper in them. A helper can be a teacher, priest, doctor, or an unknown authority who, offers guidance and gives words of wisdom. Such dreams are meant to steer an individual and give guidance towards the right direction in life. The second last reason for dreaming, according to Jung, is to bring out the great mother in someone. The role of the great mother, Jung believes, is to nurture an individual. Negatively, such figures may be brought about in a dream by a witch or an old bag lady, usually linked with seduction, dominance or death. According to some experts, the great mother (real mother) who is the giver of life is jealous of the child’s growth away from her. Finally, dreams are meant for jokes as they keep individuals away from taking themselves too seriously. Such dreams have trickster figures that appear after an individual has misjudged or overreached a situation. The trickster also appears when the dreamer is uncertain about a direction or a decision; makes the dreamer feel embarrassed or uncomfortable, and mocks or exposes the dreamer to the vulnerabilities.
According to Adler, dream is an important tool that helps in mastering control over an individual’s waking life (Dream Moods 2012). Dreams are devices that help in solving problems. Adler believes that dreams correlate with the problems in an individual’s normal daily life. The more problems you have, the more dreams you are most likely to have, and the less healthy you are psychologically. Similarly, the less problems you have, the less dreams you are most likely to have and the more healthy you are psychologically. Dreams are open pathways towards an individual’s true actions, thoughts, and emotions. It is in the dream where ones desires and aggressiveness are revealed.
Adler also postulates that dreams are ways of overcompensating for shortcomings in an individual’s waking life. Finally, dreams offer satisfaction which is more acceptable socially (Dream Moods 2012).
Hall believes that dreams are thoughts that provide a route or map to the mind’s inaccessible regions (the unconscious mind). They are the perfect way of explaining an individual’s behavior and discovering the personal thoughts. They reveal the actual things about an individual. Hall gives five reasons why people dream. These reasons are summarized in his five principle areas of dream. They include: the concepts of self, where one dreams about his/her roles; the concepts of other people, where the roles of other people are reflected in the dream; the concepts of the world, where the dream is focused on how the dreamer views the world; the concepts of prohibitions, impulses and penalties, where the dream is focused on an individual’s behavior and the resulting penalties or punishments; and the concepts of conflicts and problems, where the issues, struggles, and problems an individual faces during the waking life are reflected in the dream (Dream Moods 2012). The dream content and interpretation is based on these concepts.
According to Perls, dreams are about the disowned and rejected parts of an individual. All the objects and characters in a dream represent an aspect of the dreamer, and every dream is unique to the dreamer.
Perception is also regarded by many scholars to be the major cause of dreams. An individual’s perception of the world results in dreams. People’s dreaming about things or people they have recently seen is caused by their perception. This is because, they have diverse imagination guides. It is the imaginations guide that result in bio-physical logic of consciousness, (Bixler 1998). Also, a dream results not only from an individual’s personal experience but as well is linked to the collective conscious that is part of an individual’s mind. This consists of impressions of processes that occur in the world. In effect, people dream simply to accomplish unattained world’s impressions.
Robert McCarley and Allan Hobson theory on dreaming also presents another reason as to why people dream (Obringer 1). However, their theory is totally against the Sigmund Freud’s theory of dreams based on the psychoanalytical ideas. They note that dreams result from random electrical impulses of the brain during sleep that pulls imagery from activities or experience stored in an individual’s memory (Obringer 1). They postulate that the images do not form the stories the people remember as their dreams. On the contrary, their waking minds, as they struggle to get sense out of the imagery form stories without realizing simply because the brain strives to get sense out of its experiences. It is these senses that are reflected as dreams (Obringer 1).
People’s dreams are as well attributed to the physical causes. It is believed that dreams are as a result of Rapid Eye Movement (REM) sleep. Rapid Eye Movement is a sleep cycle where an individual’s eye moves randomly. An individual’s muscles become immobile during REM sleep. It is believed that during this state, people are completely unaware of their physical surrounding. However, the brain forms a pseudo environment that puts an individual to feel like it is real life. It is this state that results in dreaming so that the body is regenerated and any damage is repaired throughout sleep cycle. The REM sleep helps restore mental condition by aiding the processes of emotions, retention of memories and stress relieve. A dream is thus a result of a mere reflection of an individual’s aroused state during the REM sleep.
People as well have bad dreams because of stress and anxiety. People experience lots of troubles. Be it paying tax in or trying to meet a deadline, an individual’s body is put under a sudden pressure. In effect, the mind gradually feed off the stress by engaging in Rapid Eye Movement (REM) sleep, where the brain remains active just like when an individual’s body is awake. As well, illnesses and medication can make one fall prey to dreams/ or nightmares. People who withdraw from medication may suffer from fevers that are believed to causes nightmares.
Over the whole, it is noticed that people dream emotions, experiences and pleasures held during the day. It is as well realized that the content of the dream may be extremely disturbing and harmful. Stress, anxiety and perceptions are some of the realized causes of dreams. The trouble an individual undergoes may also trigger a dream. As noted, troubles gradually feed off the stress by engaging in Rapid Eye Movement (REM) sleep, where the brain remains active just like when an individual’s body is awake.
Works Cited
Bixler-Thomas, G. Understanding Dreams, 1998. Web. 17 April 2012. http://www.ondreaming.com/theories/index.htm
Dream Moods, Dream Theorists, 2012. Web. 15 April 2012. http://www.dreammoods.com/dreaminformation/dreamtheory/
Eddy, S. Dreams part 1: Sigmund Freud’s theory and dream interpretation. 2010. Web. 17 April. 2012. http://psychohawks.wordpress.com/2010/04/07/dreams-freud/
Obringer, L. A. How Dreams Work. Web. 17 April 2012. http://science.howstuffworks.com/environmental/life/human-biology/dream1.htm
Turner, R. Why Do We Dream? Modern Theories of Dreaming. Web. 17 April 2012. http://www.world-of-lucid-dreaming.com/why-do-we-dream.html
