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{{Short description|Assigning of meaning to dreams}}
'''Dream interpretation''' is the process of assigning meaning to ]s. In many of the ancient societies, including ] and ], dreaming was considered a supernatural communication or a means of divine intervention, whose message could be unravelled by those with certain powers. In modern times, various schools of ] have offered theories about the meaning of dreams.
{{For|similar terms|Dream Interpretation (album)|Interpretation of dreams (disambiguation)}}
{{Redirect|Dream analysis|the book by Carl Jung|Dream Analysis}}
{{Original research|date=August 2022}}] cartoon of political activist ] dreaming of faceless judges unfurling scrolls listing charges and punishments]]


'''Dream interpretation''' is the process of assigning meaning to ]s.
In the Western world, the first major work on dream interpretation was the ] '']'' by ], which interpreted the meaning of many subjects of dreams. Dream interpretation was taken up as part of ] at the end of the ]; the perceived, ''manifest'' content of a dream is analyzed to reveal its ''latent'' meaning to the ] of the dreamer. One of the seminal works on the subject is '']'' by ].


In many ancient societies, such as those of ] and ], dreaming was considered a supernatural communication or a means of ], whose message could be interpreted by people with these associated spiritual powers. In the ], various schools of ] and ] have offered theories about the meaning and purpose of dreams.
== Early history ==


==History==
The ] constructed temples they called ]s, where sick people were sent to be cured. It was believed that cures would be effected through ] by ] within the confines of the temple. Dreams were also considered prophetic or ]s of particular significance. In ], priests also acted as dream interpreters. ] is recorded as having interpreted dreams sent from ] to the ] in ], and indeed the ] describes many incidents of dreams as ]. ] depicting dreams and their interpretations are evident. Dreams have been held in considerable importance through history by most cultures.
===Early civilizations===
] '']'' (''Tablet V pictured'') contains numerous examples of dream interpretation.<ref name="BlackGreen1992"/>]]

The ancient ]ians in ] have left evidence of dream interpretation dating back to at least 3100 BC in Mesopotamia.<ref name="Seligman">Seligman, K. (1948), ''Magic, Supernaturalism and Religion''. New York: Random House</ref><ref name="BlackGreen1992"/> Throughout Mesopotamian history, dreams were always held to be extremely important for ]<ref name="BlackGreen1992"/><ref name="Oppenheim">Oppenheim, L.A. (1966). ''Mantic Dreams in the Ancient Near East'' in G. E. Von Grunebaum & R. Caillois (Eds.), ''The Dream and Human Societies'' (pp. 341–350). London, England: Cambridge University Press.</ref> and Mesopotamian kings paid close attention to them.<ref name="BlackGreen1992"/><ref name="Seligman"/> ], the king of the Sumerian city-state of ] (reigned {{circa}} 2144–2124 BC), rebuilt the temple of ] as the result of a dream in which he was told to do so.<ref name="BlackGreen1992"/> The standard ] '']'' contains numerous accounts of the prophetic power of dreams.<ref name="BlackGreen1992">{{cite book|last1=Black|first1=Jeremy|first2=Anthony|last2=Green|title=Gods, Demons and Symbols of Ancient Mesopotamia: An Illustrated Dictionary|location=Austin, Texas|publisher=University of Texas Press|year=1992|isbn=0714117056|pages=71–72, 89–90}}</ref><ref>Thompson, R. (1930) ''The Epic of Gilgamesh.'' Oxford: Oxford University Press.</ref><ref>George, A. trans. (2003) The Babylonian Gilgamesh Epic: Critical Edition and Cuneiform Texts. Oxford, UK: Oxford University Press.</ref> First, ] himself has two dreams foretelling the arrival of ].<ref name="BlackGreen1992"/> In one of these dreams, Gilgamesh sees an axe fall from the sky. The people gather around it in admiration and worship. Gilgamesh throws the axe in front of his mother ] and then embraces it like a wife. Ninsun interprets the dream to mean that someone powerful will soon appear. Gilgamesh will struggle with him and try to overpower him, but he will not succeed. Eventually, they will become close friends and accomplish great things. She concludes, "That you embraced him like a wife means he will never forsake you. Thus your dream is solved."<ref>Oppenheim, A. (1956) The interpretation of dreams in the ancient Near East with a translation of an Assyrian dreambook. ''Transactions of the American Philosophical Society,'' 46(3): 179–373. p. 247.</ref> Later in the epic, Enkidu dreams about the heroes' encounter with the giant ].<ref name="BlackGreen1992"/> Dreams were also sometimes seen as a means of seeing into other worlds<ref name="BlackGreen1992"/> and it was thought that the soul, or some part of it, moved out of the body of the sleeping person and actually visited the places and persons the dreamer saw in his or her sleep.<ref name=":2">Caillois, R. (1966). ''Logical and Philosophical Problems of the Dream''. In G.E. Von Grunebaum & R. Caillos (Eds.), ''The Dream and Human Societies''(pp. 23–52). London, England: Cambridge University Press.</ref> In Tablet VII of the epic, Enkidu recounts to Gilgamesh a dream in which he saw the gods ], ], and ] condemn him to death.<ref name="BlackGreen1992"/> He also has a dream in which he visits the ].<ref name="BlackGreen1992"/>

The ]n king ] (reigned 883–859 BC) built a temple to Mamu, possibly the god of dreams, at ], near ].<ref name="BlackGreen1992"/> The later Assyrian king ] (reigned 668–{{circa}} 627 BC) had a dream during a desperate military situation in which his divine patron, the goddess ], appeared to him and promised that she would lead him to victory.<ref name="BlackGreen1992"/> The ]ns and Assyrians divided dreams into "good," which were sent by the gods, and "bad," sent by demons.<ref name="Oppenheim"/> A surviving collection of dream omens entitled '']'' records various dream scenarios as well as ] of what will happen to the person who experiences each dream, apparently based on previous cases.<ref name="BlackGreen1992"/><ref>Nils P. Heessel : ''Divinatorische Texte I : ... oneiromantische Omina''. Harrassowitz Verlag, 2007.</ref> Some list different possible outcomes, based on occasions in which people experienced similar dreams with different results.<ref name="BlackGreen1992"/> Dream scenarios mentioned include a variety of daily work events, journeys to different locations, family matters, ]s, and encounters with human individuals, animals, and deities.<ref name="BlackGreen1992"/>
]

In ], priests acted as dream interpreters. ]ics depicting dreams and their interpretations are evident. Dreams have been held in considerable importance through history by most cultures.

===Classical Antiquity===
The ] constructed temples they called ]s, where sick people were sent to be cured. It was believed that cures would be effected through ] by ] within the confines of the temple. Dreams were also considered prophetic or ]s of particular significance. ] of Daldis, who lived in the 2nd century AD, wrote a comprehensive text '']'' (''The Interpretation of Dreams'').<ref>Artemidorus (1990) The Interpretation of Dreams: Oneirocritica. White, R., trans., Torrance, CA: Original Books, 2nd Edition.</ref> Although Artemidorus believed that dreams can predict the future, he presaged many contemporary approaches to dreams. He thought that the meaning of a dream image could involve puns and could be understood by decoding the image into its component words. For example, Alexander, while waging war against the Tyrians, dreamt that a satyr was dancing on his shield. Artemidorus reports that this dream was interpreted as follows: satyr = ''sa tyros'' ("Tyre will be thine"), predicting that Alexander would be triumphant. Freud acknowledged this example of Artemidorus when he proposed that dreams be interpreted like a rebus.<ref name="Freud, S. 1900">Freud, S. (1900) ''The Interpretation of Dreams.'' New York: Avon, 1980.</ref>

===Middle Ages===
In ], certain ]s indicate that ]s consist of three parts, and early ] recognized three kinds of dreams: false, pathogenic, and true.<ref name=Amber-376>{{Harv|Haque|2004|p=376}}</ref> ] (654–728) was renowned for his ''Ta'bir al-Ru'ya'' and ''Muntakhab al-Kalam fi Tabir al-Ahlam'', a book on dreams. The work is divided into 25 sections on dream interpretation, from the etiquette of interpreting dreams to the interpretation of reciting certain ]hs of the ] in one's dream. He writes that it is important for a layperson to seek assistance from an ] (Muslim scholar) who could guide in the interpretation of dreams with a proper understanding of the cultural context and other such causes and interpretations.<ref name=Amber-375>{{Harv|Haque|2004|p=375}}</ref> ] (Alkindus) (801–873) also wrote a treatise on dream interpretation: ''On Sleep and Dreams''.<ref name=Amber-361>{{Harv|Haque|2004|p=361}}</ref> In ] studies, ] (872–951) wrote the ''On the Cause of Dreams'', which appeared as chapter 24 of his ''Book of Opinions of the people of the Ideal City''. It was a treatise on ]s, in which he was the first to distinguish between dream interpretation and the nature and causes of dreams.<ref name=Amber-363>{{Harv|Haque|2004|p= 363}}</ref> In '']'', ] extended the theory of ]s to encompass "]al aspects, mental capacity, ] attitudes, ], movements and ]s."<ref name=Lutz>{{citation |first=Peter L. |last=Lutz |year=2002 |title=The Rise of Experimental Biology: An Illustrated History |page=60 |publisher=] |isbn=0-89603-835-1}}</ref> ]'s '']'' (1377) states that "confused dreams" are "pictures of the imagination that are stored inside by ] and to which the ability to think is applied, after (man) has retired from ] perception."<ref>], ], N.J. Dawood (1967), ''The Muqaddimah, trans.'', p. 338, ], {{ISBN|0-691-01754-9}}</ref>

Ibn Shaheen states: "Interpretations change their foundations according to the different conditions of the seer (of the vision), so seeing handcuffs during sleep is disliked but if a righteous person sees them it can mean stopping the hands from evil". Ibn Sirin said about a man who saw himself giving a sermon from the mimbar: "He will achieve authority and if he is not from the people who have any kind of authority it means that he will be crucified".

===China===
A standard traditional Chinese book on dream-interpretation is the ''Lofty Principles of Dream Interpretation'' (夢占逸旨) compiled in the 16th century by Chen Shiyuan (particularly the "Inner Chapters" of that opus).<ref></ref><ref></ref><ref></ref><ref></ref> Chinese thinkers also raised profound ideas about dream interpretation, such as the question of how we know we are dreaming and how we know we are awake. It is written in the ]: "Once Chuang Chou dreamed that he was a butterfly. He fluttered about happily, quite pleased with the state that he was in, and knew nothing about Chuang Chou. Presently he awoke and found that he was very much Chuang Chou again. Now, did Chou dream that he was a butterfly or was the butterfly now dreaming that he was Chou?" This raises the question{{According to whom|date=August 2022}} of reality monitoring in dreams, a topic of intense interest in modern cognitive neuroscience.<ref>{{cite journal | last1 = Johnson | first1 = M. | last2 = Kahan | first2 = T. | last3 = Raye | first3 = C. | year = 1984 | title = Dreams and reality monitoring | journal = Journal of Experimental Psychology: General | volume = 113 | issue = 3| pages = 329–344 | doi=10.1037/0096-3445.113.3.329| pmid = 6237167 }}</ref><ref>{{cite journal | last1 = Blechner | first1 = M | year = 2005 | title = Elusive illusions: Reality judgment and reality assignment in dreams and waking life | journal = Neuro-Psychoanalysis | volume = 7 | pages = 95–101 | doi=10.1080/15294145.2005.10773477| s2cid = 145533839 }}</ref>

===Modern Europe===
In the 17th century, the English physician and writer Sir ] wrote a short tract upon the interpretation of dreams. Dream interpretation became an important part of ] at the end of the 19th century with ]'s seminal work '']'' (''Die Traumdeutung''; literally "dream-interpretation").<ref name="Freud, S. 1900"/>

==Psychology==


== Psychology ==
===Freud=== ===Freud===
{{psychoanalysis}}
{{Citations missing|section|date=January 2007}}
In ''The Interpretation of Dreams'', ] argued that all dream content is disguised ] (later in '']'', Freud would discuss dreams which do not appear to be wish-fulfillment). According to Freud, the instigation of a dream is often to be found in the events of the day preceding the dream, which he called the "day residue." In very young children, this can be easily seen, as they dream quite straightforwardly of the fulfillment of wishes that were aroused in them the previous day (the "dream day"). In adults the situation is more complicated since, in Freud's analysis, the dreams of adults have been subjected to distortion, with the dream's so-called "]"<ref>{{cite book |editor-last=Nagera |editor-first=Humberto |chapter=Manifest content (pp. 52ff.) |chapter-url=https://books.google.com/books?id=gZixAwAAQBAJ&pg=PT44 |title=Basic Psychoanalytic Concepts on the Theory of Dreams |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=gZixAwAAQBAJ |year=2014 |orig-date=1969 |publisher=] |location=] |isbn=978-1-31767047-6 }}</ref> being a heavily disguised derivative of the "]"<ref>{{cite book |editor-last=Nagera |editor-first=Humberto |chapter=Latent dream-content (pp. 31ff.) |chapter-url=https://books.google.com/books?id=PbauAwAAQBAJ&pg=PA31 |title=Basic Psychoanalytic Concepts on the Theory of Dreams |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=PbauAwAAQBAJ |year=2014 |orig-year=1969 |publisher=Routledge |location=Abingdon-on-Thames |isbn=978-1-31767048-3 }}</ref> present in the ].<ref>{{Cite book|title=The interpretation of dreams|last=Freud |first=Sigmund |date=2010|publisher=Basic Books A Member of the Perseus Books Group|others=Strachey, James.|isbn=9780465019779|location=New York|oclc=434126117}}</ref> The dream's real significance is thus concealed: dreamers are no more capable of recognizing the actual meaning of their dreams than hysterics are able to understand the connection and significance of their neurotic symptoms.
<!-- This section needs to be reviewed as someone graffiti'ed it... not sure if the content is right. -->
In his book '']'', first published at the end of the ], ] argued that the foundation of all dream content is the fulfillment of wishes, conscious or not. The theory explains that the schism between '']'' and '']'' leads to "]" of dreams. The unconscious would "like" to depict the wish fulfilled wholesale, but the preconscious cannot allow it &mdash; the wish (or wishes) within a dream is thus disguised, and, as Freud argues, only an understanding of the structure of the dream-work can explain the dream. In every dream in which he attempts to do so, he is able to establish a multitude of wishes on a variety of levels &mdash; conscious wishes for the immediate future ("I hope I pass this test" (V§D.δ))


In Freud's original formulation, the latent dream-thought was described as having been subject to an intra-psychic force referred to as "the censor"; in the terminology of his later years, however, discussion was in terms of the ] and the work of the ]'s defence mechanisms. In waking life, he asserted, these "resistances" prevented the repressed wishes of the unconscious from entering consciousness, and though these wishes were to some extent able to emerge due to the lowered vigilance of the sleep state, the resistances were still strong enough to force them to take on a disguised or distorted form. Freud's view was that dreams are ''compromises'' which ensure that sleep is not interrupted: as "a ''disguised'' fulfilment of ''repressed'' wishes," they succeed in representing wishes as fulfilled which might otherwise disturb and waken the sleeper.<ref>{{cite journal | last1 = Matalon | first1 = Nadav | year = 2011 | title = The Riddle Of Dreams | journal = Philosophical Psychology | volume = 24 | issue = 4| pages = 517–536 | doi=10.1080/09515089.2011.556605| s2cid = 144246389 }}</ref>
Freud listed four transformations applied to wishes in order to avoid censorship:


One of Freud's early dream analyses is "]", a dream he himself had. In the dream a former patient of his, Irma, complains of pains and Freud's colleague gives her an unsterile injection. Freud provides pages of associations to the elements in his dream, using it to demonstrate his technique of decoding the latent dream thoughts from the manifest content of the dream.<ref>{{cite web |last1=Freud |first1=Sigmund |title=The Interpretation of Dreams |url=http://psychclassics.yorku.ca/Freud/Dreams/dreams2.htm |website=Classics in the History of Psychology |access-date=19 August 2023}}</ref>
* ''Condensation'' &mdash; one dream object stands for several thoughts
* ''Displacement'' &mdash; a dream object's psychical importance is assigned to an object that does not raise the censor's suspicions
* ''Representation'' &mdash; a thought is translated to visual images
* ''Symbolism'' &mdash; a symbol replaces an action, person, or idea


Freud suggests that the true meaning of a dream must be "weeded out" from the dream as recalled:<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.womenio.com/214/remembering-and-understanding-your-dreams|title=Remembering and Understanding your Dreams|last=Wilson|first=Cynthia|date=3 April 2012|publisher=Womenio|access-date=28 May 2012}}</ref>
These transformations help to disguise the ''latent'' content, transforming it into the ''manifest'' content, what is actually seen by the dreamer. The basis for all of these systems, he claimed, was "transference", in which a would-be censored wish of the unconscious is given undeserved "psychical energy" (the quantum of attention from consciousness) by attaching to "innocent" thoughts. The basis for these theories was accumulated by Freud through many years of clinical and case study research and summarized in a series of lectures at the University of Vienna during the early 20<sup>th</sup> century and replicated in the book ''A general introduction to psychoanalysis" published in 1920.
{{blockquote|You entirely disregard the apparent connections between the elements in the manifest dream and collect the ideas that occur to you in connection with each separate element of the dream by ] according to the psychoanalytic rule of procedure. From this material you arrive at the latent dream-thoughts, just as you arrived at the patient's hidden complexes from his associations to his symptoms and memories... The true meaning of the dream, which has now replaced the manifest content, is always clearly intelligible. }}


Freud listed the distorting operations that he claimed were applied to repressed wishes in forming the dream as recollected: it is because of these distortions (the so-called "dream-work") that the manifest content of the dream differs so greatly from the latent dream thought reached through analysis—and it is by ''reversing'' these distortions that the latent content is approached.
Freud further claimed that the counterintuitive nature of ]s represented a clash between the super-ego and the id: the id wishes to see a past wish fulfilled, while the super-ego cannot allow it; he interprets the ] of a ] as the super-ego working against the id. (He further claimed that in nearly all cases these anxious dreams are products of ], ]ual memories.)
<!--Critics would point out that this hypothesis cannot explain ], though many case studies, such as the ], show this method to be successful.--><!-- unsourced/makes little sense -- see talk and TIoD pp. 595-6 Avon Books 1965 -->


The operations included:<ref>{{cite web|url=http://courses.washington.edu/freudlit/Dreams.html|title=Lecture Notes: Freud's Conception of the Psyche (Unconscious) and His Theory of Dreams|last=Gray|first=R.|date=9 January 2012|publisher=University of Washington|access-date=28 May 2012}}</ref>
Freud is careful to argue that the wishes are not revealed in dream analysis for the sake of conscious fulfillment, but instead for conscious resolution of the inner conflict. His relaxed attitude towards what could be seen as "depravity" in the unconscious is summed up in ]'s words: "the virtuous man is content to ''dream'' what a wicked man really ''does''" (emphasis not added: I§F, VII§F; Plato '']'' IX).
* ] – one dream object stands for several associations and ideas; thus "dreams are brief, meagre and laconic in comparison with the range and wealth of the dream-thoughts."
* ] – a dream object's emotional significance is separated from its real object or content and attached to an entirely different one that does not raise the censor's suspicions.
* Visualization – a thought is translated to visual images.
* Symbolism – a symbol replaces an action, person, or idea.


To these might be added "secondary elaboration"—the outcome of the dreamer's natural tendency to make some sort of "sense" or "story" out of the various elements of the manifest content as recollected. Freud stressed that it was not merely futile but actually misleading to attempt to explain one part of the manifest content with reference to another part, as if the manifest dream somehow constituted some unified or coherent conception.<ref>{{cite journal |last1=Jones |first1=Ernest |title=Freud's theory of Dreams |url=https://www.jstor.org/stable/1413004 |journal=The American Journal of Psychology |date=1910 |volume=21 |issue=2 |pages=283–308 |doi=10.2307/1413004 |jstor=1413004 |access-date=19 August 2023}}</ref>
According to his theory, the most basic desires come from the "]", the childlike portion of the unconscious, and as such often contained material that would be unacceptable to the ]. As the text was written relatively early in his career, he does not use the terms "ego" and "id", but rather "preconscious" and "unconscious", respectively. These terms themselves are not introduced until the seventh chapter of the book, until which his system of dream interpretation is incrementally constructed and argued.


Freud considered that the experience of anxiety dreams and ] was the result of failures in the dream-work: rather than contradicting the "wish-fulfillment" theory, such phenomena demonstrated how the ] reacted to the awareness of repressed wishes that were too powerful and insufficiently disguised. Traumatic dreams (where the dream merely repeats the traumatic experience) were eventually admitted as exceptions to the theory.
Freud arrived at his theory of dreams by research (though he rejects much of the prior work), self-analysis, and ] of his patients (I, VI§H, VII§C); as his theory developed, Freud often used dream interpretation to treat his patients, calling dreams "he royal road to a knowledge of the unconscious activities of the mind" (VII§E).

Freud famously described psychoanalytic dream-interpretation as "the royal road to a knowledge of the unconscious activities of the mind". However, he expressed regret and dissatisfaction at the way his ideas on the subject were misrepresented or simply not understood:

{{quote|The assertion that all dreams require a sexual interpretation, against which critics rage so incessantly, occurs nowhere in my ''Interpretation of Dreams'' ... and is in obvious contradiction to other views expressed in it.<ref>Freud, S. (1900) op.cit., (1919 edition), p. 397</ref>}}


===Jung=== ===Jung===
Although not dismissing Freud's model of dream interpretation wholesale, ] believed Freud's notion of dreams as representations of unfulfilled wishes to be limited. Jung argued that Freud's procedure of collecting associations to a dream would bring insights into the dreamer's mental complex—a person's associations to anything will reveal the mental complexes, as Jung had shown experimentally<ref>Jung, C.G. (1902) The associations of normal subjects. In: ''Collected Works of C. G. Jung'', vol. 2. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press, pp. 3–99.</ref>—but not necessarily closer to the meaning of the dream.<ref>Jacobi, J. (1973) ''The Psychology of C. G. Jung.'' New Haven, CT: Yale University Press.</ref> Jung was convinced that the scope of dream interpretation was larger, reflecting the richness and complexity of the entire ], both personal and ]. Jung believed the psyche to be a self-regulating organism in which conscious attitudes were likely to be compensated for unconsciously (within the dream) by their opposites.<ref name="Anthony Storr 1983">{{Cite book |author=Storr, Anthony |author-link=Anthony Storr |title=The Essential Jung |location=New York |year=1983 |isbn=0-691-02455-3 |url=https://archive.org/details/essentialjung00jung }}</ref> And so the role of dreams is to lead a person to wholeness through what Jung calls "a dialogue between ego and the self". The self aspires to tell the ego what it does not know, but it should. This dialogue involves fresh memories, existing obstacles, and future solutions.<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://psychcentral.com/lib/jungs-dream-theory-and-modern-neuroscience-from-fallacies-to-facts/|title=Jung's Dream Theory and Modern Neuroscience: From Fallacies to Facts|last=Lone|first=Zauraiz|date=2018-09-26|website=World of Psychology|language=en-US|access-date=2019-04-30}}</ref>


Jung proposed two basic approaches to analyzing dream material: the objective and the subjective.<ref>Jung, C.G. (1948) General aspects of dream psychology. In: ''Dreams.'' trans., R. Hull. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press, 1974, pp. 23–66.</ref> In the objective approach, every person in the dream refers to the person they are: mother is mother, girlfriend is girlfriend, etc.<ref name=":1">{{Cite book|title=What does it mean to be human? Life, Death, Personhood and the Transhumanist Movement|last=Doyle|first=D. John|publisher=Springer|year=2018|isbn=9783319949505|location=Cham, Switzerland|pages=173|oclc=1050448349}}</ref> In the subjective approach, every person in the dream represents an aspect of the dreamer. Jung argued that the subjective approach is much more difficult for the dreamer to accept, but that in most good dream-work, the dreamer will come to recognize that the dream characters can represent an unacknowledged aspect of the dreamer. Thus, if the dreamer is being chased by a crazed killer, the dreamer may come eventually to recognize his own ] impulses.<ref name=":1" /> ] therapists extended the subjective approach, claiming that even the inanimate objects in a dream can represent aspects of the dreamer.
Dream analysis is central to ] analytical psychology, and forms a critical part of the therapeutic process in classical Jungian psychoanalysis. Although not dismissing Freud's model of dream interpretation wholesale, he believed that Freud's notion of dreams as representations of unfulfilled wishes, to be simplistic and naive. Jung was convinced that the scope of dream interpretation was larger, reflecting the richness and complexity of the entire unconscious, both personal and collective. Jung believed the psyche to be a self regulating organism in which conscious attitudes were likely to be compensated for unconsciously (within the dream) by their opposites.<ref>(1998)Storr,Anthony,The Essential Jung, Selected Writings</ref>


Jung believed that ] such as the ], the ], the ] and others manifested themselves in dreams, as dream symbols or figures. Such figures could take the form of an old man, a young maiden or a giant spider as the case may be. Each represents an unconscious attitude that is largely hidden to the conscious mind. Although an integral part of the dreamers psyche, these manifestations were largely autonomous and were perceived by the dreamer to be external personages. Acquaintance with the archetypes as manifested by these symbols serve to increase one's awareness of unconscious attitudes, integrating seemingly disparate parts of the psyche and contributing to the process of holistic self understanding he considered paramount.<ref>(1998)Storr,Anthony,The Essential Jung, Selected Writings</ref> Jung believed that ] such as the ], the ], the ], and others manifested themselves in dreams, as dream symbols or figures. Such figures could take the form of an old man, a young maiden, or a giant spider as the case may be. Each represents an unconscious attitude that is largely hidden to the conscious mind. Although an integral part of the dreamer's psyche, these manifestations were largely autonomous and were perceived by the dreamer to be external personages. Acquaintance with the archetypes as manifested by these symbols serve to increase one's awareness of unconscious attitudes, integrating seemingly disparate parts of the psyche and contributing to the process of holistic self-understanding he considered paramount.<ref name="Anthony Storr 1983"/>


Jung believed that material repressed by the conscious mind, postulated by Freud to comprise the unconscious, was similar to his own concept of the shadow, which in itself is only a small part of the unconscious. Jung believed that material repressed by the conscious mind, postulated by Freud to comprise the unconscious, was similar to his own concept of the shadow, which in itself is only a small part of the unconscious.


Jung cautioned against blindly ascribing meaning to dream symbols without a clear understanding of the client's personal situation. He described two approaches to dream symbols: the causal approach and the final approach.<ref>Jung, C.G. (1948) op.cit.</ref> In the causal approach, the symbol is reduced to certain fundamental tendencies. Thus, a sword may symbolize a penis, as may a snake. In the final approach, the dream interpreter asks, "Why this symbol and not another?" Thus, a sword representing a penis is hard, sharp, inanimate, and destructive. A snake representing a penis is alive, dangerous, perhaps poisonous, and slimy. The final approach will tell additional things about the dreamer's attitudes.
He cautioned against blindly ascribing meaning to dream symbols without a clear understanding of the client's personal situation. Although he acknowledged the universality of archetypal symbols, he contrasted this with the concept of a sign — images having a one to one connotation with their meaning. His approach was to recognise the dynamism and fluidity that existed between symbols and their ascribed meaning. Symbols must be explored for their personal significance to the patient, instead of having the dream conform to some predetermined idea. This prevents dream analysis from devolving into a theoretical and dogmatic exercise that is far removed from the patient's own psychological state. In the service of this idea, he stressed the importance of "sticking to the image" — exploring in depth a client's association with a particular image. This may be contrasted with Freud's free associating which he believed was a deviation, from the salience of the image. He describes for example the image "deal table". One would expect the dreamer to have some associations with this image, and the professed lack of any perceived significance or familiarity whatsoever should make one suspicious. Jung would ask a patient to imagine the image as vividly as possible and to explain it to him as if he had no idea as to what a "deal table" was. Jung stressed the importance of context in dream analysis.


Technically, Jung recommended stripping the dream of its details and presenting the gist of the dream to the dreamer. This was an adaptation of a procedure described by ], who recommended thinking of the dream as a newspaper article and writing a headline for it.<ref>Stekel, W. (1911) ''Die Sprache des Traumes'' (The Language of the Dream). Wiesbaden: J.F. Berman</ref> ] also described a similar process of "dream distillation."<ref>Sullivan, H.S. (1953) ''The Interpersonal Theory of Psychiatry.'' New York: Norton.</ref>
Jung stressed that the dream was not merely a devious puzzle invented by the unconscious to be deciphered, so that the 'true' causal factors behind it may be elicited. Dreams were not to serve as lie detectors, with which to reveal the insincerity behind conscious thought processes. Dreams, like the unconscious, had their own language. As representations of the unconscious, dream images have their own primacy and logic.


Although Jung acknowledged the universality of archetypal symbols, he contrasted this with the concept of a sign—images having a one-to-one connotation with their meaning. His approach was to recognize the dynamism and fluidity that existed between symbols and their ascribed meaning. Symbols must be explored for their personal significance to the patient, instead of having the dream conform to some predetermined idea. This prevents dream analysis from devolving into a theoretical and dogmatic exercise that is far removed from the patient's own psychological state. In the service of this idea, he stressed the importance of "sticking to the image"—exploring in depth a client's association with a particular image. This may be contrasted with Freud's free associating which he believed was a deviation from the salience of the image. He describes for example the image "deal table." One would expect the dreamer to have some associations with this image, and the professed lack of any perceived significance or familiarity whatsoever should make one suspicious. Jung would ask a patient to imagine the image as vividly as possible and to explain it to him as if he had no idea as to what a "deal table" was. Jung stressed the importance of context in dream analysis.
Jung believed that dreams may contain ineluctable truths, philosophical pronouncements, illusions, wild fantasies, memories, plans, irrational experiences and even telepathic visions. Just as the psyche has a diurnal side which we experience as conscious life, it has an unconscious nocturnal side which we apprehend as dreamlike fantasy. Jung would argue that just as we do not doubt the importance of our conscious experience, then we ought not to second guess the value of our unconscious lives.

Jung stressed that the dream was not merely a devious puzzle invented by the unconscious to be deciphered, so that the ''true'' causal factors behind it may be elicited. Dreams were not to serve as lie detectors, with which to reveal the insincerity behind conscious thought processes. Dreams, like the unconscious, had their own language. As representations of the unconscious, dream images have their own primacy and mechanics.

Jung believed that dreams may contain ineluctable truths, philosophical pronouncements, illusions, wild fantasies, memories, plans, irrational experiences, and even ] visions.<ref>{{Cite book|author= Jung, Carl |author-link=Carl Jung |title=The Practice of Psychotherapy. The Practical Use of Dream-analysis |year=1934 |page=147 |isbn=0-7100-1645-X}}</ref> Just as the psyche has a diurnal side which we experience as conscious life, it has an unconscious nocturnal side which we apprehend as dreamlike fantasy. Jung would argue that just as we do not doubt the importance of our conscious experience, then we ought not to second guess the value of our unconscious lives.


===Hall=== ===Hall===
In 1953, ] developed a theory of dreams in which dreaming is considered to be a ] process.<ref>{{cite web |url=http://psych.ucsc.edu/dreams/Library/hall_1953b.html |author=Calvin S. Hall |title=A Cognitive Theory of Dreams |publisher=dreamresearch.net |access-date=7 October 2010}}</ref> Hall argued that a dream was simply a thought or sequence of thoughts that occurred during sleep, and that dream images are visual representations of personal conceptions. For example, if one dreams of being attacked by friends, this may be a manifestation of fear of friendship; a more complicated example, which requires a cultural metaphor, is that a cat within a dream symbolizes a need to use one's intuition. For ] speakers, it may suggest that the dreamer must recognize that there is "more than one way to skin a cat," or in other words, more than one way to do something. He was also critical of ] ] of dream interpretation, particularly Freud's notion that the dream of being attacked represented a fear of ]. Hall argued that this dream did not necessarily stem from ], but rather represented the dreamer's perception of themselves as weak, passive, and helpless in the face of danger.<ref>{{Cite journal |last=Hall |first=Calvin S. |date=1955 |title=The Significance of the Dream of Being Attacked |url=https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/j.1467-6494.1955.tb01182.x |journal=Journal of Personality |language=en |volume=24 |issue=2 |pages=168–180 |doi=10.1111/j.1467-6494.1955.tb01182.x |issn=0022-3506}}</ref> In support of his argument, Hall pointed out that women have this dream more frequently than men, yet women do not typically experience ]. Additionally, he noted that there were no significant differences in the form or content of the dream of being attacked between men and women, suggesting that the dream likely has the same meaning for both genders. Hall's work in dream research also provided evidence to support one of ] theories, the ]. Hall studied the dreams of males and females ages two through twenty-six. He found that young boys frequently dreamed of aggression towards their fathers and older male siblings, while girls dreamed of hostility towards their mothers and older female siblings.<ref>{{Cite journal |last=Hall |first=Calvin |date=1963 |title=Strangers in dreams: an empirical confirmation of the Oedipus complex1 |url=https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/j.1467-6494.1963.tb01303.x |journal=Journal of Personality |language=en |volume=31 |issue=3 |pages=336–345 |doi=10.1111/j.1467-6494.1963.tb01303.x|pmid=14051965 }}</ref> These dreams often involved themes of conflict and competition for the affection of the opposite-sex parent, providing ] for Freud's theory of the ].


===Faraday, Clift, et al.===
In 1953, ] developed a theory of dreams in which dreaming is considered to be a ] process . Hall argued that a dream was simply a thought or sequence of thoughts that occurred during sleep, and that dream images are visual representations of personal conceptions. For example, if one dreams of being attacked by friends, this may be a manifestation of fear of friendship; a more complicated example, which requires a cultural metaphor, is that a cat within a dream symbolizes a need to use one's intuition. For ] speakers, it may suggest that the dreamer must recognize that there is "more than one way to skin a cat." or in other words, more than one way to do something.
In the 1970s, ] and others helped bring dream interpretation into the mainstream by publishing books on do-it-yourself dream interpretation and forming groups to share and analyze dreams. Faraday focused on the application of dreams to situations occurring in one's life. For instance, some dreams are warnings of something about to happen—e.g. a dream of failing an examination, if one is a student, may be a literal warning of unpreparedness. Outside of such context, it could relate to failing some other kind of test. Or it could even have a "]ny" nature, e.g. that one has failed to examine some aspect of his life adequately.


Faraday noted that "one finding has emerged pretty firmly from modern research, namely that the majority of dreams seem in some way to reflect things that have preoccupied our minds during the previous day or two."<ref>{{Cite book|title=The Dream Game |author=Faraday, Ann |page=3}}</ref>


In the 1980s and 1990s, ] and ] further explored the relationship between images produced in dreams and the dreamer's waking life. Their books identified patterns in dreaming, and ways of analyzing dreams to explore life changes, with particular emphasis on moving toward healing and wholeness.<ref>{{Cite book |last1=Clift |first1=Jean Dalby |last2=Clift |first2=Wallace |year=1984 |title=Symbols of Transformation in Dreams |publisher=The Crossroad Publishing Company |isbn=0-8245-0653-7 |url=https://archive.org/details/symbolsoftransfo00clif }}; {{Cite book |last1=Clift |first1=Jean Dalby |last2=Clift |first2=Wallace |year=1988 |title=The Hero Journey in Dreams |publisher=The Crossroad Publishing Company |isbn=0-8245-0889-0 |url=https://archive.org/details/herojourneyindre0000clif }}; {{Cite book |last=Clift |first=Jean Dalby |year=1992 |title=Core Images of the Self: A Symbolic Approach to Healing and Wholeness |publisher=The Crossroad Publishing Company |isbn=0-8245-1218-9 |url=https://archive.org/details/coreimagesofself0000clif }}</ref>


=== Neurobiological theory ===
==New Age==
] and colleagues developed what they called the ] which proposes that dreams are simply the side effects of the neural activity in the brain that produces ]s during ] that are associated with wakefulness. According to this hypothesis, neurons fire periodically during sleep in the lower brain levels and thus send random signals to the ]. The cortex then synthesizes a dream in reaction to these signals in order to try to make sense of why the brain is sending them. Although the hypothesis downplays the role that emotional factors play in determining dreams, it does not state that dreams are meaningless.<ref name=Weiten166>{{cite book | title=Psychology: Themes and Variations | url=https://archive.org/details/psychologythemes00weit_831 | url-access=limited | publisher=Cengage Learning | author=Wayne Weiten | year=2011 | pages=–167 | isbn=978-0-495-81310-1}}</ref>


==Present-day popular attitudes==
Interpretation of dreams is also a part of contemporary ] and ] culture. ] is an example. Cayce claimed that through dreaming, people are given access to their spirit, and further, that all possible questions could be answered from the inner consciousness given the proper awareness <ref>Bro, Harmon. Cayce on Dreams. 1982</ref>
Most people currently appear to interpret dream content according to ] in the United States, India, and South Korea, according to one study conducted in those countries.<ref name=":0" /> People appear to believe dreams are particularly meaningful: they assign more meaning to dreams than to similar waking thoughts. For example, people report they would be more likely to cancel a trip they had planned that involved a plane flight if they dreamt of their plane crashing the night before than if the Department of Homeland Security issued a federal warning.<ref name=":0" /> However, people do not attribute equal importance to all dreams. People appear to use ] when interpreting their dreams. They are more likely to view dreams confirming their waking beliefs and desires to be more meaningful than dreams that contradict their waking beliefs and desires.<ref name=":0" />


A paper<ref name=":0">{{Cite journal|last1=Morewedge|first1=Carey K.|last2=Norton|first2=Michael I.|date=2009|title=When dreaming is believing: The (motivated) interpretation of dreams.|journal=Journal of Personality and Social Psychology|volume=96|issue=2|pages=249–264|doi=10.1037/a0013264|pmid=19159131}}</ref> in 2009 by Carey Morewedge and Michael Norton in the ''Journal of Personality and Social Psychology'' found that most people believe that "their dreams reveal meaningful hidden truths." In one study they found that 74% of Indians, 65% of South Koreans and 56% of Americans believed their dream content provided them with meaningful insight into their unconscious beliefs and desires. This Freudian view of dreaming was endorsed significantly more than theories of dreaming that attribute dream content to memory consolidation, problem solving, or random brain activity. This belief appears to lead people to attribute more importance to dream content than to similar thought content that occurs while they are awake. People were more likely to view a positive dream about a friend to be meaningful than a positive dream about someone they disliked, for example, and were more likely to view a negative dream about a person they disliked as meaningful than a negative dream about a person they liked.
A shamanistic model of dream work gained some popularity in the consciousness movement through the work of two dream researchers and authors, Ariadne Green and Stanley Krippner. In Ariadne Green’s model outlined in her book ''Ariadne’s Book of Dreams'', dreams are viewed as coming from three interior worlds, the upper world, lower world and the middle world, honoring the indigenous shaman’s perspective on the terrain of the soul. Some dream characters are viewed as messengers who bring insights and gifts of wisdom from the divine realms while others enter the stage to bring new insights into the dreamer’s personality. Animals in dreams are viewed as powerful archetypes from the lower world that initiate the dreamer and lend spiritual power and healing potentials.

== Spiritual dream interpretation ==
Spiritual dream interpretation is a practice that involves understanding dreams through a ] or religious lens. It is based on the belief that dreams can offer insights into one's spiritual journey, inner self, and connection to the divine.<ref>{{Cite web |last=Mwangangi |first=Joshua |date=2022-02-04 |title=How to interpret biblical dreams {{!}} Biblical dream interpretation |url=https://biblicaldreamz.com/how-to-effectively-interpret-dreams/ |access-date=2024-02-26 |language=en-US}}</ref> This approach to dream analysis often draws upon symbolism, ], and metaphors found in various spiritual traditions and teachings.


==See also== ==See also==
* ]

*] * ]
* ]
* ]
* ] (Dreams Interpreted and Drawn)
* ]
* ]
* ]
* ]
* ]
* ]


==References== ==References==
{{Reflist|30em}}

===Works cited===
* {{cite journal |last1=Haque |first1=Amber |title=Psychology from Islamic Perspective: Contributions of Early Muslim Scholars and Challenges to Contemporary Muslim Psychologists |journal=Journal of Religion and Health |date=December 2004 |volume=43 |issue=4 |pages=357–377 |s2cid=38740431 |doi=10.1007/s10943-004-4302-z}}


==Further reading==
* Freud, Sigmund, ''The Interpretation of Dreams''
<!-- Some of these may have been used as sources to support article content. Please convert to ] if possible. -->
* Freud, Sigmund, ''A general introduction to psychoanalysis'', Boni & Liveright, NY, 1920.
* {{Cite book|last=Aziz |first=Robert |title=C.G. Jung's Psychology of Religion and Synchronicity |year=1990 |edition=10 |publisher=The State University of New York Press |isbn=0-7914-0166-9 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=5gKC8utEuAEC}}
* James A. Hall, ''Jungian Dream Interpretation: A Handbook of Theory and Practice'', Inner City Books, 1983, ISBN 0-919123-12-0
* {{Cite book|last=Aziz |first=Robert |editor=Becker, Carl |year=1999 |title=Asian and Jungian Views of Ethics |chapter=Synchronicity and the Transformation of the Ethical in Jungian Psychology |publisher= Greenwood |isbn=0-313-30452-1 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=vwIZwT9VFmYC}}
* Elsie Sechrist with foreword by Hugh Lynn Cayce, ''Dreams, Your Magic Mirror'', Warner Books, 1974, mass market paperback, ISBN 0-446-31384-X
* {{Cite book|last=Aziz |first=Robert |year=2007 |title=The Syndetic Paradigm: The Untrodden Path Beyond Freud and Jung |publisher=The State University of New York Press |isbn=978-0-7914-6982-8 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=NumsNeikli0C}}
* Storr, Anthony, "The Essential Jung, Selected Writings" 1998
* {{Cite book|last=Aziz |first=Robert |editor=Storm, Lance |year=2008 |chapter=Foreword |title=Synchronicity: Multiple Perspectives on Meaningful Coincidence |publisher=Pari Publishing |isbn=978-88-95604-02-2}}
<!--See http://en.wikipedia.org/Wikipedia:Footnotes for an explanation of how to generate footnotes using the <ref> and </ref> tags and the tag below -->
* {{cite book |last1 = Blagrove |first1 = Mark |author-link1 = Mark Blagrove |last2 = Lockheart |first2 = Julia |author-link2 = Julia Lockheart |title = The Science and Art of Dreaming |publisher = ] |date = 2023 |location = }} {{ISBN|978-0367479961}} (Hardcover), {{ISBN|978-0367479947}} (Paperback)
<references/>
* {{Cite book|last=Doniger O'Flaherty |first=Wendy |author-link=Wendy Doniger |title=Dreams, Illusion, and Other Realities |year=1986 |publisher=University of Chicago Press |isbn=0-226-61855-2 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=vhNNrX3bmo4C}}
* {{Cite book|last=Freud |first=Sigmund |title=Introductory Lectures |year=1966 |publisher=W.W. Norton |page=334|title-link=Introductory Lectures (Sigmund Freud) }}
* {{Cite book|last=Freud |first=Sigmund |title=The Interpretation of Dreams |year=1900 |publisher=Macmillan|title-link=The Interpretation of Dreams }}
* {{Cite book|last=Freud |first=Sigmund |title=A General Introduction to Psychoanalysis |publisher=Boni & Liveright |year=1920|title-link=A General Introduction to Psychoanalysis }}
* {{Cite book|last=Hall |first=James |title=Jungian Dream Interpretation: A Handbook of Theory and Practice |publisher=Inner City Books |year=1983 |isbn=0-919123-12-0 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=BzqemZAlFdMC}}
* Sechrist, Elsie with foreword by Cayce, Hugh Lynn (1974). ''Dreams, Your Magic Mirror''. Warner Books. {{ISBN|0-446-31384-X}}.


==External links== ==External links==
* - full text of Sigmund Freud's work on dream analysis. * Full text of Sigmund Freud's revisitation of ''The Interpretation of Dreams''
* Dream discussion resource
*
*
]
* Jungian Discussion Forum. All levels of discourse welcomed.
* Online community based on dreams and dream interpretation


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Latest revision as of 08:15, 14 November 2024

Assigning of meaning to dreams For similar terms, see Dream Interpretation (album) and Interpretation of dreams (disambiguation). "Dream analysis" redirects here. For the book by Carl Jung, see Dream Analysis.
This article possibly contains original research. Please improve it by verifying the claims made and adding inline citations. Statements consisting only of original research should be removed. (August 2022) (Learn how and when to remove this message)
Tom Paine's Nightly Pest, a James Gillray cartoon of political activist Thomas Paine dreaming of faceless judges unfurling scrolls listing charges and punishments

Dream interpretation is the process of assigning meaning to dreams.

In many ancient societies, such as those of Egypt and Greece, dreaming was considered a supernatural communication or a means of divine intervention, whose message could be interpreted by people with these associated spiritual powers. In the modern era, various schools of psychology and neurobiology have offered theories about the meaning and purpose of dreams.

History

Early civilizations

The ancient Akkadian Epic of Gilgamesh (Tablet V pictured) contains numerous examples of dream interpretation.

The ancient Sumerians in Mesopotamia have left evidence of dream interpretation dating back to at least 3100 BC in Mesopotamia. Throughout Mesopotamian history, dreams were always held to be extremely important for divination and Mesopotamian kings paid close attention to them. Gudea, the king of the Sumerian city-state of Lagash (reigned c. 2144–2124 BC), rebuilt the temple of Ningirsu as the result of a dream in which he was told to do so. The standard Akkadian Epic of Gilgamesh contains numerous accounts of the prophetic power of dreams. First, Gilgamesh himself has two dreams foretelling the arrival of Enkidu. In one of these dreams, Gilgamesh sees an axe fall from the sky. The people gather around it in admiration and worship. Gilgamesh throws the axe in front of his mother Ninsun and then embraces it like a wife. Ninsun interprets the dream to mean that someone powerful will soon appear. Gilgamesh will struggle with him and try to overpower him, but he will not succeed. Eventually, they will become close friends and accomplish great things. She concludes, "That you embraced him like a wife means he will never forsake you. Thus your dream is solved." Later in the epic, Enkidu dreams about the heroes' encounter with the giant Humbaba. Dreams were also sometimes seen as a means of seeing into other worlds and it was thought that the soul, or some part of it, moved out of the body of the sleeping person and actually visited the places and persons the dreamer saw in his or her sleep. In Tablet VII of the epic, Enkidu recounts to Gilgamesh a dream in which he saw the gods Anu, Enlil, and Shamash condemn him to death. He also has a dream in which he visits the Underworld.

The Assyrian king Ashurnasirpal II (reigned 883–859 BC) built a temple to Mamu, possibly the god of dreams, at Imgur-Enlil, near Kalhu. The later Assyrian king Ashurbanipal (reigned 668–c. 627 BC) had a dream during a desperate military situation in which his divine patron, the goddess Ishtar, appeared to him and promised that she would lead him to victory. The Babylonians and Assyrians divided dreams into "good," which were sent by the gods, and "bad," sent by demons. A surviving collection of dream omens entitled Iškar Zaqīqu records various dream scenarios as well as prognostications of what will happen to the person who experiences each dream, apparently based on previous cases. Some list different possible outcomes, based on occasions in which people experienced similar dreams with different results. Dream scenarios mentioned include a variety of daily work events, journeys to different locations, family matters, sex acts, and encounters with human individuals, animals, and deities.

Joseph Interprets Pharaoh's Dream (watercolor circa 1896–1902 by James Tissot)

In ancient Egypt, priests acted as dream interpreters. Hieroglyphics depicting dreams and their interpretations are evident. Dreams have been held in considerable importance through history by most cultures.

Classical Antiquity

The ancient Greeks constructed temples they called Asclepieions, where sick people were sent to be cured. It was believed that cures would be effected through divine grace by incubating dreams within the confines of the temple. Dreams were also considered prophetic or omens of particular significance. Artemidorus of Daldis, who lived in the 2nd century AD, wrote a comprehensive text Oneirocritica (The Interpretation of Dreams). Although Artemidorus believed that dreams can predict the future, he presaged many contemporary approaches to dreams. He thought that the meaning of a dream image could involve puns and could be understood by decoding the image into its component words. For example, Alexander, while waging war against the Tyrians, dreamt that a satyr was dancing on his shield. Artemidorus reports that this dream was interpreted as follows: satyr = sa tyros ("Tyre will be thine"), predicting that Alexander would be triumphant. Freud acknowledged this example of Artemidorus when he proposed that dreams be interpreted like a rebus.

Middle Ages

In medieval Islamic psychology, certain hadiths indicate that dreams consist of three parts, and early Muslim scholars recognized three kinds of dreams: false, pathogenic, and true. Ibn Sirin (654–728) was renowned for his Ta'bir al-Ru'ya and Muntakhab al-Kalam fi Tabir al-Ahlam, a book on dreams. The work is divided into 25 sections on dream interpretation, from the etiquette of interpreting dreams to the interpretation of reciting certain Surahs of the Qur'an in one's dream. He writes that it is important for a layperson to seek assistance from an alim (Muslim scholar) who could guide in the interpretation of dreams with a proper understanding of the cultural context and other such causes and interpretations. Al-Kindi (Alkindus) (801–873) also wrote a treatise on dream interpretation: On Sleep and Dreams. In consciousness studies, Al-Farabi (872–951) wrote the On the Cause of Dreams, which appeared as chapter 24 of his Book of Opinions of the people of the Ideal City. It was a treatise on dreams, in which he was the first to distinguish between dream interpretation and the nature and causes of dreams. In The Canon of Medicine, Avicenna extended the theory of temperaments to encompass "emotional aspects, mental capacity, moral attitudes, self-awareness, movements and dreams." Ibn Khaldun's Muqaddimah (1377) states that "confused dreams" are "pictures of the imagination that are stored inside by perception and to which the ability to think is applied, after (man) has retired from sense perception."

Ibn Shaheen states: "Interpretations change their foundations according to the different conditions of the seer (of the vision), so seeing handcuffs during sleep is disliked but if a righteous person sees them it can mean stopping the hands from evil". Ibn Sirin said about a man who saw himself giving a sermon from the mimbar: "He will achieve authority and if he is not from the people who have any kind of authority it means that he will be crucified".

China

A standard traditional Chinese book on dream-interpretation is the Lofty Principles of Dream Interpretation (夢占逸旨) compiled in the 16th century by Chen Shiyuan (particularly the "Inner Chapters" of that opus). Chinese thinkers also raised profound ideas about dream interpretation, such as the question of how we know we are dreaming and how we know we are awake. It is written in the Chuang-tzu: "Once Chuang Chou dreamed that he was a butterfly. He fluttered about happily, quite pleased with the state that he was in, and knew nothing about Chuang Chou. Presently he awoke and found that he was very much Chuang Chou again. Now, did Chou dream that he was a butterfly or was the butterfly now dreaming that he was Chou?" This raises the question of reality monitoring in dreams, a topic of intense interest in modern cognitive neuroscience.

Modern Europe

In the 17th century, the English physician and writer Sir Thomas Browne wrote a short tract upon the interpretation of dreams. Dream interpretation became an important part of psychoanalysis at the end of the 19th century with Sigmund Freud's seminal work The Interpretation of Dreams (Die Traumdeutung; literally "dream-interpretation").

Psychology

Freud

Part of a series of articles on
Psychoanalysis
Sigmund Freud's couch
Concepts
Important figures
Important works
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See also

In The Interpretation of Dreams, Sigmund Freud argued that all dream content is disguised wish-fulfillment (later in Beyond the Pleasure Principle, Freud would discuss dreams which do not appear to be wish-fulfillment). According to Freud, the instigation of a dream is often to be found in the events of the day preceding the dream, which he called the "day residue." In very young children, this can be easily seen, as they dream quite straightforwardly of the fulfillment of wishes that were aroused in them the previous day (the "dream day"). In adults the situation is more complicated since, in Freud's analysis, the dreams of adults have been subjected to distortion, with the dream's so-called "manifest content" being a heavily disguised derivative of the "latent dream-thoughts" present in the unconscious. The dream's real significance is thus concealed: dreamers are no more capable of recognizing the actual meaning of their dreams than hysterics are able to understand the connection and significance of their neurotic symptoms.

In Freud's original formulation, the latent dream-thought was described as having been subject to an intra-psychic force referred to as "the censor"; in the terminology of his later years, however, discussion was in terms of the super-ego and the work of the ego's defence mechanisms. In waking life, he asserted, these "resistances" prevented the repressed wishes of the unconscious from entering consciousness, and though these wishes were to some extent able to emerge due to the lowered vigilance of the sleep state, the resistances were still strong enough to force them to take on a disguised or distorted form. Freud's view was that dreams are compromises which ensure that sleep is not interrupted: as "a disguised fulfilment of repressed wishes," they succeed in representing wishes as fulfilled which might otherwise disturb and waken the sleeper.

One of Freud's early dream analyses is "Irma's injection", a dream he himself had. In the dream a former patient of his, Irma, complains of pains and Freud's colleague gives her an unsterile injection. Freud provides pages of associations to the elements in his dream, using it to demonstrate his technique of decoding the latent dream thoughts from the manifest content of the dream.

Freud suggests that the true meaning of a dream must be "weeded out" from the dream as recalled:

You entirely disregard the apparent connections between the elements in the manifest dream and collect the ideas that occur to you in connection with each separate element of the dream by free association according to the psychoanalytic rule of procedure. From this material you arrive at the latent dream-thoughts, just as you arrived at the patient's hidden complexes from his associations to his symptoms and memories... The true meaning of the dream, which has now replaced the manifest content, is always clearly intelligible.

Freud listed the distorting operations that he claimed were applied to repressed wishes in forming the dream as recollected: it is because of these distortions (the so-called "dream-work") that the manifest content of the dream differs so greatly from the latent dream thought reached through analysis—and it is by reversing these distortions that the latent content is approached.

The operations included:

  • Condensation – one dream object stands for several associations and ideas; thus "dreams are brief, meagre and laconic in comparison with the range and wealth of the dream-thoughts."
  • Displacement – a dream object's emotional significance is separated from its real object or content and attached to an entirely different one that does not raise the censor's suspicions.
  • Visualization – a thought is translated to visual images.
  • Symbolism – a symbol replaces an action, person, or idea.

To these might be added "secondary elaboration"—the outcome of the dreamer's natural tendency to make some sort of "sense" or "story" out of the various elements of the manifest content as recollected. Freud stressed that it was not merely futile but actually misleading to attempt to explain one part of the manifest content with reference to another part, as if the manifest dream somehow constituted some unified or coherent conception.

Freud considered that the experience of anxiety dreams and nightmares was the result of failures in the dream-work: rather than contradicting the "wish-fulfillment" theory, such phenomena demonstrated how the ego reacted to the awareness of repressed wishes that were too powerful and insufficiently disguised. Traumatic dreams (where the dream merely repeats the traumatic experience) were eventually admitted as exceptions to the theory.

Freud famously described psychoanalytic dream-interpretation as "the royal road to a knowledge of the unconscious activities of the mind". However, he expressed regret and dissatisfaction at the way his ideas on the subject were misrepresented or simply not understood:

The assertion that all dreams require a sexual interpretation, against which critics rage so incessantly, occurs nowhere in my Interpretation of Dreams ... and is in obvious contradiction to other views expressed in it.

Jung

Although not dismissing Freud's model of dream interpretation wholesale, Carl Jung believed Freud's notion of dreams as representations of unfulfilled wishes to be limited. Jung argued that Freud's procedure of collecting associations to a dream would bring insights into the dreamer's mental complex—a person's associations to anything will reveal the mental complexes, as Jung had shown experimentally—but not necessarily closer to the meaning of the dream. Jung was convinced that the scope of dream interpretation was larger, reflecting the richness and complexity of the entire unconscious, both personal and collective. Jung believed the psyche to be a self-regulating organism in which conscious attitudes were likely to be compensated for unconsciously (within the dream) by their opposites. And so the role of dreams is to lead a person to wholeness through what Jung calls "a dialogue between ego and the self". The self aspires to tell the ego what it does not know, but it should. This dialogue involves fresh memories, existing obstacles, and future solutions.

Jung proposed two basic approaches to analyzing dream material: the objective and the subjective. In the objective approach, every person in the dream refers to the person they are: mother is mother, girlfriend is girlfriend, etc. In the subjective approach, every person in the dream represents an aspect of the dreamer. Jung argued that the subjective approach is much more difficult for the dreamer to accept, but that in most good dream-work, the dreamer will come to recognize that the dream characters can represent an unacknowledged aspect of the dreamer. Thus, if the dreamer is being chased by a crazed killer, the dreamer may come eventually to recognize his own homicidal impulses. Gestalt therapists extended the subjective approach, claiming that even the inanimate objects in a dream can represent aspects of the dreamer.

Jung believed that archetypes such as the animus, the anima, the shadow, and others manifested themselves in dreams, as dream symbols or figures. Such figures could take the form of an old man, a young maiden, or a giant spider as the case may be. Each represents an unconscious attitude that is largely hidden to the conscious mind. Although an integral part of the dreamer's psyche, these manifestations were largely autonomous and were perceived by the dreamer to be external personages. Acquaintance with the archetypes as manifested by these symbols serve to increase one's awareness of unconscious attitudes, integrating seemingly disparate parts of the psyche and contributing to the process of holistic self-understanding he considered paramount.

Jung believed that material repressed by the conscious mind, postulated by Freud to comprise the unconscious, was similar to his own concept of the shadow, which in itself is only a small part of the unconscious.

Jung cautioned against blindly ascribing meaning to dream symbols without a clear understanding of the client's personal situation. He described two approaches to dream symbols: the causal approach and the final approach. In the causal approach, the symbol is reduced to certain fundamental tendencies. Thus, a sword may symbolize a penis, as may a snake. In the final approach, the dream interpreter asks, "Why this symbol and not another?" Thus, a sword representing a penis is hard, sharp, inanimate, and destructive. A snake representing a penis is alive, dangerous, perhaps poisonous, and slimy. The final approach will tell additional things about the dreamer's attitudes.

Technically, Jung recommended stripping the dream of its details and presenting the gist of the dream to the dreamer. This was an adaptation of a procedure described by Wilhelm Stekel, who recommended thinking of the dream as a newspaper article and writing a headline for it. Harry Stack Sullivan also described a similar process of "dream distillation."

Although Jung acknowledged the universality of archetypal symbols, he contrasted this with the concept of a sign—images having a one-to-one connotation with their meaning. His approach was to recognize the dynamism and fluidity that existed between symbols and their ascribed meaning. Symbols must be explored for their personal significance to the patient, instead of having the dream conform to some predetermined idea. This prevents dream analysis from devolving into a theoretical and dogmatic exercise that is far removed from the patient's own psychological state. In the service of this idea, he stressed the importance of "sticking to the image"—exploring in depth a client's association with a particular image. This may be contrasted with Freud's free associating which he believed was a deviation from the salience of the image. He describes for example the image "deal table." One would expect the dreamer to have some associations with this image, and the professed lack of any perceived significance or familiarity whatsoever should make one suspicious. Jung would ask a patient to imagine the image as vividly as possible and to explain it to him as if he had no idea as to what a "deal table" was. Jung stressed the importance of context in dream analysis.

Jung stressed that the dream was not merely a devious puzzle invented by the unconscious to be deciphered, so that the true causal factors behind it may be elicited. Dreams were not to serve as lie detectors, with which to reveal the insincerity behind conscious thought processes. Dreams, like the unconscious, had their own language. As representations of the unconscious, dream images have their own primacy and mechanics.

Jung believed that dreams may contain ineluctable truths, philosophical pronouncements, illusions, wild fantasies, memories, plans, irrational experiences, and even telepathic visions. Just as the psyche has a diurnal side which we experience as conscious life, it has an unconscious nocturnal side which we apprehend as dreamlike fantasy. Jung would argue that just as we do not doubt the importance of our conscious experience, then we ought not to second guess the value of our unconscious lives.

Hall

In 1953, Calvin S. Hall developed a theory of dreams in which dreaming is considered to be a cognitive process. Hall argued that a dream was simply a thought or sequence of thoughts that occurred during sleep, and that dream images are visual representations of personal conceptions. For example, if one dreams of being attacked by friends, this may be a manifestation of fear of friendship; a more complicated example, which requires a cultural metaphor, is that a cat within a dream symbolizes a need to use one's intuition. For English speakers, it may suggest that the dreamer must recognize that there is "more than one way to skin a cat," or in other words, more than one way to do something. He was also critical of Sigmund Freud's psychoanalytic theory of dream interpretation, particularly Freud's notion that the dream of being attacked represented a fear of castration. Hall argued that this dream did not necessarily stem from castration anxiety, but rather represented the dreamer's perception of themselves as weak, passive, and helpless in the face of danger. In support of his argument, Hall pointed out that women have this dream more frequently than men, yet women do not typically experience castration anxiety. Additionally, he noted that there were no significant differences in the form or content of the dream of being attacked between men and women, suggesting that the dream likely has the same meaning for both genders. Hall's work in dream research also provided evidence to support one of Sigmund Freud's theories, the Oedipus Complex. Hall studied the dreams of males and females ages two through twenty-six. He found that young boys frequently dreamed of aggression towards their fathers and older male siblings, while girls dreamed of hostility towards their mothers and older female siblings. These dreams often involved themes of conflict and competition for the affection of the opposite-sex parent, providing empirical support for Freud's theory of the Oedipus Complex.

Faraday, Clift, et al.

In the 1970s, Ann Faraday and others helped bring dream interpretation into the mainstream by publishing books on do-it-yourself dream interpretation and forming groups to share and analyze dreams. Faraday focused on the application of dreams to situations occurring in one's life. For instance, some dreams are warnings of something about to happen—e.g. a dream of failing an examination, if one is a student, may be a literal warning of unpreparedness. Outside of such context, it could relate to failing some other kind of test. Or it could even have a "punny" nature, e.g. that one has failed to examine some aspect of his life adequately.

Faraday noted that "one finding has emerged pretty firmly from modern research, namely that the majority of dreams seem in some way to reflect things that have preoccupied our minds during the previous day or two."

In the 1980s and 1990s, Wallace Clift and Jean Dalby Clift further explored the relationship between images produced in dreams and the dreamer's waking life. Their books identified patterns in dreaming, and ways of analyzing dreams to explore life changes, with particular emphasis on moving toward healing and wholeness.

Neurobiological theory

Allan Hobson and colleagues developed what they called the activation-synthesis hypothesis which proposes that dreams are simply the side effects of the neural activity in the brain that produces beta brain waves during REM sleep that are associated with wakefulness. According to this hypothesis, neurons fire periodically during sleep in the lower brain levels and thus send random signals to the cortex. The cortex then synthesizes a dream in reaction to these signals in order to try to make sense of why the brain is sending them. Although the hypothesis downplays the role that emotional factors play in determining dreams, it does not state that dreams are meaningless.

Present-day popular attitudes

Most people currently appear to interpret dream content according to Freudian psychoanalysis in the United States, India, and South Korea, according to one study conducted in those countries. People appear to believe dreams are particularly meaningful: they assign more meaning to dreams than to similar waking thoughts. For example, people report they would be more likely to cancel a trip they had planned that involved a plane flight if they dreamt of their plane crashing the night before than if the Department of Homeland Security issued a federal warning. However, people do not attribute equal importance to all dreams. People appear to use motivated reasoning when interpreting their dreams. They are more likely to view dreams confirming their waking beliefs and desires to be more meaningful than dreams that contradict their waking beliefs and desires.

A paper in 2009 by Carey Morewedge and Michael Norton in the Journal of Personality and Social Psychology found that most people believe that "their dreams reveal meaningful hidden truths." In one study they found that 74% of Indians, 65% of South Koreans and 56% of Americans believed their dream content provided them with meaningful insight into their unconscious beliefs and desires. This Freudian view of dreaming was endorsed significantly more than theories of dreaming that attribute dream content to memory consolidation, problem solving, or random brain activity. This belief appears to lead people to attribute more importance to dream content than to similar thought content that occurs while they are awake. People were more likely to view a positive dream about a friend to be meaningful than a positive dream about someone they disliked, for example, and were more likely to view a negative dream about a person they disliked as meaningful than a negative dream about a person they liked.

Spiritual dream interpretation

Spiritual dream interpretation is a practice that involves understanding dreams through a spiritual or religious lens. It is based on the belief that dreams can offer insights into one's spiritual journey, inner self, and connection to the divine. This approach to dream analysis often draws upon symbolism, archetypes, and metaphors found in various spiritual traditions and teachings.

See also

References

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Works cited

  • Haque, Amber (December 2004). "Psychology from Islamic Perspective: Contributions of Early Muslim Scholars and Challenges to Contemporary Muslim Psychologists". Journal of Religion and Health. 43 (4): 357–377. doi:10.1007/s10943-004-4302-z. S2CID 38740431.

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