Dreams Term paper

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The paper provides the basic knowledge of dreams, their significance in our lives and discusses sexual dreams to demonstrate how they have the capability to change and make our lives happier and more enjoyable.

What are dreams? Why do people dream? Is there any possible way to understand them? All these questions triggered peoples minds for generations to provide valid answers. Dream analysis commenced many years ago. Curiosity people possessed and mysticism that dreams contained provided a solid ground for different theories to surface. For instance, it is a known fact that the ancient Egyptians were the first ones to take upon a journey of discovering dreams. Ancient Egyptians believed that "dreams were messages from the Gods sent to the villagers during the night..." (Schulze) to warn people of incoming disasters or long-waiting fortunes. Centuries later, Greek philosophers began to develop interest in dreams, too. Famous philosopher, Aristotle, believed dreams were playing role of "recollection of day's events " (Schulze). He also believed that dreams mirrored humans' health, suggesting that doctors had ability to diagnose illnesses simply by listening to patients' dreams. The Romans, who happened to be the first to document books on interpretation of dreams, believed that dreams were not to be generalized, but should be treated as a unique experience of an individual dreamer. They believed that symbolism found in a dream thoroughly affected and depended upon a dreamer's "occupation, social status and health" (Schulze). Another common and widely spread belief was that of biblical. Many Christians suggested that God revealed himself through dreams. In a similar fashion, Prophet Mohammed declared that the Koran was presented to him in a dream.

These and many other theories of dreams were constantly emerging and forming, but materialistic desires, which began to conquer people's minds and most of their time, gradually diminished peoples interest in dream interpretation to the point of absolute neglect.

In the beginning of the twentieth century, slowly, but progressively, interest in dream interpretation started to illuminate some signs of life once again. Two major figures, who revolutionized the way dreams were interpreted, were Sigmund Freud and Carl G. Jung. Although Jung was a student of Freud for some time, he did not accede many of the hypotheses Freud formulated (O Connor 38-56)

To better observe the differences between Freud and Jung, it is impeccable to understand how each one viewed the structure of human s mind. Freud suggested that human's mind consists of three major parts: Superego, Ego and Id. Each plays a crucial role in the development of a person's personality and his patterns of behavior. The largest part of humans' mind is Id. It lies in our unconscious, producing emotions aggressive and sexual in nature, which must be satisfied the instant they emerge. These urges are forms of energy, which Freud classified as sexual Libido. Superego, on contrary, is the part of our mind that contains moral ideals our parents had instilled in us. "One of the main tasks of the Superego is that of upholding of ideals which education, custom and morals have set before us (Gutheil 19). Superego and Id, because they are so opposite, are in continuous battle. To reduce, by instantaneous gratification, the unpleasant tension Id is producing and satisfy the ideals set forth by Superego, Ego undertakes the task of finding an optimal way to ensure that Superego's morals are considered and Id's wishes and needs are met.

Since Superego is relaxed during the sleep, the battle with Id momentarily pauses. This opens an opportunity for Id to convey its messages and wishes through dreams. These wishes are forbidden. Thus, dreams appear to people in disguise with each object and action symbolizing the "latent" ( Sanford 10), or actual content of the dream. Accordingly, dreams for Freud were a bridge between conscious and unconscious, which would bypass the tremendous influence of Superego in the waking state of mind and fulfill the wishes of Id.

Opposing to Freud's theory, Jung believed that not only humans have " biological culture" (Sanford 11); they possess spirituality as well. Jung felt that dreams were not only expressions of living reality and essence, but served as energy for higher education, education of one s self. His explanation that people are not able to understand dreams was not due to the fact that dreams are ambiguous, have double meaning (seeming and actual) according to Freud's hypotheses, but were spoken in symbolic language not known to people (Sanford 10-11).

Similarly to Freud, Jung ramified the mind into three sections: the collective unconscious, personal unconscious and conscious. The collective unconscious is common to all human beings. "Just as we all have a common physical structure, so we all have a common psychic structure" (Sanford 16). It does not depend on personal experience and therefore contains images and representations of physical life inherited and inborn. For instance, a feeling someone experiences when falling in love. The collective unconscious is the storage of all the wisdom, experience and thoughts that evolved throughout the ages of mankind. Conscious part of our psyche involves complicated processes such as sensing, thinking and intuition. Based on everything that was said about humans and their minds, dreams, therefore, to Jung are means of exploring ourselves, obtaining a better understanding of human nature to achieve a happy, successful and enjoyable life.

Just as differences existed between Freud and Jung in regard to theories of human mind structure, one can easily find major differences between the two psychoanalysts in regard with how they viewed symbolism in dreams.

Based on Freud s position, it is quite obvious that symbolism found in his interpretation of dreams would most aptly resemble that of phallic. Consequently, any pointing objects would represent male genitalia, red color provoking, sexual symbol.

Considering Jung s beliefs...

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