How Did Sigmund Freud Interpret Dreams

Freud: The way Freud interpreted dreams was based on free association. He would have his patients give associations to everything in their dream. He had three important rules for when he interpreted dreams. His first rule was that one should not focus on the surface meaning of the dream and that the hidden meaning is what one is looking for. His second rule focused on giving substitutions for every dream element and not focusing on the element itself. His third and final rule was to keep looking for the unconscious meaning until it comes forward by itself. Freud believed that everything in a dream was there for a reason and he believed symbolism was a major theme of dreams. Symbolism was used to keep the dreamer asleep so that a repulsive …show more content…
The desire to have children could be interpreted from the dream taking place mainly in a school and that I in my conscious mind do not want to have children. Michael being an art teacher would play into this because in art you create something and having children is creating life. The dog could also symbolize family because many people get dogs for their children. Freud may think that this interpretation is too close to the manifest dream and that the dream is instead about sexual desire. The coloring of the wood table red would symbolize sexual desire. Red is commonly considered a color of passion and wood is sometimes used describe an erection. Since I am currently seeing Michael this would make sense, but my friend being there would imply some hidden desire. Freud may say that my dream is about having a three-way with Rebecca and Michael since we were all drawing on the table together. I have no feelings for my friend, but Freud would say that it is completely normal to have unconscious sexual feelings for a person. Michael wearing the beret would symbolize French which is a language of love which could be applied to either