Throughout our existence, we have more than likely found ourselves wondering about the meaning of our dreams. Dreams have fascinated philosophers for thousands of years, and have been subjected to empirical research and scientific studies. Scientists have been performing sleep and dream studies for decades now. Dreams can be extremely vivid or very vague; filled with joyful emotions or scary imagery; focused and understandable or unclear and rather confusing (Cherry). Dreams are so fascinating because of the level of their complexity while our body is asleep and unaware. In psychoanalysis dreams are continually analyzed and even used in therapy. Dreaming, by and large, in and out of the psychiatric literature, has been approached as a different and very special thought process.
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Literature on the meaning of dreams dates back to 2000 BC in Egypt, and to 700 BC in Assyria (Kleitman). Dreams were very serious and sacred to the Chaldeans and other near Eastern people. They were used medically in the temples of Aesculapius to promote the ritual healing of sickness, and by Hippocrates to help diagnose diseases (Green). Early civilizations thought dream worlds were real, physical worlds that they could enter only from their dream state. In biblical writings, dreams were taken seriously and were believed to come from the divine. In ancient scripture, many significant dreams were recorded and put into the bible. Prophets were known to have dreams or revelations, in which they were give information about future things that were going to take place, and what they needed to do. Hundreds of years ago, a Greek Philosopher Aristotle suggested that dreams might present a useful course of action that a person had not yet considered in his waking life; furthermore, an early glimpse of the possible problem solver that is hidden in one's dream
Literature on the meaning of dreams dates back to 2000 BC in Egypt, and to 700 BC in Assyria (Kleitman). Dreams were very serious and sacred to the Chaldeans and other near Eastern people. They were used medically in the temples of Aesculapius to promote the ritual healing of sickness, and by Hippocrates to help diagnose diseases (Green). Early civilizations thought dream worlds were real, physical worlds that they could enter only from their dream state. In biblical writings, dreams were taken seriously and were believed to come from the divine. In ancient scripture, many significant dreams were recorded and put into the bible. Prophets were known to have dreams or revelations, in which they were give information about future things that were going to take place, and what they needed to do. Hundreds of years ago, a Greek Philosopher Aristotle suggested that dreams might present a useful course of action that a person had not yet considered in his waking life; furthermore, an early glimpse of the possible problem solver that is hidden in one's dream