Sigmund Freud Dream Content Analysis

In his analysis of dreams and the dream-work, Freud theorized that there were two distinct kinds of content in relation to dreams. The first kind of dream content is manifest content and refers to the material experienced in the surface of the dream. Manifest content includes all of the elements of images, thoughts, and content in the dream that is retained in an individual’s memory upon awakening. The second kind of dream content is latent dream-thoughts and refers to the relevant material of the dream discovered through analysis. Latent dream-thoughts consist of the hidden meaning of an individual’s unconscious thoughts, wishes, and desires. The unconscious psyche represses the latent content in order to protect the ego from primitive thoughts or feelings that are difficult to cope with on a conscious level. By analyzing the seemingly bizarre and unrelated manifest content of the dream, individuals can uncover the meaning of deeper underlying issues …show more content…
The id serves as a repository of unconscious primitive desires and impulses that are mediated by the preconscious region. The id is imagistic in nature in that repressed material is stored in the unconscious as visual perceptions, those of which are often amassed, cluttered, and disorganized. As the unconscious employs no imaginative faculty, it would be incorrect to interpret dreams simply as a stream of created images. Similarly, the images in dreams do not contain tense, nor should they be perceived as sequential. Dreams exist as expressions of the id’s internal conflicts as the repressed images that are unable to gain consciousness are brought to an individual’s awareness in disguised and distorted forms. Upon awakening, the superego suppresses the wishes and impulses experienced in the dream so that the individual immediately forgets much of the dream’s