Understanding my own dreams has always been a struggle for me; well even just remembering them came as a struggle. In order to gain the knowledge required to interpret and understand a dream, one must conduct a full analysis of the dream. Sigmund Freud, an Austrian neurologist and creator of psychoanalysis, spent a significant amount of his life interpreting dreams. This interpretation was documented and has been passed down centuries later for an understanding of the dream process. In this paper, I aim to define and give a brief understanding of psychoanalysis and the dream process. I will then lead into the significance of the human sexuality, which will serve as the source of all dreams. I will provide an explanation for why Freud believe
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I could possibly be persuaded by his thorough analysis of dreams in the book, however, it seemed to be a bit too much in his favor. In my opinion, he would take what is believed to be an ordinary dream of a father and son going for a walk down a staircase and interpret it as a sort of masturbation and connection with both male and female genitals. (377) It seems strange to come to that conclusion, as well as, the fact that a couple dreams he mentioned has the exact desires of the dreamer that same or previous day. (the one where the kids want to climb the mountain) It may be true, but when I dream, I doubt its ever of exactly what I did that previous day, it’s usually weeks that go by before I’d dream anything in relation. This lead me to believe that it may just be Freud with an obsession with human sexuality; some dreams may be sexually driven, but not as many as Freud is suggesting. Freud psychoanalysis was challenged multiple times challenged in the 1920s by Otto Rank, Sandor Ferenczi, and Wilhelm Reich; later, in the 1930s, by Karen Horney, Erich Fromm, and Harry Stack Sullivan. These critics stressed the interpersonal aspect of the analyst-patient relationship, considering their sessions lasted over years. Also, the fact that his patients consisted of mostly upper-class Austrian women living in a sexually repressed society at the time, did not aid his
I could possibly be persuaded by his thorough analysis of dreams in the book, however, it seemed to be a bit too much in his favor. In my opinion, he would take what is believed to be an ordinary dream of a father and son going for a walk down a staircase and interpret it as a sort of masturbation and connection with both male and female genitals. (377) It seems strange to come to that conclusion, as well as, the fact that a couple dreams he mentioned has the exact desires of the dreamer that same or previous day. (the one where the kids want to climb the mountain) It may be true, but when I dream, I doubt its ever of exactly what I did that previous day, it’s usually weeks that go by before I’d dream anything in relation. This lead me to believe that it may just be Freud with an obsession with human sexuality; some dreams may be sexually driven, but not as many as Freud is suggesting. Freud psychoanalysis was challenged multiple times challenged in the 1920s by Otto Rank, Sandor Ferenczi, and Wilhelm Reich; later, in the 1930s, by Karen Horney, Erich Fromm, and Harry Stack Sullivan. These critics stressed the interpersonal aspect of the analyst-patient relationship, considering their sessions lasted over years. Also, the fact that his patients consisted of mostly upper-class Austrian women living in a sexually repressed society at the time, did not aid his