Dreams have always been a curiosity. How they seem to reflect reality at times but bring us to other worlds at other times is confounding to us. Over the years there have been many theories about dreams and even more questions. What are dreams? How are they formed? How does dreaming affect us? Do our dreams have meaning? Does reality, stress, and trauma factor into our dreams? The answers to these are complicated and still mostly undiscovered, but this essay will cover some of what has been discussed in the history of dream studies. It will cover Freud’s original theory on dreams that started it all, as well as more modern theories and discussions.
Freud first published his theory on dreams in 1900, long before any knowledge of REM sleep was discovered, but his theory is still widely discussed and analyzed today. In a summary of Freud’s theory, Alperin (2004) wrote, “According to Freud, a dream is a visual hallucination (a transient psychosis) the major intent of which is to release internal tension and thus to preserve sleep. Rather than allowing this tension to wake us up during the night, we dream instead” (p. 452) In other journals of the Freudian theory, dreams have been described as …show more content…
“In the waking state, the left hemisphere appears ‘in control’ because the subject’s actions seem governed by instructions, words, and their derivatives…Matters are different in the dream state. In the dream state, affects, emotions, actions, interactions, emergent events, and the possible and the impossible are embodied in dream sequences and scenarios” (van d. D., 1996, p. 260). Because of this trade of brain dominance, new pathways are created in the brain that allow for greater thought. It is a method of unconscious problem
Freud first published his theory on dreams in 1900, long before any knowledge of REM sleep was discovered, but his theory is still widely discussed and analyzed today. In a summary of Freud’s theory, Alperin (2004) wrote, “According to Freud, a dream is a visual hallucination (a transient psychosis) the major intent of which is to release internal tension and thus to preserve sleep. Rather than allowing this tension to wake us up during the night, we dream instead” (p. 452) In other journals of the Freudian theory, dreams have been described as …show more content…
“In the waking state, the left hemisphere appears ‘in control’ because the subject’s actions seem governed by instructions, words, and their derivatives…Matters are different in the dream state. In the dream state, affects, emotions, actions, interactions, emergent events, and the possible and the impossible are embodied in dream sequences and scenarios” (van d. D., 1996, p. 260). Because of this trade of brain dominance, new pathways are created in the brain that allow for greater thought. It is a method of unconscious problem