Most people have awakened from a euphoric dream and have tried to fall back asleep to continue the dream. Others are awoken as they jerk themselves awake from a nightmare. Patients with PTSD often claim to have relived traumatic events through their dreams. People are constantly reading books and websites that claim to interpret their dreams because it continues to fascinate the reader. The first dream analysts argued that dreams were meant to tell the future. Sigmund Freud disagreed, however, and believed that dreams were a lens into an individual’s past. His psychoanalytic background set the foundation for other theorists to build on or away from. Freud’s primary belief about dreams was that they were used as symbols to reveal what lies
…show more content…
Further, he also believed that they controlled the content of dreams. During the wake stage, the superego controls the conscious and uses censorship to cause the formation of dreams. This theory became known as Freud’s Disguise-Censorship Theory. According to this theory, during the conscious state the superego allows only pleasant feelings to pass through and represses all that are harmful to the psyche. It is not until the unconscious state that dreams are then controlled by a battle between the Id and the Ego. The Id is fighting for what the person desires regardless of the consequences or feelings of others. The Ego combats those feelings with defenses of what is expected. The compromise between the two parts of the unconscious creates symbols that overcome the censorship. (Montenegro, …show more content…
There are still some beneficial outcomes of integrating dreams into therapy sessions which include assisting in breaking the resistance of accessing certain feelings, creating rapport between the clinician and client, increase client self-awareness, provide clinically relevant information about the client and also shedding light on possible transference issues in the therapeutic relationship (Montenegro, 2015 p 323). Jung stated that it is, “…more important for the patient to understand than for the analyst’s theoretical expectations to be satisfied (Zhu, 2013). Freud’s attempts at analyzing dreams were altered throughout his career by both other theorists and himself. Other factors that can affect dream interpretation by an individual that were
Further, he also believed that they controlled the content of dreams. During the wake stage, the superego controls the conscious and uses censorship to cause the formation of dreams. This theory became known as Freud’s Disguise-Censorship Theory. According to this theory, during the conscious state the superego allows only pleasant feelings to pass through and represses all that are harmful to the psyche. It is not until the unconscious state that dreams are then controlled by a battle between the Id and the Ego. The Id is fighting for what the person desires regardless of the consequences or feelings of others. The Ego combats those feelings with defenses of what is expected. The compromise between the two parts of the unconscious creates symbols that overcome the censorship. (Montenegro, …show more content…
There are still some beneficial outcomes of integrating dreams into therapy sessions which include assisting in breaking the resistance of accessing certain feelings, creating rapport between the clinician and client, increase client self-awareness, provide clinically relevant information about the client and also shedding light on possible transference issues in the therapeutic relationship (Montenegro, 2015 p 323). Jung stated that it is, “…more important for the patient to understand than for the analyst’s theoretical expectations to be satisfied (Zhu, 2013). Freud’s attempts at analyzing dreams were altered throughout his career by both other theorists and himself. Other factors that can affect dream interpretation by an individual that were