Dream Analysis Understanding Of Freud And Jung English Literature Essay
There are many different tools and techniques used to approach counseling and psychotherapy theories. One of those techniques is dream analysis. When researching dream analysis, two key figures laid its foundation, Sigmund Freud and Carl Jung.
Dreams give insight into a person’s unresolved problems. Dreaming provides a window to the unconscious (Time-Life Books, 1990, 56).
Dreams may serve as a pathway to repressed material, but they also provide an understanding of clients’ current functioning (Corey, 2009, 76).
Dream analysis began with Freud’s The Interpretation of Dreams. His book was first published in 1900 and went through eight editions. In it, he Freud discusses how dreams are manifestations of repressed desires, usually sexual in nature. Freud sees dreams as the “royal road to the unconscious,” for in them one’s unconscious wishes, needs, and fears are expressed (Corey, 2009, 76). You’re giving Freud as your source but citing Corey. Is this a 2nd hand citation? If so, you need to clearly state it as such.
In Freud’s view, the purpose of dreams is to “allow us to satisfy in fantasies the instinctual urges that society judges unacceptable” (Lewis, 1995, 95). You’re giving Freud as your source but citing Lewis. Is this a 2nd hand citation? If so, you need to clearly state it as such.
According to Corey (2009), there are two levels of content in dreams, latent content and manifest content. Latent content consists of hidden, symbolic, and unconscious motives, wishes, and fear. Because these motives, wishes, and fears are so painful and threatening, they are transformed into an acceptable manifest content. This manifest content is the actual dream that the dreamer experiences (76).
Dream work refers to the process that dreams go through in being represented as manifest content. The goal of dream work is to prevent those motives, wishes, and fears from entering a person’s conscious. Lewis identifies that Freud had five processes that happen during dream work: “condensation, displacement, symbolization, projection, and secondary revision” (Lewis, 1995, 95).
Condensation is a process that disguises a certain thought, urge, or emotion into a brief dream event or image. Freud notes “sometimes the interpretation of a very simple dream image leads to a whole array of complex meanings” (Bulkeley, 1997, 19). You’re giving Freud as your source but citing Bulkeley. Is this a 2nd hand citation? If so, you need to clearly state it as such.
Displacement allows for the true meaning of dreams to be hidden. This is where urges are repressed and directed onto another object or person. The center of emotional intensity has been moved from its original place to a seemingly unimportant location within the dream (Bulkeley, 1997, 19).
Symbolization is where latent thoughts are put into visual images or acted out in a symbolic manner. Male genitals may be represented in dreams by images of knives, guns, sticks, towers, snakes, and any other long pointed object (20).
Female genitals and the act of sexual intercourse can also be interpreted in images. Female genitals may be symbolized by images of boxes, ovens, rooms, ships, and vessels of various kinds. Symbols of sexual intercourse include flying, climbing stairs, and any image of up-and-down or back-and-forth movements (20).
Projection refers to the tendency of the mind to project our repressed desires onto other people (Lewis, 1995, 95). Lewis gives an example that instead of dreaming of a forbidden sexual partner, there might be a dream of having a same-sex sibling as a sexual partner (95).
The secondary revision smoothes out the rough edges of the manifest dream by filling in the gaps and making minor revisions and additions (Bulkeley, 1997, 20). According to Lewis (1995), the secondary revision reorganizes the otherwise bizarre components of a dream so that it has a comprehensible surface meaning (95).
Another influential dream psychologist is Jung. He and Freud were close associates, but they later parted ways over their views of repressed sexual problems and whether dreams intentionally disguise their meanings. Jung believed that “dreams are messages communicated through the unconscious mind. Instead of concealing, the purpose of a dream is to communicate something to consciousness” (Lewis, 1995, 142). You’re giving Jung as your source but citing Lewis. Is this a 2nd hand citation? If so, you need to clearly state it as such.
Unlike Freud, Jung did not write a systematic work on dreams. His discussions on dreams came from Two Essays on Analytical Psychology and Memories, Dreams, Reflections (Source? Page?).
Dreams appear strange not because of the trickery of a deceitful censor but because our conscious minds do not always understand the special symbolic language of the unconscious (Bulkeley, 1997, 30).
According to Jung, “the unconscious is a multilayered structure that serves as a storehouse for all kinds of instinctive, unarticulated wisdom” (Time-Life Books, 1990, 73). Is this another 2nd hand citation? And which Time-Life Books series?
Time-Life Books Books don’t state things, people do states that the surface level is the personal unconscious, where individual memories and repressions are stored. Then at deeper levels, the unconscious becomes more generalized. At the bottom lies the collec-tive unconscious; this is where all humankind shares specific images and impulse (73).
Jung believes that dreams serve two functions, one of them being compensation. According to Bulkeley, compensation is where psychological health and development involve a progressive balancing of consciousness with the unconscious (30).
Lewis’ example of compensation is an excessively analytical person who has emotionally charged dreams (144).
The other function that Jung believes is that dreams provide prospective. Jung argues, “dreams also look forward to anticipate the dreamer’s future development” (Bulkeley, 1997, 31). You’re giving Jung as your source but citing Bulkeley. Is this a 2nd hand citation? If so, you need to clearly state it as such.
Dreams frequently suggest what might happen, what potentials and possibilities the dreamer’s future might hold (Bulkeley, 1997, 31).
Jung distinguishes between two types of dreams, “objective and subjective. Objective dreams picture the dreamer’s daily life and relationship with the external world, while subjective dreams portray the dreamer’s inner life. The significant actors in such dreams are personifications of the dreamer’s thoughts and feelings” (Lewis, 1995, 144). Is this another 2nd hand citation?
According to Bulkeley, the interpretation of symbols in dreams was central to Jung’s approach (33). Although there are no fixed meanings to any symbols, all dream symbols must be related to the dreamer’s unique waking life situation. Yet there are dreams that contain archetypal symbols, whose meanings are universal, transcending the dreamer’s individual consciousness. Archetypes, are universal psychic images that underlie and structure all human mental functioning (34).
Among the most common archetypes described by Jung are the persona, the shadow, the anima and animus, and the Self (34). According to Bulkeley, the persona archetype represents the human need to present ourselves favorably in society (34).
A dream of being trapped in a party or a group of people might indicate that the mask has become too tightly attached, that the dreamer cannot separate social appearances from his or her own true identity (34).
The shadow archetype represents all those unconscious elements and energies of the psyche that are poorly integrated with the individual’s consciousness (34). This is the unconscious “counter ego” that challenges the consciousness. In some cases, it could bring to light the positive aspects of a person (34).
The anima archetype is the female aspects of a man’s psyche and the animus archetype is the male aspects of a woman’s psyche. According to Bulkeley, Jung believes that “all people carry witing them biological and psychological elements of the opposite sex” (34). The archetype of the self represents the human potential to achieve wholeness and self-realization, to unite all the psychological opposites into a harmonious totality (35). Though rarely achieved, Jung says it exists to remind us that it is a genuine potential within our psyche.
Dream analysis is a tool that can help people with self-actualization. The unconscious, if understood, can provide further insight into a person’s conscious and current functioning. With different views, Freud and Jung laid the foundation for this type of interpretation.