Dream
Interpretation
 |
Dreams can be baffling and mysterious. Throughout history
dreams have been associated with sacred revelation and prophecy. And it was
a dream, so the story goes, that revealed the molecular structure of carbon
to a scientist. And so, just as we can wonder what a particular dream means
to the dreamer, we can argue about what causes dreams in the first
place.
Yet, in spite
of modern science, dreams still remain mysterious. Since I make dream
interpretation a key part of my psychotherapeutic work, I’ll offer some
comments here about this work. |
Freud:
The
Royal
Road
 |
Sigmund Freud once called dreams the “royal road
to…the unconscious,” and I think that statement will remain true
in psychology forever. Freud’s classic text, The Interpretation of
Dreams, contains some of his finest work.
 I
won’t even try to summarize Freud’s work here, but I will point
out that Freud believed every dream is a wish fulfillment, and he kept this
theory to the end, even though he gave up his initial idea that all dreams
have a sexual content.
For Freud, the
concept of wish fulfillment didn’t necessarily imply that a pleasure
was sought, because a person could just as well have a wish to be
punished.
Nevertheless, this idea of a “secret” wish being masked by a dream
remains central to classical Freudian
psychoanalysis. |
Other
Ideas
|
Of course, there are other ideas about dreams besides Freudian
theories.
Some persons
believe that dreams have certain fixed meanings. “If you dream about
oranges, it means good health; if you dream about onions, it means hard
work,” and so on. You can even buy “dictionaries” of dream
interpretation.
Then there are
modern scientists who claim that dreams are nothing more than images resulting
from random electrical activity in the brain as it “housecleans”
itself during the night.
And then there
are those such as myself who accept the
unconscious
importance of dreams and yet see them as more than wish fulfillment; I find
dreams to be valuable hints about how to improve our lives—and perhaps
even keep us from foolish self-destruction. |
The
Dream
Text
|
To use dream material clinically, we need to realize that
we never use the dream itself. That might sound strange, but think about
it. When you tell someone about a dream, it’s impossible to depict the
jumble of images that you perceived while you were sleeping. All you can
do is put the dream into words in an imperfect attempt to describe what you
experienced. So, in the end, to talk about the dream you really talk about
the text of your perception of the dream.
The text, of
course, is language, and, as such, it’s already a form of interpretation
of the raw experience. So does it even matter if the images came to you because
of random electrical activity, or because of that cheap, greasy pizza you
ate before going to bed, or whether they are profound revelations from your
unconscious? Your attempt to make sense of those images, wherever they came
from, reveals something about your current psychological process. |
The
Clinical
Work
|
The clinical work of dream interpretation, therefore, involves
three things.
First,
you need a written text of the dream. It’s
best if you write it down right after you wake up from the dream. But sometimes
it’s possible to remember a dream—or a dream fragment—that
you haven’t written down, and so your psychotherapist can write down
what you say.
Second,
you have to describe thoroughly and understand your psychological associations
to the various dream images. These associations
must come from your personal life, not from a “dictionary” of fixed
meanings. Essentially, this amounts to asking, “When you think of this
particular dream image, what other things come to mind?” Dreaming of
Mrs. Smith from your childhood, for example, doesn’t necessarily
“mean” anything, but what you thought about Mrs. Smith when you
were a child—in essence, what her life, behaviors, and values suggested
to you then—might have something to say about the problems you struggle
with today.
Third,
you have to discover the links between all these
associations. This process is a bit like
those “connect the dots” puzzles that reveal a hidden picture.
Psychologically, you simply need to understand what this net of associations
from the dream is telling you specifically, at this precise time of your
life, about your current
problems
and conflicts. Quite often, these associations are purely emotional;
that is, you can take a particularly graphic dream image, examine your emotional
reactions to it, look back into your past for times when you felt the same
emotions, and then ask yourself in what way those situations from the past
have any bearing on what is happening in your life now. |
Some
Final
Points
|
Here are some final points about dream
interpretation:
You
don’t have to interpret your dreams in order to solve your
problems. But just as there is the saying
that “Death cures cigarette smoking,” you might find that listening
to your dreams may help you solve your problems before you run out of
time.
Dreams
are always “true”—it’s just that what they mean isn’t
always what we think they mean. A dream’s
meaning will most likely be metaphorical, not literal. And sometimes a dream
gives a warning of danger, but if you pay attention to the dream and change
your ways the danger won’t necessarily happen.
“But
I don’t dream,” you might say.
Well, that’s not exactly true. Scientific studies have shown that
everyone ever studied dreams, and so it’s generally accepted
that everyone dreams.
|
Sleep studies
have shown that we go through several cycles of light to very deep sleep
each night. One phase of each cycle is called Rapid Eye Movement (REM) sleep.
Whenever a researcher woke up a sleeper in REM sleep and asked what was
happening, the sleeper always said, “I was dreaming.” In fact,
even animals experience REM sleep, so we surmise that they, too, dream—but
we cannot communicate with them to find out anything about the nature of
their dreams. |
|
It’s
easy to forget your dreams. In order to
interpret your dreams you have to remember them, so forgetting them is a
real problem. In fact, those who chronically forget their dreams tend to
claim that they don’t dream. Dreams are remembered only if you wake
up during, or just at the end of, a dream. But if you just turn over and
fall asleep again, you’re not likely to remember a thing in the morning.
So to remember a dream you have to write it down as soon as you wake up
from it. It helps to keep a note pad and a pen by your bed—and tell
yourself, before you fall asleep, that you want to write down any dreams
you can remember that night.
Don’t
worry about being unable to remember a seemingly important
dream. If it’s really important the
message will eventually get communicated in other ways or in other
dreams.
Not
every psychotherapist is skilled at, let alone trained in, dream
interpretation. Freud, with good sense,
suggested that, in order to work properly with the
unconscious,
a psychotherapist should be well-educated in literature, history, art, music,
and religion, besides having specific psychological training. You have a
right
to ask about your psychotherapist’s training and education. If your
psychotherapist is interested only in TV sit-coms, well, good
luck.
Traumatic
nightmares need to be treated differently than other
dreams. Although repetitive, intrusive
nightmares following a trauma can contain symbolic themes that relate to
threat to life, threat of abandonment or death, or loss
of identity, and exploration of these themes in psychotherapy can promote
improved personal adjustment, the nightmares may continue to persist despite
any symbolic
interpretation.[1] Therefore,
systematic
desensitization, as part of a multidimensional treatment for
PTSD,
may be of special help in reducing traumatic
reenactment.[2] |
Additional
Resources
References:
1. Orner,
R. J., & Stolz, P. (2002). Making sense of repetition phenomena by
integrating psychotraumatology and psychodynamic psychotherapy. Journal
of Traumatic Stress, 15(6), 465–471.
2. Shalev, A. Y.,
Bonne, O., & Eth, S. (1996). Treatment of posttraumatic stress disorder:
A review. Psychosomatic Medicine, 58, 165–182.
Related pages within A Guide to Psychology
and its Practice:
Consumer Rights
and Office Policies
Death—and the Seduction
of Despair
Identity and
Loneliness
Psychology and
Psychiatry—and Psychoanalysis
Questions and Answers
about Psychotherapy
Reasons to Consult
a Psychologist
Types of Psychological
Treatment
The Unconscious
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