Analysing Dreams (Freudian Style)



Analysing Dreams (Freudian Style)

The Facts:

• Freud believed that dreams were frequently distorted in a subconscious attempt at repression.

• Freud believed that the motivation for all dreams is wish fulfillment, and that dreams are the key to understanding the battle between the id and the superego.

• Freud was the first researcher to develop a comprehensive dream theory, although many more followed him, most notably Carl Jung, one of his students.

The “Science” of Dream:

• Step 1: Falling Asleep

o When we try to sleep, we disconnect from the world (minimize input from the environment). However, this disconnection is not possible, so stimuli disturb us in our sleep and our mind responds to them.

• Step 2: Once you are asleep…Dream symbols can have many different applications!

o Condensation — one dream object stands for several associations and ideas; thus "dreams are brief, meagre and laconic in comparison with the range and wealth of the dream-thoughts".

o Displacement — a dream object's emotional significance is separated from its real object or content and attached to an entirely different one that does not raise the censor's suspicions.

o Representation — a thought is translated to visual images.

o Symbolism — a symbol replaces an action, person, or idea.

Sex and Dreams:

• Since Freud’s theories all circle around sex, he came up with many symbols that may represent sex.

• Male Symbols: pointy things (sticks, umbrellas, poles), things that penetrate and harm (knives, guns, swords), reptiles and fish.

• Female Symbols: things that contain other things (pockets, bottles), houses (doors, windows, hallways), animals that have shells (snails, mussels), fruit (apples, peaches).

The Marks

• 10 Application marks

o Five marks for correctly identifying what conflict might be between the Id and Superego.

o Five marks for correctly analyzing dream symbolism (you can find this online, or guess yourself as long as you can explain WHY).

The Real Deal

You can find an Ebook of Freud’s “DREAM PSYCHOLOGY” here:

The Dream (CHOOSE ONE):

I had a dream in which I was back in high school. I didn't know my schedule, or the classrooms I was supposed to be in and just wandered around. I had washed my hair the night before but forgot to rinse the conditioner out, so it looked greasy. I went into the girl's restroom to rinse it, but I couldn't brush through it. I finally did get it styled. I then started applying makeup that was really heavy and dark. Instead of wiping it off, I applied more to try to cover it up and looked like a clown. I had to follow another girl into a classroom I thought I was supposed to be in and sat down. I kept applying powder to my face to try to cover up the makeup, but it just made it worse. One of my friends was sitting next to me and was embarrassing me by making loud noises and playing with a toy truck. When it turned 9:00am, she wanted to leave, but I told her class wasn't over til 9:10am. At lunch time, I couldn't find any friends to sit with and ended up sitting next to my sister. A girl came up and stabbed another girl who was eating near me. She stabbed her three times while everyone sat in shock. The girl who was stabbed just calmly removed the knives and walked away.

OR

I had a dream where I was in the basement of a family friend. There is a light from a single bare light bulb overhead. I hear breathing behind me – when I turn around, I can only see a shadowy figure resembling a human. I know it is the “boogy-man” and know I must escape. I run for the stairs, but as soon as I get on the stairs, my legs cannot move quickly – I am running in slow motion. Try as I might, I cannot run fast. The shadowy figure gains on me. Just before the creature catches me, the floor opens up. I fall down a shaft for what seems like ten minutes. Just before I hit bottom, I wake up

OR

Pick one of your own. If you choose this option, you must write a brief description of your dream (like in the examples), plus the analysis required (as explained above)

Some Common Dream Symbols and their Interpretations

Other symbols can be found here: ,

Alarm clock: Freud (1994) used the sound of an alarm clock as an example of an external neural stimulus affecting a dream. Examples include a dream of preparation for a sleigh ride contained unusually loud sleigh bells, or a dream in which a maid drops china, and the sound of breaking china goes on too long, until the dreamer realizes it is the alarm clock.

Cars - There is a very interesting article about cars and machinery symbolism at Generally speaking, it may refer to certain social conventions which require focus and a certain technique assimilated through practice. The car can also suggest the human body which is regarded by the ego as mechanical (if we exclude the soul).

Ceiling - The upper limit over which we cannot pass in dreams about ambition or moral ones.

Dancing - When you dance you flirt with somebody. It can also suggest a certain social conformism because dancing always conforms to the music, to the person or group who play the music.

Death - It means never death in a dream. It can evoke something that ceases, it can be, as well, the end and the beginning, an initiating death (such as the Lazarus' in the Bible ). It can suggest the breaking up as in the French saying "Partit c'est mourir un peu" ("Leaving means dying a little"). Learn more about dreams of death here.

Demons - Demons are in connection with our cultural representations. Usually opposed to the divine will, they threaten the virtuous persons (subject to religious prescriptions) or they tempt. But a demon can also be somebody who doesn't worship anything - a diabolic person meaning that he/she respects no social convention.

Dog - It is said that the dog is the man's best friend. It can also imply the need of defense, security, safety. In can suggest the desire of transforming the other in an obedient, submissive servant.

Hill - A guide mark or just the need for social climbing. In a dull life suggested by the plane, the hill (the hillock) is an ambitious start, a hope in the making. At Freud it can be a symbol of penis.

Hotel room - A transit place in which you do not stay forever. Life on earth it is said to be a transit and it can be compared to sitting in a hotel room (the body itself may be represented as a hotel room). It can also suggest the unconscious need of the dreamer of not having constant and long lasting relationships with a close friend or mate.

Ice - The ice is the symbol of stillness, immobility (maybe affectively) because the water - extremely mobile - becomes something petrified, stagnant. It can suggest a formal, distant, feeling-less relationship.

Falling: Falling can have an interpretation of "falling" by giving in to sexual desire, or can have reference to a childhood fall, which led to being picked up and comforted by a parent (Freud, 1994).

Friend - A friend isn't always a friend in a dream. It all depends on the associations of the dreamer. The friend from the dream can be an allusion to a real one - from the wakeful state - or it can embody certain characteristics of the dreamer, which he/she does not take into account because they are unconscious.

Flying: Flight is generally associated with a pleasant feeling in Freud's experience, though for a variety of reasons. Among the examples he offers are the extremely short woman who frequently dreamed of floating a few feet above the ground; the sexually-inspired dreams of German-speakers familiar with a particular German vulgarity, which provided association between birds and sex, and in which "we shall also not be surprised to hear that this or that dreamer is always very proud of his ability to fly" (p. 239); and a suggestion by a Dr. Paul Federn that erections inspired flight dreams (Freud, 1994).

Mask - It is something that hides or deceives. It may be the persona in the psychology of Jung. A mask is always a double - it hides what the dreamer refuses to see in his/her real life about himself/herself.

Money - A lot of money means availability, appetite for many things, in one word libido. When you dream you have a lot of money and you feel a strong comfort it means you dispose of the necessary means to satisfy your biological needs (at least in dream).

Roof - Symbol of ambition, of upstartism. To be the first, the best, visible from a great distance (greatness). Or it can suggest a top personality to whom we hope getting closer. Also it can be our need to climb over (to overpass) a major problem.

Teeth - If you dream you have lost your teeth it might mean a regression towards childhood, infantilism. Teeth are connected to aggressiveness too - the loss of teeth might imply a repression of aggressiveness (or even castration as in the psychoanalytic theory). A vital loss which might signal an imminent danger.

Water - The symbolism of water is extremely complex. It suggests the amniotic life, the fetal period. In this respect it can suggest the returning to the past, to childhood, to infantilism. The water washes but also cleans (erases=destroys!). The water is a habitual element without which life cannot exist. It has alchemical significance - it is the substance which transforms (or the prima materia).

Freudian Dream Analysis Question Sheet

***If you analysed your own dream, please write the description on the back (or attach it to this sheet)

1) Referencing the specific symbols in the dream, what do you think the dream is about?

2) What is the subconscious problem that the Id and the Superego are battling over?

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"Those who dream by day are cognizant of many things which escape those who dream by night." – Edgar Allen Poe

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