| Try Therapy for a Change copyright 2011 Antonia Caretto |
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| Antonia Caretto, Ph.D., PLLC (248) 553-9053 |
Ideas about why we dream and what it means have changed across time. In ancient cultures the dream was not thought of as an internal experience arising from within the dreamer’s mind. Dreams were viewed as being messages sent from the gods. Most of the dreams recorded in Egypt hieroglyphics indicated three themes or categories: the gods giving warnings or advice; the gods demanding a certain act; and the gods revealing prophecies. Greek literature describes a belief that the gods took a direct interest in human affairs and affected them through dreams. Modern day explanations are scientific and psychological. The brain has been identified as the source of dreams. Dreams happen during the rapid eye movement (REM) stage of sleep which usually begins after a period of deep sleep known as stage 4 sleep. REM periods vary in length from five to ten minutes for the first REM period of the night to as long as 30-35 minutes later. In a typical night, we dream four to six times or more, for a total of two hours. We can also experience non- REM dreaming in the hour or two before waking up when our brains are more active. During REM, some areas of our brains become as active as they are when we are awake. The main areas of the brain that are active during REM sleep are associated with learning and memory. It is believed that the process of memory consolidation and learning occurs during dreaming as the brain reviews and reorganizes all experiences from the day, and connects them to prior learned information. Lack of REM sleep seriously impairs our ability to easily remember any newly learned information and skills. Some people believe that, though not messages from the gods, dreams do have meaning. Others believe that dreams are merely the brain’s attempt to make sense of random signals which occur during sleep. People report the most common types of dreams are dreams of falling, being naked, having teeth fall out, flying or having an exam. Why many people have those types of dreams and what any dream means is hard to say. Sometimes dream interpretation is used in psychotherapy. Modern dream interpretation as part of therapy is based on concepts first elaborated in Sigmund Freud’s book The Interpretation of Dreams. One of the basic concepts that Freud presented was that every dream is somehow about a psychological conflict regarding the fulfillment of a wish for forbidden and unconscious desires. Freud noted that though some of the dream content is supplied by events from the day, the dream transforms the content by mental processes of condensation, displacement and symbolism. We awaken and stop the dream when anxiety breaks through due to the failure to adequately disguise the conflict. Because the wish fulfillment is forbidden it must remain in the unconscious, and because the logic in dreams is very different from that of waking life, dreams are often incoherent, bizarre or absurd. Through exploration and interpretation, the true meaning of the dream can be uncovered. Dream interpretation relies upon the dreamer's associations. By examining details from waking life that are represented in the dream, the therapist and the dreamer can identify the dream displacements and condensations, and understand the use of symbolism and metaphors. Eventually, the unconscious wishes and conflicts contained in the dream are made conscious. Freud described the process of dream interpretation as being “the royal road leading to the unconscious.” |
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