The Meaning of Dreams

Dream Interpretation & Analysis

"What is the meaning of dreams?"

Psychologists have been studying dreams since the discipline began and they are a staple diet of psychoanalysts. Despite that, there is still no single agreed upon what causes dreams, let alone their interpretation. The phenomenom remains the subject of a number of conflicting theories of dreams.

There are three fundamental psychological questions to be answered:

Dream Formation Where do our dreams come from? Dream Function What purpose - if any - do they serve? Dream Interpretation What - if anything - do they mean?

Different schools of psychology have different aswers to these questions. To further complicate matters the first two questions overlap with the physical neurosciences whilst the latter two questions are of great interest to philosophers. Attempting a synergy of neuroscience, psychoanalysis and philosophy is a major task.

Any school of psychology or analysis must of necessity consider the question of dreams, however some treat them as more significant than others - for example many mainstream academics do not accept that dreams have any coherent meaning worth interpreting.

The two most well known (relatively) modern schools of dream analysis are those of Sigmund Freud and Carl Jung who attempted to discover the hidden meaning he believed lay behind the dreams of his patients. Other dream interpertation approaches which build on these include depth psychology, neurocognitive theory, activation-synthesis and Fritz Perls' gestalt theory.

On this site I'll give a brief introduction to the main competing theories of the meaning behind dreams. Each of these approaches has its advantages, each is worthy of a complete website in itself. At the same time, all models of dreaming have flaws and critics, all are controversial. I'll attempt to present the theories themselves without judgement. Although you'll probably be able to tell which ones I'm more enthusiastic about!

At the end of the day the decision as to which school to go with is a subjective one - it's your mind, they're your dreams and your symbols.

Please note that I'm not a doctor or trained specialist, nor do I claim any qualifications or authority. I'm simply an ordinary guy who's interested in the subjects covered here and who has read a great deal.