Freud: Interpretations Of Dreams.

For many years people have tried to understand dreams. Why do we dream? What causes dreams? What does each dream mean? Dreams are really unexplainable, “In spite of thousands of years of endeavor, little progress has been made in the scientific understanding of dreams.” It is such a broad topic that many scientist come up with different believes. As stated by Freud, “No real progress in a definite direction is as yet discernible. No real foundation of verified results has hitherto been established on which future investigators might continue to build. Every new author approaches the same problems afresh, and from the very beginning.” To make a definite conclusion is as impossible as understanding dreams.

While reading Chapter One, I became very interested in section C. It talks mainly about how dreams are caused by discomfort in our sleep. I would think nightmares are caused by a discomfort, but in general all dreams are.

As I read about dreams, it is like discussing about a religion. Everybody has different opinions and believes different things. Since dreams curiosity draggers, “Opinions differ widely in preferring this or the other factor as the cause of dreams, and in classifying them in the order of importance.”

I find it very interesting how we are sleeping, therefore the unconscious mind takes over yet, “the mind remains in constant communication with the external world.” We basically shut off everything, but are woken up by a sound or a touch. Can we be awake and asleep at the same time? How can sounds affect our dreams? For example Freud while describing dreams talks about how if you are sleeping and a door stretches, you might dream of burglars breaking in. “The argument that there is a resemblance between the dream-stimulus and the dream-content would be confirmed if, by a systematic induction of stimuli, we should succeed in producing dreams corresponding to these stimuli.”, as it was proved by Giron de Buzareingues running several experiments.

Dreams are really amazing, yet very confusing to understand. I enjoy dreaming, but wish I could understand it. In Dreams we see and experience things we wouldn’t in real life, it is an exaggerated reality, yet is it really a reality? Are dreams warnings for the futures? Is dreaming necessary? Do dreams mean something? Are the important? I just wish I could answer this questions that give me such an uncomfortable uncertainty. Are dreams our imagination just running wild?