BellaOnline Forums Religion and Spirituality Dreams Freud's Interpretation Of Dreams

It was in his book The Interpretation of Dreams, first published in 1899, that Sigmund Freud first argued that the foundation of all dream content is wish-fulfilment, and that the instigation of a dream is always to be found in the events of the day preceding the dream.

Does anyone have any thoughts on this? Agree? Disagree? Why?

I disagree, just like Jung. Dreams CAN be wish-fulfilment - but they don't neccessarily have to be. They can be much more. They tell us something about what is hidden deep inside us, they show us what we are suppressing, there can be spirit visitors in our dreams carrying messages for us.

I think Frued was right in his thinking, to a point. He should have said "some" dream content is wish-fulfilment, and that the instigation of a dream is always to be found in the events of the day preceding the dream - for not all dreams stem from this process.

I feel that some dreams are messages from the spirit world or past life recalls or resolutions (from our sub-conscious) to a problem we have been mulling over.

Frued was very much in tune with the human psyche, but sometimes did not quite get the whole picture. Jung was much more broad-minded and was able to delve deeper into the psyche of human minds.

Sigmund Freud = sure fraud he has done tremendous damage to modern society although nobody likes to accept it.Human mind is not so simple to be divided into 3 parts.Everything in life is not sex.Most of it is sex but not everything.The guy was sex crazy from birth to death.

You have to remember that Freud was at the beginning of the study of psychology and did a great deal to bring out in the open some psychological issues that others were afraid to even approach. Jung and Freud were great friends, but, they disagreed on many things in this field. Jung took psychology a step further and came up with more acceptable and valid studies in the field. From those two men sprung the knowledge we have today with psychological issues and how to treat them. I do not see Freud as a fraud, just a pioneer in the field of psychology and mistakes are inevitable in the early stages of any new study.

I agree with you, Phyllis. Freud was definitely a pioneer. As the first to take those steps, he was bound to have some ideas that would later be disproven. It doesn't mean he was a fraud, just a man exploring the possibilities that noone else dared to explore.

In answer to the questions you proposed, I think it is partly right. Sometimes I will dream of things I was randomly thinking throughout the day or a movie I watched or a book I read. Then there are strange prophetic dreams that present themselves later in real life, these strange little insignificant details like picking up a pencil and dropping it or an inappropriate comment someone says to me and the consequences of a reaction that I decide not to go through with. I also dream about past lives or maybe they are messages from dead people where I am someone different in a different time and place, but it's still me. I can't really differentiate them, but I remember them in detail because I always think about them upon waking.

But there are times when my dreams are reflections of my hidden emotions and fears that require interpretation. This is why I think about my dreams so much. So I believe that Freud was right to a point.

I recognize Freud was a pioneer and he should be given credit for that. But just as we no longer believe Earth the center of the universe, I don't think we should use outdated ideas.

I think dreams are far too complex to be placed in any catch all category which is my main complaint against Freud. Even when I write my articles I try to give ideas and suggestions about what symbols might mean not definite "this dream means this one thing" because dreams rely not only on a symbol's general meaning but also one's own personal relationship to the symbol. One of my favorite Jung quotes on dream interpretation is: "Learn every thing you can about mythology and then forget it."

I too think that Freud opend a door into the exploration of dreams. But, Ido not agree with so much of his work on dreams. For one, though I do believe we work out our consciense mind and days events in dreams, there are just too many that are more profound than those. The SUB consciense mind is, I believe, connected to the outer life, which we are all apart of. As our world is evolving, so maybe we are too.. but back to our "connection".. that 'thread of all life".

Freud was a pioneer in the study of psychology. He did make mistakes and did not accurately interpret a lot of studies. As all pioneers though, he did open doors to greater knowledge.

I've seen all sorts of things in my dreams and I've met people who say they never dream. I find that interesting. I believe the stat that says we only use 10% of our brain and knowing nature, as I do anyway, I don't see much waste going on so, I'm thinking it's just science that's behind the times.

I've had vocal dreams from my grandmother saying she missed my father, with information I wouldn't know, nor understand back then that she had passed. I've had dreams of a car on the side of a road and what looked like a zoom lens close up of a license plate that when I passed the car in real life, turned back around to get a close view of the license plate and it was that license plate.

I've had spiritual beings, OBE's, sleep paralysis and want dreams, and I'm greatful Freud at least brought the dream-world out into the open, but like so many of the people here, I feel there is much more than meets the dreams themselves as we know them to be true at this point and very much worth the investigation.