Dream dictionary

Last updated

A dream dictionary (also known as oneirocritic literature) is a tool made for interpreting images in a dream. Dream dictionaries tend to include specific images which are attached to specific interpretations. However, dream dictionaries are generally not considered scientifically viable by those within the psychology community.

Contents

History

Since the 19th century, the art of dream interpretation has been transferred to a scientific ground, making it a distinct part of psychology. [1] However, the dream symbols of the "unscientific" days—the outcome of hearsay interpretations that differ around the world among different cultures—continued to mark the day of an average person, who is most likely unfamiliar with Freudian analysis of dreams.

The dream dictionary includes interpretations of dreams, giving each symbol in a dream a specific meaning. The argument of what dreams represent has greatly changed over time. With this changing, so have the interpretation of dreams. Dream dictionaries have changed in content since they were first published. The ancient Greeks and Romans saw dreams as having a religious meaning. This made them believe that their dreams were an insight into the future and held the key to the solutions of their problems. Aristotle's view on dreams were that they were merely a function of our physiological makeup. [2] He did not believe dreams have a greater meaning, solely that they are the result of how we sleep. In the Middle Ages, dreams were seen as an interpretation of good or evil.

Although the dream dictionary is not recognized in the psychology world, Freud is said to have revolutionized the interpretation and study of dreams. Freud came to the conclusion that dreams were a form of wish fulfillment. [3] Dream dictionaries were first based upon Freudian thoughts and ancient interpretations of dreams.

See also

Related Research Articles

Psychoanalysis is a set of theories and therapeutic techniques that deal in part with the unconscious mind, and which together form a method of treatment for mental disorders. The discipline was established in the early 1890s by Sigmund Freud, whose work stemmed partly from the clinical work of Josef Breuer and others. Freud developed and refined the theory and practice of psychoanalysis until his death in 1939. In an encyclopedic article, he identified the cornerstones of psychoanalysis as "the assumption that there are unconscious mental processes, the recognition of the theory of repression and resistance, the appreciation of the importance of sexuality and of the Oedipus complex." Freud's colleagues Alfred Adler and Carl Gustav Jung developed offshoots of psychoanalysis which they called individual psychology (Adler) and analytical psychology (Jung), although Freud himself wrote a number of criticisms of them and emphatically denied that they were forms of psychoanalysis. Psychoanalysis was later developed in different directions by neo-Freudian thinkers, such as Erich Fromm, Karen Horney, and Harry Stack Sullivan.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Sigmund Freud</span> Austrian neurologist and founder of psychoanalysis (1856–1939)

Sigmund Freud was an Austrian neurologist and the founder of psychoanalysis, a clinical method for evaluating and treating pathologies seen as originating from conflicts in the psyche, through dialogue between patient and psychoanalyst, and the distinctive theory of mind and human agency derived from it.

In psychoanalysis and other psychological theories, the unconscious mind is the part of the psyche that is not available to introspection. Although these processes exist beneath the surface of conscious awareness, they are thought to exert an effect on conscious thought processes and behavior. Empirical evidence suggests that unconscious phenomena include repressed feelings and desires, memories, automatic skills, subliminal perceptions, and automatic reactions. The term was coined by the 18th-century German Romantic philosopher Friedrich Schelling and later introduced into English by the poet and essayist Samuel Taylor Coleridge.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Dream interpretation</span> Assigning of meaning to dreams

Dream interpretation is the process of assigning meaning to dreams.

Psychoanalytic literary criticism is literary criticism or literary theory that, in method, concept, or form, is influenced by the tradition of psychoanalysis begun by Sigmund Freud.

Collective unconscious refers to the unconscious mind and shared mental concepts. It is generally associated with idealism and was coined by Carl Jung. According to Jung, the human collective unconscious is populated by instincts, as well as by archetypes: ancient primal symbols such as The Great Mother, the Wise Old Man, the Shadow, the Tower, Water, and the Tree of Life. Jung considered the collective unconscious to underpin and surround the unconscious mind, distinguishing it from the personal unconscious of Freudian psychoanalysis. He believed that the concept of the collective unconscious helps to explain why similar themes occur in mythologies around the world. He argued that the collective unconscious had a profound influence on the lives of individuals, who lived out its symbols and clothed them in meaning through their experiences. The psychotherapeutic practice of analytical psychology revolves around examining the patient's relationship to the collective unconscious.

Free association is the expression of the content of consciousness without censorship as an aid in gaining access to unconscious processes. The technique is used in psychoanalysis which was originally devised by Sigmund Freud out of the hypnotic method of his mentor and colleague, Josef Breuer.

<i>The Interpretation of Dreams</i> 1899 book by Sigmund Freud

The Interpretation of Dreams is an 1899 book by Sigmund Freud, the founder of psychoanalysis, in which the author introduces his theory of the unconscious with respect to dream interpretation, and discusses what would later become the theory of the Oedipus complex. Freud revised the book at least eight times and, in the third edition, added an extensive section which treated dream symbolism very literally, following the influence of Wilhelm Stekel. Freud said of this work, "Insight such as this falls to one's lot but once in a lifetime."

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Herbert Silberer</span> Psychoanalyst

Herbert Silberer was a Viennese psychoanalyst involved with the professional circle surrounding Sigmund Freud which included other pioneers of psychological study as Carl Gustav Jung, Alfred Adler and others. He had a background in athletics and sports journalism.

Dreamwork is the exploration of the images and emotions that a dream presents and evokes. It differs from classical dream interpretation in that it does not attempt to establish a unique meaning for the dream. In this way the dream remains "alive" whereas if it has been assigned a specific meaning, it is "finished". Dreamworkers take the position that a dream may have a variety of meanings depending on the levels that are being explored.

In psychology, the psyche is the totality of the human mind, conscious and unconscious. The English word soul is sometimes used synonymously, especially in older texts.

Psychoanalytic dream interpretation is a subdivision of dream interpretation as well as a subdivision of psychoanalysis pioneered by Sigmund Freud in the early 20th century. Psychoanalytic dream interpretation is the process of explaining the meaning of the way the unconscious thoughts and emotions are processed in the mind during sleep.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Oedipus complex</span> Idea in psychoanalysis

In classical psychoanalytic theory, the Oedipus complex refers to a son's sexual attitude towards his mother and concomitant hostility toward his father, first formed during the phallic stage of psychosexual development. A daughter's attitude of desire for her father and hostility toward her mother is referred to as the feminine Oedipus complex. The general concept was considered by Sigmund Freud in The Interpretation of Dreams (1899), although the term itself was introduced in his paper A Special Type of Choice of Object made by Men (1910).

Content in Freudian dream analysis refers to two closely connected aspects of the dream: the manifest content, and the latent content. Impulses and drives residing in the unconscious press toward consciousness during sleep, but are only able to evade the censorship mechanism of repression by associating themselves with words, ideas and images that are acceptable to consciousness. Thus the dream as consciously remembered upon waking is interpreted in psychoanalysis as a disguised or distorted representation of repressed desires.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Wish fulfillment</span> Psychological concept

Wish fulfillment is the satisfaction of a desire through an involuntary thought process. It can occur in dreams or in daydreams, in the symptoms of neurosis, or in the hallucinations of psychosis. This satisfaction is often indirect and requires interpretation to recognize.

<i>Freud, Biologist of the Mind</i> 1979 book by Frank Sulloway

Freud, Biologist of the Mind: Beyond the Psychoanalytic Legend is a 1979 biography of Sigmund Freud, the founder of psychoanalysis, by the psychologist Frank Sulloway.

<i>Freud and Philosophy</i> 1965 book by Paul Ricœur

Freud and Philosophy: An Essay on Interpretation is a 1965 book about Sigmund Freud, the founder of psychoanalysis, written by the French philosopher Paul Ricœur. In Freud and Philosophy, Ricœur interprets Freudian work in terms of hermeneutics, a theory that governs the interpretation of a particular text, and phenomenology, a school of philosophy founded by Edmund Husserl. Ricœur addresses questions such as the nature of interpretation in psychoanalysis, the understanding of human nature and the relationship between Freud's interpretation of culture amongst other interpretations. The book was first published in France by Éditions du Seuil, and in the United States by Yale University Press.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Freud's psychoanalytic theories</span> Look to unconscious drives to explain human behavior

Sigmund Freud is considered to be the founder of the psychodynamic approach to psychology, which looks to unconscious drives to explain human behavior. Freud believed that the mind is responsible for both conscious and unconscious decisions that it makes on the basis of psychological drives. The id, ego, and super-ego are three aspects of the mind Freud believed to comprise a person's personality. Freud believed people are "simply actors in the drama of [their] own minds, pushed by desire, pulled by coincidence. Underneath the surface, our personalities represent the power struggle going on deep within us".

<i>The Dream: Introduction into the Psychology of Dreams</i> 1918 book by Herbert Silberer

The Dream – Introduction into the Psychology of Dreams is a book by the Austrian psychoanalyst Herbert Silberer, written 1918 in Vienna and published 1919 by Ferdinand Enke in Stuttgart. His main intention was to provide a short, comprehensible guide on how to read and understand more sophisticated literature on dreams, as well as giving an appreciation of fundamental dream phenomena, because he considered both of them as lacking at this time. Silberer himself called this book the preamble for more sophisticated and complicated works, which could then build up on his own work.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Dreams in analytical psychology</span>

Dream psychology is a scientific research field in psychology. In analytical psychology, as in psychoanalysis generally, dreams are "the royal road" to understanding unconscious content.

References

  1. Freud, Sigmund. Dream Psychology: Psychoanalysis for Beginners.
  2. Beare, J.I. "On Dreams by Aristotle". mit.edu. Archived from the original on 2024-06-20. Retrieved 2024-08-22.
  3. Wilson, Kevin. "Introduction to Sigmund Freud's Theory on Dreams". Archived from the original on 2012-03-20. Retrieved 2014-04-10.

Further reading