Key Issue: Do dreams have meaning?
One of the key issues from the psychodynamic approach is the issue of do dreams have meaning? This is an issue because if they don’t have meaning all the marketing of dream dictionaries is a waste of money. Dreams are images and ideas that occur in the mind during REM sleep. There are many questions over what these dreams mean and what they represent. Some people have dreams while others say they don’t. This leads people to question why this might be the case. Also recurring dreams may also lead us to wonder, why that happens and is there significance into this. There are two arguments for the debate about dreams – biological which is based on scientific explanations and psychodynamic which is based on interpretation.
Explanation of the issue
If dreams have meaning they could be a way of resolving unconscious desires and conflict. Dreams are full of symbols which have underlying
meaning. The unconscious is a large part of the mind so it makes sense that part of this surfaces in dreams. One way the ego controls the id is
through defence mechanisms and unwanted thoughts and wishes are repressed (in the unconscious). They can reveal themselves through
Freudian slips and dreams. The manifest content in dreams is the description the person gives of the dream and the latent content is the
symbolic meaning that is interpreted from this. Recurring dreams can have a message that is important and powerful to forget. According to Freud we have these dreams as the issues have not yet been resolved. The desires from the id can be disturbing or socially unacceptable, by having these in a dream they are more acceptable. This is called wish fulfilment.
However some may argue that dreams are thoughts left over from the days events and have no underlying meaning. Biological explanations look at stages of sleep and say that dreams occur during REM sleep and that it is random neurons firing that lead to dreams.
A strength of the psychodynamic explanation is that recurring dreams can be explained, this is because the issue is still unresolved and in the
unconscious. The biological approach cannot explain recurring dreams if dreams are due to random brain activation.
Another strength is Freud's study of Little Hans. By analysing his dreams of giraffes and plumbers, his phobia of horses was treated by uncovering that it was him going through the Oedipus Complex and that the horse represented a fear of his father.
A weakness is you cannot measure concepts from the psychodynamic perspective such as the unconscious and id, whereas the biological perspective has evidence to support it and can be measured scientifically through EEG. There is also no evidence to suggest that dreams have meaning.
The psychodynamic perspective can be interpreted based on individuals own experiences and can be unique to them, a detailed case study can be made on this. However the subjective nature may also be a problem as people interpret dreams differently. However Freud himself even said that sometimes a dream is just that and has no underlying meaning so this is taken into account by this perspective.
Understanding that dreams link us to the unconscious has useful application, as it has lead to therapy. Psychoanalysis is still widely used today, and also led to other person centred therapies to be developed.
One of the key issues from the psychodynamic approach is the issue of do dreams have meaning? This is an issue because if they don’t have meaning all the marketing of dream dictionaries is a waste of money. Dreams are images and ideas that occur in the mind during REM sleep. There are many questions over what these dreams mean and what they represent. Some people have dreams while others say they don’t. This leads people to question why this might be the case. Also recurring dreams may also lead us to wonder, why that happens and is there significance into this. There are two arguments for the debate about dreams – biological which is based on scientific explanations and psychodynamic which is based on interpretation.
Explanation of the issue
If dreams have meaning they could be a way of resolving unconscious desires and conflict. Dreams are full of symbols which have underlying
meaning. The unconscious is a large part of the mind so it makes sense that part of this surfaces in dreams. One way the ego controls the id is
through defence mechanisms and unwanted thoughts and wishes are repressed (in the unconscious). They can reveal themselves through
Freudian slips and dreams. The manifest content in dreams is the description the person gives of the dream and the latent content is the
symbolic meaning that is interpreted from this. Recurring dreams can have a message that is important and powerful to forget. According to Freud we have these dreams as the issues have not yet been resolved. The desires from the id can be disturbing or socially unacceptable, by having these in a dream they are more acceptable. This is called wish fulfilment.
However some may argue that dreams are thoughts left over from the days events and have no underlying meaning. Biological explanations look at stages of sleep and say that dreams occur during REM sleep and that it is random neurons firing that lead to dreams.
A strength of the psychodynamic explanation is that recurring dreams can be explained, this is because the issue is still unresolved and in the
unconscious. The biological approach cannot explain recurring dreams if dreams are due to random brain activation.
Another strength is Freud's study of Little Hans. By analysing his dreams of giraffes and plumbers, his phobia of horses was treated by uncovering that it was him going through the Oedipus Complex and that the horse represented a fear of his father.
A weakness is you cannot measure concepts from the psychodynamic perspective such as the unconscious and id, whereas the biological perspective has evidence to support it and can be measured scientifically through EEG. There is also no evidence to suggest that dreams have meaning.
The psychodynamic perspective can be interpreted based on individuals own experiences and can be unique to them, a detailed case study can be made on this. However the subjective nature may also be a problem as people interpret dreams differently. However Freud himself even said that sometimes a dream is just that and has no underlying meaning so this is taken into account by this perspective.
Understanding that dreams link us to the unconscious has useful application, as it has lead to therapy. Psychoanalysis is still widely used today, and also led to other person centred therapies to be developed.