The Psychology of Dreams

Why we dream an analysis of contemporary research and surmise on the function of envisage Krista L. Hulm Essay Topic Why do we dream? Discuss with reference to mental theories and research. Abstract Within untainted psychoanalytic psychology, Freuds (1900) conception of dreams is the most prominent dream possibility among modern Western culture (Fosshage, 1983). Freud theorised that dreams serve a dual, compromise function. He suggested that unconscious, instinctual drive energy pushes for discharge, moving toward the expression of a consciously unacceptable impulse.The reduction in conscious restraints characteristic of tranquillity allows a symbolic, wrapped dream expression of the repressed wish. The overt (manifest) content of the dream represents a compromise between the instinctual forces (latent content) striving for expression, on one hand, and the repressive forces of thought on the other (Freud, 1900). Freud assumed that the energy pushing for action would come al ive the sleeper if not for the dream which, through and through symbolic discharge, allows a reproduction to sleep.Therefore the dream is seen as serving the biological function of preserving sleep, with the psychological function of discharging an unacceptable wish that might otherwise burst destructively into waking life (Dallet, 1973). Various aspects of Freuds dream theory nurse undergone review from the point of view of contemporary dream research (Breger, 1967 Foulkes, 1964). It is broadly agreed that with respect to dream function in particular, the sleep deliverance view is invalid and the underlying puzzle on which the wish-fulfilment theory rests requires extended revision.A study on paradoxical sleep sleep deprivation and its do on depression found that when dream sleep was experimentally repressed in depressed patients, they were found to be more outgoing, energetic, more apparent to engage with others and generally less unhappy (Cartwright, 1993). This may be referable to dreams of depressed people having the characteristic of being more self-blaming. These findings contradict with Freuds theory if dreams are a safe expression of infantile wishes, why does this function fail to help the depressed?Despite the many problems constitutional in Freuds theoretical formulation of dream function, his far-reaching work has provided a basis for many of the contemporary theories discussed below. Contemporary research on dreams exploitation brain-imaging studies contradict the view that content emerges from random signals (Morewedge & Norton, 2009). The hippocampus, which is critical to the acquisition of more or less types of memories, and the amygdala, which is important for emotional memories, are both seen to be active during REM sleep in brain-imaging studies (Nielson & Strenstrom, 2005).This understanding of the physiological aspects of dreams supports the idea that one of the functions of sleep itself is to draw together recent experienc es with ones goals, problems and desires (Paller & Voss, 2004). Fossages (2007) governing bodyal model of dreams stemmed from such understandings. The model proposes that the core process and function of dreaming is to organise data. More specifically, dream mentation, like waking mentation, develops, maintains, and restores psychological organisation and regulates affect in keeping with shifting motivational priorities.Research shows that babies pass along 50% of their sleep condemnation in REM sleep, adults 25% and onetime(a) people 15% (Breger, 1977). From the idea that REM sleep quantitatively decreases throughout the lifespan, a number of theorists (Breger, 1967 Reiser, 1990) suggest that dreaming fosters structuralisation of the nervous system through the establishment of neural memory networks or maps and babies spend more time in REM in order to establish maps and corresponding categories of organisation. This proposal supports the organisational model of dreaming.Furth ermore, the organisational model of dreaming includes a revision of psychoanalytic theory to explain the content of dreams concluding, in short, that dreams more directly reveal through affects metaphors and themes the dreamers immediate concerns (Fosshage, 2007). References Bulkeley, K. (1993). Dreaming is play. Psychoanalytic Psychology 10(4), 501-514. Retrieved kinfolk 8, 2009, from PsychARTICLES database. Cartwright, R. (2000). How and why the brain makes dreams A report card on veritable research on dreaming. Behavioral and Brain Sciences, 23, pp. 914-916. Fosshage, J.L. (1983). The psychological function of dreams A revised psychoanalytic perspective. Psychoanalysis and Contemporary Thought, 6, 641-669. Fosshage, J. L. (2007). The organizing functions of dreaming Pivotal issues in understanding and working with dreams. International forum of psychoanalysis, 16, 4, 213-221. Retrieved 14 August 2009, from pedantic Search Premier database. Freud, S. (1900). The interpretatio n of dreams. Revonsuo, A. (2000). The reinterpretation of dreams An evolutionary hypothesis of the function of dreaming. behavioural and Brain Sciences, 23, pp. 877-901.