Psychoanalysis of sleep. Interpretation of dreams from the point of view of psychoanalysis. If you have the same dream several times
Any modern person knows that the founder of the theory of dream interpretation is Sigmund Freud, the famous psychoanalyst who put forward and substantiated the theory that in a dream a person plunges into internal reality, into his own unconscious (and, as Jung later developed this theory, into the collective unconscious ). However, people have been having dreams for centuries, long before Freud. And of course they tried to find the “key” to the night visions.
Throughout human history, different cultures have had different ways of explaining the nature of dreams. Thus, there was a theory that considered external sensory influences to be the sources of dreams: sounds, light, touch. This is partly true: under the influence of the light of the full moon, a bright street lamp, or the caresses of a loved one, we may have bizarre dreams. However, we dream about them even without all this: even in a completely dark and quiet room, a sleeping person can dream.
Another theory considered internal irritations to be the sources of dreams: uncomfortable posture, numb arms or legs, suffocation. Nightmares were especially often attributed to these reasons. In principle, this is true, however, even a person lying calmly in a free position is also not guaranteed from them... In addition, in an uncomfortable position it is not necessarily a nightmare - it happens that you dream of something neutral, or nothing at all.
There was also a theory that explained dreams as a repetition of impressions received by a person during the day, whether preceding sleep or more distant in time - not the essence, the main thing is that dreams were understood as a repetition of impressions received while awake. However, often the subjects of our dreams are something that we have never seen in reality before, and even moreover, that we have not read or heard about.
The latest version explained sleep as rest for the body. There is some truth in this, however, experiments by scientists of the twentieth century have proven that during certain (so-called “fast” or “paradoxical”) periods of sleep - up to 4-5 times per night - the electrical activity of our brain is the same as during awake, and the eyeballs move, just like during the day.
Thus, all these theories were not only untenable, but incomplete, and before the advent of Freud’s concept, there were no clear explanations of the origin and nature of our dreams. Moreover, such theories also did not try to interpret the dreams themselves, focusing only on finding explanations for the sources of their appearance. To interpret dreams themselves, there were so-called dream books - collections of stories with explanations of what they could mean.
Thus, eastern dream books imply an interpretation of the subject of a dream according to its consonance with another. For example, there is a legend that a certain military leader dreamed of a huge hill, and based on the consonance of this word with the word “victory,” the vizier predicted him victory in the battle - and so it happened. However, who knows what “worked” in this case: either a message “from above” transmitted through a dream, or the victorious mood of a military leader inspired by a prediction. The disadvantage of this approach is that interpretation is extremely arbitrary depending on the dialect used in a given area.
But the European dream books that are familiar to us are symbolic dream books. A certain symbol has a certain meaning, and in accordance with the set of “pictures” present in our dream, we interpret its general meaning. For example, fish traditionally dreams of pregnancy, small children - of troubles, coins - of tears, and so on. Having opened any dream book, we will find there the meanings of any object in abundance, with variations (fish in the river/fried fish, coins/paper money, girls/boys) and often with opposite meanings of these variations.
On the one hand, such dream books contain folk wisdom and the experience of centuries: after all, children really bring trouble, and small money only brings tears. However, the disadvantage of such dream books is the interpretation of individual elements - without the ability to connect them together, without the chance to create an overall picture from strokes: often dreamed symbols mean diametrically opposed things, and the interpretation of the dream becomes meaningless.
In addition, an extremely significant (and sometimes negative!) feature of dream books is the “self-programming” of a person for defeat or victory, for positive or negative - and it’s good if a person interprets the plot of the dream in a favorable direction and tunes in for a favorable outcome. And if not?
Freud's theory, which later developed into the direction of psychology called psychoanalysis, made it possible to look at sleep as a state caused by the person himself, his consciousness and subconscious, and the interaction of images inhabiting this “mental space.” Sleep began to be perceived not as a “rest” for the brain, but as work - the work of the subconscious for the benefit of consciousness.
Throughout history, man has understood the importance and significance of dreams and tried to understand this phenomenon. But, despite the abundance of theories explaining the appearance of dreams, none of them could fully understand the nuances of the dreaming process, and only after the emergence of the psychoanalytic theory of dream interpretation by S. Freud, we were able to significantly lift the veil of secrecy over this mysterious phenomenon - His Majesty the Dream.
So, what is sleep from the point of view of psychoanalysis? Sigmund Freud called sleep “the royal road to the unconscious.” In a dream, a person is immersed in an internal reality, consisting of different facets of his personality (“It”, “I” and “Super-Ego”), as well as filled with images of “imago” - unconscious prototypes of objects from external reality: father, mother, sisters , brothers and other significant people (immediate relatives and friends).
In addition, complementing the theory of psychoanalysis Carl Jung substantiated the concept of interaction of our personality with elements of the collective unconscious, embodied in powerful images - the so-called archetypes. Thus, there are archetypes of the masculine and feminine principles of personality: Animus and Anima (and both components are present in the consciousness of any person, regardless of gender - only in different proportions). Also among the most important archetypes is our Shadow - any aspects of our personality that are rejected by our consciousness (what we do not accept in ourselves and do not show to others).
Images of Imago are formed in childhood and accompany a person throughout his life. Each image has its own modality - positive or negative, and it is this that determines a person’s attitude towards these objects in the external world.
There are few such imagoes in our subconscious - 5-10 (depending on whether a person is an introvert or an extrovert, that is, whether he is oriented towards the inner world or the outer world, and, therefore, how many contacts he has). They all go back to the first childhood impressions and in one way or another come down to the images of father and mother (or the people who replaced them). That is, if you dream of an aggressive man, most likely this is not the boss with whom you quarreled yesterday and in general the relationship “didn’t work out,” but a much older image - a father or grandfather, with whom not everything was smooth since childhood. . Relationships with the “prototype”, that is, with the father, are projected onto the boss and onto everyone like him: elders, those endowed with power, possessing a certain external type (this is individual for everyone). This kind of projection, substitution of relationships is called in psychoanalysis transfer.
The more neurotic a person is, the more “negatively charged” imagoes he has. This does not mean that outwardly the relationship with his prototype and everyone who is associated with him is necessarily bad. However, the internal conflict and tension associated with the need to maintain good relationships in such a person are great, and relationships are maintained solely at the expense of the resource of consciousness and will (that is, they deplete the nervous system and sometimes even the body, causing so-called psychosomatic diseases).
As for three-dimensional model of “It”, “I” and “Super-ego”, then it represents the unity of our three “opposites”, and it is in this “field” that our dreams unfold.
"It"- these are unconscious, repressed desires and aspirations, the initial layer of the psyche, formed immediately after birth and guided by the principle of dominance of drives and needs: all desires must be immediately satisfied. This is a completely unconscious sphere of our personality.
"I"- the “adult” part of our psyche, it acts in accordance with the principle of reality: it does not satisfy all desires and provides not all actions - but only those that are socially and morally acceptable. The stronger the “I”, the more mature and successful a person is. “I” is not only our consciousness (that is, our entire life experience), but also a small part of the subconscious (that is, psychological defense mechanisms).
As for "Super-ego", then this is the “instance of conscience”. It is formed after 3 years and throughout life and accumulates moral and moral prohibitions and restrictions. This is a kind of “internal police”, which includes both consciousness and subconsciousness. Underdevelopment of the “super-ego” leads to irresponsibility and even social danger in its owner. But an overly developed “Super-I” is not healthy, since it makes a person too neurotic: an excessive number of prohibitions simply does not allow him to be happy.
What does all this have to do with dreams? The most direct thing. I'll bring you example of such analysis: A young man had a dream in which a stranger killed him. “Then I inexplicably resurrected and killed a stranger - without any remorse. Why would this be?” asks the dreamer.
Such dreams reflect the struggle of the three hypostases of the personality: It, I, and Super-Ego. In this dream there are three acting characters: the dreamer himself, that is, his conscious self (“the murdered man”); “Super-ego” (“resurrected man”) and “It” (“stranger man”). The relationship of the dreamer with all three of his “parts” is problematic; his own “It” does not suit the dreamer to such an extent that he does not want to know him (it is not for nothing that in the dream this is a certain “stranger”). The dreamer also suspects that his secret, latent desires can lead to trouble (“It - that is, the stranger - is killing “I”). On the other hand, the “Super-Ego” - that is, the conscience and morality of the individual - turns out to be stronger than latent desires: it is the “Super-Ego” that personifies the resurrected person who killed the rebellious instincts (of course, without remorse, because the Super-Ego is conscience , why should she doubt herself?).
Such a dream speaks of a conflict between different sides of the personality, a rebellion of instincts and at the same time an excessive strengthening of the police functions of morality. The dreamer should understand his life: what exactly he wants and cannot do at the same time, and how this problem can be resolved in reality - these are the questions that he should work through.
Lack of dreams- also symbolic. Psychoanalysis explains this situation for several reasons:
- severe physical fatigue (“slept like a log”);
- depression (when a person does not want to understand either the past or the future, he does not want to see this future at all, since, in his opinion, it still does not bring anything good);
- fear of the past or future, expectation of something bad: in this situation, a person also does not want to “look into the mirror” in which he is afraid to see the monsters of his subconscious and the troubles they portend.
However, theories are theories, but how can this knowledge be applied in reality? Can we independently, without resorting to dream books and specialists, learn to explain our dreams and benefit from it?
Often - yes, because our dreams are work our subconscious, so it’s up to us to work with it. Of course, the subconscious resorts to small and large tricks in the form of resistances - that is, peculiar “blocks” that are placed to prevent consciousness from penetrating into the sphere of the subconscious. That is why a psychoanalyst will “decipher” your dream much faster and easier than you yourself, even if you have special knowledge: after all, you have to fight with yourself! Nevertheless, this struggle is always beneficial, and even if you cannot decipher all dreams (and this will happen), the habit of listening to yourself sensitively, the skill of analyzing and the ability to highlight the main thing is a bunch of keys to understanding yourself and to harmony with yourself.
So what should we do to learn to understand your own dreams? The main postulate was formulated by the French researcher Hélène Renard, the author and presenter of a series of programs about dreams on French radio and television. The most important thing, in her opinion, is not to be lazy write down, and do this systematically and for quite a long time - at least 2-3 weeks in a row. Why is this so important? Why is it that recording, and not just remembering in the morning, allows us to penetrate deeper into the plot and secret nuances of what we dreamed? Let's try to understand this from the point of view of psychoanalysis.
The fact is that by recording (and formulating, and therefore remembering and comprehending) our own dreams for at least several weeks, we learn the basics of dream analysis, namely:
Remember them (and this is already half the battle, because few people remember their dreams: this is the result of the resistance of the unconscious, which we talked about above);
The easiest way to highlight the main image of a dream is by choosing a “name” for the dream;
Note the setting in which the plot unfolds (the location is symbolic and helps us understand what the dream as a whole wanted to say);
Selecting individual scenes in a dream, as in a “scenario”, makes it easier not to miss anything important and to maintain the chronology of the events of the dream so as not to lose the logical thread;
Note secondary (and seemingly insignificant) images. They are secondary only at first glance: if you dreamed about them, especially if they surfaced in your memory, it means that they were present in the dream for a reason and performed an important semantic function;
Study your behavior and emotions - that is, analyze what you were like in your dream? After all, a dream is a mirror in which our current experiences and feelings are reflected;
Identify dream characters: often these characters are some aspects of ourselves, accepted or rejected by our consciousness (our male and female components are Animus and Anima, as well as our Shadow: what we do not accept in ourselves and do not show to others) . Globally speaking, in a dream we see only ourselves, and even when imagoes appear there, the “prototypes” of real characters from our lives (see previous article) are not real images, but only our attitude towards them;
Draw parallels and establish cause-and-effect relationships with real experiences and events in your life - present and past. Dreams are based on plots that are significant to us, and if they arise, it means they carry some kind of informational message that we should “consider”;
Pay attention to symbols: verbal, color (coloristic) and subject - they carry a powerful semantic load, accumulating cultural, mythological, religious images of our ancestors (what Carl Jung called the “collective unconscious”). If something is a significant element of a dream, do not be lazy to read about it in the dictionary of symbols and signs, remember the legends and fairy tales associated with this concept - this helps to find the key to a complex plot;
Pay attention also to repeating plots, characters or symbols, as if pursuing you from one dream to another - repeatedly. Freud called such dreams “obsessive repetitions” and believed that until the situation is realized and the internal conflict is resolved and worked through, such dreams will be repeated over and over again;
Analyze the ending of the dream: this is the most important part of the dream, it often contains the message that the dream seeks to convey to our consciousness;
Well, and most importantly: learn to connect your individual “finds” into a single image.
So, I think it has become a little clearer how to unravel dreams.
Why do we have dreams? Firstly, dreams serve to execution our unconscious wishes- especially those that we cannot and will never be able to implement in reality, and even more so those that we are not aware of at all.
Secondly, dreams show us our internal conflicts: the struggle between “It”, “I” and “Super-ego”. Dreams tell us that unconscious desires (“It”) can lead us to danger (that is, we should “wake up our inner policeman” before it’s too late). Or, for example, that this policeman of ours, our internal Censor (“Super-Ego”) does not allow us to live normally and breathe peacefully - which means it would be nice to weaken it.
Thirdly, dreams predict future. This is their most important function. It’s not that all dreams are necessarily prophetic - but they always give us food for thought, analysis and, therefore, a tool for influencing our own destiny: if you know where you will fall, you can lay down straws, and having thought about a certain conflict, you can prevent it from happening. reality.
In addition, our subconscious often “knows” more about us and our life than consciousness and warns us in advance: between a dream and its realization there is always a certain time period given to us so that we have time to realize what awaits us and take action. But the fact that we are insensitive to these signals is another matter...
Separately, I would like to dwell on the most common stories that we dream about - and figure out, literally and figuratively, “what’s what.”
So, the most intriguing and most interesting - prophetic dreams. Prophetic ones are not necessarily those who “spell trouble.” Most disturbing dreams about accidents, catastrophes, misfortunes and natural disasters, although they carry some semantic meaning, do not predict them in reality. These are dreams-warnings of possible danger. You need to be attentive to such a dream, but do not take it literally: if you dreamed of a flood, you do not have to buy a boat, it is better to first think about what this symbol could mean.
But sometimes intuition and common sense tell us in unison: this dream is something completely unusual. It is different from everything we have previously seen, it is impossible to forget, and, most importantly, the dream carries some important message. Such dreams introduce us to some previously inaccessible knowledge or insights - like the dreams described in the Bible.
Nightmares are often caused by purely physiological reasons: an uncomfortable sleeping position, an excessively heavy dinner, a painful state of the body (for example, high fever, pain). However, a fair portion of nightmares are not so easily explained. Nightmares often haunt people in a state of severe stress, shock, anxiety, or depression. Therefore, the appearance of nightmares, especially in children, should alert loved ones and pay close attention to the psychological state of the one who sees terrible dreams: they either represent something actually experienced “processed” in a dream, or symbolize general mental ill-being.
Dreams about death not that scary really. Except for situations where such dreams appear as a response to a real event, dreams of death represent a symbol of transformation, rebirth, entry into some new life phase, associated with the need for the “dying away” of the old. This means they are positive.
Dreams about sex- sometimes, as in the old joke about Freud that “a banana is just a banana” - often simply evidence of the healthy sexuality of the body, the strength of the sexual constitution, or simply a lack of satisfaction of sexual needs. However, sometimes such dreams are symbolic. Sex is a symbol of life, and if we need such powerful confirmation of our vital (life) forces, it means that we need, first of all, confidence in the situation and in ourselves. What a boost of energy!
Dreams about birth- in fact, these are dreams about the need to reveal a certain internal potential. Dreams about pregnancy and the birth of babies are an attempt by our subconscious to tell us that there is a certain part of us that wants to “be born” and live. Listen to yourself: what “sleeping bud” is present in your soul and is ready to bloom?
Dreams about freedom and slavery represented by such objects as cages, prisons, chains, rings, belts, leashes. It doesn’t matter what exactly you see: a dog breaking on a leash or locked in a kennel, or a husband putting a precious heavy chain around your neck. In any case, these dreams are about submission and lack of freedom. Evaluate what situation in reality provoked this dream? Where are you unable to break free and express yourself?
Dreams about poverty and wealth- that is, about treasures, money, jewelry - symbolize our inner wealth and talents, and also encourage us to “find” or “donate” them (depending on what we dreamed about).
Dreams about court or exam They tell us about our excessive dependence on authorities, on other people’s judgments (court) and assessments (examinations). Such dreams tell us that we do not live our own lives - but in captivity of stereotypes imposed on us, and are constantly afraid of “failing the test” and not meeting the standards. Decide what is weighing on you so much, what situation you cannot “get through”, remaining, like a schoolboy, “for the second year”?
Dreams about deception and its discovery encourage us to soberly evaluate our personality - and not be afraid to be ourselves, not to give up the “dark” sides of our personality, not to push them into the far corner, but to learn to see them, analyze them, come to terms with them and even “tame” them .
Dreams about lost and found are extremely symbolic: firstly, they report that new guidelines need to be found in life, and secondly, they suggest what and where to look for them (depending on the dreamed symbol: a key, a bag, a secret entrance - or what there you also searched in a dream).
Dreams about clutter and “cleaning up” They clearly offer to put things in order in your own soul, to “clean” your relationships, to decide what has already died out and needs to be “disposed of”, what is polluting, “dusting” and poisoning your life with toxins.
So, be attentive to yourself, listen sensitively to the signals that the unconscious sends you - and it will become easier for you to live in harmony with yourself. And that means in harmony with the world.
Natalia Protsenko
What are dreams and dreams??
Dream Interpretations since ancient times it has been associated with mystical ideas and making predictions based on them. Almost all people want to find out the meaning and meaning of a dream, especially when the dream was clear and well remembered. Well, if the dream was a terrible one, a nightmare, or a sexual, erotic dream, then the person has even greater intrigue in interpreting the dream. What if it’s a prophetic dream (a dream in your hand), what kind of secrets and conjectures exist in the problem of dream interpretation... This is actually why this post was written.
Greetings, dear visitors of the site for online help from a psychologist, I wish everyone mental health!
Dreams and visions: dream interpretation - the crux of the matter
“A person does not sleep because he is tired, a person sleeps because he needs to dream in order to live.” (S. Fanti).Dreams are a “physiological fistula (medical tube, drainage)” (Pavlov) for the outflow of accumulated emotional stress that has not been responded to in the waking state.
Dream analysis, revealing the unconscious, often reveals aggressive motives along with sexual ones. This may be due to both an aggressive personality (aggression test) and a destructive personality organization.
2) The dream of a girl who sees gray rats with red (aggression) eyes climbing on her, but she is not afraid, just disgusted.
She associates rats with people.
Red eyes are her aggression transferred to others. She's really aggressive.
Examples (aggression directed at oneself):
1) A dream of a woman who kills herself (in a dream) because, in her opinion, she is so bad that she should not live.
2) A girl who considers herself unhappy and a failure dreams of the painful destruction of her body, and she feels that this is how it should be, because then, perhaps, something more successful will emerge from her organs.
Examples of external aggression:
1) (Aggression causes painful sensations, which may be associated with somatic illness), a woman dreams that she was killed, she felt pain, cardiac arrest, loss of consciousness (i.e. she had a heart attack, which provoked the dream picture).
2) (Aggression without the sensation of pain, which is probably associated with psychological discomfort), A woman’s recurring dream (the first was in childhood), in which wolves tear her apart, biting off her arms and legs, blood flows, but there is no pain.
The influence of children's fairy tales cannot be ruled out here, however, having become an adult, she continues to have this dream. This woman is psychologically destructive, unjustifiably considers herself ugly to such an extent that she unconsciously feels the need to replace her unsuccessful body parts with more attractive ones.
It is known that all such forms of aggressive, sexual, prognostic medical and psychological dreams appear during fast-wave, paradoxical REM sleep, which is accompanied by a vegetative storm. And she, the vegetative storm, in turn, activates the endocrine glands (especially the pituitary gland, gonads, adrenal glands and thyroid gland).
Hence the emergence of such dreams (sex, horror, aggression).
And finally, another function of sleep: at this time, in the stages of delta waves and REM, the information received during the day is processed and divided into necessary (which remains in the working memory) and not very necessary, which is thrown into the unconscious, where to get it from it won't be easy.
Thus, sleep is an essential part of brain activity, manifested in the interaction of consciousness and the unconscious.
Dreams and dreams. Interpretation of dreams is possible only with the help of a psychoanalyst based on the dreamer’s personal associations and analytical symbols
All attempts to interpret dreams with the help of all sorts of dream books bought at a store, on the subway or train, or according to grandmother's fables are, to put it mildly, childish, a waste of money, time, empty expectations.
In the next post on the topic of dream interpretation, I will talk about the main psychoanalytic symbols so that you have the opportunity to at least partially understand your own dreams.
I wish everyone mental health!
FAQ:
Dreams always have a personal meaning associated with our individual history. And, according to psychoanalysis, they help maintain our mental health.
Psychologies: Why did Sigmund Freud call dreams “the royal road leading to the unconscious”?
Marina Harutyunyan: It is dreams that can draw our attention to what we do not realize, do not accept in ourselves, do not want and cannot see. The unconscious is called that way because we are not aware of it. Any of our strong-willed efforts here are ineffective. Unconscious desires, fantasies, conflicts give our conscious “I” only hints of their existence (slips of the tongue, erroneous actions), which we usually tend to ignore. A dream is also such a hint - emotionally charged and at the same time detailed, accessible to reflection. If we are inquisitive and honest enough with ourselves, dreams allow us to reconstruct our unconscious desire, impulse, fantasy and associated conflict. It is to reconstruct, to create a guess about what Freud called “dream thought” - since a dream very rarely speaks directly. It, like a film or text in the strict hands of an editor, is subject to censorship. What is incompatible with our conscience, what gives rise to mental conflicts, turns out to be erased or distorted. However, in a dream, even this strict censor dozes off, and therefore a dream is capable of revealing to the interested researcher more than the reasoning of the sleepless “I.”
Why does psychoanalysis place such importance on dream interpretation?
Because in many ways it originated from dream analysis, which became his “royal road.” It is important to understand here that the interpretation of dreams in psychoanalysis has very little in common with their interpretation according to the type of dream book: if you saw a snake in a dream, this means sex. What is most important here is not the dream symbols themselves, but the associative context given by the patient and sometimes supplemented by the analyst's associations based on his knowledge and understanding of the patient.
Many people do not remember their dreams or believe that they are not dreaming. What is this connected with?
The reasons may be different. For example, censorship is so severe that the boundary between sleep and wakefulness is impenetrable. However, there are many examples where the same person can periodically become an active dreamer, but at times not remember dreams at all. This changes the level of his resistance to understanding his own problems. Another reason: dreams help us process information. When we are emotionally overloaded, intellectually puzzled, dreams can come to our aid. In this case they help us “think” about what our soul is working on. An example of this is the dreams of children, designed to “explain” the frightening and intriguing issues of sexuality and death, the dreams of adolescents, frightened by their own growing up and dreaming of the embodiment of the conflicting desires for freedom and security in their souls. In this series are “serial” dreams, scary dreams - like a cry for help. Or, on the contrary, dreams, after which we wake up with relief, and sometimes with a ready-made solution. Thus, Mendeleev saw his table in a dream, and Paul McCartney “heard” Yesterday. When such processes are not so intense, dreams do not need to burst into consciousness. Sometimes a person needs to see many dreams “in the dark” before one of them, as if the final one, is released “into the light.” One elderly man told me that he almost never dreamed all his life, but quite a long time after the death of his wife, he began to regularly see her in his dreams - young, cheerful. This active, active person managed to live “without dreams” until a task that could not be solved by consciousness arose - to return what was lost, to revive a memory. His unconscious must have been working on these dreams for a long time, because it had to process the powerlessness, despair and anger before providing consolation.
Sometimes we see prophetic dreams. How can they be explained from the point of view of psychoanalysis?
Honestly, I don't know. They can “come true” in the sense that, in hindsight, we match the actual event to a rather vague prediction that would have been forgotten if it had not come true. For example, dreams about the death of a loved one are very common, but we will consider such a dream prophetic only if this person actually gets sick or dies. There is also the phenomenon of so-called self-fulfilling prophecies. Having a certain attitude, we unconsciously begin to see what is determined by it and ignore what contradicts it. We can begin to behave in accordance with this attitude - and the prophecy will be realized. If Oedipus had not believed the oracle's prediction and had not run away from home, would he have had to kill his father and marry his mother? Finally, there are the phenomena of the “shared unconscious” - when close people on an unconscious level feel in each other something that eludes consciousness. This is akin to the instinct of an animal, sometimes knowing the state and mood of the owner even before he himself can clearly feel them. And true prophecies - when the dreamer, like biblical characters, is a specially chosen recipient of some higher knowledge - if they exist, they are beyond the scope of psychoanalytic research.
Can a person try to interpret his dreams himself?
Yes, of course, and a classic example is Freud’s “Interpretation of Dreams.” However, we should be aware that “we have no power in ourselves,” that we will not be able to understand the true content of a dream when it is too conflicting and emotionally charged. To what circle would Dante have reached if Virgil had not been with him? A travel companion is needed not because he knows more, but because he is able to walk alongside.
Can we benefit from all dreams? Let's take the example of a dream: “I am at the train station. I see that all the trains are packed with hundreds of sick people. I myself feel a feverish state. When I wake up, the phrase that comes to my mind is: “Not all of them died, but they were all stricken with disease.” How might you interpret this dream?
I do not undertake to interpret it without knowing under what circumstances I dreamed about it, how old this woman was, what kind of life she lived, what came to her mind about this dream and what she thought about before falling asleep. What remains is fortune telling. Station, train - road, path, life. Life as a deadly sexually transmitted disease? If this is a pregnant woman, maybe she is afraid that the child will be damaged by “bad sperm” and that she herself may die? If “trains full of (sick) people” were associated with war, the Gulag, Auschwitz, it would be important to know whether she was concerned about her survival in a situation of violence, catastrophe. Is this her personal catastrophe or the result of identification with her ancestors who survived all this? Maybe she is about to be hospitalized and she consoles herself: not everyone died at this “station” - a transfer station between life and death? It is important to hear how this woman’s voice sounds: comforting, with an emphasis on “not everyone is dead,” or doomed, with an emphasis on “they are all sick”? As is easy to understand, there can be many versions. It seems that in this dream only anxiety, confusion, confusion and the excitement typical of stations and crowds are more or less visible.
What is the positive result of working with dreams? What can this give a person?
Expansion of internal space. Discovery of the “world within”, an additional dimension. The ability to connect the internal and external, your fantasies and reality, feelings and thoughts - that is, to become more holistic. Finally, enjoy the game. And if you're lucky, even the periodic table!
The most important rule that must be taken into account when analyzing night dreams and searching for the key to solving them is that interpretation is possible only if the person who had the dream participates in it. The fact is that different people have different associations and ideas about objects and phenomena. It’s one thing if an insect specialist or a seller of exotic goods in a pet store dreams of a spider, and quite another if the same happens to an arachnophobe.
Some people, thanks to psychoanalysis, can even create their own personal dream books, since they already know how to interpret certain objects and phenomena in their own dreams. This is a very effective method of solving.
It is very important to take into account the emotions that a person experiences in a dream. In the dream book, a dog can be interpreted as a friend, but if you saw a huge dog and were afraid of it, or even experienced an animal attack in a nightmare, it is unlikely that we are really talking about a loved one. Rather, your subconscious gives a signal about suppressed fears, about negative emotions that poison your life. This is especially important to consider if the dream repeats itself over and over again. Positive emotions are also important, since they can reflect your desires, even if carefully hidden.
Dream meanings
The interpretation of dreams from a psychological aspect should have a therapeutic effect and help a person, and not harm him. The most “obvious” interpretations of nightmares are especially undesirable. If a person saw his death in a dream, this does not mean that he is seriously ill and will die soon. If she came to work naked, this does not mean that she is a libertine, prone to public indecency. It is better not to interpret dreams at all than to do it this way.
In a dream, consciousness turns reality inside out and often uses the most unexpected images to convey a certain thought to a person. Do not forget about this when dealing with illogical, incomprehensible dreams.
Having collected all the emotions and associations that the dream itself and the objects, people, animals, and phenomena in it evoke, you can begin to interpret. As a rule, psychologists carry it out at two levels – subjective and object.
In the first case, the bright moments of the dream are interpreted as part of the person himself. For example, if you dream of an acquaintance whom you have not seen for a long time, perhaps some of his character traits or habits have appeared in you, or the memories associated with this person have become significant for you.
In the second case, the same dream can be considered as a sign that you and your friend have unfinished business, and the subconscious mind tells you that it is worth doing. This may also mean a signal that it is time to sort out the relationship with the person.
People spend a third of their lives sleeping. Most of them have dreams, some even several in one night. Science has long explained how the process of falling asleep occurs, but scientists do not like to talk about the psychology of dreams, citing the fact that this is not their diocese. Dream researchers and psychologists have not yet come to a consensus on the causes of dream images and their interpretation.
Moreover, in the cultures of different countries, superstitions and signs associated with dreams are quite different, which makes it even more difficult to understand the origin of dreams and the psychology of the images they convey.
What is sleep?
The concept of sleep among people of different mindsets, beliefs and lifestyles differs significantly:
Science explains sleep as a reduced response to external influences, when the body and consciousness “switch off” and rest, recover, and the brain goes through four different stages during sleep, and during the REM (rapid eye movement) phase a person sees images that are a consequence of the past of the day, experiences and various kinds of impressions.
From the point of view of esotericism, during sleep a person leaves his physical shell and can travel with the help of the astral body, and dreams are the events that happened to him during these travels.
The ancient Egyptians believed that they conveyed their will to people (it was they who created the first interpreter of dreams), which the priest-interpreters then conveyed to others.
Dreams from a psychological point of view
According to psychologists, sleep is the reaction of the mind to life events, internal experiences, stress and hidden desires. In a dream, the subconscious, through dream images, indicates a problem and a possible way to eliminate it. It is not without reason that all powerful techniques for working with the subconscious (hypnosis, meditation) are close in their state to sleep. Only in the latter case is the state of mind completely controlled, while in sleep, on the contrary, it is completely free.
Some scientists attribute the “déjà vu” effect also to dreams: an event or place once seen in a dream, but forgotten, after a period of time actually takes place in a person’s life and seems to be repeated.
Author of "Psychology of Dreams"
The interpretation of dreams was studied quite extensively by Sigmund Freud, considering dreams to be repressed desires and suppressed libido, manifested in the form of images.
The Austrian psychotherapist described this concept in detail in his book “Psychology of Dreams,” carefully describing various cases of the use of dream psychoanalysis, what the connections between images and a person’s real life, his past and hidden may be. Sigmund Freud's theory of explaining the essence of dreams divides everything into two types:
Sexual attraction (love, instinct of self-preservation and reproduction);
The attraction to death (the desire for harmony in life, the correct way of life, cyclicality).
At the same time, the author emphasizes that the main image of a dream is not necessarily something extremely important; it happens that a small, insignificant detail has a much stronger influence on the unconscious than the key point. The peculiarity of Freud's method is that only the patient himself can comprehend the images, connect them with another object or situation and draw a conclusion, starting from deep experiences and emotions, and the psychologist only guides him.
Also, his theory is based on the fact that the very first association to the analyzed image is often the most accurate, therefore the first thing that came to mind upon awakening is often the most accurate interpretation.
Jung's Archetypes
Jung (Freud's student) is his main opponent in the science of studying the nature of sleep. His position in the interpretation of the psychology of dreams is more extensive, not being categorically tied to sex and its manifestations. Jung believed that dream images are something truly important and experienced in the process of life, and mixing the dreams of a schizophrenic with the dreams of a person with an Oedipus complex is simply stupid.
In his theory of dream interpretation, Carl Gustav adhered to the connection between images and archetypes (a psychological image inherent in the collective unconscious); he constantly used seven of the main ones. Animus and Anima (masculine and feminine), Sage Self (symbol of absolute knowledge) and Shadow (chaos, vices and shortcomings). The interconnection of such images and their influence on human consciousness is clearly visible throughout all of Jung’s studies and provides an understanding of human essence from a broader perspective.
The conclusion made makes it clear that Freud used base instincts, while Jung relied on spirituality.
How to interpret images from a dream?
To understand the signals of the subconscious, you need to do the following:
Write down your dream immediately upon waking so that small details are not forgotten. Describe as clearly and in detail as possible.
Immediately register spontaneous associations with images without analyzing them. Sometimes the active work of the brain and attempts at logical conclusions nullify important deep images. Over time, the ability to explain a dream will improve, and it will be possible to easily manage life events and internal states.
If you don’t have your own associations, use a reputable dream interpreter.
For a deeper analysis of dreams, psychologists recommend keeping a diary in which dreams, their interpretations and, if prophetic dreams, are recorded, then the period of time after which the dream came true.
Are prophetic dreams harbingers of fate?
It is generally accepted that a prophetic dream predicts the future, gives hints about upcoming events, while actually coming true in the near future. Usually such dreams occur to people with increased sensitivity and a special psychological mood (on the eve of an important exam, wedding), although it happens without reason. According to the signs of old-timers, prophetic dreams are more likely to occur on name day, during the Holy Week (between Christmas and Epiphany) and on the night from Thursday to Friday (the most fateful dreams occur on this day, but they are more difficult to remember).
What is a dream book?
A dream book is an interpreter of the images that a person sees in a dream. The most popular are the dream books of Gustavus Miller, Sigmund Freud and Vanga's dream book; young people also often resort to online interpretation services without delving into the subtleties of the interpretation. Among lovers of esotericism, the “Interpretation of Dreams and Dreams” by Nostradamus, as well as Meneghetti’s dream book, are in demand.
For ease of searching, dream symbols are often written in alphabetical order in the interpreter. To understand the psychology of a dream and what it wants to convey to consciousness, they remember images from the dream, then you need to find in the interpreter and read the explanations of the images and try to create a general picture from all of them. This will be the interpretation.
If you have the same dream several times
It happens that people periodically dream the same dream for a long period of time: with the same images, situations and actions. Sometimes the plot changes slightly, but more often it coincides 100%.
From a psychological point of view, recurring dreams are attempts by the unconscious to point out the same mistakes in life or habits that a person does not change in himself. This will be repeated until the person decides to analyze the signals, contact a specialist in the interpretation of dreams and dreams and draw the accompanying conclusions.
Also, sometimes in a dream a person sees tragedies of the past in which he was an involuntary participant or spectator: car accidents, scenes of violence, war or suicide cases. From a strong emotional shock, what is seen is imprinted on the subconscious and periodically reminds itself through dreams, forcing the witness to experience suffering again. In such cases, it is also recommended to seek help from a psychotherapist.
Superstitions related to dreams
Every culture in the world, almost every nationality, has its own superstitions associated with what is seen in a dream.
The Slavs believed that you should not tell a bad dream before dawn, otherwise it will come true. It is necessary, while looking out the window, to repeat three times: “Where there is night, there comes sleep” (some advised saying the same words to running water, replacing “night” with the word “water”).
If on a holiday (church day), then it had to be fulfilled no later than lunch the next day, so it was considered a very good omen.
If a baby laughed in his sleep, it was forbidden to wake him up - it was believed that an angel was playing with him.
In a dream, stepping on or getting smeared in excrement was considered great luck, bringing money and luck.
There is a whole system of interpretations about dead people coming in dreams. If the deceased was simply seen in a dream, this foreshadowed bad weather, and if he called for him, it foreshadowed the imminent death of those who would follow him. In such cases, old people recommended going to church and lighting a candle for the repose. It was believed that it was generally better not to respond to a “call” in a dream, even if the person in the dream was alive - this was a sign of misfortune, failure and illness.
