Analysis Of My Dreams Using Freud's Interpretations

Everyone dreams, mostly when they reach rapid eye movement sleep, even though most people cannot remember their dreams. Even if they remember, most people forget their dreams within five minutes of waking up. Dreaming is still an ongoing study with many unknowns. Oneirology is defined as the scientific study of dreams, where scientists attempt to interpret dreams and their meaning behind them. Sigmund Freud, an Austrian neurologist, studied dreams and developed the psychoanalytic theory which is formed through his terms id: the unconscious part of the personality that seeks pleasure and gratification, ego: the conscious part of the personality that attempts to meet the demands of the id in a socially appropriate way, and superego: the level of awareness that contains all the thoughts, perceptions, and impulses of which we are unaware. Freud’s Psychoanalytic theory states that people pursue action’s based on those three concepts formed from the mind. All concepts, definitions, and references to Freud are taken from textbook What is Psychology?: Foundations, Applications, and Integration (Pastorino & Doyle-Portillo, 2014).

I have conducted a naturalistic observational research method on my own dreams and attempt to analyze them in Freud’s meaning of dreams. This method is based on fourteen sleeps which I have recorded the time of sleep, duration, any interruptions, how I felt in the morning, if I remembered any dreams, and what I specifically did one hour prior to falling asleep. This observational research was conducted over a span of one month. During my observation and research, I attempted to seek the latent content and manifest content of my specific dream. Latent content is defined as the symbolic meaning of a dream that lies behind the literal content of the dream whereas manifest content is defined as the actual literal subject matter of the dream. In addition, dreams may form from the preconscious mind, which is defined as in which thoughts remain until they 'succeed in attracting the eye of the conscious. I will be using Freud’s interpretations and his meaning what certain dreams mean to analyze my own dreams and see how accurate they are compared to my real life.

My longest dreams during this naturalistic observational research was a different than what I normally dream of. I usually dream of current things that happen in real life. For example If I had a stressful day at work, one time I dreamed I went to work but forgot my shoes. For this dream, I dreamed that I was at home looking out my living room window onto the street. There was a group of men who I have never seen before standing and formed in a circle talking. They noticed me watching them and started advancing towards my house looking extremely angry. I felt scared so I ran to my room which happens to be on the outside of the house through a separate entrance where I went to go grab my gun. The group of men ended up catching up to me and finding the entrance to my room. I was able to exchange gun fire ultimately wounding one of them. I remember clearly one guy yelled, “He better be alive!”. After that, I was able to run out of the room to seek safety from a neighbor’s house. That is when I woke up from my dream. After this dream, I woke up confused because I do not usually have negative dreams. I was scared in my dream but immediately after waking up, I brushed it off and understood it was just a dream.

Although I do not believe my dreams have any significant meaning, Freud interprets looking out the window signifies your outlook on life, your consciousness and your point of view. It also refers to your intuition and awareness. I agree with this interpretation because one’s outlook on life can affect their choices and subconscious which is part of the mind that we are not aware of, but can influence decisions. Whereas consciousness is defined as an organism’s awareness of its own mental processes and/or its environment. In my dream, I was looking out of the living room window into the street but saw a group of men who wanted to attack me. Freud is telling me my outlook on life or consciousness point of view is distraught. In addition, Freud interprets seeing a gun in a dream represents aggression, anger, and potential danger or you may be dealing with issues of passiveness/aggressiveness and authority/dependence. I have to disagree partially because I am not an angry person nor have I been experiencing any negative situations in my personal or work life. On the other hand, I recently had a change of management level at my job. I decided to demote myself in order to go to school full time and only work part time, which may explain the latent meaning behind my dream of dealing with authority/dependence. Although I have had some major changes in my work, I do not feel impacted because it was my own decision and sense of relief. Freud also interprets if you are running from an attacker or any danger, then it suggests that you are not facing and confronting your fears. Again, I disagree with Freud’s interpretation because I am not avoiding any confrontation. Although I had a negative dream, I do not believe in real life I am dealing with any issues that I am avoiding.

Overall, I did not come across any difficulties during this observational research. There may be some bias feelings towards this research method on myself due to not accepting everything that Freud interprets my dreams as. I noticed when I sleep later than usual at night but longer, I have dreams than when I sleep earlier but less time. Even though I was able to get all the information accurately, this research is based on only my personal analyzation of my own dreams. Since this is the first experience, I have nothing to compare it to. The results can only be as accurate as the only information available to me. Therefore, I do not agree with Freud that my own dreams will defined my current situations, relationships, or lifestyle. According to Freud, dreams are representative of the imaginary fulfillment of a wish or impulse in early childhood, before such wishes have been repressed. This can be true for some, but due to my research, this does not apply to me.