Dream Interpretation And Interpretation Therapy Essay Example For Students

Dream Interpretation And Interpretation Therapy Essay Dream Interpretation and Dream Interpretation TherapyThere are many facts that are unknown about dreams and their meanings. For centuries, philosophers and scientists have tried to understand the meaning of dreams. They have all been fascinated by the fact that the content of dreams may have meanings relating to ones life. Are dreams just thoughts in peoples minds, or are dreams in fact representations of different areas in peoples lives? Dreams represent many different areas of ones life in physical, emotional, and mental ways. Dreams can relay to people facts about their lives that they are not even aware of. There are also many ways that dreams can help cure different physical, emotional, and mental problems in ones life. This paper will discuss dreams and their meanings, and ways of interpreting a dream using such methods as hypnotherapy and psychoanalysis therapy that can help a person in physical, mental, and emotional ways. The first fact that will be discussed is what dreams are and how they work for people in allowing the person to discover more about himself. Dreams can be defined as ?a conscious series of images that occur during sleep? (Colliers, vol. 8). Dreams are usually very vivid in color and imagery. They reveal to the dreamer different wishes, concerns, and worries that he or she has. Dreams usually reflect every part of who the dreamer is. The content of the persons dream is usually made up according to how old the dreamer is and how educated the he or she is (Colliers, vol. 8). Dreams are not planned out or thought up. The unconscious part of the mind brings out bits and pieces of information in the dreamers mind and places them together. According to Encarta, dreams are almost always visual. Forty to fifty percent of dreams have some form of communication present in them and a very small percentage of dreams give the dreamer the ability to use his or her five senses (Encarta). Dreams allow one to take a closer look into his mind and himsel f in a quest for self-discovery. Dreams can be used to solve all different types of problems. In Sigmund Freuds book, The Interpretation of Dreams, Sigmund Freud states: ?As regards the dream, all the troubles of waking life are transferred by it to the sleeping state ? (Freud 113). They relay things about a person that the person may not be able to see. Sigmund Freud says that certain images in dreams sometimes have significant meanings relating to the persons life. Different objects in the dream may serve as a symbol (Kalb 77). Symbols in dreams usually mean something much deeper than simply being an object that just happens to be in the dream. They represent different areas of ones life that deal with ones physical, mental, and emotional being. These symbols will relay information about ones life if these symbols are interpreted. Dreams are ?a private language, known only to ourselves? (Cartwright 5). Dreams have the ability to relieve all people of their everyday problems in life. They have a way of setting one free from reality, which includes all of ones problems. Dreams help one to overcome these stresses and help people to get on with their lives. Sigmund Freud states, ?The waking life never repeats itself with its trials and joys, its pleasures and pains, but, on the contrary, the dream aims to relieve us of these? (qtd. in Burdach 474). This statement means that though a certain experience in a persons life can never happen again, dreams allow the person to relive those memories, and they can also allow the person to overcome the stresses of other memories that bother him or her. Memories that continue to stay in peoples minds from their childhood are very often included somehow in the dream. No memory that a person has once experienced will ever be lost because it is stored within the persons mind and kept there. A persons conscious mind is the mind that he uses when he is awake and aware of what he is doing. The conscious mind has the ability to make distinctions between reality and the fantasy world. A person is able to think in a reasonable manner and have a higher order thinking along the lines of placement of time and space. A person, in this state of mind, has complete control over everything he or she does including speaking, thinking, and the way that he or she acts around people. A person can evaluate what is reality and what is not reality while in this state of mind. Treatment such as hypnotherapy and psychoanalytic therapy cannot be given during this state of mind because the person is fully aware of what is going on around him and also fully aware of how he is acting and what he is saying. When a person falls asleep or is almost asleep, then he or she leaves the conscious mind and drifts into the unconscious mind (Beck). Alex Lukeman explains that peoples conscious minds are very much related to the unconscious part of peoples minds (Lukeman 61). All thoughts that a person thinks while he or she is conscious comes from the persons unconscious (Lukeman 61). Calvin And Hobbes EssayThere are many misinterpretations that people pick up that are related to hypnosis. Many people believe that the patient is ?under a spell? and will do anything that the hypnotist says to do. Instead of the patient losing control, the person gains more control of his or her life and himself than he had ever experienced before. During hypnosis, a patient is well aware of what is taking place. Hypnosis is simply allowing the patient to have the ability of great concentration on one subject. Hypnosis is an everyday occurrence in everyones lives. People experience hypnosis in reading a book, in the state of mind right before sleep, and while watching a movie or television show. Each time one experiences hypnosis, the more in depth the concentration is for the patient. Though deeper concentration sounds more therapeutic for the patient, it is not. The deeper the hypnotic state, the more likely it is that one will experience loss of consciousness and hallucinations . Hypnosis skills allow the patient to completely relax. Hypnosis slows down all parts of the body, including the nervous system, respiratory system and the patients brain waves (Churchill). Rosalind Cartwright, Ph.D. has studied dreams for 35 years. She states that ?Dreams give us a chance to face situations from real life while our bodies are totally at ease? (Williams 99). Dreams deal mostly with things that one has experienced in the past, or at the present time of the dream. They help one to solve problems that he or she is dealing with. Dr. Cartwright calls dreaming ones ?internal therapist? (Williams 99). People who have certain phobias have been known to treat their phobia by themselves without any psychiatric help just through the wondrous act of dreaming. Dreams help people to overcome obstacles and help the people learn more about themselves and the lives that they live (Williams 99). Dream interpretation has helped hundreds of people to overcome their lifelong problems a s well as daily problems. Through therapies such as hypnosis and psychoanalytic therapy, people who have suffered great emotional, mental, and physical stress have moved on to live happier, fuller lives. Dreams do, in fact, represent many different areas of peoples lives in physical, emotional, and mental ways. Dreams can relay things to a person about his or her life that he or she are not even aware of. Interpreting ones dream is a method of self-discovery that lets one in on parts of his or her life that he or she never could have imagined. Dreams can help cure different physical, emotional, and mental problems in ones life. People have depended on dreams to guide them in their actions and also for self-discovery for hundreds of years. People will continue to depend on their dreams as a means of guidance, just as their ancestors have done for years to come. BibliographyAntrobus, John. Dream Theory 1997: Toward a Computational Neurocognitive Model. 16 Feb. 2000 . Beck, Henry W. What is Psychoanalytic Therapy? . Cartwright, Rosalind, and Lynne Lamberg. Crisis Dreaming: Using Your Dreams to Solve Your Problems. Harper Collins Publishers: New York, 1992. Churchill, Randal. ?The Transformational Nature of Hypnotherapy.? Become the Dream: The Transforming Power of Hypnotic Dreamwork. Transforming Press, 1997. 16 Feb. 2000 . ?Dream.? Colliers Encyclopedia. Vol. 8. 1984. ?Dreaming.? Microsoft Encarta 96 Encyclopedia. Microsoft Corporation. Funk Wagnalls Corporation. CD-ROM. 1996 ed. 1993-1995. . ?Psychoanalysis.? Microsoft Encarta 96 Encyclopedia. Microsoft Corporation. Funk Wagnalls Corporation. CD-ROM. 1996 ed. 1993-1995. Freud, Sigmund. The Interpretation of Dreams. New York: Macmillan Company, 1923. Freud, Sigmund. Modern Critical Interpretations: The Interpretation of Dreams. Ed. Harold Bloom. New York: Chelsea House Publishers, 1987. Garfield, Patricia. The Healing Power of Dreams. Simon Schuster: New York, 1981. Jackson, Donald Dale. ?Hypnotism: You Will Feel No Pain.? Smithsonian Mar. 1999: 126-140. Kalb, Claudia. ?What Dreams Are Made of.? Newsweek Nov. 8, 1999. 77. Lukeman, Alex. What Your Dreams Can Teach You. St. Paul, Minnesota: Llewellyn Publications, 1990. Williams, Gurney. ?What do your dreams mean McCalls Aug. 1998: 98-101. Works ConsultedGreen, Philip. Hypnotherapy. 8 Mar 2000. . Thornton, Stephen. The Theory of the Unconscious. Internet Encyclopedia of Philosophy. 8 Mar 2000. .