How to Discover the Meaning of your Dreams

Rather than visit a psychoanalyst I'm going to put forward a task that you can do on your own, that may give you an insight in to the hidden meaning of your dreams. However, first it's important to understand a little about the nature of the unconscious and dream analysis. This will clarify the psychoanalytic principles upon which this task is loosely based and hopefully move towards a notion of dream analysis which is more grounded in the psychoanalytic theories from which it arose.

The Unconscious

Dream interpretation stems from the notion that there are certain contents of our mind that are unconscious. The unconscious consists of ideas, impulses, wishes, regrets that we are not consciously aware of. We actively hide certain things from ourselves if they are likely to cause uncomfortable emotions like guilt or shame. There are various techniques at work behind our mental processes that serve the need to keep this information hidden. The most frequently sited technique is repression - this involves wilful forgetting, a censorship of thoughts that are distressing to us. There are various defence mechanisms that we employ to protect ourselves, but all are essentially complex acts of self-deception.

We can become aware of the unconsciously stored information, often accidently such as the famous Freudian Slip whereby an error in speech reveals an unconscious truth. The practice of psychoanalysis is the attempt to purposely retrieve information from the unconscious through various techniques. Dream interpretation is one of those techniques.

Forget the typical dream dictionaries you can purchase at your local library or supermarket. The symbolism that occurs in dreams is not a universal language that can be translated so easily. It is unique and personal. During the course of our lives we tend to make certain associations. For instance, after a traumatic experience of seeing Theses associations are often made without us realizing it - unconsciously - and will vary greatly from person to person.

Wish Fulfilment

According to Freud, the purpose of dreaming is to act out a wish that we may not be comfortable in admitting to ourselves. Therefore the wish itself is hidden, disguised in symbolism and imagery so that we remain unaware of our desires. This is what Freud terms the latent content of the dream - the deeper meaning that is purposely veiled from us. In that way, our dreams provide us with a place where we can explore and enjoy our desires whilst remaining blissfully unaware of what they are. Evidently, the unconscious does a great job at concealing potentially disturbing information. The task of dream analysis is to catch out the unconscious.

If you consider that, during a dream, although you are disguising your unconscious thoughts, nevertheless they are allowed an uncensored air time. Therefore, dreams are a weak spot, a way of accessing the unconscious when it is less restricted.

A technique you might like to try out yourself

Here's a simple technique to aid you in discovering the hidden meaning in your dreams. It works on the same principles as psychoanalysis:

(1) After a dream, write down as much of it as you can remember. It is important that the write-up takes places immediately after waking rather. Try to include every detail, even if they seem insignificant.

(2) Next, with a highlighter, read over the complete text and highlight every noun - names, places, times, objects, animals, creatures, abstract ideas.

(3) Now, on a separate piece of paper, write down a chronological list of all the words you have just highlighted.

(4) At this point, it would be useful to take a break before returning to the task in order to avoid reflecting too much on the dream. So store the list away in a safe place and try to forget about the dream for a while.

(5) The next step might work better with a friend, but can be done alone. Return to your list of words. Ask a friend to slowly read the list aloud, pausing after each word. For each word that is called out, you must write down the first idea that springs to mind, no matter how ridiculous or insignificant it may sound. It could be a memory, a place, an event, an object, an emotion - absolutely anything. Try not to restrict yourself or think long about the word. The task works best if you scribble down your immediate response.

(6) You should now have in front of you:

(a) A write-up of your entire dream

(b) A list of words - based on those highlighted in your write-up

(c) A new list of associated words

The final part of the task is to go back to the write-up of your entire dream. Rewrite the dream, but replace each highlighted word, with the new word you associated with it.

Upon rereading this new version of the dream, hopefully, a new message should be revealed, based on the hidden/unconscious meaning of your dream. If the technique isn't successful the first time around, then don't be afraid to try it a few times. If you are interested in exploring other psychoanalytic techniques that could be applied in examining your own unconscious then I would recommend looking in to 'Free Association'. If you would like to learn more about dream analysis, then Sigmund Freud and Carl Jung are the main proponents, from which other theories tend to stem.

Jung’s Approach to Dream Analysis

Jung and Freud

Carl Gustav Jung (1875 – 1961) became acquainted with Freud when he was drawn in to the field of psychiatry. At this point, Freud had already begun his investigations in to the unconscious.

Initially Jung and Freud worked together in their psychological research. However, after an argument stemming from Jung challenging Freud’s theories, they split and Jung generated his own theories within psychiatry, including dream-analysis.

According to Jung, Freud’s theories revolved around sexuality and whilst Jung accepted infantile sexuality as a genuine influence, he also sought other explanations.

Jung’s Theory

It was generally assumed that the unconscious derives its content from the details of our daily lives, whether that be imagery, factual information, events etc. Jung’s beliefs regarding the unconscious deviated from this view insofar as he also stressed the significance of myths, ancient symbols and archetypes as a part of our unconscious.

Archetypes are the personalities that many myths tend to have in common such as the ‘hero’ or the ‘villain’. They are patterns or structures that are apparent across the globe in myths and stories.

According to Jung, these archetypes or concepts exist within everyone’s unconscious, universally. This idea may be easier to digest if we think of it in terms of genetic memories. They are hereditary patterns and ideas that have evolved and been passed on through human consciousness. In the past they may have manifested themselves in terms of beliefs in spirits and demons. More recently their expression can be seen in films and books. We could call them residues of the past that remain in our unconscious mind and continue to shape the way we perceive and interpret reality.

Dream Analysis

This has ramifications for our understanding of dreams and our ability to interpret them. These ancient symbols and archetypes often feature in the language of our dreams and we must translate them in order to access the message of the dream. Unlike Freud’s theory of dream-analysis, Jung proposes that the dream is not intended to deceive us. It does not express impulses that we are trying to suppress and it is not necessarily distressing when the message of the dream is revealed. Rather, the dream reveals a psychic truth about ourselves, but we may need to probe or unravel it to understand it completely.

Free Association Free association is a technique used to reveal the associations we attach to different words. One word my conjure up many different meanings depending on our past experience, our interpretation of that word, conversations, and expectations. For instance, the word ‘dog’ not only has the meaning ‘dog’, it also has personal significance. You may associate the word ‘dog’ with a variety of things. It may make you recall your childhood dog and the sense of freedom as you ran with it through fields. It may upset you and make you think of loss, if your pet has recently passed away. It is important to uncover these alternate meanings in dream analysis because, for example it could indicate that a dream about a dog was really a dream about loss and grief.

Free Association is simply a process of drawing upon all the associations we attach to a particular word. A useful task would be to take the key words from your dream and brainstorm each word. In the brainstorm, you should try hard to let your thoughts flow unchecked. Write down absolutely anything that springs to mind in relation to this word, even if it sounds ridiculous, random or insignificant at the time.

For Jung, the dreamer’s personal associations are vital in understanding the message of the dream. Each word must be explored singularly, in depth. It is only when this is done, that we can begin to look at the way the ideas fit into the context of the dream as a whole.

What to Look Out For:

Archetypes

Archetypes present themselves in dreams so it is important to be aware of any recurring characters in your dreams. According to Jung, the character may hold a message for you. Therefore, a useful task would be to take the time to focus on this character and (perhaps using pen and paper) imagine that you are asking them questions. Make a note of any answers that you envisage this character giving. The more spontaneously you write, the more accurate this task will be. The aim is to try and give a voice to a part of yourself that is trying to communicate with you.

Some typical archetypes to be aware of are the wise old man, the child, the trickster or joker, the hero.

The Animus and the Anima

According to Jung, each of us possesses an alter-ego; this is an inner self that possesses the opposite qualities to the personality we show to others. It also happens to be the opposite sex to us, hence the Anima (female) and Animus (male). This inner self creates a balance in terms of our identity, as it holds the characteristics that we don’t often utilise outwardly as it is a side of our self that remains unexpressed.

The Anima or Animus therefore finds expression in our dreams. So it is useful to not only be aware of recurring archetypes in your dreams, but also to take note of a character that seems to represent the mirror opposite of yourself. Again, it is useful to perform a task in which you envisage speaking to the animus or anima. One suggestion would be to write a short story about them, possibly from their perspective.