Freudian interpretation. Dreams from a Freudian position

Sigmund Freud was born on May 6, 1856 in the Austrian city of Freiberg into the family of a wealthy textile merchant. He grew up as an inquisitive child, read a lot, and the high social status of his parents allowed him to get a good education.

Medicine was not of much interest to the future scientist, but, having no other choice, he trained as a doctor and worked as a therapist for some time.

In 1885, Freud trained with the French psychiatrist Jean Charcot, learned to use hypnosis and free conversation in the treatment of patients. Sigmund theorized that most psychological problems stem from unfulfilled sexual desires.

The scandalous statements of the young doctor caused great resonance and criticism in the scientific community - colleagues claimed that he himself became a victim of psychosis and cocaine addiction, from which he suffered for many years.

Freud wrote several works on human psychology in various aspects, became the founder of an extraordinary trend in medicine, and his books are considered bestsellers in our time. Contemporaries spoke of Sigmund as a complex, selfish person who did not listen to other people's opinions and had many quirks - for example, a psychoanalyst was madly afraid of the numbers 2 and 6, and also avoided looking people in the eye. At the same time, they emphasized his intellect, interest in his own research and phenomenal memory.

The scientist died on September 23, 1939 after a long illness - friend Max Schur injected a sick old man with a lethal dose of morphine at his request.

The main idea of ​​the author

Dreams are a by-product of the work of the brain, “popping up” in the subconscious when the vital functions of the body are the least active. Scientists cannot answer the key questions related to dreams, so people see mystical meaning in them and try to solve them to the best of their ability. Freud was one of the first who tried to explain the nature and mechanisms of dreams with the help of science, and did a great job of it.

Freud's theory of the sexual subtext of dreams was born in puritan times, when everything related to the intimate sphere of human life was denied and hushed up. Accordingly, research has led to the conclusion that mental problems boil down to repressed sexuality.

Freud believed that dreams are a way in which the human psyche compensates for suppressed, forgotten or unfulfilled desires.

In other words, he believed that in a dream we always do something that is inaccessible or unacceptable in real life.

Interpretation method

Freud's method is based on numerous studies involving his own patients. He was the first scientist who proposed to consider the images seen in a dream not in a literal sense, but as metaphors, signs and analogies.

For example, if a person sees a ship floating on the water, he does not think about the journey or the sea, but about something else, which these images indicate. And the method proposed by the scientist comes down to revealing the hidden meaning of the symbols and understanding what desire, complex or problem is hidden behind the images of a dream.

He used free association to interpret dreams. On the basis of the images seen in the dreams, the patient had to form a chain of associations that would eventually lead him to some painful or repressed theme. The narrator had to voice out all the thoughts that came to his mind in connection with the elements of the dream, even if they seemed ridiculous, obscene or inappropriate.

Freud did not interpret dreams like mystics, fortune-tellers or esotericists, but rather helped a person to understand them and find the truth.

The method proposed by Freud has drawbacks, since sooner or later it leads to the most intense internal conflict, which has a sexual overtone. He paid special attention to the period of growing up, since he believed that sexuality and everything connected with it is formed precisely in childhood and adolescence.

Is there a difference - who sees a dream, a woman or a man?

Freud does not have much difference in the interpretation of male and female dreams, but he nevertheless took into account the peculiarities of the psyche of representatives of different sexes. The symbols that a person sees in a dream, he divided into male and female in accordance with the shape and appearance of the genitals.

In accordance with his interpretation, all elongated and oblong objects have a phallic meaning, while round or sinuous objects are feminine symbols.

In addition, the scientist argued that in the sexual sphere, women are guided by emotions, while the desires of men are based on primordial instincts. Freud's most scandalous statement is that most of the problems experienced by the fair sex are based on envy of the male sexual organ.

Book "The Interpretation of Dreams"

Freud's largest and most famous work, which is called The Interpretation of Dreams, was published in 1900 and did not find buyers for a long time, but later turned into a real bestseller.

He talks about the manifestations of the unconscious in everyday life of a person, explains the function and meaning of dreams. According to The Interpretation of Dreams, dreams are a kind of code by which the subconscious satisfies hidden desires, and each of their elements carries a hidden meaning.

Throughout his life, Freud made additions and adjustments to his work, and considered it the key to his work.

The opinions of psychologists and other specialists regarding the book are radically different, but they all say that it has revolutionized the study of the hidden sides of the human mind and touched on issues that were previously ignored.

Differences from interpretations according to Vanga, Miller, ...

Freud's dream book is considered the most scandalous and controversial, but at the same time one of the few that has a scientific basis.

If the dream books of Vanga, Miller or Tsvetkov have a mystical predictive meaning and tell about upcoming events in the dreamer's life, then the psychoanalyst suggests looking for the meaning of dreams in his subconscious. Its purpose is not to warn about pleasant or unpleasant surprises prepared by fate, but to identify a psychological problem and solve it.

Why is Freud's dream book still popular?

The interpretation and meanings of dreams proposed by Freud is controversial in scientific circles, but his dream book is very popular among readers. This is due to people's interest in everything mystical and unknown, and also in the dark side of the human psyche, which is associated with sexuality.

Perhaps Freud was wrong in some assumptions, but the fact that intimate desires and complexes play an important role in our lives cannot be disputed.

Even ardent opponents of the psychoanalyst and his theories agree that the outstanding scientist did a great job and laid the foundation for studying the mechanisms and meaning of dreams. From the point of view of science, any understanding, even erroneous, is much better than no understanding at all.

Useful video

The video below is a detailed analysis of Freud's approach to dream interpretation:

Watch for free online “why dream...”

Each person can decide whether a scientist interpreted dreams correctly or incorrectly - you need to find the appropriate image in his book and compare it with your own feelings. The most convenient way to do this is online, using Freud's free dream book. Just remember your dream, open the interpreter, and the great Sigmund Freud himself will explain to you what the images and symbols you see mean.

To date, no one has been able to unravel the meaning of dreams. But that doesn't mean the attempts have stopped. The interpretation of dreams is still of great interest to many people. It is worth talking about the most popular developments in this area.

Z. Freud is known to almost everyone. During his life he created a large number of works, among which there are articles about what

dreams. The interpretation of dreams according to Freud suggests that all the pictures that we see when we sleep are far from absurd and not meaningless. According to the scientist, these are the desires of a person, which are manifested in such a twisted way in his subconscious during sleep. Thus, we can say that all the works of Freud that relate to dreams are of a psychological nature.

The interpretation of dreams according to Freud became known as early as 1900. In this direction, the scientist began to work after a long work with hypnosis, with which he wanted to treat Dream Interpretation became one of Freud's most ambitious works. It is also called erotic, since the interpretation of dreams is based on unconscious sexual desires.

In total, three categories of dreams were distinguished, from which Freud proceeded. The interpretation of dreams in the first category includes the simplest pictures that a person sees at the moment when he sleeps. These visions, according to the psychologist, are not of particular interest, because it is not very difficult to explain them. This section usually includes the dreams of children.

The interpretation of dreams according to Freud in the second category includes reasonable visions in which a certain logic already appears. It's not so easy to figure them out.

The third category includes those dreams that, according to Freud, can be called curious. These are confusing, incomprehensible and not entirely reasonable visions that should be explained in the first place and in any way.

In addition, in his writings, Freud singled out the objects of dreams, in which a certain meaning lies. Most likely, at present, no one will have difficulty finding a dream book and using it to explain certain visions that come at the moment when a person is sleeping.

The interpretation of dreams according to Freud usually has several options. An example is dreams

In which a person sees pregnancy. For a girl, the meaning of sleep lies in the appearance of admirers or in her dissatisfaction with the viability of her partner, and for men, this dream carries sexual problems. If you dreamed of a gun, then this is due to the fact that you very often force your partner into an intimate relationship. If you shoot from it, then this means that you lack the determination to take some action to save the relationship. And even if decisiveness is not your hallmark of character, then you still need to act so that your partner does not suffer disappointment in you.

All dreams should not be painted, as there are many of them. If you dreamed of something strange and incomprehensible, then you should understand the meaning of this dream as soon as possible. Therefore, do not be afraid, look for information and try to find out everything.

Sigmund Freud is considered the founder of the theory of the unconscious. Despite the fact that other scientists, no less famous, also studied the consciousness and the subconscious, it is Freud who is remembered when talking about the subconscious and the mysteries associated with it, including dreams.

Freud owns a huge number of works on human psychology, among which the Interpretation of Dreams, I and It, Totem and Taboo, Wit and Attitude to the Unconscious, and many others should be especially noted. Therefore, trying to explain the nature and causes of erotic dreams, let us turn to the theory of this scientist.

Dream analysis

According to Freud, all human mental processes are subject to the pleasure principle. We initially strive for pleasure, and displeasure causes negative emotions in us.

However, there are several types of attraction. The first type is eros, that is, sexual attraction. Moreover, it includes not only sexual desire, but also the desire for life, the desire for procreation. However, there is another type of attraction - we can consider it abnormal from the position of a sane person - this is the attraction to death. If the goal of sexual attraction is the continuation of life, then the desire for death sets the task of "returning all living organisms to a lifeless state." Its purpose, in other words, is to restore the previous state of matter.

Freud studied human psychology and paid considerable attention to dreams. He believed that sleep is primarily a reflection of a person's desires in his real life. The following example should be given here.

While studying the child's psyche, the scientist drew attention to the fact that the latter has dreams in which he sees the fulfillment of his desires, or, conversely, terrible nightmares. Moreover, the dreams of a five-year-old child are often erotic in nature and are associated with attraction to their own mother (the so-called Oedipus complex). Freud believed that human sexual development begins at birth, that is, from the first year of life. We are used to thinking that a person is aware of his gender only during adolescence, but Freud identified several phases. The first is the oral phase (1st year of life), at this stage, the mucous membranes of the mouth and lips act as erogenous zones. In the second phase - anal, coming in 2-3 years, the erogenous zone is the mucous membrane of the anus. The third phase, phallic, occurs at the age of 4-6, then the phallus is the erogenous zone, respectively. At this age, the Oedipus complex develops in children.

In the genital phase, from the beginning of adolescence, the phase of developed sexuality begins. During this period, sexual desires are satisfied through normal sexual activity.

Studying a nervous breakdown in a five-year-old child, Freud established a connection between the boy's dreams and his phobias. The child's nightmares had the following content: he was afraid of losing his mother, because he "would have no one to caress." In reality, there was an increased tenderness for his own mother, the perception of her as an object of erotic desire. Freud notes that the boy's dream is a dream of punishment and repression (that is, the transition of mental consciousness into the unconscious and keeping it in the unconscious); the pleasure of the caresses of the mother is translated into fear and the content of the dream changes dramatically. The child wakes up interrupting sleep, thus repression defeats the mechanism of dreaming.

How does Sigmund Freud explain the dream? We have already said that dreams depend on what is experienced in reality. In addition, the role of stimuli acting on the sleeping person, as well as the mental life of a waking person, should be noted. Dreams have various functions, which include mental, biological and some others.

There are different points of view on what constitutes a dream. Some believe that it is a special mental activity that manifests itself in the field of memory. Doctors tend to believe that a dream is a mental manifestation, the causative agents of which are sensory and bodily stimuli. They can arise both in the external environment and directly in the person himself. From this position, the dream is explained as the incoherent work of individual organs or groups of brain cells in a state of sleep.

However, most people tend to look for some symbolic meaning in dreams, believing that this will help predict the future and sort out problems. Such a view of things, of course, is shrouded in prejudice, but there is some truth in this from a scientific point of view. Long before Freud, many people thought that dreams were a manifestation of a violation of the human psyche, but in fact, every normal person sees dreams. Few people said that sometimes dreams are also erotic in nature: if ordinary dreams are a deviation, so what can we say about sexual ones! Freud was the first to speak of the normal nature of sleep. In addition, the scientist stated that there is always a meaning in dreams - you just need to conduct a thorough analysis to reveal it. The interpretation of sleep for each patient should be individual - after all, people experience different emotions and sensations, each of them has different ideas and their own lives.

Therefore, dreams must be different. Therefore, first of all, it is necessary to establish what associations arise in a dreamer.

Freud was convinced that in the waking state a person does not pay attention to any associations and extraneous thoughts - they all belong to the subconscious. In a dream, these emotions come to life and appear in the form of vague images and symbols. Moreover, sometimes it is very difficult to understand what this or that image means, and somehow connect it with reality. It takes a lot of imagination and imagination to creatively comprehend this or that dream.

The information that the brain receives is processed in the following way: first, various images are concentrated, then they are distorted, and then symbols are formed.

Freud called the resulting dream image "condensed". Sometimes it is difficult to find a connection between the image and the meaning of a dream. For example, lightning symbolizes a stormy romance, a surge in relationships. It would seem, what is the connection in this? However, after analyzing the dream, it can be noted that lightning strikes suddenly, and it is impossible to understand where it will fall. In the same way, a person does not know for whom he will inflame with passion, does not know how all-consuming it will turn out to be. It is not surprising that a person who dreamed about wax indulges the desires of a sexual partner in everything - from it, like from wax, you can "blind" anything. As you can see, solving a dream is quite simple - just analyze your own attitude to life and try to connect all the events with the images that you dreamed of.

The stage of dream symbolization is quite interesting. Freud believed that in a dream there is a realization of any desires, including sexual ones. These desires are manifested very vividly and emotionally. For example, you may dream that you are eating an amazingly delicious pineapple. This means that you prefer to enjoy sex, but rarely deliver it to your partner. Moreover, you will feel the taste of pineapple very clearly - as if you are eating it in reality.

Dreams, which represent human desires, Freud divided into several groups. The first group includes desires of the infantile type - usually such dreams are seen by children and adolescents. So, the latter often dream of pronounced sex scenes - provided, of course, that they are interested in it. Most of the dreams are desires in a disguised form - they are included in the second group.

The third group of dreams are repressed desires, but they are poorly disguised. These are the so-called nightmares. Once this idea was a desire of a person, but it was repressed and turned into fear. For example, a girl has a dream about how she is being raped by a maniac killer. Perhaps earlier she wanted to quickly start a sexual life, but then she was inspired that it was shameful and shameful, and the desire was transformed in a similar way.

In all his interpretations, Freud approached the dream from the standpoint of psychoanalysis. As mentioned earlier, dreams are a personal experience of each person. In the future, some symbols will be listed and their solution will be given, however, you can make your own interpretation of dreams by analyzing your hidden desires, fears and problems.

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The famous Austrian scientist Sigmund Freud is considered to be the founder of the theory of psychoanalysis.

Freud created a number of fundamental works in which he sought to explain the essence of such a psychological phenomenon as dreams. According to his theory, human desires that could not be realized are forced out of the sphere of human consciousness and pass into the area of ​​the unconscious. In the unconscious, they are stored and continue to have a significant impact on a person's behavior in everyday life. In an effort to break back into consciousness, repressed desires come into conflict with conscious attitudes and defeat them during such states of consciousness as dreams, daydreams, etc. Therefore, using the correct interpretation of the symbols and images of dreams, one can judge the unconscious experiences of a person.

The interpretation of dreams is one of Freud's most significant works (which later became the basis for Freud's Dream Interpretation), in which he showed that a dream is not a meaningless set of images, but a distorted and veiled fulfillment of a repressed desire. Based on this and other works of Freud, which were devoted to the study of dreams, Freud's dream book was compiled, which occupied a certain niche among other popular dream books of our time.

Most interpretations of Freud's dream book are tied to the sexual side of people's lives, relationships between opposite sexes. It is these aspects that underlie other works of the famous psychoanalyst. In this regard, the interpretation of Freud's dream book may seem somewhat ambiguous, but one should not completely neglect his interpretations, if only because Freud spent more than one year of his life working on the dream book and considered him the crown of his activity.

The founder of psychoanalysis was the good psychologist and psychiatrist Sigmund Freud (1856-1939). He was a great innovator and also an excellent neurologist. He was born in the small town of Freiburg, which was located on the territory of the Austrian Empire. Despite the fact that he was considered the most controversial scientist in psychological science, he devoted most of his life to work on the localization of brain functions. Dealing with the problem of infantile paralysis, in 1884 he was the first to provide an opportunity to live without pain, discovered the best painkillers on the action of cocaine. Developing methods for treating neuroses in 1895, the scientist found ways to cope with hysteria.

He became one of the first scientists who decided to study the development of sexuality in psychological aspects. He was able to find the dynamics of development, it is based on a conflict between different levels of the psyche, as a rule, this is an unconscious attraction of consciousness, in 1900 he was the first to put forward a hypothesis, the symbolism of which was the structure of the mental apparatus in the form of an energy system.

Interpretation of dreams according to Freud's dream book

In such a dream book, you can easily find for yourself the necessary interpretation of dreams and interpretations from one of the great psychotherapists. As Hebbel puts it, he disturbed the peace of the world, as Freud often liked to refer to himself, saying that he belongs to a separate class of people. Psychology radically changed its appearance after the release of his work, where he illuminated the deep questions of the structure of the personality. He was able to identify the reasons for the illusory nature of a person's representatives about himself, in particular, by revealing the nature of conflicts between a constant sense of duty and unbridled passion, he found other reasons that indicate spiritual discomfort.

Increasingly reflecting on his dreams, Freud began to think in depth about creating a book on the interpretation of dreams. Thinking about the role dreams play in a person's life, and carefully analyzing the mechanism in 1900, the book was published. After some time, it was remade, and soon became a bestseller of the twentieth century. Dreams are the only product in our mental activity, this became the main thesis of the scientist. Through our own efforts, we can satisfy our imagination, finding peace of mind. Thus, expressing all unrealized, and sometimes unaccountable needs.

If we draw an analogy with other dream books, then with the naked eye we can reveal many radical and fundamental differences. Relying only on scientific data, he excluded a number of mysteries that could be read about in the dream books of Nostradamus, Vanga and Loff.

Expressing the content in absurd and symbolic images, he was able to convey the deepest and most genuine emotional experiences of the sleeper. Trying to deceive the inner mind and give vent to the forbidden passions, he began to call this the production of sleep, this is nothing more than the so-called subconscious trick that seeks to deceive the inner mind. Therefore, all the symbols of dreams began to be called the code of the innermost and hidden desires of human consciousness.

The deeper and more significant the experience was for a person, the more incredible and interesting it acquired its character in a dream. However, to reveal the secret meaning of dreams, Freud believed, is possible only with the help of good psychoanalysis.

The main types of dreams according to Freud

To date, all published Freud's dream books describe and interpret a list of recurring symbols from the dream world. For such dream books, the task is to acquaint the reader with the teachings of the Austrian psychiatrist from a practical point of view.

Stages of Dream Interpretation

To show several stages, he breaks down the censorship process, most commonly called dream work:

  • secondary process.
  • Move.
  • Condensation.
  • Projection.

If you believe his theory, you can unravel a lot and learn about your personal motives and true desires, for this you need to trace how and what you control in your dreams. It is worth considering each stage of work on dreams separately.

Secondary process in interpretation according to Freud. To create a story from a strange and unrelated dream, this method is best suited. By doing a secondary process it is possible to extract meaning from a strange story, thereby trying to mask the primary content of your dream. Often the dream we have is called explicit content, a process that tries to make sense out of all these disparate parts. Freud argued that we need to find the hidden meaning or hidden content of the dream.

Article condensation when interpreted according to Freud. One of the prominent psychoanalysts and writers, Charles Rycroft, concluded that individual details of our dreams can symbolize several themes of the condensation stage. It is distinguished by the ability to identify from a number of hidden thoughts, one clear and concise thought. For example: if you dream of food ready to burn in the oven reminiscent of childhood, then this may mean that you miss the past or at the moment you have a rather hot state of affairs. Therefore, as a rule, images are of mixed interpretation and can symbolize several themes.

Replacement stage. With this method, it is enough to simply alleviate your anxiety or anxiety, for this you need to imagine them in a safe dream. Expressing any of your needs, you need to redirect it to another object or another person. By making such a substitution, we use the symbol as a substitute for the meaning of the dream.

Projection as a way of interpretation. By shortening the process by just one step, it is a bit like substitution. In your dreams, try to project your negative fantasies onto someone or something. Despite the fact that your dream is about the same anyway, you can take full responsibility for yourself.

Interpretation technique

Many patients, trying to understand what they mean, turned to Freud for help, who offered a rather interesting method of free association. He made them say whatever first came to their mind about their every image or action in the dream. Having analyzed all the associations in this way, one could understand the full content of dreams and an attempt to fulfill all one's desires.

Only one thing is clear what is interpretation according to the theory of dreams by Sigmund Freud the matter is not easy. To begin this business of becoming a good Freudian analyst, you need to go through a long and exhausting preparation. However, it is believed that for many, a simple acquaintance with the methods is enough to help them understand the meaning of sleep.

The role of the subconscious in dreams

What do you think is common between the human soul and an iceberg? They say that their invisible part is much larger than the visible one. It is believed that under consciousness is called precisely that part of their soul, which always remains invisible. But our conscious thoughts can be called the visible part.

For many centuries, writers, thinkers, philosophers have tried to prove and hint at the existence of the subconscious. However, Sigmund Freud who first coined the term "subconscious" was able to develop the concept of the scheme of the human soul. As he argued, nothing happens by chance in our lives. As for our thoughts and actions, we subconsciously motivate them with caused aggression, conflicts, impulses of a sexual nature and a great desire to have fun.

The need to moderate our primitive appetites gives us the opportunity to quietly enter a civilized society. He believed that people are forced to drive them into the depths of the soul, no matter how hard they try to uproot them. These factors are one of the reasons for the difficulty of suppressing power structures such as the id:

  • Seeking the pleasure of the core of his "I".
  • Sexual.
  • Aggressive, was the appearance of her in disguise.

And this cannot be denied. There is always a way to reveal yourself one way or another. We cannot claim to be well aware of our subconscious, as a result of which we often hide our feelings and desires. For by its very nature it must be hidden. But still, according to Freud, the study of your dreams will help to reveal what is hidden in the depths of your subconscious.

Calling it "the royal path of the subconscious", he believed that it is in your dreams that you allow id wishes to be fulfilled that you would never dare in real life. All other parts of your soul, so called "ego" and "super ego" by Freud, will lose their vigilance during sleep.

In order for subconscious desires to have the opportunity to appear in your dreams and break free, your self-control weakens during sleep. If each of us has a chance to fulfill all our hidden and hidden desires, then why do we sometimes dream:

  • Stupid.
  • Terrible.
  • Tragic.
  • Inconsistent dreams.

According to Freud, our inner watchman never leaves his post, however, during sleep, he still loses his vigilance. Therefore, even in a dream, you may be overwhelmed by feelings such as anxiety and regret. As stated earlier, the purpose of dreams is the protection of sleep, your soul makes your censor work tirelessly. Such dreams can be called a compromise, because you get the best of both worlds. While you are sleeping sweetly, your veiled desires do not pose any threat to you.

Freud's dream book from an old grumbler. As a result of insufficiently good disguise, we have disturbing dreams. Freud claimed that they are the fulfillment of our desires. They express the result of the suppression of our sexual impulses.

One of his followers was Carl Jung - often inspired by many in his writings, and also asked for help in interpretation. The most surprising was Freud's attitude to dreams, he believed that they play a big role in the life of every person. However, his thoughts, the presentation of a safe form of wish fulfillment, were often criticized. Having ceased to be an ardent supporter of his idea, he became one among these critics.

Few examples:

Now there are many ways interpretation of your dreams, for example, you can buy a book. However, one of the most common ways in the modern world is Freud's dream book online. You can easily find everything you need on the Internet. To do this, you just need to enter in the search bar, for example: “Sigmund Freud interpretation of dreams read online” and you will be embraced by the world of dreams.

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