Dreams

A detailed Summary of Dreams

A dream is a series of thoughts, images or emotions occurring during sleep. So why do we have dreams? Is it because, as Marie Louise Von Franz states, "Dreams show us how to find a meaning in our lives, how to fulfill our own destiny, how to realize the greater potential life within us." (Tanner P 1) Or is it simply because, "Dreams help us solve our problems", as Wilda B. Tanner once said. (P 1)

Dreams themselves evoke a reaction: either negative, in the form of resistance; or positive, often in the form of over-idealizing them; but rarely neutral. Dreams can contain very important messages from our unconscious mind, and always tell the truth. "Although it arises out of the conscious mind, the dream's content is specified by the conscious situation of the dreamer: the event's, emotions, thoughts, fears, hopes and conflicts of the dreamer's waking life." (Matoon P 75) The clear thing about dreams is that they have meaning; they are not simply randomly arranged images. Dreams are a symbolic language; they are pictures, images, not thoughts. Everyone dreams, but of what, well that is what distinguishes us whether we can recall our dreams or not.

We have come to regard our awakening state as the state of exis

People have always asked questions regarding dreams. What are dreams? Why do we dream? What meaning should be attributed to a dream scenario? Do dreams carry any message about the past present and future of the dreamer? What is the mechanism that generates dreams and many more? Many researchers have put forward theories aimed at answering such questions and also about the functioning of dreaming. Robert Bosnak feels that "Dreams seem incomprehensible by nature, nonsensical, and an insult to 'common sense'." (P 27)

James Hillman has this to say about a dream: "The dream itself is a symbol; that is, it joins in itself the conscious and the unconscious, bringing together incommensurables and opposites." (O'Connor P 7) Dreams are intrinsically linked to the process of completing oneself through their capacity to help us recognize parts of ourselves that we may normally be unaware of, thereby integrating into our conscious views of ourselves. Each recognition builds another link between consciousness and unconsciousness. It is the dream world that enables us and assists us to stay literally in touch with the imaginable world and helps us to see through literality and concretism, so that images become available for integration into consciousness, thereby moving us towards completing ourselves.

Dreams are essential to life; they are the key to imagination, longer life and relaxation. Without these keys how can one live an entirely enjoyable life? Dreams are fun, scary and helpful. They are the explanations of life and problems that one cannot figure out in the awake state. They are what keep us going in life. Without dreams and hopes one would not strive to be the best. So keep dreaming, in sleep and in life, and have a future!

On inspection, a dream proves to be a very meaningful, well-constructed product of the imagination. Hillman says, "Our life in soul is a life of imagination". (O'Connor P 62) Every person has his or her own style of dreaming. Dreams are communications of a part of us, which had virtually all of our mental facilities at its disposal.

tence where reason and rationality prevail, and if we can not touch it, explain it, predict it and hopefully control it then it does not have meaning. This is strange because when one reflects on the fact that we sleep on average, eight hours a night sleeping, that we spend roughly one third of our lives sleeping, and that twenty to twenty five percent of our sleeping time is spent dreaming. If this is true then how come some people think that dreams are not real. If we think for a moment that images are not what one sees, but a way of seeing, then to see imaginatively, what a dream does, is to see resemblances of things, people or events. As Peter O'Connor says, "The stuff of dreams are not unreal... they are another reality an 'as if' reality". (P 75)

One thing that makes people wish that they could control their dreams is nightmares. Nightmares, just like any other dream carry a message. Donald Broadribb states, "The unconscious makes makes use of images familiar from waking life to create a horror story which, like all other dream stories, is meaningful." (P 125) A nightmare may be defined as a dream that frightens, usually terrifies the dreamer both during the dream and upon awakening. Nightmares are pure emotion, they require being felt not merely observed like any other dream. After having a nightmare, one will try to forget what has happened, but soon finds out that they can't. They then need to realize what is causing the nightmare in the first place.

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Approximate Word count = 2430
Approximate Pages = 10 (250 words per page double spaced)

Category: Miscellaneous