Freud realized his dream theory shortly after his father died. The death of his dad was very traumatic to him, and he had a recurring dream that he would be standing at the gates of the cemetery where his father was buried, but he could not bring himself to go inside and see his father's grave. This seemed odd to Freud because he was very close to his father. After much soul searching, which included Freud undergoing hypnosis, he discovered that he had unresolved anger for his father that he pushed into his unconscious. Freud believed that he was getting even with his father in his dream by not visiting his grave.

To Freud, understanding dreams was an integral part in understanding the true inner feelings of people. Freud believed in the theory that dream

s have meaning and have two main dynamics: one, displacement (in which the mind protects itself by displacing the troubling thought with a symbol); two, condensation (in which the mind places symbols on top of one another in layers in order to make the troubling thought hard to find). He also believed that dreams are phylogenetic, i.e., inherited as a species; they are not ontogenetic, i.e., created by environmental factors. However, not every psychologist agrees with this view. Many of Freud's colleagues subscribed to the idea that dreams are nothing more than random brain activities or poppings. These scientists do not believe that dreams have any meaning or use in the therapy of people. Freud's theory is a very important contribution to psychological thought and should not go overlooked. While the random poppings theories may be more biologically correct, Freud's theory explains a part of the human psyche that science cannot measure.

While I am very interested in Freudian theory, I find some of his other theories are incredibly far fetched, and I can easily see why Freud's critics can attack his work. For example, in Freud's theory of development, he hypothesized that humans go through three stages: the oral stage, the anal stage, and the phallic stage. In the oral stage, everything revolves around the mouth. Babies inspect things by sticking them into their mouths. In the anal stage, whether, or not, a person tightens their rectum while going to the bathroom can determine what kind of person they will be. In the phallic stage, a person's main motivation is to have sex and appease their inner sexual desires. However irrational they seem, Freud's theories must be judged on an individual basis. Just because a few of his theories are outlandish does not mean that all of them are. Freud did extensive research on all facets of human behavior, and it is expected tha

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