Psychoanalysis is based on the assumption of the subconscious or superego and that humans are driven by desires, fears, needs, and conflicts of which we are unaware.
Relate one of the common core issues (listed below) to yourself or a character in literature. If you're relating a core issue to yourself, explain a dream or event that either explains or causes these issues. If you're relating to a character from literature, regard an internal monologue or an event that shows the core issues the character has. Remember: It is quite possible for someone to have more than one core issue, or one core issue that causes another.
| Common Core Issues | Definition | Common Dreams Associated |
|---|---|---|
| Fear of Intimacy | A feeling that emotion closeness will hurt us | Being found naked in public |
| Fear of Abandonment | A feeling that friends and loved ones will desert you or stop caring | Images of death |
| Fear of Betrayal | A feeling that friends and loved ones can't be trusted | |
| Low Self-esteem | A feeling that one is less worthy than others | Dreaming of falling |
| Insecure or Unstable Sense of Self | A feeling that one lacks personal identity | |
| Oedipal Fixation | A dysfuntional bond with a parent of opposite sex |
Other dreams and the feelings associated with them include:
Storms and rain - Turbulence, Feeling Overwhelmed, Restlessness
Being Chased - Suppression, a need to forget
Missing a train - A missed opportunity
22 comments:
Hahaha, I've been waiting for this topic. Finally, a chance for someone to examine my poor, deranged mind *wink*.
A common dream I used to have is that of skiing. It always starts the same way, taking a ski-lift up a nigh-vertical slope to a plateau, upon which I ski for a while. Inevitably, I fall off the edge. This is not, as is usually assumed, followed by waking up, but by the dream resetting - after an indeterminate period of falling, I simply rematerialize upon the ski-lift, to endure the experience again.
Personally, I have not been able to find any links to the topic you mentioned, however I can link this dream to my childhood, which Freud considers a deciding factor in shaping the subconscious. For as long as I can remember, I have been afraid of heights. I'm pretty sure this links to a time I locked myself into a third-story bathroom and my godfather had to climb the outside of the house to get in and unlock the door. How this ties in to the constant repetitions in my dream, I do not know. Also, after a while, I start to find it enjoyable to deliberately throw myself off the cliff. Is this my subconscious urging me to commit suicide?
Haha, analyze THAT, Dr. Phil!
Oh, and in literature, you can often find Fear of Betrayal in minor characters - the younger sisters in "Pride and Prejudice" and "Jane Eyre" absolutely refuse to marry. This can definitely be seen as a fear of being hurt by others.
A dream that reoccurs commonly for me is dreams of death, both of myself and those around me. I constantly have dreams that either I am dying, or my parents are dying, or my friends. These dreams often do not feel like dreams. They feel very real, and I find myself very distraught after waking up. Sometimes it's hard for me continue on with my days because of how these dreams leave me feeling.
When I was in eighth grade, my mother was very sick. She had a tumor in her neck. It was one of the most horrific and frightening experiences of my life. This left me very timid and afraid about death- the death of my parents. My mother is alright now, but I still worry constantly every time she goes to the doctor. I worry that she will get sick again, and die. As for my own death and the death of my friends in the dreams, I think this links back to the emotional attachment I have with those around me and the despair I would feel if I ever lost any of them.
When I was little, I suppose I made have had a fear of abandonment. I never really have dreams that I remember, but the first dream I can recall having was when I was about three years old.
In the dream, all my siblings, my mother, and myself were all leaving the local post office. I threw a bit of a temper tantrum (typically common in people suffering from youngest-child syndrome) when my mom told me that no, she would not carry me to the car, and yes, I would have to walk myself. Following my temper tantrum, I was told that I could either walk to the car or stay with the nice post office woman. I chose the latter and watched my family drive away. Immediately following the departure of the mini van, the woman I had stayed with turned into a huge bug and began to chase me around the post office which had transformed into an Office Max upon my family's departure.
So although, in my dream, I willingly allowed myself to be abandoned, abandonment resulted in a presumable death by means of the giant bug lady, which shows that maybe I did possess a subconscious fear of being abandoned.
I do seem to have a lot of dreams about being chased by dogs... Honestly, I've been chased by Labradors, shitzu's, and beagles. And interestingly enough, these dreams usually come true. When I was young, those dogs were the scourge of my neighborhood. Maybe my dreams were prophetic. It could be my subconscious crying out in fear, or just symbolic of something else. I wonder if Freud was a religious man. Dream interpretation is a major religious theme, too. With the Prophet Joseph he had that dream about the 7 starved cows and there was seven years of famine. But when he dreamed of 7 lush and well-fed cows, the kingdom had 7 prosperous years. I don't know if you count the Qu'ran and the Bible as literature, but they definitely demonstrate dream interpretation.
Like David I also have a reoccurring dream of falling. In this dream I am the center piece of a circus. The decorations are very traditional: yellow flashing lights and a massive red tent above. All of my friends, family, and people who play a significant role in my life are standing around the ring watching the main act. In the center of the ring I am riding on a bike going around and around the circular space that I am confined to. Instead of the area being flat leveled, the red and white swirled floor slowly leads down to a black hole imitating a whirlpool. After circling the ring several times, and with everyone cheering me on in the background, I finally make my decent into the hole. I always wake up from this dream with the impression that I am actually falling in my own bed.
In a psychoanalytic sense this dream is driven by fear and pressure. Dreams of falling are said to symbolize low-self esteem, which makes a lot of sense in this case. Falling into this hole represents the stress that I experience trying to do well in school, sports, and extracurriculars, and the pressure that I feel from others to be exemplary in these activities. It also displays my subconcious personal dissatisfaction with my performance in these topics.
Sorry that this is practically a novel...
Often times, I have dreams involving death, though they do not involve family members or anyone that I know. Without getting into too much detail, I can recall one recent dream that I have had involving a montage of death scenes. The conceptual imagery of the dream was extremely artistic, mirroring the cinematography of a movie. In that sense, the dream was actually very inspiring, as morbid as that sounds.
When considering this dream through the lens of psychoanalysis, one could deduce that I have a fear of abandonment, which is very interesting because I have often considered myself extremely independent and self-sufficient within my family. However, perhaps I have been repressing those feelings of dependency, and consequently, my id has manifested itself through my dreams in order to fulfill my desire to be closer and more reliant upon my family.
Additionally, in literature, I've often noticed how the sun symbolizes warmth, power and emotion. This is interesting when related to Camus's The Stranger because throughout the novel, Meursault continually observes the sun and its influence, however, he never really gives any thought as to why. Using psychoanalytic theory, we could say that Meursault's desire for emotion and warmth (which was repressed throughout the course of the novel) was causing him to almost subconsciously notice the sun and its warmth because that is what he really desires.
My dreams are always the same. Whether my Id is characterized by its tendency for violence or some delusion of supremacy, I dream of combat. Every dream I have includes some antagonistic figure in my life, always male. In my dreams, I either relive some instance where I intentionally lost an argument to avoid conflict, which often occurs due to my passive personality. My dreams take such experiences and rewrite them in a way where instead, I remain dominant, but through means of violence. Every morning I awake with the illusion of accomplishment, which is quickly broken by the realization that in reality, my passive nature prevents such assertion of dominance through physical supremacy.
From a Freudian perspective, I can infer that I have a fear of failure when it comes to social encounters and intentionally avoid conflict. Therefore, my desperate need to attain success is repressed by my superego's urging to avoid socially unacceptable means to an end.
As a child, I was always naked. Almost all of my baby pictures involve little or no clothing (usually only a hat)and they were typically in the house. However that does little to explain why I have a reoccuring dream of being completely naked in the public eye. Classified, this puts me in the "fear of intimacy" catagory but I think it has more to do with a lack of acceptance within society of the human body and the void of connection I believed my parents had when I was little. I think I've seen my parents kiss once in my 17 years and growing up, I probably sought the first form of intimacy through my closest relations. So this would bother me when the typical "mommy daddy relationship" didn't fit the picture I was told it was supposed to fit by society. This probably led my subconcious to believe that since my roots did not fit the sterotype the community needed it to, there was no way I could; no matter how hard I tried. So since dreams are the "window to the subconcious" and "the interpretation of dreams is the royal road to knowledge of the unconscious activities of the mind.
(thank you Sigmund Freud) my subconscious decided it needed to show me that I believed, even in the most vulernable, primitive form, I would not ever fit into society's niche` for me.
the dreams i have are always strange but never reoccuring. generally, there is a common theme or link through most of my dreams. the theme normally has to do with abandonment. about three years ago, i had a dream that i came home and my house was empty and the only thing that was there was a note from my family saying i'm sorry emily but we had to leave asap and we just left without you. i also had another dream where i came to school and it was basically a first day at new school night mare.
freud was analyze this saying that i have an overwheleming fear of abandonment. as far as i am subconciously aware of, i have never been abandoned by my family. but, as freud suggests maybe i repressing something that happened during my childhood. however, i find this to be a little extreme and highly unlikely.
Whenever I dream, they tend to be of the death variety. In one commonly recurring dream, those around me are kidnapped and some sort of death soon occurs. It is mentioned that the dream might be symbolic of a fear of losing those around me. Although I cannot comment on the accuracy of that, I think it is very possible it may be true in my case. Another dream I typically have involves me falling through a sea of numbers. I have always interpreted the dream to mean an irrational fear of numbers from when I was younger.
The other night I had a dream that I was swimming in a pool and I wasn't drowning or anything but it was just impossible for me to get out. Not in a scary way either, just like I knew I couldn't get out so I didn't really try. My sister was sitting on the edge of the pool and then she started throwing frogs at me and then I started to get scared. I'm not really sure why I remembered this dream or really if it has any meaning at all but for some reason it stuck with me. I guess it falls into the category of "fear of betrayal" and trust issues. I've never really thought that of myself as having trust issues though.
I recently have had a dream of taking a walk through the woods in autumn. The road I am walking on separates into two smaller paths. Deep inside, I know I am meant to choose a path.
But rather than choose a path, I sit down and exclaim that I much prefer Dickinson to Frost.
I think this dream symbolizes the transitional phrase I am going through, working on college applications and such. The refusing to choose a side represents my hesitation in choosing which direction my life will go in.
Hunter,
Super introduction to psychoanalysis with a wonderful chart. This is a great springboard for the students!
David,
You have interesting dreams, which I won't attempt to psychoanalyze. I appreciated your tie-in to literature as well.
Lizzie,
Great self-insight. What you said certainly makes sense!
Keely,
Must have been quite a dream for you to remember it so vividly even though it was from so long ago!
Yousra,
Interesting twist to bring in religious interpretation!
Grace,
Very insightful interpretation! Maybe becoming a therapist is in your future?!
Gary,
Very insightful comments about Mersault. I think you have a very strong argument here!
Ray,
Wow! Well-analyzed and perceptive!
Mary,
I think you have a valid interpretation about your dreams as far as them signifying your perception of fitting into society's niche.
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