Dreams are mysterious things. No one knows the real reason of why we dream or the true meaning behind them, but there are many theories out there. Some say they are our unconscious thoughts represented through symbols, while others believe that they are meaningless. Theres also a theory that says they are just your random thoughts throughout the day made into a random story.
No matter what the real meaning behind them are, they still are interesting to try to decipher. I recently became interested in dream interpretation because just this morning my mom called me and told me that she had a dream about me during the previous night. I remembered learning learning about this in a previous psych class so i used my knowledge to try and decipher her dream.
To refresh my memory, I decided to look more into the meaning of dreams by searching on the internet. I found some descriptions and more background info on each theory, that many people may find helpful when trying to interpret their own dreams.
Theories:
Psychoanalytic Theory of Dreams
This is Psychologist Sigmund Freud's dream theory. He believed that dreams are a "representation of unconscious desires, thoughts and motivations". He believes that they are motivated by our aggressive and sexual instincts and desires. He wrote a book called the 'Interpretations of Dreams' which is full of all his ideas and symbols. Here he goes over what each symbol means and what the images could possibly represent. This is done through the manifest content (actual images and symbols) to determine the latent content (hidden meaning behind the manifest content).
Activation- Synthesis Model of Dreaming
This theory is all about the biology behind dreams. It explains the physical processes behind them and what goes on in your body when they occur. The theory says that there are circuits in your brain that become activate when you are in REM (dream sleep). Areas in the limbic system (amygdala and hippocampus) especially which are the areas in your brain are involved in emotions, sensations, and memory. The brain the tries to interpret the meaning behind these symbols. The founder behind this theory, Hobson, does not completely believe that dreams are meaningless like some people think. He believes they are a part of our creative conscious state.
Others
There are many other theories behind dreams. Like that we are just trying to interpret external stimuli, that your brain is just trying to clean up the clutter that fills in, or even that they are just a summary of all of your thoughts and ideas throughout the day.
All of these theories could possible be true, and different ones could be used to interpret different dreams in different situations. Dream interpretations are an interesting study in psychology that I love to learn about.
Sources:
Cherry, Kendra. "Why Do We Dream? - Top Dream Theories." About.com Psychology. About.com, 2 Feb. 2012. Web. 16 Mar. 2014.
I like how you stated and explained what the major theories of dreaming are. If somebody never had a psych class, they would have no idea what the idea behind dreams are. I personally believe that our dreams are random neural impulses based off experiences or thoughts that we had that day, or recent prior days.
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