World of Dreams

80-100% of subjects awoken during REM reported vivid dreams. You Do Dream!

Dream Theories 1.Freud’s Theory of Dream Interpretation 2.Extensions of Waking Life 3.Activation-Synthesis Theory 4.Carl Jung

Early Dream Theories Prior to 1900 Dreams were considered meaningless images.

Freud 1900 The Interpretation of Dreams Dreams: way to achieve wish fulfillment Free Association

Freud’s Theory Censor protects us from realizing unconscious desires (sex or aggression) Censor transforms thoughts into harmless dream symbols –Will not disturb sleep or conscious thoughts Dreams are meaningful Dreams can be interpreted

Freud Says … Two types of dream content: –Manifest: What you remember about a dream. –Latent: what the dream was actually about. Displacement: emotional feelings displaced from one object to another. Symbols: Latent content is converted in to symbols –Male = long objects (sticks, bats, pencil, umbrellas) –Female = Hollow things (cave, jar, bucket)

Male or Female

What Do They Mean? Psychoanalyst would decode symbols to release a patient’s unconscious desires.

Jung’s Theory Neo-Freudian –Personal Dreams –Collective Dreams Collective Unconscious – shared human experience Relies on “traditional” human conflicts: –Archetypes – emotionally charged images with universal meaning –Anima v. animus – female v. male struggle. –Foundation of multiple personalities.

Extensions of Waking Life Rosalind Cartwright (Cognitive Problem Solving): Dreams reflect waking thoughts, fears, emotions, and problems.

Like Chapters in a book.. Sleep lab dreams flow like chapters in a book focused on current concerns and feelings.

Activation-Synthesis Theory Random/meaningless activity of nerve cells –Biological –Nerve impulses are sent to brain cortex which then tries to make sense of them RESULT: random feelings, images, scenes…

Brain Scans During REM: –Pre-frontal cortex (off) {planning and reasoning} –Limbic system (on) {emotions} –Visual Cortex (on) {visual experience} RESULT: dreams are emotional and visual but bizarre and disorganized.