Freud on Dreams
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Sigmund Freud best defines dreams as “the disguised fulfillment of a repressed wish”. Freud argued that our dreams contain clues to our hopes, fears, and fantasies. It is my intent to discuss the topic of dreams and how they provide useful information in helping clients uncover issues that may need to be addressed. In order to understand the meaning our dreams in relation to counseling; it is important to understand the basic concept of the psychoanalytic view and how it relates to our psyche.
The term psychoanalysis can be defined as “a method of analyzing psychic phenomena and treating emotional disorders that involves treatment sessions during which the patient is encouraged to talk freely personal experiences and especially about early childhood and dreams”. Freud believed that our personalities are formed during the first six years of life and that held great weight in determining how we would progress in adulthood, therefore if issues were repressed during those years they could manifest and cause emotional problems in adulthood. Freud believed it necessary to deal with repressed issues during treatment to allow the patient to work through situations that may be a hindrance. One of those tactics was to analyze and interpret the clients’ dreams.
A key concept of the psychoanalytic view of dreams is the study of the different stages of consciousness. In an effort to provide treatment Freud attempted to divide the mind into three regions, they were the “unconscious”, the “preconscious” and the “conscious”. By identifying these three regions of the brain Freud was able to categorize our basic thought functions.
The first level of consciousness, unconsciousness is described as material that has been repressed for some reason. That material may include bad memories, being introduced to inappropriate behavior as a child i.e. molestation, experiencing hostility as a child and early forms of abuse. According to Freud, sometimes if issues prove to be too traumatic to handle our brain may place it in an unconscious state, never to be revisited.
The second level of consciousness the preconscious contains all information that can easily be retrieved by the “conscious mind” . These thoughts cannot be considered conscious, because the client may not actually be aware of these thoughts. These thoughts may contain data, that the client is indeed aware of, but may have trouble in dealing with the information for various reasons. This level of consciousness acts as a censor between the unconscious and the conscious.
The third level of consciousnessthe conscious level actively deals with reality. The conscious level understands and controls our problem and thinking mechanisms in our brain. It processes information from our “preconscious” and makes rational approaches on effectively handling situations that may arise. This level is defined as our natural awake state, and is constantly building on who we are as a person.
Through studies Freud believed that it was virtually impossible to recognize thoughts in one’s on unconscious level, though through various techniques it could be reached.