The "dream" is one of the three symptoms that occur as a result of the intrusion of the unconscious to the conscious domain. It is explained in the following article:
Freud's conscious and unconscious - Mutsuko Takahashi BLOG
As for the "dream-work", I explained in the following article:
Freud: The Dream-Work - Mutsuko Takahashi BLOG
In this article, I will focus on Freud's dream theory.
Physical stimuli and Dream
Freud considers that the dream is the reaction to the disturbance of sleep caused by the stimulus. This kind of physical stimulus doesn't directly appear to the dream. For example, you heard the fire alarm in your dream, but it was actually an alarm clock. Therefore, he considers as follows:
- The dream is mental rather than a physical phenomenon.
- The person of dreaming knows what the dream has meant. But the person believes that he/she doesn'tknow the meaning.
The process of interpretation of dreams
The meaning of the dream is possible to know by narrating about what we dreamed. Freud defined the original content of dreams as "the latent dream-thought", and the symbolical message revealed after tracing the meaning of the dream as the "manifest content of dreams". Discovering the "latent dream-thought" from the "manifest content of dreams" is what is called "Interpretation of dreams" by Freud.
The Purpose of Dreams
According to Freud, the interpretation of the dream is difficult because it is distorted in the process of revealing the meaning from the "manifest" content to the "latent" content. Freud discovered that we dream for the purpose of "wish-fulfillment". The dream about Irma's injection(see p.823) is one of the examples of "the dream-wish" of Freud himself; he wanted to be excused from the responsibility that Irma's treatment didn't go well.
