Sunday, March 25, 2012
A Dream is a Wish Your Heart Makes
I am slowly learning that that is a lie. That is because Freud says that dreaming is repressed memories and wants from an infant state. This makes sense. This is because of the simple fact that nightmare are usually traumatic events that have happened to a person. They come out when a person is in a safe enough environment to have these thoughts occur. Now, I am not specifically saying that all nightmares are true but usually they are life events but they happen to different people or small facts can be jumbled. This is typical because the brain is trying to make sense of it all.
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In addition to nightmares being disguised versions of traumatic events in one's past, I think it is likely that they can be manifestations of fears. For example, if one is afraid of the dark (even if one has had no traumatic experiences involving darkness) one might have a nightmare about being in the dark, with no access to light. These fears might also be disguised, either in order to prevent the nightmare from becoming so bad that one wakes up (thus preserving sleep), or as a result of the (probably) partially hallucinoid nature of dreams. This would explain nightmares containing such seemingly ridiculous elements as being, let us say, chased by a giant stapler. The dreamer most likely does not have an actual fear of staplers; it is more likely that they are simply afraid of being chased by something dangerous - as a giant, sentient, angry stapler would probably be.
ReplyDeleteP.S. I also posted this on my blog if you'd rather read it there.
I agree that in many cases it does make sense for dreams to be repressed wishes. However, I question if nightmares "come out when a person is in a safe enough environment to have these thoughts occur." Instead I would argue that nightmares would be more likely to occur when you find yourself in an environment that you do not feel safe. When your brain/mind is caught up in thoughts that upset you, it may be harder for it to protect you from your fears or to disguise your wishes. Therefore, the uneasiness and distraction coming from a place you do not feel safe in causes dreams to be less censored and become nightmares.
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