How Freud interpreted dreams
Freud can be said to be the cornerstone of the theory of dreams. Born in Moravia and studying medicine in Vienna, he drew inspiration from the research of many clinical patients and began to discuss the formation of dreams. In his life, he wrote many books related to dreams, such as 'Interpretation of Dreams','Introduction to Psychoanalysis','On Dreams' and so on. He pointed out in 'On Dreams' that the role of dreams is to maintain sleep, not to affect sleep.
Freud discovered that the psychological suggestion of patients had a great effect on the recovery of the sick body, and based on this, he proposed the theory of consciousness and unconsciousness. He believes that dreams are used to regulate the direction of the shadows produced by things people experience during the day. They are a release after suppression of human nature, which promotes the formation of people's sleep. Freud divided people into id, ego and superego. The id is the most instinctive response, so desire does not only come from the pleasure of body organs, but also is influenced by other instincts of survival, self-protection, etc. Dreams are the battle between the self and the id, so Freud believed that dreams are conflicting id desires.
In Freud's theory, dreams originated from lingering thoughts during the day, various physical stimuli, childhood experiences, and human historical experience. These experiences combined with suppressed desires to form dreams. The content of dreams is divided into manifest dreams and hidden dreams, and interpretation of dreams is to expose the deep meaning of dreams by imagining the artistic conception of dreams and peeling off layers of images. Freud claimed that the process of real dreaming was the unconscious impulse contained in hidden dreams disguised and transformed into the content of manifest dreams.
Freud also proposed that people dream because dreams regulate the effects of the sleeper during the day and protect sleep from being disturbed. People dream so that they can continue to sleep.
In the process of interpretation of dreams, symbolism can sometimes help the dream interpreter save a lot of time to interpret the dream. Therefore, the dream interpreter needs to be familiar with the symbols of various dreams, the relevant situation of the dreamer and the situation before the dream, so that it can be comprehensive enough, because the same dream may have multiple interpretations.