Do dreams have a deeper meaning?

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Subject classification: this is a psychology resource.

Every person dreams occasionally. Often, you forget what you dreamed, but sometimes you can remember a dream well. There are also people with lucid dreams in which they are aware that they are dreaming. But what is the nature of our dreams? Do we dream randomly or is there something behind it? Do dreams have a deeper meaning?

Dreams have a deeper meaning

Pro

• Pro Sigmond Freud has long theorized on the deeper meaning of dreams. His theory was based on a dream he had while feeling guilty about a patient's poor progress in treatment. Freud interpreted this dream as an example of wish fulfillment. He had hoped that the patient's poor condition was not due to his actions, and the dream satisfied this wish by indicating that another doctor was to blame. From this dream, Freud suggested that a primary function of dreams is to fulfill our wishes.
• Pro Carl Jung saw dreams as "a spontaneous self-portrayal in symbolic form of the actual situation in the unconscious." Therefore, dreams are a source of new information and deeper understanding. Dreams are seen as a way to balance conscious thoughts and attitudes, allowing the psyche to use dreams for self-regulation or compensation.

Con

• Con The difficulty in studying how dreams affect mental functioning has led many researchers to see dreams as random brain activity, like the activation-synthesis hypothesis. If dreams are truly random, it is hard to create a theory on how dreams might have a functional role and be understood through evolution.