Canada and the World
Current Events with a Canadian Perspective
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19 November 2010
Why do we Dream?
There are many theories about the reasons why people dream; a Harvard University psychiatrist has a new one
Nobody knows for sure why people dream. Philosophers and writers have puzzled over
the conundrum since Aristotle, but all they’ve produced are theories.
Sigmund Freud’s Theories still Popular
One supposition that has long been in favour was put forward by Sigmund Freud more than a century ago.
Psychologist Joanna Schaffhausen at Yale University explains the theory: “Freud believed that people dream to relieve sexual frustration created by repressed desire, allowing them to act on forbidden impulses.
“However, he felt that because the rules of polite society reject such impulses, people had to disguise their true feelings using symbolic imagery. So instead of dreaming about sexual intercourse, a person might dream about a train entering a tunnel.”
Freud wrote in his 1899 book The Interpretation of Dreams that they were “…the disguised fulfillments of repressed wishes.” Psychiatrists who practice Freudian psychoanalysis still used dream interpretation as part of their therapy.
Dreaming Might Be a Review of the Past
Some suggest that, because the sleeping mind is cut off from external stimuli the brain starts to review memories.
Others say dreams might be a way of filing information. The brain is busy reviewing the day’s events and looking for a place to put them so they can be recalled later if needed.
Dreams certainly seem connected to memory, so it’s been suggested that dreams might
be a bit like winnowing grain. Take everything in the brain, toss it up in the air
and let the wind blow away the chaff; the grain, the stuff the brain wants to keep,
is then restored in the memory banks. This is seen as a bit like using a de-
Yet another model proposes that dreams are a form of do-
Another group of researchers hold to the notion that dreams don’t have any meaning at all.
New Theory Says Dreaming Is about the Future
Allan Hobson is a professor of psychiatry at Harvard University. He has developed the idea that dreaming is not so much about dealing with the past as it is about preparing for the future.
Speaking at Roehampton University in England (March 2009) he explained his idea that dreaming is not an unconscious activity: “We can thus assert, with confidence, consciousness is present as dreaming during sleep but that it is an altered state. Dreaming is thus not so much unconscious as it is unremembered.”
Dr. Hobson says many dreams are filled with anxiety, anger, and fear. Typically, a person will dream about sitting down to an exam having done no studying for it; or, standing up to give a speech before a large audience and realizing they are naked.
Hobson says such dreams are a way of going through a worst-
An Example of a Dream
In his lecture he gave the following example of one of his own dreams: “I was in London. I was riding a bicycle in traffic, toward an uncertain location, at which I was going to trim a tree.
“I was carrying a tree-
“Then, the house had a very small tree in front of it that was hardly worth trimming:
there was certainly no need for the long-
Hobson said a Freudian analysis would look for symbolism in the tree-
Dr. Hobson concluded that his dream did not need to be interpreted; it was simply
a dress-
Image credit
Sources
“The Dreaming Brain.” Joanna Schaffhausen, May 1, 2000.
“Dream Consciousness.” Dr. Allan Hobson, March 10, 2010.
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