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History of Psychology

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History of Psychology
Introduction

This paper will analyse the importance of dream analysis throughout the years. It will begin with a description based on Freud’s theory on dream analysis and a reference to history of how it began. Moreover dream analysis will be discerned as a tool of psychoanalysis and its use on certain psychological disorders such as hysteria in addition the different symbols of dreams are mentioned and how the Id, Ego and Superego play a part in what we dream.

History of dream analysis

What is dream analysis?

Dreaming is a natural process that occurs when we are asleep. It is hypothesised that we always have dreams when we are asleep but it’s sometimes difficult to remember what we have dreamt.
Dream analysis is an effective way to understand what dreams mean. Most of our dreams don’t make sense when we try to understand them and this is where dream analysis comes in handy. Not only can it help us understand our dreams, it can also help to understand our unconscious which may be helpful in certain neurotic or psychological problems. Most psychologists believe dreaming is healthy because it’s a way in which allows our mind to release some of our suppressed thoughts in our unconscious.

There are many different approaches to interpret dreams but the most famous theory would be the Freudian approach.
According to Freud, dreams give us clues to understand our unconscious mind. A dream is a disguised fulfilment of a repressed wish. Fears, desires and emotions that we are usually unaware of make themselves known through dreams. To Freud dreams are about wish fulfilment. Even dreams of punishment or anxiety are a form of wish fulfilment, the wish being that certain events do not occur. Very often such dreams are interpreted as a warning.
Freud believed that although our dreams contain these important messages, they are disguised. The unconscious mind communicates with us through symbols. Some of these symbols are universal, others very personal to us



References: Feldman, R. (2008), Understanding Psychology (8th Edition) Massachusetts: McGraw – Hill Pub. Hothersal, D. (2004), History of Psychology (4th Ed.), New York: McGraw ill Paul Kline. (1984), Psychology and Freudian theory and introduction Richard Obsourne, (1993), FREUD for beginners Wikipedia, http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sigmund_Freud Wikipedia, http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Interpretation_of_Dreams

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