For centuries people have pondered the
meaning of dreams. Early civilizations
thought of dreams as a medium
between our earthly world and that of
the gods. In fact, the Greeks and
Romans were convinced that dreams
had certain prophetic powers . Over the
years, numerous theories have been put
forth in an attempt to illuminate the
mystery behind human dreams. It was
only recently that strong, tangible
evidence has become less elusive.
The Long-standing Mystery of Dreams
Since ancient times, humans have been
trying to understand the purpose of dreams.
Psychological Theories of Dreaming
Freudian and Jungian Theories
While there has always been great
interest in the interpretation of human
dreams, it was not until the end of the
nineteenth century that Sigmund Freud
and Carl Jung put forth some of the
most widely-known modern theories of
dreaming. Freud's theory centered
around the notion of repressed longing
— the idea that dreaming allows us to
sort through unresolved, repressed
wishes. Freud's theory described
dreams as having both latent and
manifest content. Latent content
consists of deep unconscious wishes
or fantasies while manifest content is
superficial and meaningless. Manifest
content often masks or obscures latent
content.
Carl Jung (who studied under Freud)
also believed that dreams had
psychological importance, but
proposed different theories about their
meaning. Jung expanded on Freud's
idea that dream content relates to the
dreamer's unconscious desires. He
thought of dreams as messages to the
dreamer, containing revelations that
could uncover and possibly resolve
emotional or religious problems and
fears.
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