Therapy- Dream analysis

Aims of dream analysis?

• Reveal the unconscious, bring the unconscious to the conscious

• Uncover the latent content of a dream by examining the manifest content

• To offer insights that allow psychological issues to be resolved

What happens when we dream?

Ego defences are lowered so some repressed material comes through to awareness but in a disguised form. Give clues to how unconscious mind operates. Freud said dream function/ fulfilment of wishes

Main components of dream analysis?

• Dreams as wish fulfilment

• Symbolic nature of dreams

What is manifest content?

The story of the dream- what the conscious individual remembers experiencing

What is latent content?

True meaning behind a dream- hidden, disguise or wishes beneath the manifest content

What is dreamwork?

Latent content of dream transformed into manifest content of dream by process of dreamwork

What is condensation?

Condensing many different ideas into one- one dream image may stand for several associations and ideas

What is displacement?

Emotional significance of the dream object is displaced onto another object or person to protect our conscious mind (censored/disguised)

What is secondary elaboration?

unconscious process of adding details to a dream's recalled content (manifest content) to create a more logical, coherent narrative, even if this obscures the dream's true, underlying meaning (latent content)

What is symbolism?

Symbol replaces an action, person or idea

What is representation?

A thought translated into visual images

What is the role of the therapist?

Uncover the latent content of a dream by examine the manifest content.

Patient will talk to therapist about the manifest content of their dream, and therapist will help guide patient to uncovering the latent content.

Freud argued necessary to consider dreams in context of someone’s life.

Eg: dreaming of a fish may symbolise a fear of water in 1 person, friend of a fisherman for someone else

Importantly final decision about meaning of the dream down to the patient

Research support for dream analysis- Matt & Navarro

1997 Matt & Navarro had a review of effect of psychotherapy of 63-meta-analyses & found on average that 75% of clients receiving treatment found improve

Research support for dream analysis- Schredletal

Schredletal 2000 found in a surgery of psychotherapists in private practice that approx 70% of patients reported benefits of working through dreams.

Methodological issues with dream analysis

Some researchers criticise theory behind dream analysis

Theory suggests dreams are wish fulfilment Id has full rein in our sleep.

Hobson & McCarlet argue dreams nothing but commands from the brain & just thinking when we sleep

Emotional harm of dream analysis-

Therapist may guide client to insight of interpretation that proves to be emotionally distressing. Distress caused may be greater than the client is experiencing as a result of current problems.

Warn clients of this danger before therapy

Therapist-client relationship

It’s unethical, power imbalance between therapist & patient. Patient is reliant on therapist, can lead to over-dependence on the therapist

False memory syndrome

Therapist claims to have uncovered past, traumatic events, patient likely to succumb to beliefs of therapist as they are an authority figure. Toon et al (1996) therapists may induce false memory’s so therapy take longer, financial gain.

Patient experience anxiety, cause arguments with family over things that didn’t happen