Dream Analysis

Dream analysis is a therapeutic technique best known for its use in psychoanalysis. Sigmund Freud viewed dreams as “the royal road” to the unconscious and developed dream analysis, or dream interpretation, as a way of tapping into this unconscious material.

Use of dream analysis in therapy

Most theoretical models use the basic tenets of dream analysis in the same way: A person in therapy relates a dream to the therapist, discussion and processing follow, and new information is gleaned from the dream. After the process, the therapist can help the person apply the new information in a useful way. Although these similarities exist, each therapy model applies dream analysis in different ways.

Psychoanalysis

Psychoanalysis: In psychoanalytic theory, dreams represent wish fulfillment, unconscious desires, and conflicts. Dreams contain both manifest and latent content. Manifest content includes information from the dream as the dreamer remembers it. Latent content represents the repressed, symbolic meaning embedded within the dream. During dream analysis, the person in therapy shares the manifest content of the dream with the therapist. After specific symbols are pulled from the manifest content, the therapist utilizes free association to facilitate the exploration of repressed material.

Jungian analysis

Jungian analysis is similar to Freud’s psychoanalysis in that dreams are probed for unconscious material and symbols are explored for hidden meaning. However, in Jungian dream analysis, the dreamer is more crucial in unlocking the dream’s message. Additionally, dreams are seen as attempts to express and create rather than efforts to repress and disguise, as in Freud’s theory. Jungian dream analysis is based on Jung’s belief that unless the interpretation resonates with the dreamer, the interpretation is not helpful.

In addition to the free association method described above, the Jungian analysis also utilizes a technique called amplification. Amplification is based on the assumption that humanity shares a collective unconscious or a set of inherited universal experiences. In this technique, collectively agreed-upon associations are explored. For example, if the person in therapy dreams about a dog, the therapist will encourage the exploration and research of universally understood information about dogs (dogs are affectionate, man’s best friend, dogs in mythology, and so on).