History of Dreams

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History of Dreams
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Post # 1

The idea of dream interpretation is not new. It has been around for many, many years even back to 3000-4000 B.C., where dreams were documented on clay tablets. Dream interpretation has always been the process of giving meaning to dreams.Now with science many people view dream interpretation as "quackery", but the inate desire to understand our dreams remains. People feel their dreams have direct connections to their lives, and they DO! Why? Descartes once said, " I think, therefore I am ".

Humans are capable of thought and are aware of their individual existence. We all have a curiosity about our existence, why we are what we are, and what meanings lay in it. This has always been a reoccurring theme throughout history.


One of the first and most famous books on dreams and their meaning came from Artemidorus, who lived in Greece around 140 AD. He drew together older works (such as clay tablets, assurbanipal's dream books, etc) as well as included personal observations that he had formed through the older books that preceded him. He believed that dreams could be best interpreted through details of everyday life of an individual, which was an "out of the box" idea at the time since it was generally accepted that dreams were divine inspiration. Artemidorus writes: " I have not relied upon conjectures here, nor have I constructed a system of probabilities. My writing is based on personal experience. I myself have observed, in each occasion, how these dreams have come true ."


Aristole believed dreams were a result of physiological functions and that they could be used to cure or predict illness. The focus of dream interpretation shifted from interpretation to it's ability to heal. Asclepius, who was traditionally considered a Hero, became a Greek God of medicine and healing. He held a physician's staff with a snake wrapped around it. It still stands to this day as the symbol of the modern medical profession. As the popularity of Asclepius grew more and more priests used Asclepeions to cure the sick and to interpret dreams. Travelers would come and sleep overnight, called incubation, and report their dreams to a priest when they woke.


The Chinese believed that our souls left our bodies and went to a place seperate from our own. This notion was shared by early native american tribes and mexican civilications. Through dreams, they believed one could visit their ancestors. Chen Shiyuan wrote Lofty Principles of Dream Interpretation roughly in the sicteenth century. The purpose of some ideas was to question how one knew if they were dreaming of awake. A passage reads:" Once Chuang Chou dreamed that he was a butterfly. He fluttered about happily, quite pleased with the state that he was in, and knew nothing about Chuang Chou. Presently he awoke and found that he was very much Chuang Chou again. Now, did Chou dream that he was a butterfly or was the butterfly now dreaming that he was Chou ?"


The Middle Ages thought dreams were messages or temptations of the devil, and that by following these dreams one would be heading down a wrong path. But, alas, in the early 1900s came Freud who wrote his book: The Interpretation of Dreams. He attached great significane to dreams, proposing that they were ways to see into our unconcscious and that they were made up of infantile wishes, intense impulses and our need for love. Through him dreams became a scientific study." He claimed that formation of visual answer on stimulus (dream) is not coincidental. He figured out that some parts of manifest content typically correspond with certain latent content. Freud called these manifest elements symbols - to which he ascribed constant meaning ."

Freud proposed that dreams consisted of two parts: the manifest and latent content . Manifest content is thought of as what a person will remember when they wake. This is what a person describes when they recall a dream. He dismissed the manifest content saying that it could possess no meaning whatsoever because it was a hidden repersentation of thoughts that inspired the dream. To him, the latent content held the true meaning of a dream. It was a combination of forbidden thoughts and unconscious desires. They could manifest themselves into symbols, as mentioned above. " Dream Work " is the process by which this latent content is transformed into manifest content. He believed there were distortions, and they are as follows:

  • Condensation : one dream object stands for several associations and ideas
  • Displacement: a dream object's significance is separated from its real object or content and attached to an entirely different one.
  • Representation :thoughts are translated to visual images.
  • Symbolism: a symbol represents a person, action, or idea.

There were many more than just the exmaples I gave, for instance Jung:
" Ultimately Jung believed that by understanding how one's personal unconscious integrates with the collective unconscious, a person can achieve a state of individuation, or wholeness of self ." (Vered 1997) however, this post is quite long enough and I will most undoubtedly add more on the subject later. I hope it simply serves a purpose of informing those on how dream interpretations came to be what we know them as today.


Sources:

http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC1082223/
http://www.greekmedicine.net/mythology/asclepions.html
http://library.thinkquest.org/C005545/english/dream/freud.htm
http://library.thinkquest.org/C005545/english/dream/jung.htm

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Re: History of Dreams
By: / Knowledgeable
Post # 2
Good stuff. Your thoroughness leaves me somewhat ashamed of my own lack of quality research and citation when I post.
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Re: History of Dreams
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Post # 3

When I very first began to post things on this site, someone called me a plagerist and demanded I take my work off. To make things simple, and easier for others to understand I decided to be a thourough as possible-which might explain the length of each post. If someone doesn't like the way I worded my posts, or they wanted to read more into the information themselves- I provide acess to that. It's actually a form of passive-agressiveness.. which is sad. :)

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Re: History of Dreams
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Post # 4
I have been having continues dreams but i dont understand the meaning it like a story and its in the "heart castle" thats were my dream takes place,i dont know how its heart castle but it feels right, can anyone help?
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