| When you sleep, what do you dream of? Do you | | | | repression, reaction-formation, regression, displacement, |
| dream of enjoyable things like lounging in the beach? | | | | and rationalization. |
| Do you dream of being in a situation you've never | | | | Repression |
| even thought of? | | | | This is the most commonly manifested defense |
| What is psychoanalysis? | | | | mechanism among the ones mentioned above. It is |
| Psychoanalysis is a specific treatment wherein a | | | | the act of excluding desires and impulses from the |
| trained professional, or an analyst, listens to a patient's | | | | conscious mind and attempting to hold it in the |
| thoughts, then formulates and explains the unconscious | | | | subconscious. Repression is commonly associated |
| basis behind the person's behaviour or condition. In | | | | with traumatic or harsh event that happened in the |
| some cases, analysts ask about what the patient | | | | past. But it appears that trauma more often |
| dreamt about the previous night and interpret | | | | strengthens the memory due to heightened emotional |
| information based on those images. This treatment | | | | and/or physical sensations. |
| was founded the man who introduced the concept of | | | | Dreams |
| unconscious function - Dr. Sigmund Freud. | | | | Freud postulated that dreams were wish fulfillments. |
| Who is Sigmund Freud? | | | | That it provides a fantasy satisfaction of inner desires |
| Sigmund Freud was an Austrian neurologist and | | | | that have been pushed back to the unconscious. |
| psychologist who started the psychoanalytic school of | | | | Freud also said that the unconscious itself is timeless |
| psychology. He introduced the idea of the | | | | and does not mature. Even as the body and the |
| unconscious mind and its mechanism of repression. | | | | conscious mind age and mature, our unconscious |
| He also said that dreams are the window to a | | | | remains infantile, and demands immediate gratification |
| person's unconscious desires. | | | | of its desires. |
| The Unconscious Mind | | | | When you're asleep, your repressed desires and |
| Throughout the evolution of Freud's psychoanalytic | | | | impulses are relaxed. It doesn't, however, mean that |
| theories, he considered the unconscious mind as a | | | | your inner desires will appear directly in your dreams. |
| sentient force of will influenced by human drive and | | | | Freud said that these desires get filtered by a process |
| yet operating well below the perceptual conscious | | | | he calls "dream work". He believed there are four |
| mind. For Freud, the unconscious is the depository of | | | | kinds of dream work: |
| instinctual desires, needs, and psychic actions. While | | | | Condensation. Multiple thoughts merge into a single |
| past thoughts and memories may be deleted from | | | | symbol in the dream. |
| immediate consciousness, they direct the thoughts and | | | | Displacement. Inner desires manifest themselves as |
| feelings of the individual from the realm of the | | | | objects related to it. |
| unconscious. | | | | Symbolization. Ideas and/or impulses are turned into |
| Freud divided mind into the Ego, or the conscious mind, | | | | pictures. |
| and the two parts of the unconscious: the Id or | | | | Secondary revision. This is the rational gloss we put on |
| instincts and the Superego. The id is seen as the | | | | a dream, turning the dream into a manageable story |
| source of drives demanding immediate satisfaction, | | | | as we remember it. |
| and the superego as internalized parental and social | | | | Freud believed dream interpretation should concentrate |
| authority, the work of the ego being to mediate the | | | | on the underlying symbols in the dream, rather than the |
| resultant conflicting demands. He used the idea of | | | | story of the dream, which he believed to be just a |
| the unconscious in order to explain certain kinds of | | | | disguise. |
| neuroses. | | | | As what the late Sigmund Freud said, your dreams |
| Defense mechanism | | | | are an extension of your innermost desires and |
| Freud believed that people develop defense | | | | wishes. The next time you dream of something, |
| mechanisms to protect the conscious mind from | | | | check and see if it has any relevance to what you're |
| certain aspects of reality that it may have difficulty | | | | feeling. Your unconscious may already be telling you |
| accepting. Examples of defense mechanisms are: | | | | something. |