Sleep And Dreams : Psychodynamic Approach Flashcards
What is the psychodynamic approach to sleep
- the psychodynamic approach to sleep is focused on dreams.
- dreams are NOT random stories , random images of random experiences. Dreams are meaningful and reflect the psychodynamic of the unconscious life of a person
How did Freud establish “psychoanalysis” in terms of interpreting dreams
- he said it psychoanalysis was a way to help people understand their own unconscious and anxieties
- he said dream analysis would help people reveal their unconscious wishes and desires - he felt dreams represented personal anxieties , personal desires and topics of unresolved conflict from childhood.
Sigmund Freud - what did he believe were the different parts of our mind
- the conscious mind - the ego- contains thoughts that we are aware of ,such as our rational beliefs about the world.
- the “id” is the part of our mind which is entirely unconscious , meaning the thoughts there are inaccessible - they affect our behaviour but we don’t known about them.
- the “superego” which is rational and is the part of our mind which represents morality
Our superego and id have ti be balanced by our ego
The conscious , precocious and unconscious
- talk of the preconscious
- there are some thoughts which may be conscious if we try for them- these are known as precocious thoughts
- the preconscious is an area of the mind on the border between the ego and the id.
- memories of our dreams are in the preconscious , meaning they are not easy to access but it is possible for us to do so
What did Freud propose our dreams were and what they consisted of
(Manifest and latent content)
- Freud viewed dreams as wish fulfilment. He suggested our unconscious mind sometimes displays images in our dreams.
Manifest content - is what the dream appears to be about (our dreams are hidden in manifest content to protect us from distress as our dreams represent our true desires )
Latent content - this is what the dream is really about according to the psychoanalytic approach
- What aspect of our personality to dreams demonstrate
- how can latent content be figured out / revealed
- dreams demonstrate the aspects of id thinking , which is illogical and lacks reality
- by analysing manifest content of dreams the hidden id impulses or latent content can be discovered
Summary of Freuds dream theory
- Freud said dreams a form of fulfilling repressed wishes / our deepest desires. He suggested our unconscious mind will display pictures of our dreams
- these dreams are portrayed through manifest content. This is what the dream actually looks like which protects us from anxieties and distress as these dreams represent our deep desires.
- The desires are disguised using defence mechanisms , such as symbolism- which protects the dreamer from anxiety. By analysing the manifest content , the latent content can be discovered which is the real meaning of our dreams.
- Freud proposed there aspects of our personality : Id, ego , superego. Our dreams represent Id thinking. This is because I’d lack’s reality and reflects dark desires
- our superego which represents rational and good thinking , and Id are both balanced by our ego.
Evidence / case study to support psychodynamic theory of dreams
- little Hans
- aim
- procedure
- brief case description findings
- analysis
Little Hans : analysis of a phobia in a five year old boy- Freud (1909)
Aim : - to understand Hans fear of horses and to treat it
- to monitor the development of a child during Oedipus complex
Procedure : as this was a case study , a range of information was collected in diffrent ways : he used info from Hans dad which came from letters. Freud also met Hans on one occasion and recorded comments Hans made.
Brief case description :
- Hans showed interest in his penis - and was told off for playing with it
- he had dreams about wiping childrens bottoms
- Hans father worked away and he wanted his father to stay away. And when he was away Hans was aloud to sleep with his mother
- Hans had a dream of giraffes - one was crumpled and Hans sat in it and another giraffe sat to one side , the giraffe had a long neck.
Analysis :
- Hans dreaming of wiping childrens bottoms was interpreted as pleasure at the anal stage
- Hans wanting his father to stay away and be alone with his mother was viewed as Hans wanting to posses his other which is part of the Oedipus complex
- giraffe dream was interpreted as a sex act with his mother
Evidence for freuds theories : Anna O.
- one of freuds clients was Anna O.
- Anna dreamt of killing a little white dog
- Freud would explain this as the white dog was displacement image for Anna’s sister in law who she hated
- the dog was a defence mechanism to protect Anna from the terrifying reality that she wanted her sister in law dead
The process of a therapist and client transforming manifest content into latent content is called..
Dream work
Evaluation : strengths and weaknesses
Strengths
+ gives one of the best explanations for the meaning of dreams and why we dream - and has moved the study of dreams forward (as previously people believed that dreams predicted the future) and had major cultural impact
Weaknesses
- there is no objective data of evidnce that really proves the theory
- freuds theories rely on individual cases and many case studies which are hard to generalise to other people
- this approach doesn’t explain nightmares
- it has never been established that there is an “id” the way Freud believes there to be
