Therapies - Dream Analysis Flashcards
What is the psychodynamic therapy?
Dream analysis
What is the first component of dream analysis?
Dreams as wish fulfilment
Freud argues that our dreams are a way of fulfiling unconscious desires.
Dreams are a way of the id acting out its desires - these are acted out in an acceptable way
DA interprets dreams to uncover id desires that ,due to repression, could be causing mental illness.
What is the second component of Dream Analysis?
Dreams are symbolic in their nature
Our dreams represent something in our unconscious desires.
We have manifest content: what we recall from the dream (is symbolic) and latent content: unconscious desires/repressed traumas.
Ego defense mechamism- dreamwork disguises the latent content and turns it into manifest.
- Displacement= where the latent desire is detached and placed onto a totally different + unrelated object.
- Condensation= latent content is reduced into brief images, one image may have several meanings.
Freud says that the task of DA is to “unravel what the dreamwork has woven”.
What is the third component of Dream Analysis?
Dream Dairy
The client is asked to record their dreams (manifest content) in a diary by their bed.
The dream diary is then used by the therapist to start discussions in the therapy session.
What is the fourth component of Dream Analysis?
The therapist reverses the dreamwork and breaks down the dream into symbols. Then they use free association on each symbol:
- The client will talk freely about anything that comes into their mind for each symbol.
- This will begin to uncover repressed emotions/desires/traumas.
- The therapist will offer interpretations of their dreams and the client will choose the one that is most appropriate.
- The therapist can then help the client confront and deal with these issues.
How is Dream Analysis applied to the unconscious mind assumption?
Our mind expresses itself through dreams.
Dreams are “the royal road to the unconscious”
The threatening nature of unconscious thoughts are disguised in dreams - our ego is weak when we sleep.
The aim of DA is to decode the manifest content of a dream to reveal contents of the UM.
All mental illnesses come from the UM.
Dreamwork disguises the UM into dreams.
DA can establish the root cause of problems due to a repressed issue- it can expose and cure this problem.
How is Dream Analysis applied to the assumption of Influence of Childhood?
Traumatic experiences are repressed to the UM as they are too painful to deal with.
These childhood ordeals are still troubling and can resurface through dreams.
Dreams are used to try and work through traumatic past events (dreamwork changes latent into manifest content, DA changes it back into manifest)
How is Dream Analysis applied to the assumption Tripartite Personality?
The demands and desires of our id that are unacceptable are transferred to dreams (dreamwork).
The ego defenses are low when we are asleep so the id ‘comes to life’ during dreams, this is so our conscious mind is protected.
DA uncovers the drives of the id by analysing the manifest content of the dream.
What is one positive of effectiveness of Dream Analysis?
Evidence supports that our dreams are a result of the id.
- Solms used PET scans to identify regions of the brain active during dreaming. He found that using the rational part of the brain (id) is inactive, areas associated with memories and motivation (repressed memories/desires) are very active.
- Analysing the content of our dreams is an effective way to uncover repressed unconscious desires. By uncovering them we can deal with them and resolve the disorder.
What is another positive of effectiveness of Dream Analysis?
DA is effective in improving self-esteem and insight into their mind.
- Folk and Hill compared 22 seperated or divorcing women (22-57 yes) in 8 week dream interpretation group to 12 women in a control group in terms of changes in anxiety, depressed, coping, self-esteem and insight into their dreams.
- DA is effective at helping women adjust to life changes (e.g a divorce). However the study only includes women, can’t generalise to men, DA may not be effective for men.
What is a negative of the effectiveness of Dream Analysis?
DA is based on subjective interpretations of manifest content.
DA is based on the therapists own interpretations of the dream and the clients opinion in which interpretation best suits them. These are both subjective.
It is difficult to scientifically prove that these interpretations are correct therefore DA is not effective.
What is a positive ethical issue of Dream Analysis?
It gets to the root cause (aetiology) of the disorder.
DA works by uncovering repressed traumas/conflicts from childhood. By bringing them to the surface the client can confront and deal with them.
Therefore DA is more ethical than other therapies (e.g behavioural therapies only treat the symptoms) as the symptoms shouldn’t return.
- However, the client repressed those traumas as they were too harmful to deal with, therefore if these are brought to the surface it could cause the client psychological harm.
What is one negative ethical issue of Dream Analysis?
DA may cause psychological distress.
DA works by revealing repressed traumas and experiences from the clients childhood. The ego has deliberately repressed those traumas as they were too difficult to deal with.
This is unethical as it could cause the client stress and add to their mental illness.
- However, by bringing the underlying problem to the surface, the client can deal with them and cure their mental illness which has long- term benefits.
What is another negative ethical issue of Dream Analysis
There is a power imbalance between the therapist and client.
In DA the therapist provides all the interpretations of the dreams and insights into the UM, this means the client is reliant on them.
This could lead to the client becoming overly dependent on the therapist and unable to face their problems on their own.
What is the final ethical issue of Dream Analysis?
DA could potentially create false memories.
There are documented cases where therapists have led clients to falsely recall instances of abuse in their childhood.
False memory syndrome (FMS) can affect people’s identity, relationships and could lead to false accusations. Toon at Al suggest that some therapists encourage false memories so that there clients stay in therapy longer.
