Good old Freud According to Freud humans are constantly driven by animalistic urges such as our sex drive and hunger (Gazzaniga, Heatherton, & Halpern, 2015). The origin of these drives is the Id, inherent to all humans. The Id has a counterpart called the Superego, which is the mental manifestation of society in the form of values, morals and norms. These two are in a constant conflict of interest. In between these extremes we find the ego as some kind if mediator. The fierce dispute within is never ending. The Id craves for the satisfaction of our urges while the Superego reminds us of all the norms and rules our behavior might violate. How can we sleep, when the Id is constantly trying to get us to satisfy our deepest urges while the Superego is constantly telling us to stick to the rules? Freud proposes that dreams are wish fulfillment simulations, which distract the Id and therefore maintain the sleeping stage (Freud, 2009/1914). …show more content…
Some motivational urges are disturbing, which would cause arousal, which in turn would distract our good night’s sleep. Thus the Superego engages in a process similar to censorship. It disguises the actual urges (which are called latent content) as symbols and motifs (manifest content). Freud believed that this symbolism was of universal nature and furthermore that he could decipher the content back into its true meaning (Freud, 2009/1914). He also theorized about the phenomenon of dream amnesia. In his opinion the content of dreams is repressed from memory because the implications are too painful to bear. Indeed a study carried out by Köhler and Prinzleve (2007) supports this part of Freud’s theory. A group of 25 people recorded fragments of their dreams after waking up and after some time they were confronted with their own fragments as well as notes on other people’s dreams. Their own dreams elicited discomfort and negative