Dreaming is a phenomenon that every person on earth can relate to but so few understand. Because dreaming is so hard to study, the topic is drenched in mystery. Now the question becomes, can our dreams be predictors of a future event that will occur in our lives? Is dreaming a process of ridding our stresses and anxieties, or an extension of our waking thoughts that preoccupy us? Or is it simply a biological activity of our brains? Do dreams occur just to keep our brain function active, so that it doesn’t atrophy like rarely used muscles? Before we can make an informed decision regarding this debate, we need to understand both sides of the argument. There are two groups of major players involved in this debate. There are the believers, those who feel that dreams have a psychological meaning. The second group are the non believers, those who feel that dreaming is simply a …show more content…
He was one of the first to pursue the study of the psychological component of dreaming, where the large majority of his mainstream colleagues only considered the biological elements. Psychiatry at this time took no interest in the psychological components of mental health, but simply viewed behavior in terms of the anatomical structures of the brain (Harley). Freud proposed that dreams arise out of our inner conflicts … between unconscious desires and being unable to act on those desires. His focus was largely placed on sexual desires, and he felt that by dreaming we are discharging our tabooed sexual impulses. In other words we can’t act out our true desires because society doesn’t accept it, and it may be immoral or embarrasing. He believed that dreams occur because humans need to be secretive about our conflicts during our waking hours. Freud developed the term “wish fulfillment” to explain this (Mcleod). He felt that we are fulfilling what we wish for in real life, through dreaming. Next, we must discuss psychoanalyst Carl Jung