Question: do you interpret dreams from a psychodynamic perspective?

Jack barton answered on 14 Jun 2017:

I do have my copy of Freud’s ‘The Interpretation of Dreams’ suitably worn from reading on my bookshelf but I don’t do much dream interpretation myself. It can be fun to apply a psychodynamic explanation for dreams which friends are keen for me to deconstruct for them but this depends on how cheeky I am feeling at the time. I’m not entirely sure of the value of interpreting dreams in a psychodynamic manner, or any for that matter.

We are still not sure why we dream and there are a number of explanations which try to shed some light on this strange experience. One theory posits that dreams are essentially meaningless – that they are nothing more than the discharge of brain cells while we sleep and as the brain tunes itself for the following day. If dreams were so important for our waking lives why do we forget such a large proportion of them? A conflicting view is that dreaming may provide us some advantage to memory – e.g. if we dream about something we are more likely to remember it. Alternatively, dreams might provide a safe space to experience threats and become more effective in dealing with them. This would explain why threatening dreams such as being faced with an exam we haven’t prepared for or being chased are common across many people.