Freuds framework of dreams
Freuds framework of dreamsFreud's Framework of Dreams
The purpose of dreams is to sleep. Dreams also represent wish fulfillment. A dream is the result of a mediation or compromise between these two opposing forces. Freud defines the manifest content of dreams as that which an individual is dreaming in a particular dream, its primarily apparent subject matter. In contradistinction to manifest dreams Freud differentiates latent dream content, the elements composing the true purpose or meaning of a dream. Through dream analysis one can unravel the manifest dream content in order to arrive at the dream's meaning, which is embodied in the latent dream content, and is termed as the dream-thought.
Dream-thoughts are contained within the latent dream, and represent the true wishes and anxieties of an individual. But the true meaning of a dream, its dream-thought, cannot be known merely by examining the manifest dream content. There exists a filter, Freud argues, a mechanism that alters the dream's meaning so that it appears in consciousness as a disguised wish, a distorted impulse. This intervening mechanism Freud called the dream-work.
The dream-work is continuously at work during an individual's sleep process. It is constantly preventing unconscious wishes, anxieties and impulses from infiltrating consciousness, or only permitting them to appear in the manifest dream in a distorted form. It follows from this that these latent wishes are unacceptable to consciousness, since they would challenge the individuals consciously-avowed sensibilities (customary, moral or otherwise) to the point that they would threaten the very purpose of the dream, namely the preservation of sleep....
To view the complete essay, you be registered.