dream analysis

• step 1 of dream analysis - The dreamer recalls their dream to the therapist. What the dreamer remembers (the story of the dream) is referred to as the manifest content.
• step 2 The process of dreamwork is applied to understand the dream. Dreamwork is when the latent content (underlying meaning of the dream) is transferred to the manifest content
• Step 3 There are five main processes in dreamwork, condensation, displacement, representation, symbolism and secondary elaboration
• condensation - this is the idea that many elements that make up the latent content of the dream are represented in the dream by just one image/picture. The information is therefore condensed.
• Displacement: Freud noted that significant features of the latent content were sometimes represented as seemingly insignificant features of the manifest content.

  This means that what the dream seems to be about is very different to the meaning.

  Therefore, the emotion linked with one idea or experience is detached from it and attached to another, so the dream content isn’t censored.
• Representation: this is the idea that an abstract thought is represented by a visual image. When we describe our dreams, we use words to describe the images.
• Symbolism: any significant features of the dream may be replaced by a symbol, for example, a sword representing a penis.
• Secondary elaboration: this process occurs by the unconscious collecting all the images within the dream and fitting them together in to make sense of the dream, giving it a logical story but by doing this it further disguises the latent content.
• Step 4- The therapist reverses the dreamwork process to uncover the underlying meaning of the dream,

  (decoding the manifest content back to the latent content)

  It is important that the therapist considers the context of the client’s life when offering interpretations and more than one interpretation should be offered allowing the client to select the one that makes the most sense to them.
• dream analysis is based off of the assumption the unconcious mind

  Its aim is to make the unconscious conscious, so that people become aware of unconscious influences.

  Dream analysis is thought to be the ‘via regia’ (the royal road) to the unconscious mind.
• The main purpose of dream analysis is to increase self awareness and insight into oneself
• Dream analysis can also be used to treat psychological disorders such as anxiety and depression
• Freud believed that dreams are the key to understanding human behaviour because they reveal the true desires and fears of the individual