Like any other psychic phenomenon, the dream
may have several definitions.
Freud's conclusions ended in limiting the
sole function of the dream as wish-fulfilment.
It grants us chance to experience repressed
sexual desires & lustful thoughts that couldn't
be overtly expressed during daytime.
For Freud, all dreams are alike, I.E. of a
sexual nature.
Carl Jung & his collaborator Alphonse Maeder
argued Freud's somewhat narrow view emphasizing
that the purpose of dreams is much greater
than just mere wish-fulfilment, and that every
dream is unique in terms of content & context.
They defined the dream as a means of communication;
a symbolic language the unconscious uses to
express its actual psychic state.
We're currently still in the dark about the
aspects of the unconscious mind.
But, the dream, being its native language,
so to speak, serves as a stepping stone for
its investigation.
In further contrast with Freud's viewpoints,
subsequent research by Maeder proved that
sexual dreams may convey a hidden meaning
irrelevent to the superficial meaning of the
displayed erotic imagery.
A symbol is any thing that alludes to something
else.
And If every element in the dream is symbolic,
then for Maeder, it is implausible to take
the sexual language of dreams literally in
all cases.
The dream is an irrational, involuntary psychic
component.
The polar opposite of rational thinking wich
is obedient to free-will.
Illogical, silly, absurd & sometimes immoral.
These are the bad qualities that distinguish
dreams from other conscious processes, and
wich incite most people to judge dreams as
meaningless.
But, lack of logic in something doesn't mean
that that thing has no value.
We're able to remember dreams because eventhough
they reside in the unconscious, their nature
is conscious enough causing them to be fairly
memorable.
Nonetheless, we can recall only so many of
them.
This has to do with the characteristics of
their composition.
A dream comprises symbolic images intertwined
often in an unthinkable, fantastic fashion.
You might be riding a dragon in one moment,
and at the next find yourself in the kitchen,
having dinner with a fish.
This uncanny connectedness is way far from
resembling the neatly arranged sequence of
ideas we experience in our waking hours.
We spend most of our lifetime engaging in
conscious logical reasoning.
Our default & most familiar mode of operating
is consciousness.
The psyche is not used to undergo such distorted
visions only occasionally in dreams.
This is why most of them are easily forgotten.
If the dream is a psychic component, then
nothing disproves that it can obey the same
laws as other psychic processes, e.g. thinking,
feeling & perception.
According to jung, every psychic structure
could be regarded from two standpoints, that
of causality & finality.
Regarded from the standpoint of finality,
every psychic process has a unique purpose,
The dream included as well as every single
image it contains.
From the causal standpoint, a psychic process
cannot manifest autonomously, it must have
a cause.
For instance, if there is nothing to ponder
over, there is no need for thinking.
The same applies to dreams.
They are the product of a cause.
If we are to examine the contents of a dream,
we may notice that sometimes, its characters
are people you frequent in real-life.
The context as well may revolve around either
past or current events.
Drawing on this regard, conscious experiences
might turn out to be one of the main causes
of dreams.
And If this speculation holds true along with
the views of freud, then any dream is in origin
a combination of conscious contents(I.E.
Real-life occurences, thoughts, emotions,
etc) that for some reason got repressed, distorted
& stored in the confines of the unconscious,
to reappear then once again on the surface
of consciousness.
Only this time, in a coded symbolical form,
the dream.
later We're going dive deeper into the reasons
behind this repression,
From here we may conclude that dreams, no
matter how absurd they seem to be, are strictly
connected to concrete reality.
All images perceived in dreams are far from
random.
Beholding people you know in real-life inside
your dream is far from concidence.
Each dream-symbol is associated with a conscious
experience.
Therefore, to grasp the core meaning of a
dream, you must trace back every single dream-image
to its real-life association.
An inexperienced person might be able to figure
this out alone.
However, the best results of dream-interpretation
often involve two people.
The dreamer and a specialist.
Let's take a look at a basic example:
You might've seen a wooden chair in your dream.
This object is self-evident, we see chairs
all the time.
To the laymen, They have no special significance
other than comfort-provision.
But, a chair you see in your dream holds a
hidden meaning because remember, every deam-object
is a symbol.
And because dreams are of a subjective nature.
Only the dreamer can tell the allusion behind
that symbol.
The specialist questions about it & say, your
response was:"I remember having seen this
chair before.
It is the one my dog had slept on all day
long the day he died of fever."
Bingo! you see, now the obvious chair acquired
a more profound meaning.
The first step of dream-analysis is recollecting
all real-life experiences associated with
each & every dream-object or scene.
THSES objectS might retain a thousand meanings,
this is why a precise recollection by the
dreamer is crusial in figuring out the right
one.
The second step, we'll talk about it later
because it varies depending on the dream type.
Explaining a dream is like deciphering a hieroglyph
of an ancient civilization.
Although it's quite achievable on your own,
I'm only sharing this as theoratical knowledge
for those interested in knowing more about
dreams & the unconscious.
A practised psychologist or better, a deam-analyst
is the one to go for if you want to interpret
dreams effectively.
in medical psychology, normal treatment methods
sometimes turn out unsuccessful.
In these cases, the dreams of the patient
may compensate.
As cited in this book, If the patient is to
grasp even the slightest meaning of one of
his dreams, this can contribute a dramatic
improvement to his mental health.
At times, dream-interpretation can reveal
hidden aspects about the patient's personality
& is henceforth strengthened & empowered.
These benefits may as well pertain for the
mentally healthy.
Oftentimes the things that we underrate the
most are the ones of utmost significance.
Carl jung emphasizes the equivalent value
of the unconscious to consciousness.
It's as vital to pay equal attention to what's
happening in the unconscious in order to sustain
psychic balance.
While going through the book, I was able to
identify five major types of dreams.
There could be more but these are the main
ones I found.
In addition, Jung ascribed these dream-types
as functions of the unconscious.
Carl jung once received a patient who claimed
he had no mental illness whatsoever, that
he wasn't here for treatment but for he was
merely curious about his psychogical theories.
Jung questioned if he hadn't had any dreams
lately.
The patient noded & said he did have the following
dream the night before consulting Dr,jung:
quote�I was in a bare room.
A sort of nurse received me, and wanted me
to sit at a table on which stood a bottle
of fermented milk, which I was supposed to
drink.
I wanted to go to Dr. Jung, but the nurse
told me that I was in a hospital and that
Dr. Jung had no time to receive me.�unquote
Based on his recollection, the patient then
proceeded by associating every dream-element
with its real-life association.
Bare room: He said, this room reminded him
of a hospital reception room.
The nurse: She was cross-eyed, he said, and
looked like a fortune-teller he had once visited
in real-life.
Bottle of fermented milk: This object reminded
him of his wife who drinks fermented milk
on a regular basis.
He hates it though.
He often makes fun of her because she's too
concerned about eating healthy.
The patient hesitated for a second then added:
"I remember once having had neurosis & had
to be put in a sanatorium.
And there I was obliged to drink fermented
milk."
Doctor jung then questioned if the patient
is still suffering from neurosis at the moment.
After a fair pause of reluctancy, he had finally
spoken the truth.
He admitted that his nerves were still in
poor condition.
Lately, His wife had been nagging him to consult
doctor jung yet he didn't feel like it.
He was rejecting the fact that he's ill.
But the dream, the dream-context had forced
him to spit the truth as he was not allowed
to go anywhere until he's to drink fermented
milk.
This dream-object in particular summarizes
the whole thing.
It signifies the bitter truth he's been distancing
himself from for so long, that he had to swallow
in order to get ahead.
Plus, the milk could symbolize his wife who's
very careful about her health.
Basically, every dream-image was placed deliberately
by the unconscious, unified towards a sole
purpose, to thrust the dreamer towards acknowdledging
his current condition.
This is the compensatory function of the unconscious
in action.
The compensatory dream exposes all thoughts,
inclinations & tendencies wich in conscious
life are too little valued, repressed, disregarded
or were too feeble to reach consciousness.
In this case, the repressed conscious content
is quote on quote "the rejected truth".
The patient had an actual mental illness that
he couldn't concede.
He didn't want to be treated or perceived
as a patient.
This is why he told Jung that he was consulting
him merely to inquire about his psychological
insights.
At last, the dream had exposed his disregarded
self-deception & hence improved his attitude.
Whenever you develop a self-destructive habit,
the prospect of compensatory dreams inscreases.
Compensation is triggered if the dreamer has
recently developped an attitude that would
threaten his vital needs as an individual,
something that he's convinced is wrong yet
overlooked.
In the latter case, the patient neglected
a crucial element in his life, i.e. his health.
In essence, any time there is a shortfall
on a personal level, the unconscious will
discern it and remind you thereof.
As a precept concerning this type of dream,
its context will always be in contradiction
with the conscious situation a.k.a. the dreamer's
attitude.
Much like in our previous case, the conscious
situation is of a self-deceiving patient.
In contrast, the compensation transmuted his
lies into truthfulness.
Or for instance someone who's very pessimistic
might dream himself to be quite positive.
An obeze person who's been turning a blind
eye on his compulsive overeating might envision
himself forced into working out.
However, this is not the case in all compensatory
dreams.
Sometimes, a negative person might experience
even more darker dreams.
This has to do with his nature as an individual.
He could be a person who gets motivated only
if you scare him into doing something.
The dream will then speak to him in the same
way, a manner that holds true to his personalily.
The general rule here, compensation will exaggerate
the conscious attitude either by converting
the right thing to do to its opposite or vice
versa.
Remember though it seems straightforward at
times, the dream doesn't exhibit its message
overtly.
Coded symbolism is the only language it can
express.
In agreement with Jung's viewpoint, Freud
too asbribes a compensatory role to dreams.
He discovered how dreams display certain sleep-depriving
stimuli in an ironic fashion.
Obviously coffee is not the best thing to
go for before sleep.
The dream however, distorts its meaning ascribing
it the opposite effect.
Put Plainly, in the dream coffee encourages
sleep.
Decoded symbolically, it's telling the dreamer
to stop consuming coffee before going to bed.
In this regard, Freud assumes that compensation
here is working as a sleep-preservation mechanism,
seeing that sleep is one of our vital needs.
Synopsis: The compensatory function of the
unconscious is an expression of the self-regulation
of the psyche.
Much like our immune system reacts to injuries
or infections, so compensation reacts to external
disturbances(e.g. self-harming habits)
It gets triggered when certain conscious situations
have constellated subliminal contents in the
unconscious.
The latter could be repressed Thoughts, feelings,
ideas & especially unbalanced personality
aspects that were overlooked wich, in turn,
emerge spontaneously yet symbolically inside
your compensatory dream.
Compensation contributes the missing elements
to the conscious situation.
The coded meaning of such dream often points
out a character-aspect out of balance.
The dream-context revolves around converting
this imbalance into silly images in total
contrast with the conscious situation.
For example, someone who's recently suffering
from persistant suicidal thoughts might dream
of the day of his birth.
Here, the vision might convey that it's never
too late to start a new life or to continue
living.
If a compensatory dream is analyzed correctly,
it can show the patient how to reorient his
attitude on the right track.
This is why dream-analysis is of crusial importance
in therapy.
At last, Whenever imbalance occurs in your
attitude or personal needs(be it on a psychic,
spiritual or physiological level), the unconscious
will compensate.
As a side note, eventhough there are different
types of dreams, all of them are of a compensatory
nature.
Nonethless, though compensation is their basis,
it is not always as easily discernible as
we've seen in the previous examples.
Some dreams are extremely difficult to analyze,
others are close to impossible.
Even the author emphasizes that his theories
of compensation & the like are not written
in stone.
The dream is hitherto an extraodinary & complicated
of a phenomena, much like consciousness.
It would be preposterous to restrict its explanation
to one or two distinct standpoints.
I hope this video gave you insight into the
value of a topic wich is often conceived more
as hypothetical none-sense.
The other types of dreams, we will see in
subsequent videos.
I appreciate your attention.
Thanks for watching, until next time.
