Interpreting Dreams - A Psychoanalytic Approach

Choose ONE of the following two essays

1. A psychoanalytic interpretation of my dream

From the beginning of the year you should have kept a dream diary beside your bed. Every time you wake up from sleep you should attempt to remember any dreams that you might have had and then jot them down immediately in your dream diary. It is important that you jot them down immediately as dreams are quickly forgotten and placed back into the unconscious. By the time you come to write this essay you should have a store of dreams to choose from!

Introduction

As in any essay you do for Psychosocial Studies, you normally start with an introduction. The introduction should tell the reader what the essay is about, clearly outlining the general content.

Main body of the essay

1. This 1st  section is. Within this section you should describe Freud’s theories of dreams and how and why he set about analysing them. What important concepts did Freud use to develop his theory of dreams? (Don’t forget to include references).
2. The 2nd part of this main body is the  Manifest Content which is where you will describe the dream relating it to relevant academic sources and analyse it.
3. The3rd part of the main body is the Latent Content  where you should  analyse and interpret your dream, drawing out the. You should utilise some of Freud’s concepts; such as: condensation, displacement, the compulsion to repeat, and wish fulfilment etc (don’t forget to include references). This section should also relate the dream to relevant personal history and present circumstances.
4. Freud suggested that many dreams include material related to the present (that is, experiences which you have had the previous few days). More importantly, Freud suggested that dreams are related to early childhood experiences. Thus you may want to briefly discuss any experiences that you have had which may be related to the dream. In this section you may want to evaluate the use of psychoanalytic tools to interpret your dream. How do they help to obtain further insights into one’s psychological make up? (Don’t forget to include references).

Conclusion:

As all essays require an introduction, they also require a conclusion. Briefly summarise the essay and draw out the important points. 

2. Fighting with an Owl over berries in my Dream- The description of my dream

Dreamt that we were in a forest to search for berries that usually fell on the ground. Myself and my friends started looking for these berries and was picking them from under som leaves that have covered them up.

All of a sudden we saw this owl coming down and my other friends, I can’t remember how many were they, ran away as soon as they saw the owl and left a guy and myself at the back because we were at the end of the exit of the forest whilst they were close to it.

This owl came fighting my male friend over a big berry and the guy knocked the owl away. The owl came back furiously and clutched the guy from his clothes and flew away with him up the sky. And I began crying and screaming for help.

I started running towards the exit of the forest and I saw the owl chasing me. The owl tried several time to come prey on me and each time it comes, I will knock him off and he will fly away in the sky but will come back energized. He followed me in different places as I was trying to hide away and will try to cling me again and I will give it a very heavy punch hoping it will die but no he will suddenly surface again.

After unleashing a very serious punch on it, it flew away and disappeared for like 2 minutes and appeared again fighting with a fowl over some fruits. As I was walking in between blocks to go to my house which was similar to the military quarters I used to lived 25 years ago, I saw this same owl fighting this fowl and the moment I noticed it was the same owl, I flew straight into the roof of a building and hid myself.

The owl came again towards that roof and each time it comes I will know it off. The owl came like 3 times and I will continuously punched it away but on the fourth time when it came back, it flew and stop right at the place I was laying on top of the roof and we began to gaze at each other. As soon as a set another fist to punch it away, I now woke up. What a night it was.

In my dream there are key features and activities I will like to expound on critically to help me interpret the dream and these are:

• The berries
• The forest
• The owl
• The fowl
• The act of picking from the ground
• The act of pick fruits in a very deep forest
• The act of flying
• The act of being chased by an owl
• The fighting between the owl and the fowl
• Living in a place that I once lived 25 years ago
• Friends abandoning you living you in danger
• Loosing a friend by a mere bird.
• Hiding in the top of a roof
• Punching as my weapon.