History of Dream Interpretation

History of Dream Interpretation. Introduction

Since early human history, there have been various interpretations of dreams and their significance. However, it is certain that dreams have always exerted a certain fascination and attraction on people, inspiring or motivating them.

Early cultures and antiquity

In early cultures, dreams were considered sacred. They were seen as a different reality, far removed from the waking state as well as from time and space. They were regarded as messages from the divine connecting the physical with the spiritual world. Thus, dreams were not separate from nature and everyday life; they were an integral, important part of life. People were convinced that dreams could guide them on the path of life by imparting wisdom, understanding, or healing, and could also mentally prepare them for impending events such as disaster or death.

Even in the cultures such as Aztecs, Maya, Egyptians, and Greeks, temple sleep was part of the ritual of initiation. Dreams were considered divine messages and revelations. Many priests and priestesses were experienced in dream interpretations of temple sleep. Those seeking advice in the temples were prepared for sleep through fasting, meditation, or cleansing rituals.

The church and the science

Although the Bible is strongly connected to dreams, the Church later forbade people from directly connecting with God through dreams without the intermediation of priests. In the middle ages dreams came to be regarded as the work of the devil.

The Enlightenment’s worldview which counts until today created a strong separation between spirit and matter. Only what could be proven by natural science was considered valid. Fantasy or imaginary worlds did not fit into this concept and were/is condemned as nonsense.

First in the end of the 19th century after the publication of Freud’s “The Interpretations of Dreams” psychologists and psychiatrists began to pay attention to dreams allowing them to gain insight into their otherwise hidden unconscious contents.

Read More About Dreams Interpretation:

• Introduction to Dreams Interpretation
• Dreams Interpretation in Psychotherapy
• Jungian Dreams Analysis

The Significance of Dreams for Indigenous Peoples

According to the author James H. Brennan, a study has shown that over 57 cultures of indigenous peoples and Native American tribes to this day associate dreams with the existence of a second body. This “second body” appears in various forms in people’s beliefs. For example, the African tribe of the Azande believes that humans possess two souls, one of which is called “Mbisimo.” This soul leaves the body during sleep to bring messages, knowledge, or healing powers.

In contrast, the Bacdiris from South America claim that a shadow separates from the body during sleep and goes on journeys. Similarly, the northern European cultures before Christianization peaple believed that the body goes on travels when falling asleep to bring wisdom from various spiritual realms.

The Australian Aborigines, have a very special relationship with dreams. They say they originate from the “Dreamtime” and were once one with it until a part of their personality had to leave this realm. For them, dreams are just as real as everyday life. Neglecting dreams means missing more than half of one’s life.

The aborigines say: “In dreams, the Great Spirit touches us. Without dreaming, there is nothing. The dream is the force that resides behind visible appearances and is considered the fundamental substance of material values” (quote from Jeanne Ruland, Dream and Reality, 2006).

Dream Interpretation in Mesopotamia, Egypt, and Greece

Over time, people continued to ponder the origins and exact meaning of dreams. In antiquity, their theories evolved into two main directions: the theological, which saw dreams as messages from the gods, and the scientific, which regarded dreams as natural sensory reactions.

Mesopotamia

The oldest document on dream interpretation, written in cuneiform, is the Epic of Gilgamesh from Mesopotamia. It tells the story of the hero Gilgamesh, who gains the ability to interpret the gods’ most secret intentions through his dreams.

Egypt

In Egypt, dreams and dream interpretation were considered a high science. Over 200 hieroglyphs have been found that record various dream symbols and interpretations, likely originating in the 2nd millennium BC. The Egyptians also believed they encountered gods in their dreams and acted as intermediaries between the earthly and the divine. They distinguished between good dreams sent by the sun god Horus and bad dreams sent by the god of the underworld, Seth. To this day, the Eye of Horus is a significant symbol representing the ability to dream and conscious dreaming.

In Egypt, dreams were also attributed with healing powers, used for medical and therapeutic purposes. High priests and priestesses, initiated into the arts of dream interpretation, interpreted the dreams of peaple seeking their help in temples dedicated to specific deities. They tried to develop a dream doctrine that distinguished true from false dreams and discovered a dream process later called by Sigmund Freud “reversal into the opposite”. In this process, the dream’s action takes on the exact opposite in reality; for example, if a sick person dreams of death, it can mean recovery in reality.

Greece

In ancient Greece, temple sleep was also practiced in temples dedicated to the god of healing, Asclepius. Priests induced a dreaming state in their patients through baths, herbs, incense, or offerings and interpreted their dream contents. Patients hoped to receive advice or even immediate healing from their dreams, often making pilgrimages for weeks to the temples in their last hope for recovery. The temples were open to everyone; no one was unwelcome or required to pay. Pure thoughts, mental preparation, and belief in success were crucial for a successful healing. Once the patient was attuned to the forthcoming events, they were led to the temple area of Abaton, the consecrated space, to prepare for temple sleep.

After falling into sleep or a trance-like state, they often encountered Asclepius, who appeared to them as a bearded, benevolent physician. The number of those healed was remarkably high, with many leaving the temple free of complaints.

Turning from Spiritual to Scientific Dream Interpretation

As early as the 4th century BC, the famous Greek physician Hippocrates made early insights into the function of dreams and used sleep and dreams diagnostically. He knew that healthy people often dream logically while sick people are more likely to be pursued by confused sensory states. Thus, he varied his treatment and tailored it to each individual.

The Greek philosopher, naturalist, and great thinker Aristotle also had his own theory of dreams. He saw them as a form of soul life, through which diseases could be perceived even before they broke out. With the Greeks, a rational and relatively modern understanding of dreams began to develop for the first time. They started to move away from the myth of the “voice of God”; they realized that dreams had natural foundations. However, there were various views on this theory: while Heraclitus claimed that dreams were influenced by memory, Democritus said that dreams were composed of everyday perceptions, and Plato emphasized that dreams were repressed everyday drives.

Artemidorus Book on Dreams

Artemidorus Ephesius lived in the 2nd century AD. He is known from an extant five-volume Greek work, the OneirocriticaIn (English: The Interpretation of Dreams). He used for his book a vast material of 3000 dreams he acquired during years of travel over Greece, and Greek colonies in Italy, and Asia. In these five volumes, Artemidorus summarized the theoretical and practical dream knowledge of antiquity about dream interpretation mentioning his forebears, sixteen of whom he specifically named. His book is obviously based on a rich textual legacy, now sadly lost.

Artemidorus hold the dream interpretation for “nothing else but the juxtaposition of similarities”. In his dreams interpretation he concentrated not only on the dream content but also on the secondary material considering the age, sex, and status of the dreamer. His book was highly valued and even esteemed by Sigmund Freud.

Artemidorus fundamentally distinguished between the ordinary dream and the dream vision. The ordinary dream is characterized by feelings and bodily states and is easy to interpret due to its open, unencrypted message. The dream vision, however, requires an interpretation of signs from an external source and conveys upcoming good or bad events. Artemidorus repeatedly emphasized that the interpretation of dreams required vast knowledge. The significance often emerged only from knowing of the individual’s personality, cultural background, and current life events.

Sigmund Freud and Dream Interpretation

In 1899 Sigmund Freud published his book “The Interpretation of Dreams” which he held for the most important achievement of his life. Freud’s view on dreams reflects his psychoanalytical theory in which he divided the psyche into the conscious (“Ego”), the unconscious (“Id”), and the moral complex called “Super-Ego.”

Freud claimed that while during the day the unconscious is kept in check by defence mechanisms exerted by the Super-Ego the suppressed contents appear prominently in sleep as for example forbidden fantasies. Freud assumed that if these repressed thoughts and desires did not manifest in dream motifs, the dream would be disturbed. Therefore, he repeatedly refers to the dreams as the “guardians of sleep.” According to Freud, the unconscious thoughts and desires not acceptable by the consciousness are repressed, so that the true messages of the dreams reach consciousness only in their “disguised” form.

The task of dream interpretation is to decode and understand these encrypted messages. It is especially important to recognize the hidden, latent content of the dream beneath the manifest dream.

The Dream Work

Freud pointed out that there are essential mechanisms to consider in dream work:

• Condensation: The dream is a concise condensation of much more extensive dream thoughts.
• Displacement: Important elements are presented in the dream rather inconspicuously and marginally, while unimportant ones are particularly emphasized.
• Symbolization: Disturbing contents are camouflaged is shape of symbolic images.

Therefore, when deciphering the dream, one should try to uncover the latent dream contents by considering these mechanisms. Therefore, the dream interpretation works exactly the opposite of dream work.

Dreams as Fulfilment of Sexual Desires

Freud believed that dreams are the fulfilment of repressed sexual drives. His theory of dreams is also shaped by the idea that external sensory influences and internal sensory stimuli mutually influence each other. Desires that were not fulfilled during the day appear in sleep as “day residues,” as Freud called them. These, however, are rather insignificant compared to repressed drives.

Freud called the energy that continually pushes for the fulfilment of sexual wishes and fantasies “libido,” which means “desire” in Greek. This energy is not lost if the urge is not satisfied. In some cases the libido energy can be transformed into socially accepted work, called by Freud “sublimation”. In other cases the stored libido energy can cause psychological ilnesses called at that time “neurosis”.

Today, Freud’s interpretation is viewed very skeptically because of his relatively one-sided view of the dream as an expression of repressed sexuality. Nevertheless, he and his theories brought humanity a significant step closer to modern dream analysis.

Dream Interpretation in Carl Jung’s Psychology

Just like Sigmund Freud, C. G. Jung devoted his life to understanding dreams as the true expression of the unconscious. For the creator of analytical psychology, dreams were an indispensable and significant element in psychoanalysis. However, Jung’s dream interpretation significantly differs from Freud’s. Although Jung was once Freud’s closest colaborater and fiend, he later became one of the biggest challengers of Freud’s teachings. However, they both agreed on one point: they saw dreams as an expression of the unconscious.

For Jung, libido and sexuality could not be the only causes of dream phenomena. He also considered Freud’s idea of “wish fulfillment” to be misguided. Moreover, he found the separation between latent and manifest dreams both impossible and unnecessary. According to Jung, there are compensatory, archetypal, precognitive, and recurring dreams operating on personal or subjective level.

Compensatory Dreams

He saw a compensatory function in many dreams, which established psychological balance. He claimed that our consciousness is limited during the waking state and that this state is only resolved during sleep, allowing the unconscious to realize what consciousness has repressed. Thus, the dream often confronts the individual with neglected aspects of themselves. For example, a lively and excitable person might act calmly in their dream, while a shy person might dream of bold actions and experiences. For Jung, dream compensation served the wholeness of our psyche, showing a path that lies in the middle between consciousness and the unconscious.

Jung also placed great emphasis on dream symbolism and divided dreams into three different levels: the objective, subjective, and archetypal levels.

Objective Dream Level

The objective dreams reflect daily experiences, with relationships often at the center, and all elements can be understood as the dream presents them.

Subjective Dream Level

represent the dreamer’s personality, with dream elements symbolizing personality traits.

The difficulty in interpreting symbols lies in the fact that all dream symbols can often be interpreted from different perspectives. For example, the dream image of a teacher can be interpreted on the objective level concerning the relationship with that teacher and what it means for one’s own life. On the subjective level, however, depending on whether the teacher is strict or kind, it could refer to the authoritative or benevolent aspects of one’s personality.

Archetypal Dreams

Dreams also concern universally human, so-called transpersonal elements, which constitute the archetypal level. This level is also known as the “collective unconscious.” According to Jung, everyone encounters the million-year-old “Self” in their dreams, which corresponds to Jung’s “collective unconscious.” The “collective unconscious” is endowed with the wisdom of our species and includes well-tested reaction patterns to solve difficult, dangerous, or life-threatening situations. These include primal human experiences such as birth and death or masculinity and femininity.

In his therapies, Jung placed great importance on Freud’s technique of association—the free expressions and ideas of patients regarding their own dream images—which he applied in a somewhat modified form.

Recurring Dreams

During his therapies, Jung noticed different types of dreams, such as recurring dreams. He explained this phenomenon as a recurring psychological situation that the patient’s unconscious tries to resolve. Jung believed that recurring dreams contain both the problem and the solution approach, making them very important to him.

Precognitive Dreams

Jung also recognized so-called precognitive dreams, which are dreams whose situations and events later come true in one form or another. Although Jung observed many such dreams in his patients, he was never able to scientifically prove them which is methodologically impossible as such dreams appear not frequently and they are not suitable subject to be approached statistically. The concept of precognition or intuition resonates Jung’s understanding of human psyche as not related to time and space.

Jung was convinced that the precognitive dreams can paint future scenarios serving as a warning signal for the dreamer, prompting him to change his plans to avoid future problems.

Jung understood dreams as an inner drama, comparing its structure to that of a play written by the unconscious on the objective level, where the dreamer is the director and actor on the subjective level.

Overall, C.G. Jung‘s dream concept is more widely accepted today than Freud’s. Although there are still critics who doubt Jung’s dream theories, the metaphor and symbol language, as well as the objective and subjective levels, are recognized and incorporated into modern therapy forms. However, Jungian psychology understanding the psyche as not time and space related is still treated as non-scientific by the established psychology based on causality and liner time concept.

Dream Psychology: Sigmund Freud vs. C.G. Jung

Sigmund Freud’s Dream Psychology

• Nature of Dreams:
  • Dreams are the expression and fulfillment of repressed sexual desires within the unconscious.
• Dream Structure:
  • There is a distinction between the manifest and latent content of dreams.
  • The “censor” disguises repressed, latent drives into manifest dream images, making them unrecognizable to the dreamer.
  • To understand the messages of the dream, these must be decoded.
• Function of Dreams:
  • In dreams, we partially live out our repressed desires; if we did not dream, there would be an intensification of neurotic conflicts during the day.

C.G. Jung’s Dream Psychology

• Nature of Dreams:
  • Dreams contain important messages about the dreamer, confronting them with the unlived side of their personality or burdensome problems.
  • Dreams have a compensatory function.
• Dream Structure:
  • The dream contains the symbolic representation of an unconscious content that is not deliberately concealed and therefore not difficult to decipher.
• Function of Dreams:
  • For our mental life, it is important to integrate the messages conveyed by the dream into our conscious experience, even if this initially a concious resistence.

Dreams in Light of Modern Research

In 1953, a sleep researcher Nathaniel Kleitman, along with his research team in Chicago, discovered the so-called REM sleep (REM = Rapid Eye Movement).

The Nature of REM Sleep

Initially, it was theorized that humans only dream during REM phases, but this has been disproven in recent years. We dream throughout the night, but the most intense dreams occur during REM sleep. During these dream phases, eye movements are particularly strong. Pulse and respiratory rates are elevated and irregular, and brain activity is higher than in the waking state. The skeletal muscles are limp, and the body is in a state of paralysis that prevents movements in the dream from being carried out in reality. Only the eye movements are controlled by special nerve fibers. The dreamer’s facial expressions change depending on the “dream situation,” and those awakened during a REM phase have particularly good memories of their dreams.

Our sleep is interspersed with several REM phases of varying durations. The first REM phase of a sleep cycle lasts about 10 minutes, the second can last twice as long, and by morning, dream phases can last up to an hour. The time spent on an action in a dream roughly corresponds to the actual elapsed time. A dream that spans several years uses a sort of “editing technique” similar to a film.

PET Scan Research

Using a PET scanner (positron emission tomography), researchers were able to determine how brain activity during dreaming differs from that in the waking state and which activities influence the dream. They found that during dreams, certain centers of the middle cerebral cortex operate separately from sensory inputs and regions of higher mental activity. During the REM sleep the higher processing centers such as the primary visual cortex and others responsible for conscious planning and logical thinking, are inhibited. Their inactivity also explains why during the sleep we accept as true the often nonsensical dream events, which we would find completely absurd in reality. The frontal lobe, which is crucial for short-term memory, also shuts down during dreaming. This is why we often cannot remember our dreams after waking.

In contrast, the pathways from the extrastriate cortex to the limbic system, which lies within and below the cerebral cortex responsible for generating emotions, are active during dreaming. This is why we can experience feelings during dreams.

These findings have led scientists to conclude that dreaming must be a self-organized brain state. But what is the ultimate purpose of this state for humans? Many researchers are still grappling with this question, though they generally agree on one point: dreams are not random phenomena. They are crucial for our health and mental well-being.

The Scope of Dreams

The significance of dreams has always been a fascinating question for humanity, with answers evolving over millennia: messages from the gods, visions of the future, images of the unconscious, reflections of inner psychological processes, and feelings and thoughts. Therefore, there cannot be a fixed meaning for dreams. What is certain is that there are many parallels between waking and dreaming consciousness, and dreams are as varied as our waking lives. The dream is not, as long assumed, an elusive unconscious contrast to consciousness. On the contrary, one can often learn a great deal about oneself from dreams. Thus, dream content is of great psychological importance for neurophysiology, albeit challenging to grasp.

The scientists are still debating the exact significance of dreams for our body and mind. Some theories suggest that dreams serve to process what has been learned during the day, with the brain mixing old and new information and storing it in long-term memory. Other researchers view dreams as a way to solve personal problems or overcome anxiety situations. Some see the dream process as inspiration or preparation for specific situations.

The Source of Dream Content

Another question is, where do dreams draw their content from? Today, psychological dream research identifies seven possible sources: external stimuli, specific life situations, daily impressions or residues, memories, personal aspects, clairvoyant aspects, and archetypal aspects. Daily impressions, influenced by factors such as gender, intelligence, creativity, and lifestyle, play the most significant role in dreams. A survey found that nearly every second person relives a real event from the previous day in their dreams. The most important sources of dreams are elements accessible in the waking state and recently remembered. Thus, waking and dreaming are closely related. Events from the distant past are rarely included in dreams, and external stimuli have less influence on dreams. Particularly impressive to scientists are predictive and archetypal dreams, though these occur extremely rarely.

The Subjective Nature in Dream Interpretation

The dream interpretation methods of the two great dream analysts of the past, Sigmund Freud and C.G. Jung, are viewed ambivalently today. Although many supporters of their dream theses exist, they also received criticism and doubt from many researchers. The main problem, in their eyes, lies in the interpretation itself, which is why the term “dream work” is now preferred over “dream interpretation.”

A study by New York psychoanalyst Edward Zane illustrates the issue, in which he asked five of his colleagues to interpret the same dream independently. The dream involved the dreamer discovering a plate-sized bald spot on the back of their head, which grew larger each day, eventually waking up in a panic.

The first colleague interpreted the dream as an indication of the dreamer’s problematic childhood experience with their father. The second saw the dream as an expression of anxiety about defending against attacks on their personality. The third analyst saw it as a problem with handling the dreamer’s homosexual impulses, while the last two interpreted it as a sign of an identity crisis or dealing with anger.

This example shows how different dream interpretations can be, as the interpretation is heavily influenced by subjective assumptions, interpretation, and personal factors. The dream is multifaceted and consists of several elements forming a unity. Subjective perception is difficult to avoid in interpretation, leading each interpreter to weight factors differently.