What Your Dreams Mean - Introduction Part 2
Writing by Joi on Monday, 5 of May , 2008 at 2:29 pm
What do we dream about?
In waking life, one can think of anything or almost anything under the sun, and the same is certainly true of dreams and dream activity, which are not subject to any of the restrictions that are familiar to us in the objective world. Dreams may be as ordinary, as common, as plain as are our daily lives or they may be strange, fantastic, or impossible. Perhaps one should say that impossibility does not exist in and has no meaning for dreams.
They may be sad or happy, beautiful or ugly, trivial or significant, noble or sordid. They may deal with anything from a to z , and they do. One may dream of things as prosaic and unexciting as the simple acts that we automatically perform every day of our lives, such as dressing, undressing, shaving, eating, or walking, or one may dream of being engaged in dangerous, thrilling, romantic adventures with strange peoples in strange lands, or with inhabitants of other worlds than ours. One can dream of doing things that one may or may not be able to accomplish in actual life.
Is there a best time to dream?
Are dreams realized; do they come true? Is there a "good time" for dreaming that favors the hopes of the dreamer? "Yes" seems to be the answer of poets and singers, and "no" the answer of the scientific student. "After midnight, dreams come true," writes the delightful Horace, in his Satires , and "those dreams are true which we chance to have in the morning," says the amorous poet, Ovid, in his Epistles . This idea is repeated in almost the same words by many poets and dramatists, both major and minor.
Freud and the Interpretation of Dreams.
The modern and scientific study of dreams and their psychological interpretation is associated with the name of the Austrian physician, Sigmund Freud (1856-1939), the founder and father of psychoanalysis . Early in his work, Freud became impressed by the conflict between the conscious and the unconscious in the mind of the individual. The conscious part of the mind acts or tries to act - it is not always the easiest thing in the world - in such a way as to meet the approved standards of polite, refined, "civilized" society. The unconscious part is struggling to find an outlet, some outlet, for tendencies - natural, but not civilized - that must be, because of social pressures and our bringing up, either entirely repressed, partially controlled, or hidden, or disguised. Denied satisfaction, these tendencies or desires, take refuge in the unconscious part of the mind, and are, or are supposed to be, "forgotten." According to Freud’s theory, these repressed desires often express themselves in dreams.
General Remarks.
Using this dream book, the reader should keep the following points in mind:
Several dreams may have the same interpretation. It will also be noticed that interpretations may supplement or complement each other, and it is even possible that interpretations may appear to be contradictory.
Most dreams tend to concern themselves with the fundamentals of life and with the considerations that occupy our conscious daytime thoughts, although occasionally they are fantastic or bizarre.
It will be noticed that many dreams are regarded as signs of good luck or bad, as pleasant or unpleasant, as fortunate or unfortunate. The dreamer will be happy at the pleasing dreams, but he need not worry over-much at the bad ones, in view of the rule that dreams often go by contaries.
The interpretations given in the pages that follow are not intended to exclude the dreamer’s own interpretation of his dream. There are countless details and fringes of the dream which are known to the dreamer and to the dreamer alone, and these may add to or modify the interpretation here presented. However, the interpretations given in this book follow the historical and traditional explanations of the subject-matter of individual dreams, and in most instances will be as complete as the reader is likely to desire.
For the reader’s convenience, the subjects most often encountered in dreams are presented in this book in alphabetical order. Each topic or situation found in dreams is listed in its alphabetical place, accompanied by its interpretation. The key word chosen for listing is, of course, not the only word which would describe the particular dream subject matter, and the reader should therefore turn to other words of similar meaning, if he does not find an entry corresponding to the key word which he happens to look up first.
Category: ANCIENT DREAM GUIDE
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