Dreams and their Importance in Psychoanalysis.

Dreams are an interesting subject that can be interpreted in a variety of ways. Dreams, according to Freud, are formed by an intrapsychic conflict caused by the Id's unconscious d's wants to strive to enter the conscious process and the Ego defending, when required, against the Iassail. d's Freudian psychoanalysts believe that dreams are a technique of working with difficulties from waking life that is too complex to rationalize through the cognitive process. Another important aspect of dreams is to "trick" the Id by "compromise formation" into feeling that its wishes have been realized, because imagery within dreams through the "Manifest" or "Latent" content may show the Id's desire, d's which may not be directly or easily achievable in waking life. This essay will look at the relevance of dreams in psychoanalytic theory, as well as what dreams can reveal to an analyst about a person's personality and how dreams can be utilized as a measuring tool in the progression of therapy.

Freudian psychoanalysts consider dreams and their interpretations to be an important element of therapy because they may symbolize conflicts that the mind is attempting to make sense of, which may coincide with the difficulties now being counseled by the analyst. Dream interpretations may reveal the entity bothering the client via Latent Content, which is the hidden meaning of a dream revealed by the psychoanalyst's interpretations. The interpretations are based on the Manifest Content symbols and analyst-led free association (Schwartz: Lecture, April 7, 2009). Free Association, according to Freud, is employed to transcribe the Latent Content by having the patient relate whatever images came to mind while reminiscing about a specific part or symbol of the dream. These interpretations may also help the practice of psychoanalysis and corroborate the advancement of analytic therapy, as mentioned later in this work. Dreams may also indicate particular personality or character qualities to the analyst due to a recurrent pattern within dreams, or the absence of certain patterns indicating more about the client, helping the therapist to better define the path of analysis.

Intrapsychic conflicts that occur from waking life and are not able to be explained by the Ego inside the conscious process may be dealt with or played out within dreams, which are timeless and can associate with random events. Natural impulses that are ordinarily suppressed may also manifest as dreams; wants to come from the unconscious Id that the Superego does not allow to express through to the conscious process that is allowed to be acted out in dreams.

The Id theory is founded on the "pleasure principle" (Freud, 1961), which encourages people to seek immediate enjoyment by any means necessary. The Id is made up of impulses and desires that have no regard for the future since enjoyment must be obtained now, regardless of whether harm will befall oneself or another person now or in the future. In contrast, the Superego serves as the moral process's representative of internalized parents and other authority figures.

A dream, according to the traditional psychoanalytic viewpoint, has two levels or components: the Manifest Content and the Latent Content. The Manifest Content of a dream, or the superficial veiled presentation, is frequently chaotic and lacks sense, even though the fact that this is what a person recalls and may convey to the analyst. The manifest content is a disadvantage because the client will usually have difficulties remembering the entire manifest text, let alone memorizing it correctly. The Latent content, on the other hand, is the true meaning of the dream, which may be difficult to transcribe because it is concealed and not present in the manifestation of the dream.