The function of dreams: from Freud to modern neuroscience

Dreams and Learning

What are dreams? Why do people dream? Do dreams serve a purpose, or are they simply a way for the brain to excise extra information; a way for the mind to process information overload? Can dreams provide insight into future endeavors, future events, or are they simply the collection of images, emotions, thoughts, and fears? These questions have been pondered, to varying degrees, for thousands of years. However, only recently have dreams been tested empirically and even more recently still have dreams been subjected to a critical scientific method.

Yet, with all of the study and interest in dreams and in the purposes of sleep in general, there seems to be little consensus among scholars and dream researchers. While Sigmund Freud studied dreams and found them to be a way for the brain to release the hidden desires we repress during waking hours, research suggest that there may be a utilitarian function of dreams; that dreams actually provide a mechanism for learning. This paper will review scholarly research pertaining to the function of dreams and provide a synthesis of this scientific research in an effort to determine the nature of dreams.

Early dream interpretations and Freudian analysis

Hall (1991) writes that dreams were first recorded from various artifacts and materials that appeared in Mesopotamia some 5000 years ago. Freud is widely renowned as the "father" of psychoanalysis and his interest in dreams and the potential for dreams to reveal unconscious desires provided a framework for his investigations into the dream state. Freud believed that dreams are the manifestation of hidden fulfillments for repressed wishes (Freud, 1900). Freud distinguished between "manifest" content of dreams and the "latent" content of dreams (Freud, 1977). The manifest content of dreams, Freud believed, represents the remembered content of dream, while latent content represents our interpretation of a dream as our recollections of dreams are "deformed substitute's" of what the dream really is (Freud, 1977, pg. 116). As such, manifest content represents the collection of thoughts, images and content in the dream, while the latent content represents the hidden, or repressed, meaning of the dream (Spanjaard, 1969). Further, Freud speculated that dreams are creations of the id or ego. If a dream originated from the ego, believed Freud, then the dream satisfied some latent instinct; should the dream come from the id, the dream resolved some conflict in the individual's life (Freud, 1949).

Carl Jung

Carl Jung, Freud's protegee, differed with Freud concerning the meaning of dreams. Jung believed that dreams were messages to the conscious delivered to provide a balance for the individual during waking hours (Robbins, 1988). Cartwright (1977, pg. 120) writes that Jung interpreted dreams as a function of "balancing or compensation to maintain or restore harmony to the whole being." In this way, dreams, Jung thought, served as utilitarian and pragmatic scripts so that the individual could regain or maintain a balanced life. Clearly, then, it would seem that early efforts by Freud and Jung to analyze dream states attempted to address conflicts so that personal growth could occur. However, recent research into the origins and purposes of dreams differ markedly from these early Freudian and Jungian speculations.

Conclusion

The effects of REM activity on subsequent mental states and physical activities are only theoretical and promulgations that assert a causal link are subject to scrutiny and debate. Given the history and significance of dreams and the interest in the meaning of dreams, it is important for research to continue studying the effects that REM sleep patterns can have on the psyche, on memory retrieval processes and on learning mechanisms. We may find only that dreams provide a respite; a type of entertainment the mind provides while we slumber. We may find, alternatively, that we sleep so that we can dream so that the information the dream provides can serve us well in waking hours.

References:

Cartwright, R.D. (1977). Night Life: Explorations in Dreaming. Englewood Cliffs, NJ: Prentice-Hall.

Cartwright, R.D. (1992). Directing Your Dreams. Psychology Today, 32-37.

Domhoff, G.W. (1996). The repetition of dreams and dream elements: A possible clue to a fnction of dreams. In Alan Moffitt, Milton Kramer & Robert Hoffmann (Eds.), The functions of dreaming. Albany: State University of New York Press.

Freud, S. (1900). The interpretation of dreams.

Hobson, J.A. (1995). Sleep. New York: Scientific American Library.

Hobson, J.A. (1999). Consciousness. New York: Scientific American Library.

Marquet U. (2001). The role of sleep in learning and memory. Science, 294, 1048-1052.

Robbins, Paul R. The Psychology of Dreams. Jefferson, NC: McFarland, 1988.