Freud's Theory of Dreams

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Freud: Theory of Dreams 1 Ana Catarina Alves Marques Freud’s theory of dreams - Introduction The belief held in antiquity, that dreams were sent by the gods in order to sort the actions of men, is still a popular belief. This present paper was elaborated with the purpose to show that Freud‟s theory of dreams is still nowadays a great reference to this subject and although he wasn‟t the first person to talk about the unconscious, his theory is really important and we can transpose his ideas and implement them in our daily life. Freud realized that the patients‟ dreams could be a rich source of significant emotional material, and contain clues to the underlying causes of a disorder. Due to its positivist belief in the existence of a cause for everything, it was assumed that the events of the dream were not totally devoid of meaning. Most likely, the dreams were the result of some fact of the unconscious mind. He realized the impossibility of conducting a self-analysis using the method of free association, as it would be impossible to play the role of patient and therapist at the same time, so he decided to analyze his own dreams. Throughout this paper I will expose Freud‟s theory of dreams summarily, focusing in the chapters II, III and IV of his book “The Interpretation of Dreams”. In the chapter II, Freud gives the distinction between some popular methods of dream-interpretation. In this same chapter, he uses one of this own dreams that help to clarify his position that “wish-fulfillment is a meaning of each and every dream”1. 1 FREUD, Sigmund. The Interpretation of Dreams. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1999. Page 107 Freud: Theory of Dreams 2 Ana Catarina Alves Marques Then, it will be shown how Freud explained this statement firmly. Throughout this paper, it will be also demonstrated the answers given by Freud for those questions about dreams that
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