Singmund Freud, the founder of psychoanalysis, stated that dreams have the function of providing unrecognizable and symbolic satisfaction by changing the shape of impulses and desires that are not allowed to be directly satisfied due to their contents that are not approved by the superego or ego ideal.
In current studies, Freud examines the unconscious. There is a lot of evidence confirming the concept.
Plato, one of the ancient Greek philosophers, in his comment on dreams, very similar to Freud, said, 'What we want to explain is that there are excessive and uncontrollable impulses in all people, including those who seem healthy and balanced. These impulses appear with our dreams.
Artemidor of Daldis talked about symbol language for the first time in his 'dream book' and made an empirical explanation of some symbols in dreams.
Unlike his predecessors, Freud explained the meaning of dreams. He stated that he was reporting from the past, not the future. Freud's dream theory can be briefly summarized as "dreams are unconscious psychic activities that occur during sleep." There are things that are not approved. Therefore, basically by using repression, this unwanted content is kept in the unconscious. This content, whose emotional energy never disappears, constantly tries to provide satisfaction. According to Freud, slips, neurotic symptoms and dreams are slightly distorted images of unconscious content. Impulses and desires that are not approved to be directly revealed or satisfied change shape and are satisfied in a more unrecognizable and symbolic way, thus reducing psychological tension.
Freud called dreams 'sleep guards' and said that the sleep state is a way of resting the mind. He stated that it is a situation in which consciousness is temporarily minimized. In the sleep state, the ego allows unconscious content to leak into consciousness. However, since this content will create anxiety when it comes directly to consciousness, dreams that provide symbolic satisfaction of the unconscious content come into play at this point. According to Freud, every dream aims to satisfy an unconscious desire. This If the gratification is direct or obvious, it will cause anxiety and the person will wake up. Therefore, satisfaction must be symbolic. In this way, psychological tension is reduced and sleep is ensured. In a way, dreams are also safety valves of the mind, where the burden of unconscious spiritual energy is reduced. As a result, dreams undertake the task of maintaining the sleep state and providing the disguised satisfaction of unconscious desires with increased energy. Today, Freud's assumption that dreams aim to satisfy a desire is also supported by sleep studies. Studies have shown that it is related to the satisfaction of instinctive desires in the brain during REM sleep. Taşkın EO, Aydemir Ö. Freudian dream interpretation and traditional dream interpretation. 3P Magazine, 2004; 12 (4): 317-326 5 showed that there was a high degree of activation in the considered structures. In line with these results, the assumption of satisfaction of the unconscious content, which forms the basis of Freud's dream theory, has been confirmed.
Freud stated that for the dream to occur, there must first be an unconscious stimulus. The reason why this stimulus tries to emerge that night to provide satisfaction in the dream is the daytime experiences that activate these impulses for that night. When daytime experiences remind us of unsatisfied desires or impulses that remain unconscious, they begin to rise towards layers closer to consciousness, or in other words, their energy in the unconscious increases. Since they are forbidden desires, they continue to remain unconscious due to the effect of the repression defense mechanism. But they need to be discharged, even for a short time, in order to discharge the increased energy. This is where the dream comes into play. Conscious experiences during the day activate the unconscious and open the doors to the subconscious world. Current studies prove Freud's view. It has been proven that the content of dreams is emotionally linked to the person's current problems and past experiences recorded in memory.
Symbolization in Dreams: Forbidden contents in our subconscious are distorted to avoid causing anxiety and come to our consciousness in an unrecognizable form. They are. This distortion is symbolism, condensation, displacement and omission. As a dream process, we see that Freud actually called these features as general features of the unconscious or primary thought processes. The most important role in ensuring the symbolic satisfaction of impulses or desires is the interpretation of dreams through symbol language.
The symbol in a dream may have more than one meaning. Due to concentration, too many emotions or thoughts can be combined in one symbol. Impulses or desires that are close or similar in the unconscious use the same symbols. Thus, more than one forbidden impulse can be satisfied.
Freud stated that the most primitive infantile materials can be seen in dreams. The collective unconscious constitutes our most primitive side. Since the processes here are similar in all people, the meanings of the symbols should also be similar. In other words, the symbolization in dreams is the product of our collective unconscious.
According to Freud, although the meanings of symbols are known, it is wrong to use them directly. Instead, it should be evaluated through the dreamer's free association. The basis for symbol interpretation is connotation. More than one interpretation can be reached when interpreting the dream due to resistances and the satisfaction of more than one forbidden impulse or desire in the dream. For this reason, the dreamer's associations are vital. Based on all these results, it would not be right to make a single comment about dreams.
In psychoanalytic theory, the unconscious is formed as a layer. As we go deeper into the unconscious, the meanings of the symbols become common and, at the deepest level, they turn into a common content for all people.
Traditional dream interpretations are a common cultural element, and culture is the superego. The meanings of the contents here are found to be objectionable and banned by the superego.
Comparison of Symbols: As we have just stated, as we go deeper, it will be common to find similarities. Swimming in traditional dream interpretations; While it adopts interpretations such as peace, comfort and happiness, in psychoanalysis it can also coincide with regression, that is, the desire to return to the happy and beautiful place in the mother's womb. While tooth removal triggers castration anxiety in the psychodynamic interpretation, it It evokes death in places. Both of them mean loss.
The reason why sexual organs or sexuality are used most in Freud's dream theory is that the most suppressed impulses are sexual impulses. As a result of this suppression, there are many symbols related to sexual organs and sexuality.
The symbols Freud used instead of penis (sword, dagger, gun, bird) include concepts of power such as success and trust. In addition, its loss has been interpreted as the loss of power. These comments are quite similar to the classical comments. Again, the word 'doing work' used by Freud symbolizes sexual intercourse. To this, we can present the similarities of the words 'work' and 'wife' (English work-wife is also included in some languages). Some symbols are also defined with love-marriage, such as hat-tie-keys.
Slang, both in our language Turkish and in other languages, carries many symbols from the unconscious. Especially fruit names have become words that refer to femininity (peach, apple, watermelon, etc.).
Results: Considering our examples, when we look at the symbol interpretations in traditional dream interpretations, we see that the symbols are briefly mentioned and banned. We see that the drives are idealized by the superego and the ego and explained in this way. Traditional dream interpretations and slang derive their source from the unconscious. Slang takes on the discharge of repressed neurotic emotions. Unlike traditional dream interpretations, there are no shameful or forbidden concepts in slang.
One of the important reasons why traditional dream interpretations are so common is that they meet an important need. In this way, individuals can convey their desires and desires that are waiting for satisfaction to the other person in a covert and appropriate way.
Traditional Interpretation of Symbols
Knife: Represents power. A sharp knife is success, a dull knife is the prevention of success. The breaking of the knife means loss of power, that is, defeat.
Sword: It has similar meanings to the knife.
Firearms: Power. It carries meanings such as success, superiority.
Pen: It means learning information. The pen suddenly It means that things will go bad.
Tie: For a man, having a job or getting married. Taking off a tie means separation.
Umbrella: A closed umbrella means business. If the umbrella breaks, it means that things will go wrong.
Fountain: Seeing water gushing from the fountain is joyful news. If a person is in love, he will be happy with his lover.
Snake: All snakes represent the enemy. Poisonous snakes are the most dangerous enemies.
Hat: Anything worn on the head is interpreted as good deeds and luck.
Key: It means new hope and opportunity.
Child: A nice-looking baby is good news. A bad-looking baby connotes evil.
Hearth: A burning stove symbolizes a successful and profitable business. A burning stove going out means difficulty.
Cave: It means secret and mysterious events. Finding something in a dark cave means trouble. Getting lost in a cave is interpreted as a lifelong disaster. The person who passes from one cave to another is on the way to learning knowledge.
Cabinet: It represents an unknown purpose. Anyone who opens a cabinet door will start a new business.
Oven: An oven full of bread means abundance.
Garden: A person who walks around a beautiful garden will be successful in love and business. Someone who wanders around a pale and neglected garden will be disappointed.
Book: It represents the person's life. The life of a person who reads a new book changes. If the book is torn or scattered, the person will be in a difficult situation due to an old evil.
Table: A beautiful table means that the person will win both in love and business. The person invited to a table will make a new marriage.
Mussels: It represents illicit gain and bad relationship.
Fruits: They herald good news. In addition, bad and old fruits mean disappointment.
Apple: A fresh apple with a beautiful color means success.
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