Dream Psychology: Do Dreams Reveal More Than They Conceal?

The world might not have reached the era of ‘Inception’ yet or may never even reach there. But, Psychology has gotten pretty close. It is often believed that dreams mean more than what meets the eye (or brain, as your eyes are technically closed). But, what exactly do they mean and how exactly do psychologists interpret these dreams?

Psychologists who specialize in dreams are rare; however, there are some psychologists who interpret dreams along with other tasks. Interpreting dreams are said to help in understanding a person’s mind. Most psychologists like Carl Jung interpret these dreams through simple psycho-analysis. But is it really that simple?

Carl Jung in his book named ‘Dreams’ says that people often misinterpret their own dreams. They tend to be partial and biased towards themselves and hence interpret their dreams very differently from what another person would. And that is why he feels a psychologist would help guide the person into interpreting his own dreams in the right way.

Dream interpretation is however not new to Psychology. Sigmund Freud who is often considered as the ‘Father of Psychology’ has stated that dreams are meant to be secretive in nature showing very little. However, Jung and contemporary psychologists dismiss this idea. They say that dreams reveal more than they conceal. Dreams can often reveal a lot about a person’s mental illness or state.

Analyzing dreams can often give significant information on disorders such as anxiety and depression. One can go through cases put down by Jung and other psychologists as evidence. Psychologists use symbols and the patient’s knowledge of certain things to interpret dreams. Dream interpretation is in no way an easy task as everyone’s dream is different and has different variables. Dreams are often a message to the person. Many psychologists are adamant that there are no dreams without meaning.

To interpret dreams one needs to build a good rapport with the person and also first see his/her interpretation of the dream. If you are experienced you would be able to find flaws and inconsistencies and be able to interpret the dream more precisely. The correctness of interpretation is often hard to judge, but it usually involves the patient finding the interpretation highly meaningful in reference to their lives.

There is a lot to read about dream interpretation and a lot to learn before one can venture into dream psychology as a career, but interestingly like many mysteries of the world, why we dream is an unsolved one with many versions given by psychologists. If you are interested in delving into this field and finally solving this mystery, and love psychology, you might just be the first success story here.