Dreams: Pathology, Neurophysiology, Cognitive Psychology

Dreams are a fascinating aspect of mammal life and no one really knows why. Some people have ideas on why we dream. For instance, some people think mammals dream for a reason like practicing scenarios. While, some others think it is just because the brain simply cannot go inactive and certain chemicals are released that make us think weird, funny, or scary dreams. Even though many different disciplines study dreams and why we dream, these disciplines can have views that are contrasting.

Dreams are so complex that there is not just one field that studies them. There are multiple disciplines that study dreams and most have different or opposing views about them. The disciplines that will be examined throughout the paper are neurology, neurophysiology,

They would both say dreams tell us valuable things about ourselves (States 14). Cognitive psychology and psychiatry oppose Freud because they do not believe that dreams are trying to hide who we are; they believe that dreams try to tell us who we are (Hurd).

Psychoanalysis

Psychoanalysis is both the theory of how the mind works as well as therapeutic treatment (What is Psychoanalysis). Psychoanalysts believe the opposite of psychiatrists when it comes to dreams. They would say dreams are trying to avoid telling us about ourselves, unless decoded (States 14). Psychoanalysts think more like scientists in the ethnography field, and philosophers, especially Freud. They think there is more under the surface of the dream to be decoded to know why one dreamt a certain dream.

They believe that simply just experiencing the dream is what is important (States 14). Most fields of study are trying to figure out why we dream, but to phenomenologists it does not matter whether we dream for one reason, multiple reasons, or any reason at all. Phenomenologists also believe that dreams reflect one’s interests and personality (Nir). They also believe that dream consciousness is similar to waking consciousness (Nir). People have senses in dreams as well as in waking life. Although some senses like smell, taste, pleasure, and pain are typically rare in dreams they do still happen just like in waking life (Nir).

Philosophy

The last discipline discussed in this paper will be philosophy. Philosophy is the study of the fundamental nature of knowledge, reality, and existence. Freud was one of the most known philosophers to study dreams. He believed in the beginning of his studies on dreams that dreams were the guardians of sleep as well as wish-fulfillments (States 14, Jones). He also thought that dreams tried to hide who we are (Hurd). He believed that it took a lot of decoding in order to figure out what one’s dreams meant. (More than Freud)