FASCINATION OF DREAMS

FASCINATION OF DREAMS
Dreams have been objects of boundless fascination and mystery for humankind since the beginning of time. These nocturnal vivid images seem to arise from some source other than our ordinary conscious mind. They contain a mixture of elements from our own personal identity which we recognize as familiar along with a quality of `otherness in the dream images that carries a sense of the strange and eerie. The bizarre and nonsensical characters and plots in dreams point to deeper meanings and contain rational and insightful comments on our waking situations and emotional experiences. The ancients thought that dreams were messages from the gods.
The cornerstone of Sigmund Freuds infamous psychoanalysis, is the interpretation of dreams. Freud called dream-interpretation the "via reggia," or the "royal road" to the unconscious, and it is his theory of dreams that has best stood the test of time, over a period of more than seventy years (Many of Freuds other theories have been disputed in recent years).
Freud reportedly admired Aristotles assertion that dreaming is the activity of the mind during sleep (Fine, 1973). It was perhaps the use of the term activity that Freud most appreciated in this brief definition for, as his understanding of the dynamics of dreaming increased, so did the impression of ceaseless mental activity differing in quality from that of ordinary waking life (Fine, 1973). In fact, the quality of mental activity during sleep differed so r...

FASCINATION OF DREAMS

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