Dream Analysis

Analyze your most vivid dream using the following perspective:

1. according to the psychoanalytic/psychodynamic view, what might be the forbidden, unconscious fears, drives, or desires represented by your dream?  can you identify the manifest content versus the latent content?

2. psychologists from the cognitive perspective believe dreams provide important information, help us make needed changes in our life, and even suggest solutions to real-life problems.  Do you agree or disagree? does your dream provide an in sight that increases your self-understanding?

having analyzed your dream from two different perspectives, can you see how it is a challenge to find the one right answer? critical thinkers can synthesize the information and develop greater understanding, but no one single theory reveals the whole picture.

 

 

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As best I can recall my dream is as follows:

I am waiting in a nondescript hotel lobby with a few acquaintances for last person in group to head out for something.  Its taking ages, and its apparent to me that I am the only one in the group getting anxious about the waiting around and that some people (no clue who we were waiting for)  have no issue to keep people waiting as if no one but themselves are important enough and others' time is of no consequence when it comes to them doing what they want.  I decide to voice my opinion about being kept waiting and how improper  and inconsiderate it was of the person.  It bothers me that no one else is bothered and just say what's the big deal?  The next thing that happens is I can't find my phone in the lobby, so I decide to go back to my room to see if there if they anyhow waiting.  I walk through the hotel restaurant that just materialized seemingly out of nowhere.  I see some random school class mates from high school back in 1996.  Most of them look like they have been stuck in a time warp, they compliment me on how good I look since last seeing them.  I look for the elevator, press button.. a door opens up but it's the stairs... see next wall over what looks like more elevators.. press.. something else pops open... it looks like elevator... once get in I see steps but I see burns for floor.. I suddenly notice I have key hanging with room number I thought I didn't know. I Press the room

number then suddenly the floor moves but I see there are no walls to this elevator! It starts moving laterally and in what seems like unconstrained by any shaft or wiring. The sensation feels  familiar, as if I've been in such an elevator before.  I threw myself and son (who I suddenly realize is holding my hand, he wasn't there earlier) down on the floor and I see somewhere that this is the design elevator.. no clue what that means.. suddenly a man pokes head around a wall after I've shrieked in fear after the elevator lurched and me and my son almost full of the flimsy elevator... he is sitting swinging his feet out of side.  I yell at him to grab my son.. I'm not sure if he does. He said we be landing in any min to the location I chose for the train ... I remember there are 2 train stations with same name. one right next hotel the other across town.. I have no money, and we arrive at other side of town.. the guy gets out and leaves me to open door on the wobbly still stopping van that is in the process of rolling over... I get me and my son out and then it rolls and kind of lands upright again with flames inside.. of course we are across town.. I start trudging towards the hotel and the destination seems to get further and further.. my son no longer in dream.. I see a girl pass me, she used to be babysitter but quit, leaving me in the lurch.. walking uphill slower and with more of a struggle than everyone else around me. the uphill walk seems particularly tough and destination is miles away with no option of getting their faster and I keep on going grabbing hold of anything that will assist me in taking another step...then my dear son wakes me from my miserable anxiety ridden dream.

 

 

There are many different elements to the dream.  However, I have picked just a couple of them to keep this assignment manageable and focused.

One common thread through out the dream is that it was full of unexpected surprises.  My phone which I'm sure I had, is suddenly nowhere, a hotel restaurant suddenly appears, people I haven't thought about in years are sitting there, I was waiting for elevator but then it turned out to be just steps then the elevator had no walls, my room key shows up, then my son, then the guy swinging his feet of the end of the elevator floor. I end up 'landing' in a truck of sorts that explodes after rolling and still somehow landing on its wheels. the hidden guy was quite unhelpful even in face of danger. 

I would say it symbolizes my life and all the constant changes I have made, rolling with the punches.  It has been full of surprises and changes in direction yet I have never given up.  I took the time to work out a new path and focus on it and I may go as far as saying I was always aware of the right thing to do subconsciously (my room key showing up, my son being a big part of my decisions).  Come to think of it I noticed the elevator was strange but got in anyway, that decision had to do with my son holding my hand, giving me the feeling that I can't give up on what I am trying to achieve in my life, in my marriage.  Without my son I do not believe that I would persevere and fight as hard for the achievements I want and need.

Along the way I meet many other unforeseen challenges head on. the babysitter walking past me and me not even saying anything to her in my dream signifies in my opinion to how I have learned to handle what I now would refer to as small hurdles whereas they used to be big almost debilitating hurdles for me.  Instead of focusing on why she left and what her calculations were, I don't waste my time or energy on that anymore.  I try and focus on what I need to do to rectify the situation to best suit myself, that doesn't include trying to work out why/how someone would/could up and quit from one day to next without any thought to the repercussion caused as a result to others.

The dream overall gives me a general feeling of unease, the struggle - even the simple walking, the unexpected frights and turns.  However, when I look a little deeper I start to see that my dream showing me that I am strong and capable and not as easily phased as I thought. It has also made me more aware that I know many of the answers I am searching for in my subconscious and that I should take more time to address searching them out from within myself.  Most importantly, its going take more than what I've been through to date for me to raise my hand and give up. 

This dream can serve as 'woe is me' story.  However, I am choosing to take it as a dream of encouragement and acknowledgement.  Life isn't easy, no one ever said it would be.  My dream is helping me realize how far I have gotten doing things the way I have been.  It has been an uphill struggle for the most of it, but unexpectedly things and paths become apparent and my son makes it all worth it.  He becomes visible in my dream when most important for me to stay focused and keep going to reach my goals. I guess something I haven't fully acknowledged is that he is my biggest motivation. Quite the opposite of what I have unfortunately thought at some desperate times, that he was a hindrance.

Manifest and latent content; The entire fictional depiction of my dream is the manifest (excluding the real people in my every day life, namely my son.)  The latent is open to interpretation. As I mentioned earlier I have chosen to apply it positively but it would be just as easy for someone, without having the knowledge of what my life has been like till the day I dreamed it, to interpret it as a story of only struggle.  I have what I would say is the luck and others might say the misfortune, of having the knowledge of the intricate details of my life and therefore can interpret my dream positively to help me rather than hinder me in my future unexpected surprises.  Another incident where perception is different depending on your attitude, background and experience. 

When I started writing I wasn't sure what I believed regarding dreams and their interpretation.  Now that I have completed, I find myself agreeing with psychologists of the cognitive perspective. They believe dreams provide important information, help us make needed changes in our life, and even suggest solutions to real-life problems.  My dream has provided me with some new added insight that has in turn increased my self-understanding.