Sigmund Freud (1856-1939)
Freud was the pioneer of modern-day dream theory. His most important work, The Interpretation of Dreams was published in 1909. Freud believed that the human mind (also called the psyche) was composed of three parts: the id, the superego and the ego. The id is the embodiment of our instinctive urges, which almost always aim for pleasure. The superego is like a conscience for the id, controlling its urges; Freud believed it represented the norms of society taught to children by parents. The id and superego come into conflict sometimes when the id wants something that the supergo thinks is wrong. The ego is the conscious self and acts as a referee between the id and ego, trying to achieve balance. Freud said this was virtually impossible, and so most humans were neurotic to some degree.

It is Freud's theory that while dreaming, the id tries to communicate with the ego. Since the ego represents the conscious self, it goes "off-duty" while one sleeps. Because the ego is not as prevalent during sleep, the contents of the unconscious surface and are expressed in dreams. The superego can intervene if the id's messages to the ego are in conflict with its moral values, and this results in a distorted form of the message.

According to Freud, there are two parts of a dream. The manifest content is the dream itself, what you see while dreaming and what you remember when you wake up. The latent content is the message the id is sending to the ego, the meaning of the dream.

Freud suggests that most dreams are disguised messages, and therefore must be interpreted. Sometimes the id is trying to pass along a message to the ego that represents a repressed desire, which eariler had been banned from consciousness because it offended the superego. Examples of what are likely to be repressed are the death of someone close, or sexual desires.

Most dreams express anxiety, as disguised desires. The manifest content is the disguise forced upon a repressed desire by the censoring superego. So, anxieties are disguised desires and dreams are disguised fulfillments of repressed desires. Freud believed that the stronger a person's superego was, the stronger the desires he/she were trying to suppress or repress. For example, an avid anti-pornography activist is a person with very strong suppressed/repressed sexual desires.

Desires can be either suppressed or repressed. Supression is done consciously and repression is done unconsciously.

Freud's most controversial theory was what he called representation by symbols, which is the disguising of the id's message by using symbols instead of the actual message. It's a controversial theory because Freud tended to associate almost anything with sex. He believed that anything hollow, ranging form a box to a cave to an aircraft hanger, represents the womb or woman. Anything phallic in shape, like a tie, gun or arrow, symbolizes the penis. Hills represent the breasts. Freud had symbols for the act of intercourse too, including bridges, climbing stairs, going through a tunnel, or riding a horse. While it seemed that Freud had a preoccupation with sex, he has stated that one should not assume that there is only one meaning for any symbol.

Regarding actual dream interpretation, Freud's technique was called association. The dreamer first tells the analyst each item which appeared in a particular dream and then what they associate with that item. An example is dreaming about a whale, and then associating that with the ocean. The purpose of association is to eventually reach something that 'rings a bell,' be it a repressed event from the past or just something that scares you.

excerpts and paraphrases from A Dictionary of Dream Symbols

next: Jung

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