Do our dreams reveal our darkest secrets?
No, your strange naked dream is not a signal of your love life.
You wake up in the middle of the night with your heart pounding. After a while, you realize that you didn't really run out of the room just wearing a towel around your hips for a job interview. Depending on the dream interpreter you choose, you will find different explanations for this dream. You may be worried about work, you may be ashamed or humiliated, you may be a disguised exhibitionist. Given all the possibilities, can dreams really reveal our deepest secrets?
Dreams can provide useful information about our inner life, but despite what Hollywood or my favorite novel claims, no study can prove that dreams reflect our inner world. "There really is no research to support that view," says Deirdre Barrett, a psychologist and dream researcher at Harvard Medical School. Dreams do not contain symbols, no dream interpreter can tell you what your dream really means. People have long tried to find the meaning of dreams. In ancient Mesopotamia and Egypt, dreams were considered messages from the gods. The Greeks and Romans used dreams to predict the future, but the belief that symbols in dreams can reveal a hidden meaning for ourselves dates back to the 19th century. psychologist Zigmund Freida. He believed that dreams were a kind of fulfillment of desires and reveal our hidden desires. Since Freud's time, the science of dreams has evolved and allows reality to be a little simpler than Freud thought. Dreams are not encrypted and fantastic. In fact, it's more like thinking when you're thinking about something. However, this does not mean that dreams are useless. Research confirms that when we dream, we treat the same interests, memories, and worries that we normally have during the day.
"We have fantasies, we think about fears and dangers, we think about social life and loved ones," says Barreta. Therefore, dreams are important in psychology because they are an extension of our waking thoughts and worries. According to research, dreams are more often a reliable account of our daily lives than exciting thrillers. Except for those weird times when something really fantastic happens. Although dreams are more like waking thoughts, our brains work very differently. The biochemical state of the brain during dreams is completely different. The chemical cocktail changes, as does brain activity in different areas. The secondary visual center of the brain, which is responsible for imaging, becomes much more active. That is why we see dreams. At the same time, the prefrontal brain center disconnects the daily thought-creating filter.
This is important for some psychologists, but it is still worth maintaining some skepticism that dreams certainly contain internally significant symbols or is a reflection of repressed desires. Dreams can be called a dialogue between symbolically and logically functioning parts of the brain. There is no formula for deciphering dreams, it is not a treasure trove that has not yet been discovered, but it does provide an insight into how we function.
According to Barreta, Freud was right. He introduced the idea that dreams can make sense and they can tell much about ourselves.