I often do not recall most of the dreams I have when I go to sleep. However, of late, I have been getting a recurring dream. Occasionally, I will dream that I am on a hike with my friends. We are taking some time to unwind from the busy week that we have just had, and we come across a steep rocky hill that looks challenging to climb. One of my friends then dares me to climb the hill because I am the only one who carried rock climbing gear. I am hesitant to climb the hill but decide to do it anyway. Unfortunately, halfway up, I touch something moist and slippery, which makes me lose my balance. I begin to fall and realize I had not properly fastened my ropes. I always wake up before hitting the ground and find that I am profusely sweating and out of breath.
Freud explains that everyone dreams; thus, understanding dreams shed light on the unconscious and its role in human life. Freud would interpret my dream as being based on unconscious desires (Dreams- a royal road? 2013). Freud would look at the images in the dream and use them as visible signs for hidden desires, ideas, emotions, impulses or relationships. My dream will be interpreted as a distorted representation of an incompatible and secret wish that does not agree with my conscious mind thus is censored (O’Mahony, 1993).
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In the gestalt approach, dreams are not interpreted; rather, they are “brought back to life.” The approach explains that everyone has certain parts of their personality that they are phobic about and have disowned them (O’Mahony, 1993). There is some control over what one can do in their waking life, while in dreaming, people are free to do as they please. Therefore, my dream would be seen as a form of avoidance of one or more parts of my personality (O’Mahony, 1993). The dream would be the projection of the various fragmented pieces of my personality that I am phobic about.
I, however, do not agree with either interpretations of the dream. I especially do not agree with Freudian analysis because the dream symbols can mean one thing to me and another entirely different thing to another. I do not see how any of the dream images I had could be representations of unconscious desires. I also do not see how fragmented pieces of my personality that I am phobic about could result in me dreaming about falling. I believe that my dream has no symbolic meaning and is a carryover from waking events because a friend of mine recently fell while taking part in a rock-climbing challenge. The dream is possibly a current concern for me because I have been wary of rock climbing since I learned about the accident.
References
Dreams- a royal road? (2013) American Psychiatric Association.
O’Mahony, H. (1993). Becoming the dream- a gestalt approach. IAHIP. https://iahip.org/inside-out/issue-12-spring-1993/becoming-the-dream-a-gestalt-approach
