Applying the Concepts: Freud and Dream Analysis

As discussed in the text, Freud saw the role of the unconscious as a key element in the dynamics of behavior--but how could one gain access to the unconscious? One of the techniques which Freud identified early on, and which he continued to emphasize as he developed his theory, was the interpretation of dreams. (Freud, 1900) As time went on, the idea that dreams had a special meaning (which could be understood through psychoanalysis) captured the popular imagination. By the 1920's, many books and articles aimed at the general public had appeared, leading non-psychoanalytic psychologists to challenge the value of dream analysis. However, for many people, the desire to understand their dreams was stronger than any skepticism expressed by critics.

Benjamin and Dixon (1996) provide an example of this popular interest, as expressed in the case of a young woman who wrote directly to Freud in 1927. Mary Fields had evidently read a number of Freud's works, including The Interpretation of Dreams; in her letter, she asked him to explain a dream which had so deeply upset her that she obsessed over its meaning for weeks. She was 20 years old, a stenographer living in a city in the American Midwest. She was an only child, and came from a relatively prosperous Protestant family. Recently, she had become involved with an Italian man from a poorer family--a relationship her parents rejected. In her dream, she was in an unfamiliar but pleasant house, with her father and uncle on the porch. The brother of her boyfriend appeared with a letter from him, informing her that he had married the day before to a "Mildred Dowl" (a name she didn't recognize). On hearing this news, she plunged a letter opener into her chest, collapsing on the floor. When she awoke from the dream, highly agitated, she found herself lying in bed in the same position she had been in at the end of the dream.

Mary Fields sent her letter directly to Freud's home in Vienna in November, 1927. At this point in time, Freud was 71, and in poor health (partly owing the cancer of the larynx which eventually killed him). He received large volumes of mail, and despite his failinghealth, continued to be an avid correspondent. He replied to Mary Fields (his letter dated only two weeks after hers) in a typed letter which Benjamin and Dixon suggest may have been transcribed by his daughter Anna. His response was gracious, but he declined to interpret her dream other than to suggest that she likely felt some ambivalence about her boyfriend. This reply is consistent with his character (intellectually curious and considerate), but also reflects his belief that dreams could not be properly interpreted without sufficient contextual information of the type that develops during analysis. In fact, in his letter, Freud suggested that some of the details, like the name Mildred Dowl, would be understandable "if you were here in Vienna and could talk to me in my study". (Benjamin and Dixon, 1996, p. 465) Hence, while strongly committed to the belief that dream analysis was an important tool, Freud was unwilling to consider dreams out of context, in the way that many popularizers of the 1920's were promoting. Today, most psychoanalysts would express a similar reluctance: dreams may be meaningful, but that meaning is not easily understood through self-analysis or superficial dream guides.

Resource: http://www.ryerson.ca/~glassman/psychdyn.html

References

Benjamin, L. T., Jr., & Dixon, D. N. (1996) Dream analysis by mail: an American woman seeks Freud's advice, American Psychologist, 51, 461-468.

Freud, S. (1900) The Interpretation of Dreams. Reprinted as Vol. 6 of Strachey, J. (Ed.), The Standard Edition of the Complete Pschological Works of Sigmund Freud. London: Hogarth Press, 1960.

Publications Related to the Psychodynamic Approach
Free Associations: Psychoanalysis and the Public Sphere--On-line journal edited by Robert M. Young of Sheffield University.

International Journal of Psychoanalysis--Provides effective search tools, with some on-line content and access to contents pages in archive.

Journal of the American Psychoanalytic Association--Provides archive of contents pages, but not full texts.