Dreams.

[IntoxicatingToxin]

So, we had an interesting discussion in Psychology class today, and I thought I'd share it with you all, and get your reactions on this.

According to Freud, our dreams are based in our subconscious, and are usually trying to tell us something about ourselves, or possibly future experiences. He thinks that everything we dream is symbolic in nature, and even created a huge book dedicated to what certain objects mean in dreams. BUT... a man named Hobson has his own theory on dreams, which basically states that our dreams are nothing more than neural networks in our brains firing randomly, and that our brain is designed to make sense of things... so in order for us, during sleep, to make sense of what these neural networks are doing, our brain creates a story of sorts, and that's what we call a dream. Hence the reason that our dreams sometimes seem to make no sense at all, like cats talking on a cell phone... that could be created, according to Hobson, if our neural networks involving cats and cell phones fire at the same time. Our brain makes sense of this by assuming that the cat would be talking on the cell phone, given our knowledge of what cell phones are used for.

So my question is... do you side more with Freud, or more with Hobson? Or do you have another set of beliefs on this subject altogether? Do tell. :smile:

 

[2322]

Few things I do better than interpret dreams. I've also had precognitive dreams, one of which was so definite that it stood everything I supposed about reality on its head. Study esoterica and you'll find a lot of significance in what dreams tell us.

Certainly dreaming does provide us with something physically necessary. You can die from a lack of sleep. Our subconsciouses work in strange ways and I wouldn't be surprised if there is some validity to both theories.

 

[SpeedoGuy]

Good question.

I think there are too many repetetive patterns and similiarities between my dreams, as well as with the dreams of other people, for them to be the result of randomness.

Just my guess. So, I guess I side more with Freud.

 

[B_Think_Kink]

I just had that class last week... Freud is awesome. I agree with some form of his stuff.
My dreams last night tell me I'm a gay man trapped in a girls body.

 

[SpoiledPrincess]

I believe dreams can mean something but they usually don't. So often we have dreams that are sparked off by something we encountered during the day, the brain abhors a vacuum so I think that it's just us amusing ourselves when we're asleep. I'm a lucid dreamer and I can dream about what I want so how would that fit into Freud's theory.

I think for Freud the personal importance he placed on sex coloured his view, sex is important, it's not as important as he felt.

 

[IntoxicatingToxin]

I believe dreams can mean something but they usually don't. So often we have dreams that are sparked off by something we encountered during the day, the brain abhors a vacuum so I think that it's just us amusing ourselves when we're asleep. I'm a lucid dreamer and I can dream about what I want so how would that fit into Freud's theory.

I think for Freud the personal importance he placed on sex coloured his view, sex is important, it's not as important as he felt.

I want to respond to this, and also give a bit more info on the two viewpoints of dreams... when Freud originally was trying to interpret dreams, he took them at face value and tried to analyze the manifest of the dream (what the person saw in their dream). The only problem is, often times what a person saw had no correlation to their daily life. So Freud came up with symbols for what we see... latent content. This is where a lot of dream dictionaries come from.

According to Hobsons theory, you can (if you train yourself) dream about what you want. You do this by activating neural networks in your brain shortly before sleep. (Quick side step... for those who don't know what a neural network is, it's basically a network of neurons that are responsible for handling memories for a specific person/object... you have hundreds of thousands, if not millions, of neural networks in your brain. You have a neural network for each pet, one for each person you know, etc.) The theory here, is that if a neural network is activated shortly before sleep, then it is more "primed" than other neural networks that haven't been activated, which makes it more susceptible to random firing during sleep.

 

[Guy-jin]

Because I've seen dogs perform typical dog activities in their dreams, such as running motions with their legs and barking, I tend to side with the idea that it's simply the mind randomly generating the memory of sensory experiences.

I do not believe that there is significant symbolism behind dreams. I believe that we consciously place symbolism on these random events, just as we do with many things that happen to us in reality.

 

[Principessa]

I just had that class last week... Freud is awesome. I agree with some form of his stuff.

My dreams last night tell me I'm a gay man trapped in a girls body.

Though nothing in my dreams has led me to believe that, I have long thought I was a gay man trapped in a womans body. :wink:

 

[IntoxicatingToxin]

Because I've seen dogs perform typical dog activities in their dreams, such as running motions with their legs and barking, I tend to side with the idea that it's simply the mind randomly generating the memory of sensory experiences.

I do not believe that there is significant symbolism behind dreams. I believe that we consciously place symbolism on these random events, just as we do with many things that happen to us in reality.

As far as dogs performing activities in their sleep... it's kinda interesting. Our dreams occur during REM sleep. Also known as "Stage 1" sleep. When people sleepwalk, sleeptalk, or move in their sleep, it's actually done in "Stage 4" sleep... the deepest sleep we experience. So they've proven already that the movement during sleep is not actually related to dreams. Good call. :smile:

 

[950483]

Last night I had sex dreams about this version of Patrick Stewart:

"Space... The final frontier...
These are the voyages of the Starship Enterprise.
Its continuing mission:
To explore strange new worlds...
To seek out new life; new civilisations...
To boldly go where no one has gone before!" The Starship Enterprise mission statement was not actually in my dream, but I think that is what was symbolized by his presence. Before the sex we went to a really rubbish restaurant and still had a good time. .