Psychoanalytic Dream Interpretation - Decline in Importance

Decline in Importance

In the times of Freud dreams were brought to the forefront of psychoanalysis. The two were inseparable from one another. In order to understand the self one needed to understand the subconscious; the gateway of which were dreams. However dreams have since lost their singular importance in psychoanalysis and are being replaced by other concerns. This has been caused by long-standing ambivalence, and emergent aspect that influence psychoanalysis.

Studies done by Brenner (1969) and Waldhorn (1967) have downgraded Freud's classical view of dreams from extremely important to being on a level playing field with other psychological phenomena. Developments in REM research (Ellman and Antrobus, 1991) have also played a part in diminishing dreams importance in both clinical and theoretical psychoanalysis. For psychoanalysts dreams can present a challenge as their interpretation often can overwhelm other aspects of a patients problem and take up much of the time spent on the patient, and in many cases interpretations served the interpreter and not the patient. Dream discussion has taken a back seat to the discussion of daily life and the here and now.

Dreams are also difficult to remember, with no more than 5 to 10% of dreams being remember the following day. The parts of the dream that are retained the next day likely dissipate overnight. However, dreams are not all negative and can have much to say about daily life. Broader possibilities for dreams can be presented by stressing their social aspect. Through this method dreams have a different, but equally important hold on psychoanalysis.