This section “on dreams” by Freud was somewhat confusing to me. Freud explains a lot of the importance of the analysis of dreams and how people tend to ignore the dreams and they just become hopelessly confusing. He explains that the dreams are represented through metaphors and similes in images that we could make out. I find this very true because dreams take various parts of past experiences and whatever thoughts are somewhat linked, and then groups them together to make a significant point or painting. The structure of the dream is made up of these thoughts and ideas. Freud explains that the dream-thoughts are combined to make a single situation, and the dream thoughts are all connected. When Freud says that “no dream is prompted by motives other than egoistic ones” , I agree with him. I feel as if dreams can be from our motives if we strongly believe in ideas and if we determined, we obtain those dreams. However, dreams that are not for ourself are not prompted by motives and include other people that we know.
Freud says that a dream that is disordered rather than “beautifully polished” is more valuable. Therefore, people that ignore the dreams are confusing really never get the meaning that the dream brings on the table. I cannot agree or disagree because I do not know anything about analyzing dreams that are disordered or even looking into the dreams that are clear-cut. However, I could picture that the meaning of the disordered dreams probably are valuable and I would imagine that Freud’s explanation is quite valid.
I was confused, at first, at what the dream-work was until I read that it was what we fantasize.
On page 171 of Freud’s “On Dreams” , I read that dream-symbols represent certain pictures that you would have to analyze. Freud mentions how sharp weapons represent male genitals, and boxes or carriages represent the uterus. When I read that at first, I first thought about the majority of the population around the world, or the universal thought of a certain box or a sharp weapon. Universally, people would come to the conclusion that the sharp weapon would make sense to symbolize the male genital. However, what would a member of the universe suffering with down syndrome think about this? Would he know what a sharp weapon is unless he somehow learns it from practice? Would his dreams be altered so he gains a different image that represents the genital in a way that he would understand it? He probably would, but images and ideas that ONLY he has are different than others not suffering from down syndrome would have. This is what raises questions for me – this area for people suffering from various ways.