Do Dreams Reflect Unconscious Desires?

Do dreams reflect unconscious desires?

Check out this answer from Consensus:

The evidence from psychoanalytic theory, neuroscience, and psychological models collectively supports the notion that dreams do reflect unconscious desires. While Freud’s and Jung’s theories laid the groundwork, modern empirical studies and neuroimaging techniques have provided robust support for these ideas. Dreams, therefore, can be seen as a complex interplay of unconscious desires, emotional needs, and cognitive processes, offering a unique window into the human psyche.

The enigmatic nature of dreams has long fascinated both scientists and laypeople alike. Central to this intrigue is the question of whether dreams reflect our unconscious desires. This article explores various perspectives from psychoanalytic theory, neuroscience, and psychological models to understand the relationship between dreams and unconscious desires.

Psychoanalytic Perspectives

Sigmund Freud, often referred to as the father of psychoanalysis, posited that dreams are the “royal road to the unconscious.” According to Freud, dreams serve as a window into our deepest, often repressed desires and emotions. He argued that the unconscious mind harbors desires that are not accessible to the conscious mind, and these desires manifest in symbolic forms within dreams6. Carl Jung, another prominent figure in psychoanalysis, echoed similar sentiments, describing dreams as a “hidden door” to the innermost recesses of the psyche3.

Neuroscientific Insights

Recent advancements in neuroscience have provided empirical support for some of these psychoanalytic theories. Neuroimaging studies have shown that the brain’s hierarchical generative model, which predicts and processes emotional needs, remains active during sleep and dreaming. This model suggests that dreams may indeed serve to fulfill unmet emotional needs, thereby reducing prediction errors2. The lack of sensory and motor perception during dreaming allows for a predominance of primary process thinking, an associative and non-rational cognitive style that can bring repressed desires to the forefront2.

Psychological Models

Modern psychological models also offer valuable insights into the nature of dreams. One such model combines the unconscious and consciousness, suggesting that dreams arise from a lack of external stimulation during sleep, leading to the activation of unconscious instincts and intuitions5. This model aligns with the idea that dreams are a form of unconscious imagination, influenced by various factors such as physiological states, external surroundings, and individual psychology4.

Empirical Evidence

Empirical studies have further corroborated the hypothesis that dreams provide access to unconscious dimensions. For instance, an automated text analysis of dream narratives during psychoanalytic psychotherapy revealed that dreams increasingly access affective-laden, or emotionally charged, unconscious dimensions over time. This study identified a phase transition in the complexity of the dreaming process, suggesting a non-linear progression in the patient’s ability to connect with unconscious meanings1.

Do Dreams Reflect Unconscious Desires?

Melanie G Rosen has answered Extremely Unlikely

An expert from Aarhus University in Philosophy

Dreams sometimes reflect our conscious desires — we might dream of doing something we enjoy. Dreams also can be very random, and it is likely that alterations to the brain that occur in sleep lead to lack of binding and these random associations. Using dreams to unlock unconscious desires is not backed scientifically.

Do Dreams Reflect Unconscious Desires?

Eugene  Subbotsky has answered Near Certain

An expert from Lancaster University in Psychology, Child Development

Sigmund Freud made a strong point that people have desires that are socially frowned upon or completely banned, and sometimes people see these desires fulfilled in their dreams. Almost every person who sees dreams can testify that this is true, though this is hard to prove objectively because people are reluctant to acknowledge their secret desires and sometime are unaware of such desires. But dreams also reflect unconscious biases, attitudes and fears. For example, in Western countries people’s attitude towards magic and witchcraft contains two opposite compounds: curiosity and fear. These psychological compounds of our attitude towards magic are reflected in art, in the famous poem “Faust” by Johann Wolfgang Goethe, and the novel “Doctor Faustus” by Thomas Mann. Since most rational people today despise true magic as a false belief, the compound of fear descended into the subconscious, but can be revealed in dreams.

 In one of my experiments, people who denied their belief in magic were offered a magic spell that would help them see their desired dreams. Participants in the control group were simply told that they might see their chosen dreams, but no offer of a magic spell was given. Those participants who had received the magical help did indeed see their chosen dreams more often than those in the control group, though the difference was not statistically significant. However, the people who had received the magical aid also saw frightening dreams statistically more often than participants in the control group. This result indicated that rational people who openly claimed their disbelief in magic subconsciously still believed in that making a deal with magic might be a dangerous thing to do, and this subconscious belief manifested itself in them having scary dreams.

Do Dreams Reflect Unconscious Desires?

Susan  Llewellyn has answered Likely

An expert from University of Manchester in Sleep Research, Psychology

The answer depends on whether the question refers to all dreams or only some dreams. If all dreams the answer is no. If some dreams the answer is yes.

To take the yes- for some dreams- response first. The continuity theory proposes that the concerns, fears, hopes, problems, wants and desires that pervade your waking life also feature in your dreaming life. So if you have a desire in wakefulness you will probably experience this in your dreams too. The evidence comes through comparing peoples’ waking life reports on their concerns (including desires) with their dream reports. One study (Fosse et al, 2003) reported that 65% of waking life experiences (activities, events and concerns) could be identified in dreams. Of course if a desire is reported then it clearly isn’t unconscious. For this we turn to research on suppressed thoughts and memories.

Two studies (Malinowski, 2015; 2017) on suppression found, first, that that people who often suppressed thoughts (termed “high thought suppressors”) dreamt more of their emotional life experiences than low thought suppressors and, second, high thought suppressors dreamt more of negative (but not positive) life experiences. This research demsonstrates the dream rebound effect i.e. if you repress thoughts and memories they are more likely to appear in dreams- than if you don’t suppress them. Neither study focused specifically on desires but there is no reason to suppose that desires are exempt from the dream rebound effect. Also evidence from a study (Fischer et al, 2011) which asked people to repress memories showed these were poorly remembered during wakefulness but after a night with rapid eye movement sleep- when most dreaming occurs- the suppressed memories were better recalled. This study didn’t ask people for dream reports so we cannot be sure that the repressed memories appeared in dreams but it seems probable, given the evidence that suppressed concerns in wakefulness reappear in dreams.

The question feels Freudian- the concept of the unconscious is, of course, strongly associated with Freud. Most would now accept that 95% of brain activity is unconscious but this does not, of course, mean that 95% of our decisions, emotions and desires are repressed. Many brain processes are unconscious because they are automatic. Also the concept of the unconscious is used in many different ways. At any moment in time most of your emotions, problems, hopes, fears and desires are unconscious- in the sense of out-of-consciousness. Otherwise you wouldn’t be able to focus on the task at hand.

Given research on the wide variety of concerns, problems, hopes and fears that permeate waking life and reappear in dreams- the premise that all dreams reflect desires is highly unlikely. Nevertheless, the link between repression and dreams is still powerful. We shouldn’t reject the idea of unconscious desires surfacing in some dreams.