Dream Psychology

[GZA]

What are your opinions on Dream Psychology? Can any of you analyze dreams and their meaning?

For example, what does it mean if you have a dream where you are on top of a building, laying down, and you are afraid of heights, and the top of the building becomes smaller and smaller untill you fall off because you are too big to lay on it? Cause... I had that dream recently

[Athenian200]

Originally Posted by GZA

What are your opinions on Dream Psychology? Can any of you analyze dreams and their meaning?

For example, what does it mean if you have a dream where you are on top of a building, laying down, and you are afraid of heights, and the top of the building becomes smaller and smaller untill you fall off because you are too big to lay on it? Cause... I had that dream recently

I think it means that you feel insecure about your situation, you feel like you're in a precarious position that could be compromised easily.

Of course, I don't know how your mind works, so that's just my interpretation.

[GZA]

Originally Posted by athenian200

I think it means that you feel insecure about your situation, you feel like you're in a precarious position that could be compromised easily.

Of course, I don't know how your mind works, so that's just my interpretation.

Hmmm, you might be on to something. I don't know how to explain it, but I am kind of worried about some aspects of my situation. Not my physical situation (as in, my home, and the safetly of my neighborhood) but the mental situation, particularly pertaining to other people directing me and influencing me. I'm worried that what I am told to do will end up being totally different from what I should do. I don't know, I'm just worried, because I know I'll end up doing what I'm told... that sucks

[Athenian200]

Originally Posted by GZA

Hmmm, you might be on to something. I don't know how to explain it, but I am kind of worried about some aspects of my situation. Not my physical situation (as in, my home, and the safetly of my neighborhood) but the mental situation.

That's why I didn't specify. Even if it's not related to a physical situation, the idea of a problem in a physical situation could be a metaphor for worry over a mental situation by the subconscious.

, particularly pertaining to other people directing me and influencing me. I'm worried that what I am told to do will end up being totally different from what I should do. I don't know, I'm just worried, because I know I'll end up doing what I'm told... that sucks

So...

The height of the building represents anxiety about a situation turning out a certain way. The roof shrinking represents your options for making it turn out positively being constrained. The point where you're too big, and presumably fall off, is the point where everything finally goes negatively, because you were finally constrained to possibilities/choices that couldn't possibly turn out as well as the ones you had before, so you "fall" in terms of what you can do.

Does that make sense? Or am I way off?

[Zergling]

It doesn't really sound like a useful interpretation though, since just about everyone has some issue or fear they are dealing with t some degree, so there aren't really any situations where someone could have this dream and not be worried about something. (Which would be needed to test out whether this type of interpretation works or the dream is just random output from some part of the brain thinking about buildings.)

[The_Liquid_Laser]

I think it's best to discuss dream meanings with someone who knows you well. I don't think there is an objective way to interpret dreams, but it is a good way to be introspective and discover things about yourself that you might not be aware of.

[scantilyclad]

i have a dream dictionary, which is sometimes helpful, but i'm too lazy to go get it and look up things from your dream. i apologize.

[Recluse]

Originally Posted by scantilyclad

i have a dream dictionary, which is sometimes helpful, but i'm too lazy to go get it and look up things from your dream. i apologize.

Tease!

[prplchknz]

I keep having dreams where I go crazy.

One was where I wrote 125 love letters to my room mate's boyfriend confessing my love and saying how we'd be perfect together and how he should break up with her. The dream ended with him telling me that I was crazy and never wanted to see me again. (I would never do this in real life. He's a cool person but I'm certaintly not in Love with him.)

Then one where I get caught with some drugs and I start making death threats. and threatening to kill the person if they turn me in. I remember getting graphic about it.

I think dreams have meanings but they're more personal then universal. Two people having similar dreams, can, or I believe, have a different meaning to them.

[Jennifer]

Dream dictionaries are useful, but only (in my opinion) in the sense they provide the cultural lexicon that your brain might be working under.

(IOW, symbols do not have universal meanings; they only mean what the individual has come to SEE them to mean, which is a product of life and thus cultural assimilation.)

So a bear in one culture showing up in a dream could mean a very different thing than a bear showing up in a dream in another culture.

And the overriding lexicon is the "personal" one: A "bear" is whatever your brain has decided it means.

So when we interpret dreams, I think it is important to look at the dream and its symbols in specific terms of our individual life. And thus strangers are not really good at this. You or someone who knows you well is more apt to properly interpret what your brain was thinking when you had a dream.

What I really see dreams as are the fears/desires of the individual, using whatever building blocks (i.e., symbols) happened to be accessible even if the symbol itself is irrelevant to the value. It just gets "hijacked" to represent the fear/desire in question.

Thus, your college instructor Mr. Wiggles might have no relevance to your fear/desire, but he might show up in your dream that night if you had a class with him that day, one of the "extras" your brain is using to help you process your fear/desire. The events of the day (things we experienced, things we thought about) are like puzzle pieces the brain dumps on the table, then saying to itself, "Okay, how can I put these all together to express my underlying emotions?")

Did this make sense?