SURREALISMand the Interpretation of Dreams

PSYCHO-ANALYSIS

“Illusions commend themselves to us because they save us pain and allow us to enjoy pleasure instead. We must therefore accept it without

complaint when they sometimes collide with a bit of reality against which they are dashed to pieces.”

-Sigmund Freud

SIGMUND FREUD: FATHER OF PSYCHO-ANALYSIS

Sigmund Freud was born on May 6, 1856 at Freiberg, Moravia, now Pribor in the Czech Republic. Freud developed the techniques of "Psycho-Analysis" for the treatment of psychological and emotional disorders.

In 1896 in his paper, "The Aetiology of Hysteria," Freud first used the term "Psycho-Analysis."

PSYCHO-ANALYSIS DEFINED

Psychoanalysis is primarily devoted to the study of human psychological functioning and behavior, although it also can be applied to societies. Psychoanalysis has three applications:

1. a method of investigation of the mind and the way one thinks;

2. a systematized set of theories about human behavior;

3. a method of treatment of psychological or emotional illness.

WHAT ARE DREAMS?

According to psychologist Sigmund Freud, dreams are the window to our subconscious world.

A dream is a completely valid psychological phenomenon, specifically the fulfillment of wishes; they can be classified in the continuity of comprehensible waking mental states; they are constructed through highly complicated intellectual activity.

THE SUBCONSCIOUS

One of Freud's more important discoveries is that emotions buried in the unconscious surface in disguised form during dreaming, and that the remembered fragments of dreams can help uncover the buried feelings.

WHAT DREAMS MEAN

Freud argues that dreams are wish-fulfillments, and will ultimately argue that those wishes are the result of repressed or frustrated sexual desires. The anxiety surrounding these desires turns some dreams into nightmares.

PSYCHOANALYSIS AND PERSONALITY

The human mind is analogous to an iceberg. The tip that rises above warns us that our deepest images, thoughts, fears, and urges remain buried deep beneath the surface.

Conscious: the tip of the iceberg.

Preconscious: the ice beneath produced by experiences that can be easily recalled.

Unconscious: the deepest part of the ice beneath; ordinarily not accessible to us.

REPRESSION

Anxiety-provoking ideas are pushed beneath the surface to the unconscious by a force Freud called ‘repression’. He believes that most, if not all of our dreams are a form of repression. It can only be uncovered through Psycho-Analysis.

FREQUENCY OF DREAMING

The first dream of the night is the shortest, perhaps 10 minutes in length, while after 8 hours of sleep, dream periods can be 45 minutes to an hour long. We all dream every night, about one dream period every 90 minutes.

People who say they never dream simply never remember their dreams. You may have more than one dream during a REM (dream) period, separated by short arousals that are most often forgotten.

HOW TO KEEP TRACK OF YOUR DREAMS

Remembering your dreams is the starting place for learning to have lucid dreams. If you don't recall your dreams, even if you do have a lucid dream, you won't remember it! And, in order to be able to recognize your dreams as dreams while they are happening, you have to be familiar with the way your own dreams work.

Before it will be worth your time to work on lucid dream induction methods, you should be able to recall at least one dream every night.

HOW TO KEEP TRACK OF YOUR DREAMS

Getting plenty of sleep is the first step to good dream recall. If you are rested it will be easier to focus on your goal of recalling dreams, and you won't mind so much taking the time during the night to record your dreams.

Another benefit of getting plenty of sleep is that dream periods get longer and closer together as the night proceeds.

HOW TO KEEP TRACK OF YOUR DREAMS

When you awaken in the night and recall what you were dreaming, record the dream right away. If you don't, in the morning you may find you remember nothing about the dream, and you will certainly have forgotten many interesting details.

So, whenever you remember a dream, write it down. If you don't feel like writing out a long dream story at 3 AM, note down key points of the plot. Also write down the precise content of any dialogue from the dream, because words will almost inevitably be forgotten in a very short time.

THE SURREALISTS

Surrealism is a cultural movement that began in the early 1920s, and is best known for the visual artworks and writings of the group members.

Surrealist works feature the element of surprise and unexpected juxtapositions however, many Surrealist artists and writers regard their work as an expression of the philosophical movement first and foremost, with the works being an artifact.

ANDRE BRETON

French poet, essayist, critic, and editor, chief promoter and one of the founders of the Surrealist movement.

As a medical student, Breton was interested in mental illness; his reading of the works of Sigmund Freud (whom he met in 1921) introduced him to the concept of the unconscious. Influenced by psychiatry and Symbolist poetry, he joined the Dadaists.

SURREALISM & PSYCHOANALYSIS

According to Breton Surrealism is the dictation of thought, free from "any control by the reason and of any aesthetic or moral preoccupation."

The Surrealist theory was heavily larded with concepts borrowed from Psychoanalysis. More, Importantly, Surrealism aimed to eliminate the distinction between dream and reality, reason and madness, objectivity and subjectivity.