Dream analysis
Consciousness is the state of being aware of oneself and one’s environment. It is a quality of the mind that senses and processes experiences to formulate one’s ideas of the world and oneself, create associations, and focus attention on tasks.
Dreams are an alternate state of consciousness. Although a dreaming individual is less aware of his environment than he may be in a waking state, he is still self-aware and able to think. Through a study of a subject’s dreams, this paper will try to lend credence to one of the many theories on dreams.
There are 5 main schools of thought on the purpose and meaning of dreams. The psychodynamic theory, widely propagated by Sigmund Freud, maintains that dreams are symbolic representations of one’s often immoral desires. The simplest biological explanation is that dreams keep one alive during sleep by periodically activating the brain to prevent one from slipping into a coma. The other biological explanation is activation synthesis, or random activation. According to this theory, the brain stem randomly activates parts of the brain during REM sleep, and the brain strives to weave coherence into the random stimuli, thereby producing dreams. The two opposing cognitive theories argue that dreams either assist memory or clear the brain of unnecessary neural connections.
In one of the subject’s dreams, the subject was a sorceress in a small, threatened kingdom, and a companion of the princess, a young girl with messy curled blonde hair and big black eyes and as innocent as a baby. The subject is her caretaker as well as companion. The dream was long and involved, but the only event the subject remembered clearly was an attempted coup which involved some kind of harm to the princess, wherein the subject blasted the responsible party and had him in the stocks with the subject laughing over him. This dream was likely a mixture of a fantasy role-playing game the subject had been playing extensively for some days, a story in a comic the subject had read a few days prior to the dream, and assorted animations the subject had watched over the years. Perhaps the princess, a vulnerable child in need of protection, was an expression of the subject’s maternal instincts, and the subjugation of the would-be usurper an expression of the subject’s willingness to protect those in her care.
In another dream, the subject ran through the corridors of her school with a group of classmates, trying to put out small fires which erupted sporadically. The subject wound up in her math teacher’s classroom while he was giving a lecture, and then the bell rang and sprinklers on the ceiling activated and extinguished all of the fires. This dream is set in a familiar environment. The fires may easily represent the subjects’ sense of urgency in getting to her classes, and the lecture certainly reflects a real-life situation. The downpour at the bell is quite probably associated with the subject’s rousing at the end of the period. From a psychodynamic perspective, perhaps the small fires signify some other goal that the subject strives to achieve.
In the third dream, the setting jumps around often, and objects and places tended to be in different places when the subject turned back to them. There was a hotel and bellboys, a food loft at a department store, a friend in a plane, and the last scene was that of an animated girl walking over rooftops towards the sunset. This dream is likely a mixture of real-life experiences, daydreams, and cartoons the subject had watched.
From what can be seen through the subject’s dreams, it would appear that dreams are random sequences of impressions drawn out from one’s memories, which the brain is at times hard pressed to link into a coherent story. This agrees with the activation synthesis theory, so I conclude this paper with the consideration that although the other theories may hold true as well, the random activation theory is a likely explanation for dreams.
Bibliography
Myers, David G. Psychology: Fifth Edition. Worth Publishers: New York, 1986
http://www.wikipedia.org
The Mind Hidden and Divided
Freud’s unconscious, operation, hypnosis
That patients undergoing surgery in a drugged state could subconsciously remember the comments made by those around them is very intriguing. It rather reminds me of those experiments that showed that plants grow larger and healthier with positive remarks than with negative remarks. It would be interesting to know precisely how the anesthesia works to suppress pain and other sensations, and the extent to which it limits our senses. Perhaps certain parts of out brain are ‘shut down’, so to speak, while other parts remain functioning, so that remarks heard in an anesthized state may be heard and stored in a subconscious portion of the brain.
REM sleep: Pilot Light of the Mind
Freud – dreams are a fulfillment of wishes we repress when we are awake because they are immoral
Vertes – dreams keep us alive. They function as a ‘pilot’ light to keep the brain from slipping into a coma during sleep. Victims of SIDS and ONDS likely have REM sleep deficiencies
Hobson and McCarley – dreams are a result of random activation of parts of the brain without being able to carry out the actions. The brain stem cuts off the rest of the body from the brain during REM sleep so that we don’t act out our dreams during sleep.
Winson – dreams are replays of activities and help us to learn
Crick and Mitchison – dreams are a process in which we forget unwanted content
Unit 4
this unit was not really all that interesting, to tell the truth. this is probably because it resembled biology class a little too much. the brain unit was all new for me at least. still, i've learned some new things, such as how sight works, how weak taste is, and the power of smell to evoke feelings and memories.
The Biological Unit
I found this unit interesting once I got involved with reading it. Although there were some confusing terms to memorize, the complicated details were not part of what we had to learn, so it was kind of like reading biology without worrying about techinical data or reading history without dates to memorize. The concept of semi-specialized parts in the brain working together as a whole, but with flexibility enough that the whole could compensate for certain losses, was interesting. It was also interesting to learn about how neurons actually function, and how drugs work.
the powerpoint served to outline key points that we should pay attention to. concept mapping didn't go so well for me; trying to keep track of the relationships between bits of information and organizing it all into a neat diagram seemed impossible to me. The seminar was highly enjoyable, and it gave us all a chance to look into the way others thought and why they did so. It introduced us to new perspectives and interpretations, which I think is good for understanding.
