Taking Me Seriously Part 5

I don't believe in the Freudian interpretation of dreams. That is to say, I don't think that dreams have any sort of inherent symbolic meaning. Now, in psychology, dreams are a bit of a touchy subject, since even neuro-scientists aren't one-hundred percent certain about the full reason behind our dreams. They're pretty sure they have the basics down, but there's still some disagreement within the community. What this means for psychologists is that the entire concept of dreams is still widely open for interpretation, and there are many, many different theories behind how dreams should be read, as a form of psychoanalysis. I make no claims that I am absolutely certain about anything, the following is just a few theories I have.

I don't believe in dreams being used for psychoanalysis. Not in an overly-specific manner anyway. Now, if you're having recurring dreams about being attacked by dogs, then yes, this is probably a sign that you have a fear of dogs. For more broad subjects, dream content can be a useful tool for studying phobias, desires, etc. However, I don't believe that dreams can send very specific messages, especially when they're increasingly cryptic. There are some psychologists who will tell you that if you dream frequently about, say, being eaten alive by your own bed, this means that you have some sort of primal fear of sleep.* I don't think that your brain sends you subliminal messages through dreams, because your brain is you. Your brain can't send you messages because you and your brain are one entity.

I'm more under the impression that dreams are a result of your brain being forced to perform some sort of activity while dormant. Since it is essentially impossible to think nothing, but you aren't giving yourself any sort of conscious commands, you simply begin firing off random thoughts, as something to fill the space in between. This is how you end up with very odd dreams with vaguely familiar elements. Those are your memories manifesting within your own dreams. Or something along those lines.

*This example is obviously ridiculous, but it's more to demonstrate a point than anything else.