Hall 1984 explains that there may be differences in the contents of dreams for men and women. Men tend to dream about more outdoor events and have more aggressive contents than women. Women however, dream more indoor events and have been found that only 1/30 dream sexual content, where as men 1/10.
One psychological theory of the function of dreaming comes from Freud in the 1900. His main idea is that dreams are a ‘psychic safety valve’. They serve the main purpose of hiding unacceptable thoughts from consciousness that would be damaging to the person. During sleep, the wishes and impulses are freed as dreams.
This explains why not many dreams are remembered, however, for the dreams that are remembered, they may appear in a metaphorical way. This is known as the Manifest content of the dream, which will be what the dreamer reports. The actual meaning of the dream is called the Latent content. The reason for the meaning to be hidden is for the dreamer’s benefit of not knowing their own damaging wishes. By remembering a dream, the person has the chance to understand their unconscious by converting the Manifest content in to the Latent content. Freud has suggested a few symbols and their general meaning. For example, neckties, weapons and trees all mean male genital organs. The weapon may be a gun and that may be included in a dream by using it to rob someone. This is therefore meant to symbolise the wish to be sexually dominant. If the person was being robbed, it means that they want to be sexually dominated.
Collee1993 explains how metaphors can be ambiguous and allow manipulation in order to make sense of them. What a symbol may mean to one person may mean another to someone else. In Freud’s situation, he thinks a door represents female genitals. Another psychologist may incorporate a door as opportunity. Griffen 1998 objected to the fact that dreams are metaphors and think that a person thinking about impotence is just as likely to dream about it.
Freud has been criticised by both Foulkes 1971 and Cohen 1973 with dreams that make sense as it may perhaps have occurred during the day. For example, a stressful problem in the day appeared in the dream and there was no protective imagery. There is also very little empirical evidence to the suggested symbols and their relation to people’s dreams. Hall 1966 and other psychologists feel that dreams have association to the waking mind, so it is inaccurate to suggest that dreams are there to release unconscious thoughts.
As Freud’s interpretation of dreams was put forward in the 1900, it may be unreliable to apply it to this present day.
