Some envision dreams as simply the brain's technique for memory consolidation and clean-up activity, know as the reverse learning theory (Crick & Mitchison, 1983). Others see dreams as an emotional safety net, emphasizing the rich emotions and deep personal meaning that dreamers sometimes experience (Cartwright, 1990).
This theory has the advantage that it is based on detailed information about the brain processes, but the disadvantage is that it does not fully explain the existence of coherent dreams. On the whole, the activation-synthesis hypothesis has the advantage that it renders dreams meaningless and removes any need to understand or interpret them. Some would argue that this is also its biggest disadvantage.
Outline and evaluate one psychological theory of dreaming
Though there have been many theories on dreams throughout the years, the two most commonly known were those of Sigmund Freud and Carl Gustav Jung.
Freud believed that there was a psychological technique that made it possible to interpret dreams. Freud believed that all living phenomena are determined by the laws of cause and effect and that dreams followed these same laws. He also believed that dreams played an important role in providing information to material hidden in the subconscious mind.
Before meeting Freud, Carl Gustav Jung was already developing his own theories on dreams. In the beginning, Jung was in agreement with Freud. However, after researching some of his patients, Jung noticed a pattern developing among dreams that did not agree with the beliefs of Freud. It was then that they went their separate ways. Jung found that there were common dream symbols that ran across different cultures throughout centuries of time. These dream symbols remained the same for everyone regardless of backgrounds.
According to Freud’s wish-fulfilment theory, dreams represent the fulfilment of mainly repressed desires. An individual copes with the repressed information by having dreams that express the actual dream (manifest content) rather than its true meaning (latent content). Latent context can be discovered through dream analysis. Freud’s theory can be criticised in many negative ways. Jung believed that Freud focused too much on the sexual orientation of dreams, and so shifted this to social influences. Jung found evidence for creativity between dreams and acts of creativity. He did not see the dreams as deceptive, with hidden meanings, whereas Freud did. Jung believed that dreams should be viewed as a whole and not picked apart or focus on one small detail.
To conclude, this theory cannot be falsified because there is no objective evidence. Reports can only be subjected as one dream cannot be experienced by many different people. The final criticism is that Jung claimed that artists and inventors dreamed from the collective unconscious, as apposed to the personal unconscious as Freud believed.