Dreaming

Paper Summary:

This paper discusses various theories on dreaming. The first part looks at the writing of Sigmund Freud regarding dreams as the royal road to the unconscious. It shows how implicit in Freud's writings is the view that dreams evolved as humans were forced to sublimate their natural desires to live in society. It then looks at the work of J. Allan Hobson, who saw dreams as a result of the natural physiological workings of the brain. The last part examines the work of Owen Flanagan, who seeks a middle ground between dreams as the royal road to the unconsciousness and dreams. However, though he is far from ascribing to dreams with the value which Freud placed on them, it examines how Flanagan also acknowledges that dreams may have values of self-expression.

From the Paper:

"If dreams were truly sublimated desires, however, then the young child would be more likely to dream of repressed wants such as the cookie she was not allowed to eat before dinner or the toy he saw while at the supermarket with mommy. After all, children are taught to sublimate their desires at a younger age. Biological research into sleep also shows that many mammals do, in fact, have dreams. Primate research involving gorillas who have been taught sign language often communicate about the images they see in their heads while they are asleep. While such accounts may be explained in Freudian terms as an animal's wish to be free, it also provides a startling challenge to the notion that humans evolved the capacity to dream as a social adaptation."

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• Term Paper # 49594 : "Dreams and Dreaming"

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