Psychology Freud- dreaming notes.

Freud's theory of dreams (the iceberg metaphor) - 'Dreaming is a very important part of a person's
life. It is through dreams that people's unconscious wishes and desires can be understood.

Key definitions:

Manifest content- what the dream is said to be about by the dreamer, the story that the dreamer
tells.

Latent Content- the meaning underlying the dream. If symbols from the manifest content are
translated by an analyst they can reveal unconscious thoughts.

Condensation- when many thoughts and elements from the unconscious are represented in one
dream symbol.

Displacement- when something that seems to be unimportant in the dream is made central, to shift
attention from what is really important.

Secondary elaboration- how the dreamer builds a story when telling another person what the dream
was about, adding to and changing things to make the dream make sense, this makes analysis
difficult.

Psychoanalysis

What is psychoanalysis? It is a form of therapy based on Freud's theory. It is sometimes

called the 'talking cure' because patients are encouraged to talk through their problem in
order to achieve mental health.

Definition of Psychoanalysis- Freud's theory designed to help release unconscious thoughts.

There are 3 different methods that can be used in psychoanalytic therapy: Free association,
Dream Analysis, Slip of the tongue.

Free association:

the ability to clear your mind and being able to say/ draw whatever pops into your mind.

Dream Analysis:

A method used by Freud to help uncover unconscious thoughts, by analysing dreams and
uncovering symbols.

Slip of the tongue:

when someone uses the wrong word for something or someone else. Freud analysed these slips
to uncover unconscious thoughts.

Case Study: Little hans.

● The case study was carried out by interviews with Little Hans Father

The case study in brief:

The study was carried out by Freud in 1909 about a 5 year old boy that had a phobia of horses.
He developed his fear after seeing a horse that was pulling a carriage, fall over and kick his
feet in the air. Little Hans was terrified at the thought of the horse being dead. According to
Freud, little Hans was experiencing the Oedipus Complex wanting to possess his mother and
saw his father as a rival. He DISPLACED the fear of his father onto horses. The blinkers on
the horse reminded Little Hans of his father's glasses and the black around the horse's mouth
reminded Little Hans of his father's beard and moustache.

Key terms:

Phallic- term used to refer to anything that is related to or said to represent the male penis,
or the term can refer to the penis.

Oedipus complex- the idea that a boy from about the age of 4 years old will have unconscious
feelings for his mother and want his father out of the way through then fears his father and
also feels guilty.

Evaluating Freud's dream theory.

Pro's:

● Dream analysis is unique and finds the specific meaning to that dream.
● His methods gather in depth data about real life, listening to patients for
long periods of time.

Con's:

● Biased results.
● Ideas were hard to measure, as unconscious doesn't exist in terms of
measurements.
● Alternative theories.