Essay Questions

Expound the limitation of foremost “Material of Dreams.”

Freud expounds, “To begin with, it happens that certain material appears in the dream-content which cannot be subsequently recognized, in the waking state, as being part of one's knowledge and experience. One remembers clearly enough having dreamed of the thing in question, but one cannot recall the actual experience or the time of its occurrence.” “Experience and knowledge” are the prime sources of dreams. However, the correlation between dreams and them (‘experience and knowledge’) is not always direct. The inability to link the dream with a past experience complicates the process of discerning the dream’s sources. In the case of fully repressed memories that trigger dreams, dreamers cannot deconstruct the implication of the dreams because the memories which trigger it are not in the conscious.

Why do 'external stimuli' trigger dreams?

Freud expounds, “That we may at any time be awakened by intenser stimuli should prove to us "that the mind has remained in constant communication with the external world even during sleep." The sensory stimuli that reach us during sleep may easily become the source of dreams…Thus a strong light may fall upon the eyes, a noise may be heard, or an odour may irritate the mucous membranes of the nose.” Sleeping does not deactivate the sensory organs’ working. Interaction between the sensory organs and the sleep environment can activate dreams. The body’s reactions to the stimuli elicit mental imageries that characterize dreams.

How do dreams activate mental illnesses?

Freud reports, “Hohnbaum asserts (see Krauss) that the first attack of insanity is frequently connected with a terrifying anxiety-dream, and that the predominating idea is related to this dream. Sante de Sanctis adduces similar observations in respect of paranoiacs, and declares the dream to be, in some of them, "la vraie cause determinante de la folie." Dreams which trigger anxiety can render the dreamers delusional. As a result of the anxiety, a dream may become hysterical which is an indicator of an upcoming mental infirmity. Obsession with dreams can lay the ground for severe mental disorders especially when the anxiety is not tamed in time. Paranoiacs develop their paranoia as a result of scary dreams which convince them that they are at susceptible to attacks.