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Writer’s Memo Through doing the research about dreams I have learned a vast about of important information from how to write an annotated bibliography, how to use VCU’s library system online, how to critically dissect as well as review my paper and the most important what different people believe a dream means to them. Once again my knowledge of VCU’s online library research system came in handy. Because I knew the correct ways to search of information through this data base it helped eliminate unneeded information. The writing workshops gave me and in depth look and how to read a paper from the readers point of view versus just the writer’s voice. It also gave me a chance to see how other people would create such a paper and gave me tips on where I was lacking strength. Having someone else read and criticized your work humbles you as well as gives you room to grow as a writer. Along with the workshop having you look over my paper and giving me your feedback helped be discover ways I could elaborate and fix my claim. Since this is the second time I have written and read research on the topic of dreams I feel like I have a stronger understanding of how beneficial dreams are to your lives. If I have dream that frightens me I know have a idea of where it came from and how it relates to my day to day life because I have read so many different views and opinions on dream analysis. Learning about the different ways people view the ‘meaning’ of a dream really gives me a new appreciation to the unconscious thought process. It allowed me to see how complex the human mind is in the fact that we can create vivid ideas while we are technically not in a conscious thinking state of mind. It opened my eyes on different ways I can interpret a dream that bothers me when I wake up in the morning as well as allow me to know not to take what I dream to deep to heart because at the end of the day it is just a hallucination of the sleeping mind.

Dreams are one of the most complex ideas that no one is particularly sure of their origins or reasons for existence. A dream is defined by Maria as a succession of images, thoughts or emotions that pass through the mind as you sleep. I believe that dreams are very useful in the helping of many psychological disorders (Marozza). Dreams allow the therapist to tap into the patient’s unconscious mind. Being about to understand what is going on in the unconscious mind of a patient can be vital to understanding what the person is going through and their motives for certain actions and feelings. I know that everyone has had dreams that has made them wake up and question the things they are doing in their life. So you can on image and assume that dreams are representations of things we experience. By incorporating dream analysis into psychological therapy would be very wise decisions. Granted there are a few down falls to this form of psycho analysis when practiced successfully it can be a very useful psychological tool. When it comes to using dream analysis in psychology there are many different opinions on its usefulness. Most psychologists who don’t believe in the power of the unconscious mind aren't too fond on the idea of dream therapy. Mainly because they believe that a person’s psychological problems come from behavioral traits or environmental habits that are rewarding these negative ideas. When dream recall is used some people alter parts of their dreams. Also they may withhold certain elements of the dream which doesn't make it a valid or useful to the therapy process. Even though people have these views a majority of the psychological world uses dream analysis in some form in order to achieve a deeper connection with their patient as well reveal unconscious ideas that could be the cause of certain feeling and behaviors. Although people believe dream therapy can be misleading I believe that it can be a helpful tool in helping people with psychological problems because they can help reveal a lot of our unconscious thoughts. People may believe dream therapy can be misleading; I believe there are many ways that a dream can be interpreted in order to understand the underling idea. I am sure that everyone has woken up from a dream asking themselves what made this dream come into their heads. Personally my grandmother has told me tones of old wives tales about what certain things mean in a dream for example if you dream about fish then you’re pregnant or someone around you is pregnant. These wives tales may not be accurate but research has discovered more accurate ways of analyzing dreams. Research done by clinical scientist G. Halliday has shown that based on the idea of great scientist like Freud and ideas from Stekel he has developed six methods to which you can analysis a dream. One of his methods is putting the dream in new context (Halliday). This theory is used primarily with nightmare analysis. The therapist talks the client through their nightmare making sure that every single detail is analyzed and put into a relatable context. Dream interpretation is very beneficial because it gives therapist guidelines and ways to break down the information that a client gives them. Dream interpretation has led to the deeper understanding of what part of our real life has to do with our subconscious dream reality. Although people may believe dream therapy can be misleading; I believe sometimes there are experiences from our childhood that we don’t remember that can be resurfacing in our dreams. As a child is growing there are stages that the child passes through from infancy to young adult hood. Many different psychologists have studied these stages and have developed theories to how they can affect adults in later life. During the oral stage when a child is learning to drink from a bottle or the mother’s and in some cases using a pacifier these are all object that are used as some form of stimuli to the mouth. If a child is taken away from any of these stimuli to early or of holds on to the certain stimulus for too long the child can develop a fixation. A fixation can occur during any of the 5 stages of life span development. The article Therapy Dream states that “dream therapy reveals child-like emotional dependency and profound longing for connection with an important, larger than life being” (Leob). For example if a patient comes into a therapist office needing help quitting smoking cigarettes. The therapist may ask the patient to tell him about dreams he had the past couple of weeks or as many as he can remember. If the most of the patient’s dreams have to do with him eating, talking or food these all could be signs that lead the doctor to assume that this patient may have a oral fixation. The therapist ask personal question about when the child stopped using a pacifier and if his parents remember it being a hard or easy transition. If the response is yes this oral fixation was called by early or delayed detachment during the oral stage that lead the patient to be stimulated by the motions involved in smoking a cigarette. Without the dream theory the patient never would have revealed his subconscious thought about his regression back into his oral stage of development. Dream therapy is unbelievably helpful in diagnosing subconscious and suppressed childhood developmental problems that can affect ones present day adult life. People may believe dream therapy may be misleading but I believe it can also be help in curing people of phobias. When a person is afraid of heights for instant they may suffer from dreams that enable this negative behavior. Ones dreams at times can be so full of clear and vivid imagery that it can seem as real as real life. When a person suffers from a phobia their dreams can be one of the first steps to resolving the issue. A phobia is a learned reaction of fear from a traumatic stimulus that has happened to a person. Once your dream has been analyzed the scientist can then find the origin of the drama and ways in which they can resolve the issue (Khodarahimi). Dream analysis to solve phobias is practiced largely by scientists who believe in cognitive-behavioral therapy. I read in article written by Jacques that cognitive-behavioral therapy is defined as “your thoughts lead to your behaviors whether negative or good” (Montangero). With this basis of thoughts controlling your actions by understanding what the dream means can help direct the therapist into which ways they must adjust the patient’s line of thinking. So if a patient is afraid of heights then they may have a dream that they recited a speech in front of a large crowd. They weren't sure why this dream brought them so much anxiety because they normally are comfortable in front of large crowds. When the therapist tells the patient to describe where she was giving the speech patient describes a large podium standing tall over the crowd of listeners. After the therapist hears this to some small detail the therapist knows that the anxiety caused by this dream stems from the patients fear of height not public speaking. If the cognitive-behavioral therapist can redirect the persons thinking of height then the dreams would stop and they would stop reinforcing the negative feelings of fear. I believe dream therapy also has its benefits in the psychological treatment called free association therapy. Free association therapy is a client based type of treatment; it relies on the full relaxation of complete honestly of the patient. The patient is asked to lay back and divulge every aspect of their life’s and dreams in order form a connection with patient and therapist. The therapist is not to ask question based on the information given but rather redirect each statement made by the patient into a question seeking for the patient to go into more detail but without seeming pushy. This idea of therapy is similar to the “ dissociation" unconscious communication” (Sands) which is discussed in the article On the Royal Road Together. This use of indirect questioning allows the patient to divulge information that they wouldn’t readily be willing to communicate because of the way the questions are being asked. Asking questions that allow the patient to think deeply versus just answering what they think sounds best allows for the dream therapy to be more effective. This approach to dream therapy has to goals to form a stronger connection with patient and therapist because the form of questions is designed to make the patient feel more relaxed. Also it is a more flaw free and accurate depiction of what one dreams during their times of rest. Dream analysis has tons of useful and reliable reasons for why it is an effective from of therapy. I feel that I have addressed the most important reason of all. The fact that dreams can bring up and reveal repressed and unconscious thoughts that we have tried to forget or even unconsciously forgotten is just one of the many benefits of dream therapy. From interpreting dream meanings to strategic methods in allowing a patient to reveal their dreams accurately and reliably to the therapist during dream therapy is successful. Granted that dream recollection can be very subjective to the persons own ability to recall. Just having the knowledge of how to effectively analysis and inter-operate dreams makes it all worthwhile. Although people believe dream therapy can be misleading I believe that it can be a helpful tool in helping people with psychological problems because they can help reveal a lot of our unconscious thoughts.

Work Cited
Halliday, G. “Reflections on the Meanings of Dreams Promoted by Reading Stekel.” Dreaming 20.4 (2010): 219-226 Academic Search Complete. EBSCO. Web. 06 Oct. 2011
Khodarahimi, Siamak. “Dreams In Jungian Psychology: The Use Of Dreams As An Instrument
For Research, Diagnosis and Treatment of Social Phobias.” Malaysian Journal of Medical Sciences16.4(2009): 38-45. Academic Search Complete. Web. 11 Nov.2011
Leob, Barbara. “Therapy Dreams.” Revision 31.1 (2010): 32-35. Academic Search Complete. Web. 11 Nov. 2011
Marozza, Maria. “When does a Dream being to have ‘Meaning’? Linguistic Constraints and Significant moment in the Construction of the meaning of a dream.” Journal of Analytical Psychology 50.5 (2005): 693-705.Academic Search Complete. EBSCO. WEB. 06 Oct. 2011
Montangero, Jacques. “Using Dreams In Cognitive Behavioral Psychotherapy: Theory, Method, and Examples.” Dreaming 19.4 (2009): 239-254. Academic Search Complete. Web. 11 Nov.2011
Sands, Susan H. “On The Royal Road Together: The Analytic Function Of Dreams In Activating Dissociative Unconscious Communication.” Psychoanalytic Dialogues20.4 (2010):357- 373. Academic Search Complete. Web. 11 Nov. 2011

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