Page 509 - Understanding Psychology

Figure 17.5 What Do Our Dreams Mean?
While we sleep, our dreams probably do not follow logical thought patterns. Because of this, Freud considered dreams the purest form of free associa- tion. What do therapists hope to learn from ana- lyzing dreams?
Dream Analysis
Freud believed that dreams express unconscious thoughts and feelings. In a tech- nique known as dream analysis, the psycho- analyst interprets the client’s dream to find the unconscious thoughts and feelings in it.
Freud believed that dreams contain mani- fest and latent content. Manifest content refers to what you remember about your dream. For instance, you recall seeing your house fall apart, brick by brick, in last night’s dream. Latent content refers to the hidden meanings represented symbolically in the dream that the therapist interprets from the manifest content. For example, a therapist might interpret a dream involving a deteriorating house to mean that you are upset about current health problems or are worried about your health.
Transference
Sooner or later, the analyst begins to appear in the patient’s associa- tions and dreams. The patient may begin feeling toward the analyst the way she feels toward some other important figure in her life. This process is called transference.
If the patient can recognize what is happening, transference may allow her to experience her true feelings toward the important person. Often, instead of experiencing and understanding her feelings, the patient simply begins acting toward the therapist in the same way she used to act toward the important person, usually one of her parents.
The therapist does not allow the patient to resort to these tactics. Remaining impersonal and anonymous, the therapist always directs the patient back to herself. The therapist may ask, for example, “What do you see when you imagine my face?” The patient may see the therapist as an angry, frowning, unpleasant figure. The therapist never takes this personally, instead asking, “What does this make you think of?” Gradually, it will become clear to both patient and therapist that the patient is reacting to the neutral therapist as though he or she were a threatening parent, for example.
By understanding transference, the patient becomes aware of hidden feelings and motivations. She may begin to understand, for example, the roots of trouble with her boss at work. The boss, the therapist, or any per- son in a position of authority may be viewed in the same way that, as a child, she saw her parents.
The purpose of psychoanalysis is to show the role of the unconscious and to provide insight for the client. This type of classical psyche (mind) analysis, however, is not for everyone. It requires an average of 600 ses- sions and years of meeting with a psychoanalyst. Psychoanalysis has
dream analysis: a technique used by psychoanalysts to interpret the content of patients’ dreams
transference: the process, experienced by the patient, of feeling toward an analyst or therapist the way he or she feels or felt toward some other important figure in his or her life
Chapter 17 / Therapy and Change 495