Individual Psychoanalytic/Psychodynamic Therapy :- The early psychoanalysts recognized the power of dreams, strongly calling for therapists to work with clients’ dreams in therapy to illuminate both conscious and unconscious conflicts. Perhaps most notably, Sigmund Freud suggested that the primary purpose of dreams is to satisfy primitive, infantile wishes. Unacceptable to our conscious minds, he proposed that such wishes are repressed during waking life. Presenting an alternate view, Carl Jung believed dreams to be a normal and creative expression of one’s unconscious mind. Asserting that dreams serve a compensatory function, Jung stated that dreams reflect issues that are unexpressed during waking life. He thus believed that dreams can provide a vital means of uniting the conscious and unconscious by making dreamers aware of hidden feelings. Dream interpretation remains one of the central components in Jungian therapy. A third notable early dream theorist was Alfred Adler. he asserted that the conscious and unconscious minds are the same, and thus the individual’s waking personality is reflected in dreams. According to Adler, dreams are an expression of the conscious mind and provide the person with reassurance, security, and protection against damage to self-worth. Thus, dreams are a way of preparing for future activities or events and fulfill a problem-solving role.Read More
