Is dream analysis a pseudo-science?

[liveyoungdiefast]

So obviously I don't believe in revelations from God, or ghosts, or spirits, or demons or any of that. I do have very vivid and very fucked up dreams though, so I often wonder if it can mean anything. I've studied psychology to a point and understand how the mind processes thoughts, there's not much on 'dream science' though.

So what do you think, can falling out of a window really be your mind subconsciously thinking about a desire for you to lose weight? Or are dreams mostly just random and meaningless?

[Hitsumei]

Random and meaningless -- fun though.

[joeactor]

I think dream analysis could fall into the psychology domain.

After all, psychology is a not as precise a science as, say, mathematics.
There is a lot of interpretation that goes on.

Dreaming seems to serve a useful purpose, so perhaps interpretation of dreams could be used to gain insights into issue...

Needs more study,
JoeActor

[Squid]

Unless you get talk to someone who has an affinity for fringe psychology or psychoanalysis then dream interpretation is nothing more than entertainment.  Dreams are really just a by-product of an altered state of consciousness we call sleep.  Our most vivid dreams occur during REM the stage of sleep which most resembles being awake on an EEG.  During this time is when memory consolidation takes place and emotion is a very important factor in memory so that is why emotional dreams are the ones we remember the most and have the largest affect on us after waking.  But in reality the dream content doesn't really mean much, however the emotion may be connected to something you've experienced in the previous ~1.5 days.

[McQ]

Can it mean something when I dream of being good looking, on my yacht, with Holly, Bridget, and Kendra? Please?

[Squid]

Can it mean something when I dream of being good looking, on my yacht, with Holly, Bridget, and Kendra? Please?

Well there's a definite difference between dreaming and pre-cognition

[VanReal]

It's definitely a soft science and would belong in the head-shrinker specialty.  I always enjoy how my dreams are so creative, and I typically can pinpoint where the original concept came from, but can't figure out how I can be so creative in la-la land and so black and white and boring in real life.

Last night I dreamed I was on an old ship (didn't actually see any water though) with a couple of co-workers, only to look out at a little island seeing my boss, another co-worker, and our CFO in the scene from Monthy Python's Holy Grail with the killer bunny.  I spent all day yesterday reading up on health insurance and fun things like HASs, HRAs, and IRS codes, so obvioulsy when I went to sleep at 1:00 AM I was thinking about work.  Guess my brain went in another direction.

I'm not sure what it means when I actually get beat to death in my dreams.  Don't most people get away from the killers or people chasing them, or turn and pummle them?

They can help in therapy though because not really the content but the way you remember and how you feel after your dreams, and how you sleep, can be a symptom of a bigger underlying issue that they probably make a great pill for.

It's definitely a soft science though, it could go either way and maybe be a useful tool but no one can say what everything means.  And what my dream flying means or does for me may mean or do something totally different for you.

[Hitsumei]

I very, very rarely remember anything at all about my dreams, but occasionally I remember tiny fragments. Not enough to extrapolate what was going on though, and usually they are nightmarish fragments.

[Will]

I think it was Jung that said "Your vision will become clear only when you look into your heart. Who looks outside, dreams. Who looks inside, awakens." I've always loved that quote.

Squid hit it on the head with the term "fringe psychology". There are a few very reputable psychologists out there that have developed or are developing methods by which to analyze an individual using dreams, but even the most reputable of these are generally considered to be pretty out there. It's not a science yet, but I won't discount it completely. Maybe some day after decades of painstaking research and rigorous testing dream analysis can be a handy tool in a psychologist's tool belt. For now, it's about as reliable as astrology.

[VanReal]

So, Will, you are saying my being an aquarius isn't the reason I am an aloof humanitarian than dreams of bearing water?