What is your philosophy on dream interpretation?

Question

I have been studying sleep and dreams since about the fourth grade. I feel like dream dictionaries are often overly generalized and sometimes downright crazy! I don't think you can analyze dreams just by saying dream symbol x=you hate your mom. When I do interpretations I start with questions. I find that although there are universal archetypes and symbols that for the most part dreams meanings are hugely personal and have to ring true with the dreamer. If they say they dreamed of a cat I ask what the cat looked like, how did they feel about the cat, are they allergic to cats, have they ever had one as a pet etc... I don't feel like I can place a generalized definition of what cats mean to every dreamer.

How do you approach analysis? Do you use or rely on a dream dictionary? If so which ones? What books were most helpful to you? Do you dream journal yourself?

Answer 1

Egad- I thought you'd never ask! You are clearly motivated, and know how to get to the point. You do understand that it's better to ask the right question than to strive for answers, which only raise more questions.

Looking back over (many) years, I had the most useful dreams in those very times I was under stress, in contrast to the more recent relaxed years. That period was also the most intuitive, however, as I could expect to do more of the right things, less prior thought. FWIW I had two pets I could communicate with sans speech; it was only being correct, as they took it for granted. Dogs are ready to please, but j'ever try to scope out what a cat is thinking? There's a connection to dealing with people, somehow.

Answer 2

there is no good accurate dream dictionary or things on those lines. even if there was no one would want to learn that much from a book. not even if they aree OBSESSED. but here's a more effecient procedure:

when interprating a dream, you must always keep in mind that every single detail was made out of the dreamer's unconcious mind. this helps a ton.

say someone really misses someone in real life. in their dreams, they would always show that person missing in some way. easily done that way, but how can you tell if the person is being missed?

every single person in a dream who resembles someone in real life is someone that is on the dreamer's mind a lot. whether it be a friend or family member or an enemy, you cannot know unless you are the dreamer.

but if you know who the person in the dream is, find out the relationship the dreamer has with this person. this helps. and also gives you the interpretation. do this with all characters in a dream.

next step is that any item that is recognized is important. if it means 'dream' (such as a dream catcher) then the person has a dreaming problem. its that easy and can be caught onto easily.

the third step is to discover the events in sequetial order. this interpretation is similar to that of items, but is slightly different. for example, if death appears in a dream, the dreamer has the fear of death. on the other hand, if love appears in a dream, the dreamer has found someone. its along those lines you can make things out with.

the fourth and final step is to put the pieces together. keep in mind that if a dream comes in 2 or more totally different chunks, then those must be kept separate.

Answer 3

Dreams are meaningless. They are simply the subconcious minds random ramblings.

Answer 4

Well you're doing it right for the most part. If you work hard enough you can easily become a top contributor on this site if you want.

I usually start off by reading the entire dream. From there I try to find a moral if there is any. Most of the time I have to reread the dream to understand what the person is trying to say (due to spelling errors or me just being confused). I do not at any point use a dream dictionary. I don't use any books to help me just common knowledge. Also there's no need for a dream journal for myself as I just wake up, analyze my own dream within a few minutes, and go on with my day.