Do you analyse the meaning of your dreams?

I don't remember too many of my dreams, and when I do, I rarely analyze them for anything. I've been told to try and analyze them I guess to find out why my races for a few days for no reason, but I can't really discern anything from any of my dreams so its a lost cause >.>

Hah, I was already thinking that analyzing dreams is such a Freudian thing even when I had only read the topic of your post. I'm just not much of a Freudian, so really I do not believe in analyzing their meaning. They just seem to be reflections of daytime thoughts, although occasionally some person will appear in my dreams whom I have not thought about for years. I just don't attach any meaning to it.

Most of my dreams seem pretty banal (if I do remember them). The particularly weird or disturbing ones that come up occasionally I will remember. I'd describe some of them, but I don't want to turn this into the descibe-your-weirdest-dreams thread.

Asuka wrote:I would suggest that people give it a go tonight, if only for fun.

Not a bad idea. Now how can I force myself to remember my dream, they are so fleeting. Maybe I should put a big post-it on my alarm clock that says "ANALYZE!".

EDIT: Also, I'm convinced that you see patterns where there are none. It is a very human trait to see patterns in anything. Think about it, if you let your mind wander, random thoughts often come up right? I think that in your dreams these sort of random dreams get explored. Maybe you feel these thoughts are not so random?

Sorry, obviously that should say "ANALYSE!". I get in the habit of mixing UK and US English.

Im very interested in dreams. Ive never really studied how to analyze dreams though, but ive been meaning to give it a go.

At the risk of going slightly oftopic, I thought it was appropriate to mention that I am a lucid dreamer, that is to say, I often controll my dreams and am quite aware that my dream is indeed a dream. Though I never really trained to do it, I somehow managed to do so by myself, due to having alot of nightmares as a child/teenager.. Nowadays I am mostly able to do it when im Manic/hypomanic, though that in itself is a rather rare occurance.

Asuka wrote:I would suggest that people give it a go tonight, if only for fun.

From what I can remember I had a very boring dream about programming. This probably means I'm a very boring person.

uggg!! I was having a dream during math class and it was really interesting and different then most of my other dreams but i forgot it. I'll try to remember it and if i do i'll post it.

To answer the thread's question, yea i do sometimes analyze my dreams if they seem like they actually mean something.

From what I can remember I had a very boring dream about programming. This probably means I'm a very boring person.

I had a short programming course included in my study program and during that time I had many programming dreams. Usually mixed normal life experiences with programming stuff. Like getting lost in a train station and therefore trying to track the value of a variable to find my way out.
Once I dreamt I was a turing machine and woke halfway up every half an hour because I had to 'change my state'. This was a horrible night.

and on topic: I like thinking about dreams, but more for the fun of it. And it kind of alarms me when I'm having bad dreams. But I don't belief in the Freudian stuff at all. I don't see any scientific base for it and I don't really like the idea that everything I do or dream is unconsciously driven by penis-envy. Of course Freud would say that my dislike of this idea is proving it and I'm just repressing it. There is actually a very funny feminist version which says that men are driven by something like period-envy. They use the basically the same arguments. No, I'm not a feminist, feminists are sexists, but I liked the ripped theory.
I know there's probably more to Freud than this, but I don't like him which, of course, proves again that I'm supressing my penis-envy.
Sorry, bad mood...
baaaad mood,actually.

darklight wrote:I had a short programming course included in my study program and during that time I had many programming dreams. Usually mixed normal life experiences with programming stuff. Like getting lost in a train station and therefore trying to track the value of a variable to find my way out.

It's my job, so I suppose it's only natural to dream about it, since I spend so much of my waking time occupying my brain with it. I guess I'm supporting the theory that dreams are mostly daytime thoughts that are regurgitated at night. Unfortunately these programming dreams tend to revolve around problems that I know I should be able to solve, but just can't quite grasp. It's very frustrating. Like one of those dreams where you're in a fight with someone and would like to punch him, only you can't muster any strength for some reason. Only with code. Am I making any sense?

darklight wrote:Once I dreamt I was a turing machine and woke halfway up every half an hour because I had to 'change my state'. This was a horrible night.

I'm very sorry, but you've made me laugh. Also, I was considering getting this t-shirt.

darklight wrote:There is actually a very funny feminist version which says that men are driven by something like period-envy. They use the basically the same arguments.

Hrm, I do NOT envy having periods. I have enough moodswings of my own thank you very much. Although to be honest the menstrual cycle is a complete mystery to me.

darklight wrote:I know there's probably more to Freud than this, but I don't like him which, of course, proves again that I'm supressing my penis-envy.
Sorry, bad mood...
baaaad mood,actually.

Not that bad, I thought it was kindof funny. Maybe it wasn't meant funny...

Radovan wrote:The particularly weird or disturbing ones that come up occasionally I will remember. I'd describe some of them, but I don't want to turn this into the descibe-your-weirdest-dreams thread.

###$ it, I'll describe two of the more bizarre (but innocent) dreams I've had in the past year or so. Maybe someone with Freudian inclinations can analyze them for me.

In the first one I dreamt that the French speaking part of Belgium was actually located in North Africa, including Brussels (although that's technically bi-lingual). I mean, it was still one country, but the two halves were physically separated. The Dutch speaking part was still south of The Netherlands, but below that was just France I guess. The most confusing part of it was having to take a train all the way down to North Africa (Bruxelles-Midi to be precise) and transfer to the Eurostar there, just to go all the way back up North to London. No, I don't regularly have dreams involving geography and definitely not about Belgium.

The second one was about Albanians living in New York. They were very poor, so they had to live in skyscrapers they had constructed out of white plastic bits. I think it was mostly like plastic cups and stirrers. Obviously this was very unstable and one had just collapsed. I was in one next to the one that had collapsed, it was very shaky.

Take THAT, Freud!