Essay Prep for Psych Midterm: Freudian Dream Theory vs. Activation Synthesis

Freud believed the major purpose of dream processes is to arrange a compromise which allows the dreamer gratification from unconscious drives, yet still allow these drives to remain hidden from a repulsed conscience. Freud's dream theory is made up of the manifest content and the latent content. Freud believes the dreamer reveals himself by what he has disguised in the dream.

obvious surface level of a dream, includes pre-sleep experiences. the parts of the dream that are not symbolic. When you find meaning in the manifest content, you find that the dream means exactly what it says.

underlying symbolic meaning of a dream. This is when the true meaning of the dream is concealed by symbols and puns.

While we sleep and dream, the 4 dream work processes are working on the latent content to make it into the manifest content. During our quarter project, we had to examine the manifest content to try to find the underlying latent content.

Condensation, Displacement, Symbolization, Secondary Elaboration(Try to memorize what they are)

Hobs

Freud believes the dreamer reveals himself by what he has disguised in his dream. Freud believes dreaming is caused by a repressed unconscious. Hobson believes the dreamer reveals himself by what he interprets from the dream. Hobson and McCarley believe the act of dreaming is purely biological. They also believe that dreaming is caused by the brain's spontaneous self-activation while sleeping.

Hobson + McCarley believe during sleep, ACH levels go up which stimulates the pons. The pons stimulate the RAS which stimulates the areas of the brain that affect vision and hearing. The eye muscles are stimulated which gives us REM stage. Because the human body does not like chaos, the cerebral cortex will change all of the biological activity into the storyline of a dream. ACH--pons--RAS--brain-eye muscles, cerebral cortex

There is a limit to what you can put into short term memory but no limit to long term memory. The purpose of dreaming is to empty your mind of short term memories.

ACH--pons--RAS--brain--eye muscles, cerebral cortex