I have spent many years carefully observing the content of my dreams and reached several conclusions that I find of interest. Thus, I have written this article to share my reflections with readers and submit it to their judgment.
To begin with, I identified an important difference between wakeful thinking and dream thinking. The former, by being in direct contact with reality, has as its elementary function satisfy needs and remedy deficiencies; while the latter, completely alien to the outside world, usually expresses wishes and ‘non-wishes’. Below I give a few examples.
Wishes: whoever moves to a new city or country dreams of returning to their place of departure; whoever has lost a loved one dreams that they did not die and meets them again; and if your love is unrequited, you will dream that you win over your beloved.
Non-wishes: you dream that you go bald, that your penis gets cut off, or that you die.
In his seminal work The interpretation of dreams, Freud starts with an essential premise of his theory: dreams have a hidden meaning. He also states that they are realisations of repressed desires, especially of a sexual or aggressive nature. However, due to their conflictual nature they are not expressed openly, but rather remain veiled: they have a ‘manifest content’ (what is dreamt) and a ‘latent content’ (the real meaning of oneiric sensorimotor images, camouflaged in a symbolic representation that must be interpreted). The interpretation is based on the unmasking of symbols, on free association (elements of the dream are considered and the person who had it is asked to say whatever comes to mind with absolute freedom) and, secondarily, on automatic writing (a written free association).
With regard to the interpretation of symbols, it should be noted that, although such interpretation is carried out in accordance with the context of the dream, it remains problematic, since symbols possess multiple meanings across different cultures (cultural relativism), within one and the same culture, and even within each individual. In the latter case, it is up to the analyst to intervene to bring it to light; put differently, there is an indeterminate risk that the attributed meaning comes from the psychoanalyst instead of the analysand. On the other hand, both free association and automatic writing are research methods devoid of proven scientific evidence; consequently, it is legitimate to conclude that Freud's theory of dream interpretation cannot be considered true without further discussion.
In relation to my self-observations, I distinguish between two kinds of dreams: chaotic and discursive.
As the name suggests, chaotic dreams are made up of independent fragments with no link between them, though they are sometimes intermingled. We may come to believe that they can be assembled to make sense of them, as if they were Lego pieces, but this is impossible because they are completely alien to each other. They resemble a form of illegible and incomprehensible writing.
By contrast, discursive dreams consist of narratives endowed with a certain coherence and continuity, which not infrequently unfold as a single cinematic sequence shot. Because of this characteristic, they appear intelligible to us.
This typology of dreams has led me to develop a hypothesis about their genesis and possible purpose.
First of all, I must state that it is feasible that in the human brain, in addition to the anatomical and histological strata, there are other purely functional levels, which make the aforementioned dream manifestations possible. Likewise, I believe it is very likely that dreams are the result of the simultaneous activation of various brain structures (some presently identified and others not) that operate in different overlapping layers much as video editing programs do, either synchronously or diachronically. Such an arrangement and functioning would explain the frequent mishmash of dreams, while casting doubt on the existence of a deep meaning to them.
Secondly, we must understand the activity of the brain while we sleep as a process of reorganisation, relocation, consolidation and filtering of its contents. These are not ethereal; they occupy a material space. Thoughts, ideas, desires, even consciousness, require a physical substrate on which to rest: molecules or supramolecular structures that are more or less complex, more or less stable, and more or less durable.
In this sense, dreams can be considered ‘quasi-epiphenomena’ of neural dynamics during sleep. With this expression I mean to emphasise that they are not central phenomena, but rather phenomena derived from brain activity during sleep and that they do not necessarily have an intrinsic meaning, although they can produce limited effects.
Consequently, dreams do not reveal hidden truths, nor do they harbour any meaning of their own, although it is certain that they fulfil various functions that remain unknown to us (perhaps they have a role in the consolidation of memory, or synaptic homeostasis, or the regulation of feelings and emotions, …). If not, they would not exist since nature does not waste resources. In addition, we must not forget that not only man dreams; so do other animals, mammals and non-mammals, which suggests that dreams constitute a biological need for the brains of any species.
I conclude this succinct reflection on the hypothetical hidden meaning of dreams by recalling a joke I read in a magazine as a child, which neatly encapsulates my view on the matter:
Waiter!... What does this hair in my soup mean!?
It means nothing sir; it means nothing.