The psychology of dreams : sometimes a cigar is just a cigar

[WhiteLines]

Do dreams have a deeper psychological meaning? Are they just scrambled transmissions between our nuerons that mean nothing at all? ...or are they our body's way of keeping us entertained while asleep, like an internal television for the mind. Do you have an opinion?

Maybe you just have a strange or hilarious dream experience to tell.

My last dream was that i was driving a car (which i have not done in years), got into a bad wreck and then the door opened and i slowly floated out of the vehicle as if in zero gravity. I kept floating away, hovering a few feet off the ground and somehow also ended up with a mouthful of rain water and broken glass... then awoke very confused and disoriented.

[Eevee]

I have no idea. I used to try to figure out my dreams by reading books on them when I was much younger.

I just want to know why my most reoccurring dream is of my teeth falling out...

[bean]

I have no idea. I used to try to figure out my dreams by reading books on them when I was much younger.

I just want to know why my most reoccurring dream is of my teeth falling out...

I used to have the teeth falling out dreams all the time. It's a very common dream for women to have. Some say that it comes from anxiety, but the more popular idea is that because women are taught to be focused on their looks, the dream reflects a fear of losing beauty.

In my last class, we learned that you dream books aren't helpful, because a dream about green leaves means something different for each person.

I'll elaborate further later. True Blood is on!

Edited June 21, 2010 by bean

[Iris]

I have no idea. I used to try to figure out my dreams by reading books on them when I was much younger.

I just want to know why my most reoccurring dream is of my teeth falling out...

No shit, I have teeth falling out dreams a bit too often myself. Our teeth are the gateway to our body's overall health and well-being (my dentist tells me I have some of the most gorgeous teeth he's ever come across...albeit, there was some small shifting when my wisdom teeth wouldn't fit properly, and I have a gnarly underbite that I am self-conscious of [i'm an orc, rawr]...and a dull upper "third" for using it as a nail-biting device when I had that nasty habit some years ago...what was I saying...

Its freaky when I have those dreams, because I think they are actually happening at the time...I've made more than one panicked trip to the nearest mirror to obsessively examine the structural integrity of my chompers...

Hey, whilst we're on the subject of teeth...

Now where did my Freudian Analysis book get to...I have to finish reading that one...aha, here it is!!!

[Eevee]

I used to have the teeth falling out dreams all the time. It's a very common dream for women to have. Some say that it comes from anxiety, but the more popular idea is that because women are taught to be focused on their looks, the dream reflects a fear of losing beauty.

In my last class, we learned that you dream books aren't helpful, because a dream about green leafs means something different for each person.

I'll elaborate further later. True Blood is on!

Hmm...I can see where that may play in.

And yeah, I gave up on those books a long, long time ago.

No shit, I have teeth falling out dreams a bit too often myself. Our teeth are the gateway to our body's overall health and well-being (my dentist tells me I have some of the most gorgeous teeth he's ever come across...albeit, there was some small shifting when my wisdom teeth wouldn't fit properly, and I have a gnarly underbite that I am self-conscious of [i'm an orc, rawr]...and a dull upper "third" for using it as a nail-biting device when I had that nasty habit some years ago...what was I saying...

Its freaky when I have those dreams, because I think they are actually happening at the time...I've made more than one panicked trip to the nearest mirror to obsessively examine the structural integrity of my chompers...

Hey, whilst we're on the subject of teeth...

Now where did my Freudian Analysis book get to...I have to finish reading that one...aha, here it is!!!

Yeah...my most recent one was where my tooth hurt and was wiggling, and a layer of it chipped off. So I thought I was fine. But then my tooth started hurting again and was easy to wiggle. I woke up right after that, and checked to make sure my teeth were fine.

The weird thing...

I sleep with a mouthguard most the time because I grind my teeth and it causes my jaw to lock up.

[bean]

In my various classes, we've talked about dreams. Different psychological theories have their own ideas about dreams, and I have to say that my favorite is Gestalt. The basic idea is that everything in your dreams, your perception of the attitudes of the people in your dreams and your perception of the different aspects of things in your dream are usually reflections of your own internal states. Dreams also represent things about ourselves that we aren't consciously aware of.

[Guest Megalicious]

In my various classes, we've talked about dreams. Different psychological theories have their own ideas about dreams, and I have to say that my favorite is Gestalt. The basic idea is that everything in your dreams, your perception of the attitudes of the people in your dreams and your perception of the different aspects of things in your dream are usually reflections of your own internal states. Dreams also represent things about ourselves that we aren't consciously aware of.

I am all for Gestatlt Therapy in general. Before Jonathan, I never met someone (therapist wise) that would challenge me and my own personal respsonsiblity- perhaps that is why I was reluctant to even been therapy again.

Jonthan didn't take my bullshit of testing boundries. He would confront me DIRECTLY- none of that Rogerian shit...

I loved him for it, I still love him for it.

It allows me to own my responsiblity in the situations I find or place myself in- if I own it, I can change it- which is easier said than done LOL.

[bean]

I am all for Gestatlt Therapy in general. Before Jonathan, I never met someone (therapist wise) that would challenge me and my own personal respsonsiblity- perhaps that is why I was reluctant to even been therapy again.

Jonthan didn't take my bullshit of testing boundries. He would confront me DIRECTLY- none of that Rogerian shit...

I loved him for it, I still love him for it.

It allows me to own my responsiblity in the situations I find or place myself in- if I own it, I can change it- which is easier said than done LOL.

Different therapies work better for certain problems and for certain people. My absolute favorite is Reality Therapy. I've been reading about Gestalt too, and I'm really starting to like that one as well.

[EAF (1)]

I used to look in the dream books which never worked for me lol...I mean nowhere in the book did it ever say, "Dream about going to your high school band concert, your friend killing an innocent man, and everyone being fine with it until a yu-gi-oh rendition of the mob shows up. Your engaged in an epic battle where you almost escape through the gift shop before, video taping the whole thing before your found by the very hot bad guy and dragged off for god knows what =then this means you are feeling..." Yeah. My dreams are too freaking complicated for that lol. I have never just had a falling dream, or a masochistic dream like pulling my hair out or my teeth falling out. Although in one longer dream once my teeth did fall out.

As far as what theory I think on them? Well I do think they link to us as individuals and to what we are feeling. I think everything we come into contact with affects us in some way or shape. The emotions we have do the same thing. And thus results in mixed and scrambled messages of our worries, fears, needs, and wants.

As to what mine mean? Haha, no clue. But I have even tried keeping a journal...wake up write it down, go to sleep have another, wake up write it down. It did lead to something interesting, like the same character following me in each dream I had that night. But overall the dreams are still long, complicated, and pretty random.