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freud thought dreams were a subconscious wish-fulfillment. the conscious and subconscious often want different things, and while the conscious can separate reality from fantasy, the subconscious can't. so, if the sc wants something and can't have it in reality, it settles for achieving it in a dream, since it cant distinguish between the two. this is all done symbolically, of course, because our sc naturally ties all emotions or things that it perceives to a certain symbol. while we may not recognize that symbol consciously, or sc does. jung, on the other hand, thought dreams were the sc trying to balance out our whole being. for example, say that a person feels overly inferior to others. he may dream that he is an important and superior person in the world, as the sc is trying to balance it all out. Jung felt that every person has an ideal self buried inside their subconscious and that the whole goal of our psychological life is to achieve this ideal by listening to our sc and trying to balance it with our conscious. this whole process is called individuation. basically, jung thought that we should try to interpret our dreams and listen to what our sc is telling us. however, it is not the voice of god-he felt that the sc could be just as wrong in interpreting a situation for the better as the conscious. so, the best way to generally go is the middle path. there is also the new theory that dreams mean nothing and are the result of random firings of neurons in the brain during sleep, triggering random images. im not a psychologist, but i have read a few books by both of these guys, and i interpreted their views to the best of my abilities, but if i am off please tell me.
"You are reading this."
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