Interpretation of Dreams:Finding Meaning and Purpose

Every person on earth dreams every night, however, he pays little attention to his dreams. People get frightened, receive contentment, and experience every emotion while dreaming. Throughout history people have sought meaning in dreams. Sigmund Freud explored dreams as a part of his research into the human psyche. He believed that dreams were the minds way of processing information, suppressed memories, thoughts and feelings that the conscious mind is not ready to accept. Dreams are far more than the images occurring involuntarily in mind during certain stages of sleep. Dream must serve a purpose. In the present research article an attempt has been made to gain an insight into dreams and their purposes. It is based on interviews of 192 visually impaired subjects. 93 males and 99females above 5 yr of age from National Institute for the Visually Handicapped, Dehradun, were interviewed and their dreams and other relevant information were collected. The collected dreams were analysed and interpreted. On the basis of the interpretations the dreams were classified into six categories.