Some dreams are so vivid and intense that we think surely, they must mean something. Well, Freud certainly thought so. But in order to analyse our dreams, we need to find the hidden meaning, in other words, the latent content. Dream analysis and latent content For us to understand dream…
Are you the sort of person that feels a little frisson or thrill whenever you hear about a major fatality? Don’t worry, you’re not a psychopath, but you might just be confirming Freud’s death drive. Sigmund Freud's Life Instinct and Death Drive Sigmund Freud theorised that we all have two…
We all have thoughts and feelings which we know are 'not okay' by society's standards. It's a natural element of the human condition. What sets humans apart from animals is not a lack of animal impulses, but rather how we manage our animal impulses. One of the techniques we subconsciously…
Laughter is the best medicine, they say. Endless studies have shown that laughing is good for our health, but why do we do it? Why do we laugh at all? There are several scientific theories which try to explain why we laugh, and why we find some things so funny.…
There are many people who have a phobia of poisonous snakes, but whether we like it or not, snakes feature in our waking lives. We use them to describe certain attributes in other people. For example, a 'snake in the grass' is someone we don’t trust. Snakes are symbolic. From…
Dreaming about an ex can be unsettling, particularly for those in abusive relationships. But can they offer insight into our daily lives? You might wonder how a dream about an ex-partner can shed light on what’s happening in our day-to-day life. For example, what does it mean for those who…
Experts do not agree on one simple explanation of why we dream. But there are many interesting theories. So why do we dream? Are dreams worth analysing or are they simply reflections on thoughts and experiences of the day? You could argue that cats and dogs dream, but we don’t…
Have you ever wondered how dreams work and why we have them? This and other questions about dreams have been a source of wonder for ages. Sigmund Freud, the father of modern psychology, was convinced that dreams were an expression of unfulfilled fantasies. More pragmatic theorists after him saw dreams…