Latent Content as the Hidden Meaning of Your Dreams

Latent Content as the Hidden Meaning of Your Dreams Sleep and Dreaming Print Latent Content as the Hidden Meaning of Your Dreams By Kendra Cherry facebook twitter Kendra Cherry, MS, is an author, educational consultant, and speaker focused on helping students learn about psychology. Learn about our editorial policy Kendra Cherry Updated on February 09, 2020 Tara Moore / Taxi / Getty Images More in Psychology Sleep and Dreaming Psychotherapy Basics Student Resources History and Biographies Theories Phobias Emotions Have you ever had a really strange dream and thought there must be some sort of hidden message behind it? Dream interpretation is based on the idea that the events of your dreams serve to disguise the real meaning of your dreams or the latent content. The latent content  refers to the symbolic meaning of a dream that lies behind the literal content of the dream. The hidden meaning of dreams played an important role in Sigmund Freuds psychoanalytic theory. He also believed that bringing the hidden meaning of a dream into conscious awareness could relieve psychological distress. Types of Dream Content According to Freud, the latent content of a dream is the hidden psychological meaning of the dream. This content appears in disguise symbolically and contains things that are hidden from conscious awareness, often because it may be upsetting or traumatic. One of the goals of psychoanalysis was to analyze these symbols in order to understand unconscious wishes and needs. By bringing this information into conscious awareness, people could then find ways to cope with it. Freud believed that the content of dreams is related to wish fulfillment and suggested that dreams have two types of content: manifest content and latent content. The manifest content is the actual literal subject matter of the dream while the latent content is the underlying meaning of these symbols. To Freud and other psychoanalysts, the latent content of a dream mattered much more than the literal, manifest content. Freud believed that the mind was like an iceberg. Only a very small part of the iceberg is visible above the waterâ€"this visible part represents the conscious mind. Unseen under the surface of the water lies the enormous bulk of the iceberg, which represents the unconscious mind. Dreams, therefore, are one way of glimpsing what is hidden from awareness in the unconscious mind. For example, imagine that you have a dream that you are naked in public. The actual storyline of the dream is the manifest content, but Freud would suggest that there is more to the dream than its literal meaning. He might interpret the dream to mean that you fear exposure, that you feel insecure, or that you fear other people will notice your shortcomings. This hidden meaning represents the latent content of the dream. Dream interpretation has grown in popularity since Freuds time. While many popular theories of dreaming suggest that our dreams are largely a reflection of the hopes, fears, and experiences of our waking lives, dream interpreters continue to suggest that the latent content of dreams often holds symbolic meaning. 10 Interesting Facts About Dreams Understanding the Hidden Meaning of Dreams Much of Freud’s psychoanalytic theory centered on helping people bring these hidden, unconscious thoughts and feelings into awareness. Freud believed that the latent content of a dream was suppressed and hidden by the subconscious mind to protect the person from thoughts and feelings that were hard to cope with. While the mind hides these feelings in the unconscious and subconscious mind, such thoughts, fears, and desires still have a way of influencing conscious thoughts and behaviors. Freud believed that the contents of the unconscious could lead to problems and dysfunction. By uncovering the hidden meaning of dreams, Freud believed that people could better understand their problems and resolve the issues that create difficulties in their lives. In Freuds psychoanalytic interpretation, dreams center on wish fulfillment. People dream about the things that they secretly wish and desire. Many of these urges might be inappropriate or shocking, so the mind disguises the hidden meaning in the manifest content of the dream. By bringing the symbolic meaning to light, Freud believed that people could find relief from a variety of psychological afflictions. How the Mind Censors Latent Content Freud described a number of different defense mechanisms that the mind uses to censor the latent content of a dream, including displacement, projection, symbolization, condensation, and rationalization. Displacement Displacement involves replacing one thing with something else. In a dream, you might find yourself irrationally upset with a relatively trivial or seemingly harmless object or person. Freud would suggest that this object is simply a stand-in for the thing that is truly bothering you. Projection This defense mechanism involves placing your unacceptable feelings on someone else. For example, you might dream that someone in your life dislikes you, but in reality, you dislike them. This type of distortion reduces your anxiety by allowing you to express the feeling, but in a way that your ego does not recognize. Symbolization The symbolization process involves acting out the repressed urge in a symbolic act. Freud might interpret dreaming about smoking a cigarette or inserting a key into a cars ignition as having a sexual meaning. Condensation Condensation involves minimizing the representation of your hidden urges during the dream. Multiple dream elements might be combined into one single image that serves to disguise the real meaning. Rationalization The process of rationalization involves taking all of the many symbols, objects, events, and people that appear in a dream and transforming them into a coherent and understandable dream. A Word From Verywell Not everyone agrees that dreams have a hidden meaning, but the theory of dream interpretation remains popular. Analyzing the latent content of your dreams may be one way to gain insight into things that might be bothering you. 9 Common Dreams and What They Supposedly Mean