Understanding Dreams: Freud, Jung, and the Neuroscience of REM Sleep

The human dream state remained a mystical province for centuries, reserved for divine intervention. However, in this day and age, in modern psychology, especially for students at the crossroads between Philosophy, Psychology and Neural Science, dreams have been turned into a sophisticated cognitive exercise. The “language” of dreams is a complex synthesis where the primal energies of the unconscious meet the inherited wisdom of the collective human experience, all mediated by the physiological architecture of the brain. An accurate account of the phenomenon will need a multi-faceted investigation that connects early psychoanalytic intuition to modern neurobiological knowledge.

Psychoanalytic Base: Dreams as “The Royal Road”

Sigmund Freud’s 1900 book, “The Interpretation of Dreams,” is the foundation of modern dream analysis. Freud imagined that dreams serve as the “Royal Road” to the unconscious and offer insight into dormant desires and unworkable conflicts. The basic function of the mind, he claimed, is to fulfil psychological demands based on homeostasis (Homeostasis is the self-regulating process by which biological systems maintain a stable, balanced internal environment despite changing external conditions)(Koslowski et al., 2023).

Manifest vs. Latent Content

Freud distinguished between what a dreamer remembers and what the dream can actually mean:

Manifest Content: The actual or literal story or imagery in the dream (i.e. hunted down by a predator).
Latent Content: The unconscious psychological underpinning. Freud, by contrast, believes the mind translates the desires into what we call the manifest, sometimes called a “Dream Work” process, like condensation (the process of merging multiple ideas into an image) and displacement (wherein an emotionally charged part of a dream is represented by something seemingly trivial or neutral, allowing the dreamer to stay asleep without being overwhelmed by anxiety)

For instance, a student dreaming of having a cracked clock in their head (Manifest) may also be struggling with anxiety that runs deep about time or an unrealistic sense of not reaching certain milestones in life.

Jungian Perspective: Archetypes And The Collective Unconscious

In contrast to Freud’s individualistic attention, Carl Jung broadened the view to incorporate the Collective Unconscious (which refers to the set of beliefs, morals, and social norms that bind us together). He holds the view that there is a universal structure in which people share psychological properties and inherited motifs (known as archetypes) that are part of an inherited set of symbols. These are “primordial images” that develop globally despite personal experience (IAAP, n.d.).

Key Archetypal Symbols

The Shadow: The “dark side” of the personality, everything the person refuses to accept about themselves.
The Anima/Animus: The feminine inner personality of men and the masculine inner personality of women.
The Persona: The “mask” or social face that you present to the world to meet your social demands.
The Self: The collective mind and unconsciousness of a person, represented via a “Wise Old Man/Woman” in dreams.

In dreams, these archetypes can appear as characters. Such as, a student who feels overwhelmed by authority may dream of a “Trickster” figure that uses the rules themselves to be self-policing.

The Dreaming Brain And The Neurobiology

To balance the psychoanalytic orientation, one should consider the physiological process. A study has documented that dreaming, or “sleep mentation”, can happen at any stage of sleep, but is most intense during Rapid Eye Movement (REM) sleep (Scarpelli et al., 2021).

Activation-Synthesis vs. Functional Imaging

Earlier theories, like the Activation-Synthesis Hypothesis, claimed that dreams were just the brain’s way of battling with random neural firing in the brainstem. Modern functional neuroimaging (PET and fMRI) research shows that dreaming involves specific, organised brain activity (Dang-Vu et al., 2010)

Hyperactive Limbic System: The amygdala and hippocampus show heightened activity, which accounts for the emotional and memory-rich content of dreams (Hristova & Georgiev, 2024).
Deactivated Prefrontal Cortex: The dorsolateral prefrontal cortex, critical for logic and executive function, is mostly absent in REM sleep. This accounts for the “bizarreness” of dreams and the dreamer’s lack of critical insight into nonsensical events (Dang-Vu et al., 2010; Scarpelli et al., 2021).
Posterior Parietal Area: This area is responsible for the actual dream experience or consciousness during sleep (Scarpelli et al., 2021).

Evolutionary Theories: The Simulation Hypotheses

In addition to being a “by-product” of brain activity, many researchers believe that dreaming has an evolutionary function.

Threat Simulation Theory (TST): Proposed by Antti Revonsuo, this theory proposes that dreams represent a form of rehearsal in which an individual acts out the simulated fear and threat. Studies conducted during the COVID-19 pandemic confirmed this (Abbas & Samson, 2023): when dream content grew significantly more negative, it started to do so through the brain’s simulation of ecological threats.
Social Simulation Theory: This theory states that dreams overrepresent social events to promote social bonding and social perception (Abbas & Samson, 2023).
Educational Example: A student may be dealing with “Threat Simulation” while dreaming that they will fail an exam. The brain preps a worst-case scenario so that the waking self can always be prepared and on guard for reality.

The Chemistry of Dreams: Neurotransmitters and States

The movement from wakefulness to dreaming is regulated by a complex network of neurochemistry. The ‘A-m-s’ model (Activation, Modulation, Space) provides a useful framework to explain these states (Hobson, 2009).

Acetylcholine: This is the main component that supports REM sleep. The brain state required for vivid dreaming is associated with high levels of acetylcholine (Watson et al., 2012).
Aminergic Demodulation: REM alters levels of serotonin, norepinephrine, and histamine so dramatically. This absence of “logical” neurotransmitters may explain why dreams tend toward feeling so fluid, and why we typically forget them on waking.
GABA and Glycine: These neurotransmitters are responsible for muscle atonia (temporary paralysis) during REM, keeping the dreamer from performing their behaviours as if in a dream. This is a big safety measure (Scarpelli et al., 2021)

Cognitive Perspective: Continuity and Consolidation

The Continuity Hypothesis (Domhoff, 2017) argues that what one dreams about reflects waking-life concerns (Domhoff, 2017). This aligns with the idea that dreaming is a feature of Memory Consolidation. It is based on the concepts of dream content, or the fact that dreams form an integral part of dreaming itself. Cognitive perspectives point out that in waking experience, things are still relevant to the experience of waking people (Domhoff, 2017).

While asleep, the brain reinterprets events of the preceding day, relaying information from the hippocampus that is now storing it in the short term to the long-term storage of the cortex. Dreaming might be the conscious experience of this “filing system” at work, of this background. The students may devote eight hours to taking Transactional Analysis, and this may make certain symbols related to “Parents, Adults, and Children” come flooding through the dreamworld as the brain works to integrate the new information (Stickgold, 2005)

Modern Neuro-Psychoanalysis: The Solms Perspective

Mark Solms has originated research that fills the divide between biological reductionism and Freudian theory. Solms (2000) has reported that dreaming and REM sleep are regulated by unique brain processes. REM sleep, of course, is controlled by the brainstem (pons); dreaming is created by the forebrain dopaminergic circuits, controlled by the brain, or “seeking” or motivation circuits. This means that our dreams are actually driven by the brain’s inner drive or “wishing” system, which gives modern neuroscience confirmation of Freud’s original assertions. The result is that those dreams are driven by internal needs.

Clinical Synthesis: From Symbols to Symptom Relief

In-depth understanding of the biological “how” and archetypal “what” is very important, but the “why” of the study of dreams occurs most clearly in the clinical setting. The use of dream analysis with therapy constitutes an unusual diagnostic and treatment option to connect the subjective experience to neurological well-being.

Dreams as Diagnostic Indicators. As a barometer of mental wellness, in the modern age, dream content is a popular choice. Continuing “Nightmare Disorder” or chronic recurrent motifs of entrapment are commonly associated with an overactive amygdala and poor processing of REM-mediated emotions (Scarpelli et al., 2021). When they first visit, this has been observed by professionals: when a patient is recovering from depression or PTSD, his or her dream narrative usually changes from episodic, threatening encounters to coherent, integrated episodes (Kramer, 2007), a phenomenon known as dream maturation.
Imagery Rehearsal Therapy (IRT): Rewriting the Script. IRT may hold more power than any connection between theory and practice. This evidence-based intervention for chronic nightmares consists of the patient making the conscious decision to change the ending of a disturbing dream while awake.

IRT not only decreases the frequency of nightmares but also decreases daytime anxiety cues; evidence of symbolic differences in the mind relating to physiological stabilisation was shown. (Scarpelli et al., 2021).

Conclusion: The Integrated Mind

The language of dreams is the bilingual conversation between biological hardware and symbolic software. The brainstem and limbic system support emotional and neural processes, while the personal and collective unconscious provide the symbols and stories that shape our experiences. For psychology students, dreams are not noise but rather a highly emotional form of recall for processing and threat rehearsal that can help us integrate new information into existing psychological schemas. (Scarpelli et al., 2021).

Going into the next 10 years, neuro-psychoanalysis blurs the boundaries between the subjective and the objective. Gradually suspecting that the “seeking” system of the brain is the real motor of dreams, meaning that dreams are a window to the deepest drives and a rehearsal for who one might eventually become. It is an internal representation of the brain’s attempt to solve the challenges of the day, integrate the lessons of the past, and prepare for tomorrow’s difficulties.

References +

Abbas, N. H., & Samson, D. R. (2023). Dreaming during the COVID-19 pandemic: Support for the threat simulation function of dreams. Frontiers in Psychology, 14. https://doi.org/10.3389/fpsyg.2023.1124772 Cited by: 7
Dang-Vu, T. T., Schabus, M., Desseilles, M., Sterpenich, V., Bonjean, M., & Maquet, P. (2010). Functional neuroimaging insights into the physiology of human sleep. Sleep, 33(12), 1589–1603. https://doi.org/10.1093/sleep/33.12.1589. Cited by: 373
Domhoff, G. W. (2017). The emergence of dreaming: Mind-wandering, embodied simulation, and the neurocognitive theory of dreams. Oxford University Press.
Freud, S. (1900). The interpretation of dreams. Franz Deuticke.
Hobson, J. A. (2009). REM sleep and dreaming: Towards a theory of protoconsciousness. Nature Reviews Neuroscience, 10(11), 803–813. https://doi.org/10.1038/nrn2716
Hristova, D., & Georgiev, D. (2024). The emotional brain and dreaming: Limbic system activation in REM sleep. (Original article source details not fully provided in snippet.
International Association for Analytical Psychology (IAAP). (n.d.). Archetypes and the collective unconscious.
Kramer, M. (2007). The dream experience: A therapeutic guide to interpreting dreams. Routledge.
Koslowski, M., et al. (2023). Homeostasis and the predictive brain in dream formation. Journal of Psychological Research.
Scarpelli, S., Alfonsi, V., Gorgoni, M., Musetti, A., Filosa, M., Quattropani, M. C., et al. (2021). Dreams and nightmares during the first and second wave of the COVID-19 infection: A longitudinal study. Brain Sciences, 11(11), 1375. https://doi.org/10.3390/brainsci11111375 Cited by: 31
Siclari, F., Bernardi, G., Cataldi, J., & Tononi, G. (2018). Dreaming in NREM sleep: A high-density EEG study of slow waves and spindles. The Journal of Neuroscience, 38(43), 9175–9185. https://doi.org/10.1523/jneurosci.0855-18.2018 Cited by: 197
Solms, M. (2000). Dreaming and REM sleep are controlled by different brain mechanisms. Behavioural and Brain Sciences, 23(6), 843–850.
Stickgold, R. (2005). Sleep-dependent memory consolidation. Nature, 437(7063), 1272–1278. https://doi.org/10.1038/nature04286
Watson, A. J., et al. (2012). Neurotransmitters and the dream state: The role of acetylcholine in REM sleep. Neuroscience Reviews.