Those seemingly incoherent images that appear in dreams may be deeply meaningful, according to psychoanalysts. The specific meaning of the symbols, however, differs from person to person.
Jonathan Lear, a philosopher and psychoanalyst at the University of Chicago, presented "The Ethics of Dream Interpretation" Wednesday night to a crowd of faculty, staff and students, including visitors from other universities.
Lear discussed how analyzing imagery and symbols from dreams can induce changes in the way a person acts.
Analyzing dreams takes "a very special kind of knowledge, not theoretical knowledge of the hidden realm, but practical knowledge of how to take aspects of one's own imaginative activity and incorporate them into a living investigation of how to live," Lear said.
Lear based his presentation on his upcoming book about the eminent psychologist Sigmund Freud.
"The book is organized around what Socrates took to be the fundamental question, which is, 'How do I live?' which each person asks for him [or] herself," Lear said. "Anything that is regarded as an answer to the fundamental question about how one should live counts as ethical for me."
Lear explained that the interpretation of dreams gives people deeper insight into how they ought to live. Using Freud's own psychoanalysis of himself as an example, Lear explained the importance of understanding dreams as products of an individual psyche.
Lear spoke in Logan Hall to an audience of about 50 people.
"I found interesting the way he wove philosophy with psychoanalysis, because I never integrated those two disciplines in my mind," Swarthmore College senior Jennifer Holzer said, "although it's always really fascinating to hear psychoanalysts talk about their experiences in clinical settings."
"It sounded to me like it was mostly a psychoanalysis of Freud here," Princeton University freshman Owen Schaefer said. "It had a lot of insight into ... his motivation. Professor Lear was really into the subject. ... I thought he was very energetic."
Founding Director of the Penn Humanities Forum and English professor Wendy Steiner introduced Lear to the audience.
To address the uncertainty of the dream world, the College of Arts and Sciences has focused its Humanities Forum series for 2004-05 on the topic of sleep and dreams.
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