People have some really strange theories on the pupose of our dreams and what they are and what they signify. A theory that i have is that our subconscious is a part of our memory that is responsible for supressed or repressed memories. I beleive that our subconscious is somehow interacting with our memory creating these alternate realities in which we expirience during REM sleep or dreams. These alternate realities may not signify anything important but is just activity of our subconscious. Someones probably going to object to these but unless anyone has solid proof of anything, i would still like to theorise.
I'm a Jungian. In his model there's only the conscious and the unconscious. So I have the wrong frame of reference to participate in this discussion.
The human mind has two states: one conscious and one subconscious. When we sleep the subconscious is free to manifest itself through images. These images are rooted in past experiences in the State organic or what happens in the environment.
Psychologists don't use the word subconsious, or any derived word. (In the words of wikipedia: "The term subconscious is used in many different contexts and has no single or precise definition. This greatly limits its significance as a definition-bearing concept, and in consequence the word tends to be avoided in academic and scientific settings.") Also psychoanalysis (any form) is not taken very seriously anymore. For all we know, there is no agent in our head (heart, or wherever) that tries to communicate to our conscious mind by means of analogy or sublimation. Theoretically, ideas such as Freudian or Jungian are rather tricky to defend.
MENTAL LEVELS Conscious: we realize our experiences and we can evoke. Unconscious: are the experiences we have, but we don't know are there. Subconscious: memories are automatic, come to us involuntarily. vg. dreams, deja-vu. It's that I think.
memories form into engrams, when we are conscious we are able to discern which engrams belong to which memories, .. our memories get distributed between many engrams like if the memory was of a pink flying unicron with a rat on its back, it would be stored at several different locations IE one for pink,one for unicorn, one for rat, when we are conscious we connect the dots where they make sense to our recall, when we are asleep we dont have that kind of control, our unconscious mind randomly connect the dots so it would be possible to think of a flying rat on a unicorns back, as we do not have our conscious effort to moderate the connect the dots.. as far as any meaning behind the random connect the dots, this is dependant on whether you believe in spirituality or not.. many can see the randomness and believe the randomness to make so much sense, that it could not be entirely random. from there we get our great ppl and our nuts..who was it that said there is a fine line between genius and insanity? IOW..Dreams are what you make them..no more..no less..
Dreams are beyond science at the moment... Perhaps when we wake up we invent the memory of our dream instantaneously and never actually dreamed it. Perhaps dreams are the result of our mind categorizing memories causing memories to merge and distort into dreams. Maybe when we dream we actually enter a parallel universe and can't remember it properly once we pass back into this one. It's fun to speculate on possible answers.
Dreams have several purposes. One is to "play out" our fears and hopes in a graphic format, in order to file them away and remove them as obstacles from our waking, active life. And the reverse process: to retrieve matters that have been filed away, but now require attention. One is to investigate possible alternative scenarios; decisions we might make, interactions in which we might participate; different solutions to problems, etc. One is to "fix" newly acquired skill and knowledge in long-term memory. One is metaphorical classification of important experience - to internalize concepts, self-worth, values, and such esoteric matters under a readily identifiable system of icons. The icons vary with each individual, but a single narrative style tends to run through cultures; we tend to share a similar imagery. That's what makes dream interpretation somewhat plausible.
What interests me about dreams is that everything in them is so familiar. Like, to make up an example, I can dream about a guy named 'Jeff'' - and it's like, "Yeah, old Jeff, typical! Just like always. He never changes!" I'll wake and know there is no such person known to me. So why and how all that background? Most dream situations regardless of their logic or illogic seem to have been on going for years. How can that be? Is this just how I dream, or is it common? I often dream of entire extended families in 'old and tired' situations - all of it completely made up, as far as I know. I doubt that they are real people who are strangers to me - but that's just it. I somehow know about grandad's war experiences, and the awful secret between Chrissy and Jeff, and yet none of this comes off as soap operatic... I also know that the sink is always backing up and that the electric bill is overdue. Again, how can this be? and why...???
Because your unconscious is producing a movie. All the time! Everyone you meet or see on tv, everything you hear, everything you think or fret about, goes into the script. When you go into REM sleep, you look at the day's rushes. It's familiar, because you are the writer, director, set designer and orchestra. Everything in the dream is a product of your own mind.
