Sigmund Freud, the founding father of psychoanalysis, first became aware of the implications of dreams in psychoanalytic therapy when he comprehended that in the process of free association, his patients often described their dreams pertaining to the night before. He then learnt that these dreams had a certain meaning, though this meaning was concealed.
“The Interpretation of Dreams” was published by Freud in 1900, and in which he incorporated much of the data gathered from both his clinical experience in this domain as well as the insights he acquired by free association for his own dreams.
It was on the basis of this data that he came to the conclusion that a dream is a conscious expression of an unconscious wish or fantasy, which is not accessible to that individual in the awakened state.
Dreams dwell in a central spot in today’s psychoanalytic practice and theory, and are the subject of ongoing research.
However, to date clinical psychiatric treatment has not yet clearly elucidated the value of dream interpretation.
So, what is the purpose of dreams?
Rodolfo Llinas has interesting insights on how the mind works during sleep as well as wakefulness in his book "I of the Vortex". If I recall correctly, he basically says that because the brain has an internal oscillation frequency of ~40 Hz both during sleep as well as wakefulness, they're pretty much the same thing from that perspective. And you exist as a person with particular experiences and wishes similarly in both situations (sleep/wake). When you're off of that frequency, you don't exist as a person with experiences and wishes but of course you continue existing as a biological entity. So what's the meaning of dreams? It looks like they have similar contents as during wakefulness but of course lack of dreams seem to have deleterious effects. Please take a look at this dog: http://youtu.be/wI8XgJ3JebE
Almilaji, I had a thought upon watching the effects of the sun through a magnifying glass the other day. Neither the glass nor the sun exist for this purpose; yet, this purpose for them exists. Whether or not dreams exist for a purpose, they sure do serve some.
I would like to thank everyone for your valuable contribution to this question!
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