Oneiromancy is a form of divination by the analysis and interpretation of dreams. Oneiromancy is a part of psychoanalysis that intends to look beneath the manifest content of a dream, i.e., what we perceive in the dream, to the latent content of a dream, i.e., the meaning of the dream and the reason we dreamt it. The seminal work on the subject is The Interpretation of Dreams by Sigmund Freud. This man in Rhumsiki, Cameroon, tells the future by interpreting the changes in position of various objects as caused by a fresh-water crab through nggàm[1]. Divination is the practice of ascertaining information from supernatural sources. ... Dreaming is the subjective experience of imaginary images, sounds/voices, thoughts or sensations during sleep, usually involuntarily. ... Psychoanalysis is a family of psychological theories and methods within the field of psychotherapy that seeks to elucidate connections among unconscious components of patients mental processes, and to do so in a systematic way through a process of tracing out associations. ... The Interpretation of Dreams is a book by Sigmund Freud, the first edition of which came out in 1900. ... Sigmund Freud Sigmund Freud (May 6, 1856 – September 23, 1939; ) was an Austrian neurologist and the founder of the psychoanalytic school of psychology, based on his theory that unconscious motives determine behavior, that particular kinds of unconscious thoughts and memories, especially sexual and aggressive ones, are the source of neurosis...

Ancient

In the Tanach, Joseph intrepreted the dreams of the Pharaoh of Egypt; Daniel also interpreted dreams. 11th century Targum Tanakh [תנ״ך] (also spelt Tanach or Tenach) is an acronym for the three parts of the Hebrew Bible, based upon the initial Hebrew letters of each part: Torah [תורה] (The Law; also: Teaching or Instruction), Chumash [חומש] (The five, also Pentateuch or The five books of... Joseph, in the Hebrew Bible appears in the Book of Genesis. ... Pharaoh (Hebrew פַּרְעֹה (without niqqud: פרעה), Standard Hebrew ParÊ¿o, Tiberian Hebrew Parʿōh, Arabic فرعون) is a title used to refer to the kings (of godly status) in ancient Egypt. ... Daniel (דָּנִיֵּאל, Standard Hebrew Daniyyel, Tiberian Hebrew Dāniyyêl) is the name of at least three people from the Bible: A Jewish exile in Babylon, the subject of the Book of Daniel - this article refers to this best-known Daniel. ...

Artemidorus gives a list of authors mentioned in this longest of the ancient dreambooks. All are lost, but fragments are preserved in Artemidorus and other ancient authors. Aristotle and Plato both discuss dreams in various works. Achmet wrote an edition of Artemidorus Oneirocritica in addition to his own. Astrampsychus was the pseudonymous author of a number of divinatory, magical and medical works, including an Oneirocriticon. Artemidorus Daldianus or Ephesius was a professional diviner and author known for an extant five-volume Greek work Oneirocritica, (English: The Interpretation of Dreams). ... Aristotle, marble copy of bronze by Lysippos. ... Plato (Greek: Πλάτων Plátōn) (ca. ... Achmet, son of Seirim (Gk. ... Astrampsychus was the pseudonym used by the author of the Sortes Astrampsychi (The Lots of Astrampsychus), a popular Greco-Roman fortune-telling guide. ...

Contemporary

There has been much scientific research on dreams, and modern theories attempt to explain as many facts found in scientific research as possible. These include:

• Why we dream the most before being born; why the amount of dreaming decreases at old age; why mammals born prematurely, such as rats, dream more than mature animals.
• Why depressed people dream more.
• Why we may have evolved to dream.

Hall

In 1953, Calvin S. Hall developed a theory of dreams in which dreaming is considered to be a cognitive process [1]. Hall argued that a dream was simply a thought or sequence of thoughts that occurred during sleep, and that dream images are visual representations of personal conceptions. For example, if one dreams of being attacked by friends, this may be a manifestation of fear of friendship; a more complicated example, which requires a cultural metaphor, is that a cat within a dream symbolizes a need to use your intuition. For English speakers, it may suggest that the dreamer must recognize that there is more than one way to skin a cat." 1953 (MCMLIII) is a common year starting on Thursday. ... Look up Cognition in Wiktionary, the free dictionary The term cognition (Latin, cogito: to think) is used in several different loosely related ways. ... The English language is a West Germanic language that originates in England. ...

Freud

In his book The Interpretation of Dreams, first published at the end of the 19th century, Sigmund Freud argued that the foundation of all dream content is the fulfillment of wishes, conscious or not. The theory explains that the schism between ego and id leads to "censorship" of dreams. The unconscious would like to depict the wish fulfilled wholesale, but the preconscious cannot allow it — the wish (or wishes) within a dream is thus disguised, and, as Freud argues, only an understanding of the structure of the dream-work can explain the dream. In every dream in which he attempts to do so, he is able to establish a multitude of wishes on a variety of levels — conscious wishes for the immediate future ("I hope I pass this test" (V§D.δ)) to unconscious wishes pertaining to the far past (VI§F.II). The Interpretation of Dreams is a book by Sigmund Freud, the first edition of which came out in 1900. ... Alternative meaning: Nineteenth Century (periodical) (18th century — 19th century — 20th century — more centuries) As a means of recording the passage of time, the 19th century was that century which lasted from 1801-1900 in the sense of the Gregorian calendar. ... Sigmund Freud Sigmund Freud (May 6, 1856 – September 23, 1939; ) was an Austrian neurologist and the founder of the psychoanalytic school of psychology, based on his theory that unconscious motives determine behavior, that particular kinds of unconscious thoughts and memories, especially sexual and aggressive ones, are the source of neurosis... Censorship is the control of speech and other forms of human expression, often by government intervention. ...

Freud listed four transformations of wishes to get past the censor as a dream:

• "Condensation" where one dream object could stand for several thoughts
• "Displacement" where the dream object's significance is less important than the disguised significance
• "Representation" where a thought is translated to visual images
• "Symbolisation" where an action or a person is replaced by a different symbol

These transformations help to disguise the latent content. The basis for all of these systems, he claimed, was "transference", in which a would-be censored wish of the unconscious is given undeserved "psychical energy" (the quantum of attention from consciousness) by attaching to "innocent" thoughts.

He claimed that the counterintuitivity of nightmares represented a clash between the ego and the id: the id wishes to see a past wish fulfilled, while the ego cannot allow it; he interprets the anxiety of a nightmare as the ego working against the id. (He further claimed that in nearly all cases these anxious dreams are products of infantile, sexual memories.) A nightmare is a dream of particular intensity and with content that the sleeper finds disturbing. ... Anxiety is a complex combination of the feeling of fear, apprehension and worry often accompanied by physical sensations such as palpitations, chest pain and/or shortness of breath. ... A nightmare is a dream of particular intensity and with content that the sleeper finds disturbing. ... A male Caucasian toddler child A child (plural: children) is a young human. ... Wikimedia Commons has media related to: Sex positions Francoeur, Robert T. (ed. ...

Freud is careful to argue that the wishes are not revealed in dream analysis for the sake of conscious fulfillment, but instead for conscious resolution of the inner conflict. His relaxed attitude towards what could be seen as "depravity" in the unconscious is summed up in Plato's words: "the virtuous man is content to dream what a wicked man really does" (emphasis not added: I§F, VII§F; Plato Republic IX). Plato (Greek: Πλάτων Plátōn) (ca. ... Plato. ...

According to his theory, the most basic desires come from the "id", the childlike portion of the unconscious, and as such often contained material that would be unacceptable to the ego. As the text was written relatively early in his career, he does not use the terms "ego" and "id", but rather "preconscious" and "unconscious", respectively. These terms themselves are not introduced until the seventh chapter of the book, until which his system of dream interpretation is incrementally constructed and argued. In his theory of psychoanalysis, Sigmund Freud sought to explain how the unconscious mind operates by proposing that it has a particular structure. ... eGO is a company that builds electric motor scooters which are becoming popular for urban transportation and vacation use. ...

Freud arrived at his theory of dreams by research (though he rejects much of the prior work), self-analysis, and psychoanalysis of his patients (I, VI§H, VII§C); as his theory developed, Freud often used dream interpretation to treat his patients, calling dreams "[t]he royal road to a knowledge of the unconscious activities of the mind" (VII§E). Psychoanalysis is a family of psychological theories and methods within the field of psychotherapy that seeks to elucidate connections among unconscious components of patients mental processes, and to do so in a systematic way through a process of tracing out associations. ...

Jung

To Carl Jung, dreams are communications from the unconscious. Most of the time, dreams can be regarded as "compensatory" views to the conscious, expressing aspects of the individual that are suppressed or neglected. This idea of compensation, of the natural tendency for the conflicting conscious and unconscious to approach a balance, is the basis of Jung's overall theory of psychological self-regulation. It is also important to note that due to the fact that they are often highly symbolic, dreams can be hard to understand and are subject to nuance and misinterpretation. Carl Jung Carl Gustav Jung (July 26, 1875 – June 6, 1961) (IPA:) was a Swiss psychiatrist and founder of Analytical Psychology. ... The unconscious mind (or subconscious) is the aspect (or puported aspect) of the mind of which we are not directly conscious or aware. ...

New Age

Interpretation of dreams is also a part of contemporary pop and new age culture. Edgar Cayce is an example. Popular culture, or pop culture, is the vernacular (peoples) culture that prevails in a modern society. ... New Age describes a broad movement characterized by alternative approaches to traditional Western culture. ... Edgar Cayce. ...

References

• Freud, Sigmund, The Interpretation of Dreams
• James A. Hall, Jungian Dream Interpretation: A Handbook of Theory and Practice, Inner City Books, 1983, ISBN 0-919-12312-0
• Elsie Sechrist with foreword by Hugh Lynn Cayce, Dreams, Your Magic Mirror, Warner Books, 1974, mass market paperback, ISBN 0-446-31384-X
• Intuitive interpretation of dreams.

External links

• Galen, On Diagnosis in Dreams translated by Lee T. Pearcy (Medicina Antiqua)
• Catholic Encyclopedia: Interpretation of Dreams, covering classical and biblical dream interpretation
• Encyclopaedia Iranica. Persian dream interpreation, pre- and post-Islamic
• "Oneiromancy", the complete text of Jean Bottero's essay on Mesopotamian dream divination. Seminal.
• Dream Interpretation Resources, from Ancient Astrology and Divination on the Web (Tim Spalding)
• The Streams Institute for Spiritual Development, in-depth training programs in Dream Interpretation
• Maljonic's Dreams, Dream Interpretation and Spiritual Development.