Farewell to Blogging

I'll be the first to admit that I wasn't a big fan of blogging before I started this assignment.  I'm still not really that big on it, but I have to say; It’s grown on me.  The lessons that I liked doing the most had to be the ones where I was free to write about whatever I pleased.  I thought it was fun writing a movie review on maybe one of the greatest movies on dreams that there is.  Doing this assignment has given me some unique life skills as well.  People tell me about their dreams and usually I can immediately decipher what their problems in life might be, or just what their silly dreams mean.  Another thing I thought was fun was learning the Freudian theory of dreaming.  It's dark and demented characteristics were borderline sinister, but they strangely make sense.  Some really difficult things to write about was the informational pieces.  The only reason for this is because it's difficult to access studies done by reliable sources like colleges/universities.  The only was to access that information is if you are a part of a study group, or you are willing to pay for it...and I wasn't quite given the budget needed to grab some of that info.  I personally wouldn’t recommend blogging for people that are “on the fence” about doing it.  I think that blogging should be something that you’re really committed to, not just a once in a while occasional post.  Also, I would recommend that if you are going to start blogging you should take time to pick a topic that you know something about already.  Also the topic you pick should be something that your intrigued by.   If nothing else, this assignment taught me some new computer skills, so now I am just that much more computer savvy.  Writing the movie review was fun because I got to watch “Inception”, and “The Nightmare on Elm Street” again.  If I were to do the assignment again, I definitely would not procrastinate as long as I did this time.   Dreams were an interesting topic, and there is so much do be discovered about dreams.  While I can say with the utmost confidence that I will not be blogging anymore, I may keep up with the most current studies on dream just because I personally find it fascinating.   Blogging about dreams also brought me up to speed on the Freudian theory.  I heard that he was a wack-job before but reading up on it completely confirmed that he is in fact, “crazier than a loon.”  That being said, I’m sure for his time his ideas made sense to most people because of the technology and studies being what they were.  All in all, there were some fun aspects to blogging, and some things that made me want to pull my own teeth out of my skull.  I pressed on, learned some cool new things about the human brain, sleeping, and most importantly dreams.  Goodbye, world of blogging.

Last Nights Dream

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Last night I had an especially unusual dream. I thought it would be a good opportunity to show how to analyze a dream. Let's recap the day's events. I had a pretty uneventful day of school, had a riveting conversation about dogs with my friend Joel, had a basketball game, and watched a documentary on a man who had seizures at least once a day. Personally, I think seizures are probably the scariest thing that can happen to a human being. Also, one thing you should know is my basketball coach tends to be a bit on the cranky side. So I'm dreaming, doing my sleeping thing and all of the sudden I'm in a basketball game. In a timeout. The game is on the line. My coach, rather unhappy with what I'm doing reaches over and touches my arm. The very second he touches my arm; he drops to the floor and starts having a seizure. I wake up, almost too terrified to open my eyes. The next day I was explaining my dream to my friends. Because I am now an expert at analyzing dreams I believe that I know what my dream meant. For one, my coach was simply there because he was a big part of my day. The seizure part is what intrigues me. I don't believe that just because I had watched a TV show about seizures that that's why I dreamed he had been having a seizure. I remember that everyone in the gym seemed unaffected by my coach seizing up. To me, this means that I was scared about disappointing my coach, and I was afraid that I was going to let him down when it counted the most. The seizure was probably a bit of an exaggeration, but it all makes sense if you think about it. This just goes to show that what you dream about has a direct correlation to your everyday wakening life.

Freud vs. Adler

There are many theories for dreams. One theory comes from the works of Sigmund Freud. He is considered to be the father of psychoanalysis, and crazy. He believed in the "Id", the "Ego", and the "Superego". The Id was centered around primal impulses, desires and pleasure whether they are sinful or not. The Ego was concerned with the conscious, basically the lower level of what we would now call our conscience. He believed the Superego was responsible for enforcing the moral codes of the Ego. Freud believed that the reason you cannot remember your dreams is because the superego is doing its job. Basically, it's protecting your awakening mind from your disturbing images and desires created by your subconscious (your "id"s).

Sigmund Freud had contrasting ideas to Alfred Adler. Adler believed basically what most people accept about dreams in today’s society. He believed that dreams had a direct correlation with the events that occurred in your awakening life. Freud believed that sexual impulse is the driving forces for your behavior. Adler believed that control, motivation, and power drive how you act. So basically, Adler didn't believe your actions could be controlled by your "ego", or your "superego".




Both men were prolific pioneers of psychoanalysis and early psychology.  Both had similar, although not identical beliefs that environmental forces such as biological and environmental conditions create limitations in the human "capacity to choose and to create". Freud focused on dream interpretation and or analysis and other abstract/symbolic concepts, while Adler concentrated on social relationships and behaviors.  The both believed in psychodynamic conflict.  This means that the different parts of the mind are constantly struggling against each other.  Also, they both thought that emotional motivation was key in order for you to even have a personality.

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Interview with a friend

Q:How much of your dreams do you remember?

A:I dont remember much of my dreams.  Just bits and pieces the next morning.

Q:How often do you have nightmares?

A:Quite frequently actually.  Usually they are about the same thing though.

Q:What is the most common thing that you dream about?

A:I dream about my family a lot, usually my dreams are pretty uneventful.

Q: Do you have any recurring dreams?  Meaning dreams that happen more than once?

A: Sometimes when I get sick, I have a dream that makes me feel anxious, and it's strange that I only get it when I'm sick.

Q: Do you ever have dreams when your exposed in public?

A: Yes, usually I'm in school but no one seems to notice that I'm n ot wearing clothes except me.

Q:When you're in a dream where you're being chased, do you turn around to look at your chaser?

A:No.  I guess I dont really think about it, I just run away.

-Interviewee
Paige Pisano

Review on Nightmare on Elm Street

The Nightmare on Elm Street (the remake) was a terrible rendition of the 1984 version. Quite honestly, it was pathetic and many critics and audiences abroad would agree with my opinion. It brought you into the mysterious wold of dreams, and instilled fear in you by the lurking Freddy Krueger. Many people agree that the strongest part of the movie was the music, which isn't exactly a compliment when the main goal of the film is to entertain the audience with a visual picture. The casting of the movie wasn't terrible, but it wasn't fantastic. The plot lacked the mental twists and turns that a movie about dreams should have. This is one of thos situations where a director chose to use a plot in which he could do with whatever pleases, and he still dropped the ball. I kept expecting something else to happen, for the plot to take a turn or something of that nature. However the movie just progressed, slow and boring. John Hanlon of Big Holly magazine said "this flimsy remake is a nightmare and unworthy of your time." Words harshly spoken, but I couldn't have said it better myself. While I must admit that the advances in special affects have given "Freddy" a scarier, bleaker, and more mortifying look than ever, that could help the ever struggling plot. Jackie Earle Haley satisfied my taste for the eerily creepy. The rest of the cast was average, and the plot was predictable to say the least. It was maybe the most unneeded movie of the year.

Review of Inception

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  The fascinating aspect of dreams is not restricted to research and the internet. The mysterious idea of dreams has captivated the masses through cinema. The movie opened in theatres in July of 2010 and grossed over $60,000,000 in the first week. Inception was a long movie. There, I said it. That being said, it didn't leave a lasting impression on me, but it certainly was an enjoyable two and a half hours. Christopher Nolan (writer and director) certainly new how to take the mind for a trip to Mars and back. Sometimes the plot seemed to make me think a little too much actually. Personally, I like movies that are simplistic, yet satisfying. With the combinations of the futuristic technology that they used, and the different stages of dreams, and all the twists and turns I admittedly got legitimately confused a few times. However, that's not to say that many, many, other people like that mind challenge. About 86% of critics liked it, and 93% of audiences liked it. So the twists and turns and brain challenges obviously wasn't a big deal for most people. Some critics described the movie as "thrilling", "smart", and "captivating." I truly believe that Christopher Nolan couldn't have picked a better lead actor for the movie, Leonardo DiCaprio. Leonardo DiCaprio brought some of the twitchy melancholy over from his most recent work before "Inception"("Shutter Island"). Also, a personal favorite of supporting actor of mine had to be Tom Hardy; he certainly knows how to embrace a role. Inception was a journey into the subconscious and Christopher Nolan showed that he is a tactician in making the brain think twice before it makes a decision. Overall, a movie that I enjoyed thoroughly enjoyed and would watch again. I think this movie brings many options to the table for future movie directors and producers. People are intrigued by dreams, and right now are hungry for another mind-bending movie based on the subconscious act of dreaming.

How to Analyze and Overcome Recurring Dreams

Many people often have dreams that occur more than once. The dream may occur once a day, week, or month. It doesn't really matter how often the dreams occur, as long as they happen frequently and the content of the dream doesn't vary too much. The dreams are called recurring dreams. Many times these recurringdreams is your brain trying to tell you that there’s a problem in your lifethat is so urgent, you must search within yourself to find it, and fix it. It's not always easy though to find the problem. It may be something as small as a pimple in the middle of your forehead, or any other tiny insecurity that might be bothering you. It just has to be something that's significant enough to make you think about it and worry about it enough for you to lose sleep over. The patterns of recurring dreams aren’t limited to day to day or week to week. A dream can reoccur when something bad happens to you in your life more than once. For example, or when you get sick or if your significant other breaks up with you. It has been found that events such as these have triggered recurring dreams. Unfortunately, you generally don't have recurring dreams about things that make you happy. Going to parties, having fun...you'd be lucky if you had recurring dreams about events as such. Usually recurring dreams come in nightmarish form that awakens you from slumber. To analyze and correct these dreams one must remember as much about the dream as they can. After recalling the events of said dream, slowly dissect the details of what makes you so uncomfortable about the dream. After this you must try and relate the detail that bothers you the most about your dream to events happening in your life or insecurities you may have about yourself. Then you simply do your best to try and correct the problem. Just attempting to correct the problem may make your brain realize that it's not as big of a deal as it may have thought.

Research on Dreams

Dream research and studies have been going on for hundreds of years and will continue to be researched for years and years.  Recent studies have been done in the UK.  These tests showed that generally girls recall their dreams more often than boys.  In addition to recalling their dreams, girls had more nightmares than boys did as well.  3534 children ages 6-18 participated in this questionnaire that asked the questions above.  Another study in Germany asked 301 lucid dreamers (dreams where you can control your own actions) asked the applications of lucid dreams.  81.4% of the lucid dreamers said that lucid dreams were just for having fun.  63.8% of those lucid dreamers changed a nightmare into a pleasant dream using their ability to control their own actions.  29.9 % of the 301 dreamers used the lucid dream to solve problems whether it be in real life or in the dream itself.  27.6% of dreamers used their lucid dreams to get creative ideas or insights, and finally 21.3% practiced skills during their lucid dreams. 

“Our results show that lucid dreams have a great potential for improving one’s life in different ways. More research is needed to illuminate the possibilities of lucid dreaming, especially in the fields of nightmare treatment and practicing motor skills.”

-Melanie Schädlich, Daniel Erlacher