This Is Me?

Dreaming and Unconscious Identities

Abstract

The interpretation of dreams not only represents a core part of Sigmund Freud’s psychoanalysis, but also acts as a starting point for many further developments in psychoanalytic theory and technique itself, in addition to numerous influences in art and culture. Freud understood wish fulfillment and the processing of the day’s leftovers as an important intention of dream production that needs to be interpreted. One aspect of dream interpretation that has received little attention is the question of the identity of the persons acting in the dream. Freud himself already describes identification figures and mixed persons in his interpretation of dreams, and C.G. Jung distinguishes a subject level from an object level. The object relation theory, especially by Otto Kernberg, distinguishes between subject and object representations and the corresponding affects as components of the self. Which identity the dreamer assumes or lets his dream figures assume brings unconscious aspects of the dreamer and his identities to light. These not only help him in his self-exploration and development but let the understanding of the identity be further grasped.