Freud Dreamwork Essays - Freudian Psychology, Psychotherapy, Dream

Freud Dreamwork 1 INTRODUCTION Although Jung was a pupil of Freud, and one would think they shared the same idea about the interpretation of dreams, that is not exactly true. Freud proposed the notorious idea that dreams are a reflextion of subconsciousness, but Jung expanded on Freud and added another dimension to this relation. In Jung's view, dreams not only lead to personal subconsciousness, but also to collective unconsciousness. This paper attempts to present the two theories of dreams and stress the unique qualities in each of them. I believe the reader will excuse a 'clinical' tone of paper, knowing that originally this text was written as school assignment. In 1995, I wrote this paper under the guidance of Branka Bajgoric, who was my psychology teacher in the high school I attended. I omitted the technical part of the paper: identifying problem and developing the thesis. I also did not include a part in which I discussed the implications of becoming lucid in dream on the interpretation. Not that it would be inappropriate, but I think that subject is so broad that it demands a separate paper in order to sufficiently cover it. I think that nowadays, where there are so much alternative (occult) explanations of dreams available, we often forget about the old thinkers. What is even worse, we tend to think they are out of date or irrelevant in this rush of global spiritual evolution. However, I find the following two scientists, and Jung particularly, extremely contemporary. I hope the following paper will attract some of reader's interest to further study the rich work of both, should I say big men? Ljubljana, July 1998 2 THEORETICAL INTRODUCTION 2.1 FREUD'S PSYCHOANALYTIC INTERPRETATION OF DREAMS With his psycho-analysis, Sigmund Freud opened the door for dreams to become a subject of scientifical research. He became interested in dreams when dealing with his patients because they were telling dreams spontaneously. He soon systematically included interpretation of dreams in psycho-analysis right beside hypnosis and free association. In the end of 19th century he eventually researched the mechanism of dreaming. The analysis of dreams is indispensable tool in therapy for each psychoanalyst since then, and for Freud, dreams are even the key to theoretical understanding of subconscious. He explained also dreams of people, who did not suffer from mental illness, in psychoanalitic way and so he was changing his psychotherapy in theory in the very beginning. 2.1.1 A desire to sleep When we become tired of receiving of and responding to stimuli from environment we try to fall asleep. The main characteristic of psychical state of a sleeper is therefore a withdrawal from reality and cessation of taking all interests in it. We try to fall asleep by disconnecting from all sources of external stimuli. We lay down in a silent, dark room and cover our body to keep it comfortably warm and so minimize input from environment. Of course, an absolute withdrawal in which we would stop to perceive environment is not possible. In other words, the sleeper does not have a 'switch' to switch off at the time of sleeping and switch on back, when the time for awakening comes. After all, if such absolute withdrawal was possible to achieve, the sleeper would risk not to wake up again, since more and more strong stimuli in the morning are exactly what wakes up the sleeper. These stimuli disturb us also during the sleep, and our mentality is forced to respond to them - with dreams. Disturbing stimuli can be either external or internal. External stimuli come from environment and from inside of our physical body. Their task is to warn of imbalance in the body (e.g. full bladder, thirst) or else they contain information about disturbances in environment (e.g. low room temperature, noise). There are lot of evidences how dreams maintain sleep in such cases. For Freud though, the external stimuli are important only to the extent that suggest analogous existance of more important, psychical pressure on sleeper: an internal stimulus. This internal stimulation emerges either because of the continuation of our diurnal mental activity or pressure of our unsatisfied instinctive aspirations. The latter are in psychotherapy very important, because they can express those conflicts,

The Role of Bushido in Modern Japan

The Role of Bushido in Modern Japan Bushido, or the way of the warrior, is commonly defined as the moral and behavioral code of the samurai. It is often considered a foundation stone of Japanese culture, both by Japanese people and by outside observers of the country. What are the components of bushido, when did they develop, and how are they applied in modern Japan? Controversial Origins of the Concept It is difficult to say exactly when bushido developed. Certainly, many of the basic ideas within bushido- loyalty to ones family and ones feudal lord (daimyo), personal honor, bravery and skill in battle, and courage in the face of death- have likely been important to samurai warriors for centuries. Amusingly, scholars of ancient and medieval Japan often dismiss bushido and call it a modern innovation from the Meiji and Showa eras. Meanwhile, scholars who study Meiji and Showa Japan direct readers to study ancient and medieval history to learn more about the origins of bushido. Both camps in this argument are right, in a way. The word bushido and others like it did not arise until after the Meiji Restoration- that ​is, after the samurai class was abolished. It is useless to look at ancient or medieval texts for any mention of bushido. On the other hand, as mentioned above, many of the concepts included in bushido were present in Tokugawa society. Basic values such as bravery and skill in battle are important to all warriors in all societies at all times, so presumably, even early samurai from the Kamakura period would have named those attributes as important. The Changing Modern Faces of Bushido In the lead-up to World War II, and throughout the war, the Japanese government pushed an ideology called imperial bushido on the citizens of Japan. It emphasized Japanese military spirit, honor, self-sacrifice, and unwavering, unquestioning loyalty to the nation and to the emperor.   When Japan suffered its crushing defeat in that war, and the people did not rise up as demanded by imperial bushido and fight to the last person in defense of their emperor, the concept of bushido seemed to be finished. In the post-war era, only a few die-hard nationalists used the term. Most Japanese were embarrassed by its connections with the cruelty, death, and excesses of World War II. It seemed like the way of the samurai had ended forever. However, beginning in the late 1970s, Japans economy began to boom. As the country grew into one of the major world economic powers in the 1980s, people within Japan and outside of it once again began to use the word bushido. At that time, it came to mean extreme hard work, loyalty to the company that one worked for, and devotion to quality and precision as a sign of personal honor. News organizations even reported on a sort of company-man seppuku, called karoshi, in which people literally worked themselves to death for their companies.   CEOs in the west and in other Asian countries started to urge their employees to read books touting corporate bushido, in an attempt to replicate Japans success. Samurai stories as applied to business, along with Sun Tzus  Art of War  from China, became best-sellers in the self-help category. When the Japanese economy slowed into stagflation in the 1990s, the meaning of bushido in the corporate world shifted once again. It began to signify the peoples brave and stoic response to the economic downturn. Outside of Japan, the corporate fascination with bushido quickly faded. Bushido in Sports Although corporate bushido is out of fashion, the term still crops up regularly in connection with sports in Japan.  Japanese baseball coaches refer to their players as samurai, and the international soccer (football) team is called Samurai Blue. In press conferences, the coaches and players regularly invoke bushido, which is now defined as hard work, fair play, and a fighting spirit. Perhaps nowhere is bushido more regularly mentioned than in the world of martial arts. Practitioners of judo, kendo, and other Japanese martial arts study what they consider to be the ancient principles of bushido as part of their practice (the antiquity of those ideals is debatable, of course, as mentioned above). Foreign martial artists who travel to Japan to study their sport usually are particularly devoted to an ahistorical, but very appealing, version of bushido as a traditional cultural value of Japan. Bushido and the Military The most controversial usage of the word bushido today is in realm of the Japanese military, and in political discussions around the military. Many Japanese citizens are pacifists, and deplore the use of rhetoric that once led their country into a catastrophic global war. However, as troops from Japans Self-Defense Forces increasingly deploy overseas, and conservative politicians call for increasing military power, the term bushido crops up more and more often. Given the history of the last century, military uses of this very militaristic terminology can only inflame relations with neighboring countries including South Korea, China, and the Philippines.   Sources Benesch, Oleg. Inventing the Way of the Samurai: Nationalism, Internationalism, and Bushido in Modern Japan, Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2014.Marro, Nicolas. The Construction of a Modern Japanese Identity: A Comparison of Bushido and The Book of Tea,  The Monitor: Journal of International Studies, Vol. 17, Issue1 (Winter 2011).The Modern Re-invention of Bushido, Columbia University website, accessed August 30, 2015.