Dreams have been objects of boundless fascination and mystery .
for humankind since the beginning of time. These nocturnal vivid .
images seem to arise from some source other than our ordinary .
conscious mind. They contain a mixture of elements from our own .
personal identity which we recognize as familiar along with a quality .
of `otherness' in the dream images that carries a sense of the strange .
and eerie. The bizarre and nonsensical characters and plots in dreams .
point to deeper meanings and contain rational and insightful comments .
on our waking situations and emotional experiences. The ancients .
thought that dreams were messages from the gods.
The cornerstone of Sigmund Freud's infamous psychoanalysis is .
the interpretation of dreams. Freud called dream-interpretation the .
"via reggia," or the "royal road" to the unconscious, and it is his .
theory of dreams that has best stood the test of time over a period of .
more than seventy years (Many of Freud's other theories have been .
disputed in recent years). .
Freud reportedly admired Aristotle's assertion that dreaming .
is the activity of the mind during sleep (Fine, 1973). It was perhaps .
the use of the term activity that Freud most appreciated in this brief .
definition for, as his understanding of the dynamics of dreaming .
increased, so did the impression of ceaseless mental activity .
differing in quality from that of ordinary waking life (Fine, 1973). .
In fact, the quality of mental activity during sleep differed so .
radically from what we take to be the essence of mental functioning .
that Freud coined the term "Kingdom of the Illogical" to describe that .
realm of the human psyche. This technique of dream-interpretation .
allowed him to penetrate (Fine, 1973). .
We dream every single night whether it stays with us or not. .
It is a time when "our minds bring together material which is kept .
apart during out waking hours" (Anonymous, 1991).