Adler's Dream Theory

Alfred Adler (1870-1937), an Austrian psychiatrist at one time closely associated with Sigmund Freud, separated from him to develop an alternative to psychoanalysis known as individual psychology (Ansbacher and Ansbacher, 19 5 6) . Adler did not devote the same degree of attention as did Freud to dream phenomena, and his ideas are neither extensive nor consistent enough to constitute a genuine theory. Nevertheless, his writings (Adler, 1931/1958 ; Adler, 1927/1963) anticipated many later neo-Freudian dream theories and even some of the more recent changes in psychoanalytic theory itself . One of the basic principles of Adler's general theory is the pervasive influence of a striving toward mastery that originates during a period of infantile helplessness . 'Thus, mind • develops as the means by which infantile inadequacy is overcome and world mastery is achieved . As a mental act, dreaming also is Imagined to be harnessed to . the goal of mastery. Specifically, forAdler, dreaming is an anticipation of or preparation for future ,situations . It attempts to solve interpersonal problems rather than, as for Freud, to discharge intrapsychic tensions. . Problem-solving theories of dream function face a number of problems : dreams do not seem to contain many obvious problem solutions ; many people do not take their dreams seriously enough to act on any suggestions about waking life that might be found there ; and the particular content of most dreams is too quickly forgotten to be useful later. Adler developed one ingenious way around such difficulties . He admits that the ideational and perceptual content of the dream has little adaptive value . Instead, he focuses on the mood or feeling state created by the dream . Adler notes the common experience of carrying a dream Instigated mood well Into the following day, even though the events that created the mood are ,quite fictitious and readily forgotten . But Adler vacillates on how adaptive these dreamcreated moods actually are . He allows 'that dreams and 'dream-instigated moods may provide only unrealistic or deceptive solutions to problems In waking life . Adler does not entirely neglect the ideational and perceptual content of dreams . Here, too, however, he vacillates on its unrealistic versus adaptive nature . For example, he links a fantastic or unrealistic (bizarre) quality of some dream imagery to the diminished reality contact of sleep, a state in which the dreamer is not stimulated to deal honestly with real-life situations . And yet, Adler also holds that dream imagery is largely expressive in nature ; that is, particular dream portrayals emerge for their ability, not to disguise the dreamer's underlying thoughts, but to express them . • Adler's theory, though not always internally consistent, nevertheless offers significant alternatives to Freud's: that the dream itself is concerned with present and future experience rather than with the Infantile period alone ; that waking and dreaming are related aspects of mental life and more continuous than discontinuous; that the .process of dreaming is driven by realistic adaptive needs rather than by childish wishes; and that dream Imagery is a unified expression of the dreamer's character rather than a piecemeal construction designed to conceal its origins: In the hands of later psychologists (for example, Hall, 1966 ; French, 1954), many of these ideas 'found , more consistent expression and greater acceptance . (See also CONTENT OF DREAMS; FREUD'S DREAM