Do Dreams Have Meaning?

Over the past two years since I’ve been in college, my sleep cycle has been seriously awkward. I usually get to sleep at sometimes 3 am and have to wake up for an 8 am class in the morning. Most of the time when I fall asleep I feel as though I was sleep for about 10 or 15 minutes at most, until the loud and obnoxious sound of my alarm interrupts me; telling me that in reality my few hours of peace and relaxation are over. For the most part I sleep and don’t really dream, however since reading Sigmund Freud’s  book “Interpretation of Dreams”, I have noticed that when I do dream they either tend to be incredibly awesome leaving me upset that it has to end, or on the contrary a complete nightmare that leaves me sweating and terrified when waking up.

The famous and very popular scholar, pioneer, and researcher of sleep William Dement once said “Dreaming permits each and everyone of us to be quietly and safely insane each and every night of the week”. Now before I jump into trying to analyze and dissect both Sigmund Freud and William Dement, id like to question why we even have dreams. It is so weirs to me that we dream each and every night, however I only recall dreaming maybe once or twice a week. Now going back to Dements quote, I agree 100% with what he said in regards to dreams. I know from my personal track record of my dreams that sometimes I dream that I am the most awesome man in the world, and sometimes on the contrary I dream that I am being chased, or captured on the verge of death. Dreams in my opinion really do allow us as humans to be crazy, awesome, figments of our imagination, and human all at the same time. But the real question is what do dreams mean? Do they even have real meaning?

William Dement

Sigmund Freud, the father of “psychoanalysis” as well as the writer of the book Interpretation of dreams, researches and helps to give answers to the many questions that many of us have in mind in regards to our love-hate relationship with dreams. Although his theory of interpreting dreams has been brutally criticized by many, it is without a doubt agreed upon that his ideas have exerted much influence on today’s culture in regards to dreams. He starts by making the distinction between “latent” and “manifest” dreams by illustrating that manifest dreams are surface level dreams (what we dreamt), while latent dreams are our dream thoughts expressed in special language (what the meaning is). 

 “in the following pages I shall provide that there is a psychological technique which allows us to interpret dreams, and that when this procedure is applied, every dream turns out to be a meaningful, psychical formation which can be given an identifiable place in what goes on within walking life”. (Sigmund Freud: Interpretation of Dreams)

Sigmund Freud

Freud believes that although scientific opinion has come to dismiss the idea that dreams can be interpreted, “popular opinion” has held on to the conception that dreams do in fact have meaning. He uses the scientific method to prove this. He shows that dreams have “ulterior motives” in which means that the meanings of dreams go beyond what it appears to be on the surface. He concludes that the idea of “wish-fulfillment” is the meaning of each and every dream, and hence there can be no dreams without wishful dreams”. I no by this point your wondering what the heck wish-fulfillment is but don’t worry I will explain. Wish-fulfillment is an attempts by the unconscious to resolve a conflict of some sort, whether it be something as recent as that day, or something that is remembered from the past. However, due to the information in the unconscious being boisterous and unsettling, a “censor” in the pre-conscious does not allow it to pass through to the conscious. It’s important to note that the unconscious mind must wrap the meaning of the information to make it through censorship. In shorter terms, Freud’s theory in Interpretation of Dreams is that “images in dreams are not what they appear to be on the surface, they need deeper analysis and interpretation of they are to inform on the structures of the unconscious”.

So in connecting Sigmund Freud’s theory on dreams into the many questions that you and I have in regards to understanding meaning of our interesting awesome or interestingly weird dreams, the answer is quite simple. Our dreams that we have every night are much deeper than just being chased and killed, or marrying your most sought after crush; instead it goes beyond that. Although it can not be proven exactly what each and everyone of one our dreams literally means, it is without question that dreams do have meaning beyond the surface, as Freud portrayed in his book.

Win The Day

The game of football has changed incredibly over the past few decades in many ways. Yes, obviously guys have gotten bigger, faster, stronger, and smarter, however what about image? I have noticed that over time as my football carreer developed, the many pressures of image have also increased. Advertising companies such as Nike have taken over the television screen, the malls front windows, billboards, and even have created collegiate football teams into advertisments themselves. Nike takes pride in there many mottos which include "just do it", "dont back down", "unstoppable", but does it ever talk about how the gear or equipment actually effects better play? The answer is no. There ads focus more on how flashy and state of the art there designs are, the color and texture of the new material, or the creativity of the new logos, but it never really talks about better preparing the players in the field of play.

Here at School we have been discussing how much we dislike the look, feel, and style of our uniforms and equipment. Although not all guys dislike it, the majority of the team would prefer to have Nike instead of the current sponsorship we have today, or rather any other brand? Why is it that the guys only want Nike? Is it because of the constant advertisment that we are bombarded with in commercials, at local sporting good stores, or even the fact that majority of the teams we face all have brand new Nike uniforms? I strongly believe that its a little bit of both. Some have suggested other sponsorship ideas such as Addidas, Under Armor, which are cheaper and just as good of quality to help with performance on the field. However, guys on the team are very set on there ideas that Nike is the only and best way to go.



Addidas Football



  

So im sure at this point the question is why does it matter that our guys want only want Nike and are not open to other and even possibly better oppurtunities. First off, the fact that Nike has not only taken control of almost every form of advertisment possible, has created a way to target a very large audience, as well as persuaded athletes based upon its new equipment and uniforms, that Nike is the superior brand for football. Like many of my teamates who would spend extra money on a swoosh and not on actual better equipment, the world today does the same thing by focusing so much on the logo or brand itself that it almost forgets about the fact that the equipment or logo on it does not perform for the individual.
  

Under Armour Football



Karl Marx in his book "The Fetishism of Commodities" as well as Naomi Klein focus on many issues similar to this one in very interesting ways. Starting with Karl Marx, he believes that "exchange value" is in a sence derived from the laour of man or human kind. Although this could be very true and very agreeable, I strongly believe that in regards to Nike the logo and perception of the compnay really dictates the value and the price that people will pay for it.





Nike Pro Combat



Naomi Klein on the other hand has a different illustration of her views on logo and advertisments in todays culture. Rather than focusing on marketing a specific item or product, she instead portrays how companies use images or words to portray there object as being superior or the best. In regards to Nike the examples of this could go on for days. From "just do it" to "change the playing field forever" to "win the day" to even "win forever", all of these images and texts are persuasive and have very much control of the audience that views them. When thinking of football in todays culture, the first thing people think about is Nike. However when thinking about Nike, the first thing people think about are things such as Oregon, Tiger Woods, or Michael Jordan. Im sure at this point you may be asking yourself why this may be, and in my opinion I strongly believe that its because Nike truly represents the sport of football in todays society. 

Oregon University Football Nike Ad

The fact that Addidas  and Under Armor both have high quality equipment and performance gear, but get less public praise is somewhat humorous. When thinking about Americans and society today its safe to say that most of us are looking for a "bargain" or a huge deal", however Nike in many ways attracts millions of people to purchase there over priced materials simply because of a swoosh the size of toothepick. So how are we suppose to change our perception of the persuasive and over powering love for Nike products? In my opinion we as athletes and people who purchase Nike materials should really look into other products that are offered by other companies because there are so many other logos and brands out there than function and perform just as good if not better than Nike products.  







Discipline And Punishment

The day after my literary theory class discussed Michel Foucault’s book “Discipline and Punishment” I came across a YouTube video talking about the high number of black men that are incarcerated today. The video discussed many things about today’s prison system that I feel match very well with Foucault’s theory.

The video started out by stating that there are more black men in the incarceration system today, then there were in slavery during the 1850’s. A Columbia Professor by the name of Mark Lamont-Hill pointed out many other troubling stats which include the fact that over 840,000 or 40.2% of prison total population are made up by black men. Along with the high number of black population within the penal system today, 88,000 dollars is spent each year per inmate, while only 9,000 dollars are spent on education. These statistics blew my mind. Lamont said that “we live in a nation of first classjails, and second class education”. My major question after watching this video was simply why? However, after reading some of Michel Foucault’s book on “Discipline and Punishment”, I began to put the pieces together.

Foucault begins his book by talking about the ways in which punishment was handled in the early 18^th and 19^th centuries. Punishment included horrid torture and physical hidings amongst crowds of people who gathered around to see justice being wrongly served. Although the crowd of people did not like or agree with the brutality placed upon people within the society, the authority at the time was the king. Foucault discussed in his book the culture in which the right to punish was not decided by law or a system, but rather the power of the kings discretion. It was even more startling to find out that the crimes that these people were being executed for were not ones that deceived of “public Good”, but rather a personal slur to the king himself. The public executions of these people were not to uphold justice in the eyes of society; it was rather shown publically to illustrate the power of the king and his superiority.

When reading Foucault’s book it made me come to the realization that the king of the 18^th century is a symbol of the upper or ruling class of the 21^st century. Prisons are around still because they have many benefits to the ruling elite upper social class. It has been though that the lower social class commits crime to rebel against the upper class, however the upper class uses the law of today to keep the lower class suppressed. Foucault says “It would be hypocritical or naïve to believethat the law was made all in the name of all; that it would be more prudent torecognize that it was brought to bear upon others; that in principle it appliesto all citizens, but that it is addressed principally to the most numerous andleast established class (276)”. With this in mind Foucault believed that the elite social class used the lower class in such a way to benefit themselves.

Although Foucault’s book goes much more into depth in regards to portrayals of punishment such as torture, and discipline, I felt that the idea about the elite social class having the authority over the lower class is the primary cause for the rising number of black men in the prison system today. Although I am not justifying crime as being morally acceptable or justified under any circumstance, my problem is that as stated in the video illustrates, the elite class is placing more emphasis on the penal system, than on keeping black men out of jail.

Foucault believed that the prison system is not a failing system designed to punish criminals, but rather is a system which functions commendably at attaining its deeper purpose. The prison system allows for the upper or elite social class to remain in power and to continually suppress the lower social class (which in today’s society is the black and Hispanic community).The prison system “effectively incarcerates,  isolates and economically controls the mostdynamic members of the lower class”. The suppression of the black community not only has an effect on the 840,000 inmates that reside in penitentiaries across the united States, but it also has an even greater impact on the women and children of the black community; growing up without fathers and husbands in their lives. Mark Lamont-Hill said that 1 in every 15 black children has a parent that has been or currently is affiliated with the prison system. On the opposing side he mentioned that in white children 1 in 111 children have parents that were (or are) affiliated with some form of the prison system. In looking at the difference in number between white and black children, it almost seems as though society is encouraging more and more black people to flood the gates of the penal system.

It is startling, yet amazing to see how Michel Foucault’s theories and ideals are so prevalent and alive in today’s culture. Although Foucault was not specifically talking about the black community of today, the points for which he presented in his book go hand-in-hand with how society has transformed today. Foucault believed that “the discipline of the prison systemhas spilled out all over society. The spillover causes a struggle for eachmember of society. People either struggle and resist the discipline of societyand may be labeled criminal, or submit to it and lose their own identity. In Foucault’s theories and beliefs, the loss of one’s own personal identity to the discipline of the state is the "real crime”.