The document provides an overview of Freud's method for dream interpretation using an example dream of his own. It breaks the dream down into individual elements, links each element to real-life experiences, and provides possible interpretations of the hidden meanings within the dream. The method aims to uncover unconscious desires or anxieties through symbolic representations in dreams. The document also includes examples of the presenter using this method to interpret their own dreams.

1. PSYFLEX
DREAM INTERPRETATION
(full-length presentation)

2. YOUR BRAIN (OR FULL INTELLECT)
THE DATABASE, COMPUTER,

3. 2 consciousness modes
• WANDERING MODE (over 60% of the time)
• FOCUS MODE

4. SHORT-TERM MEMORY

5. REAL TIME REACTION: FOCUS MODE

6. YOUR INSTINCTS, SENSES

7. SLEEPING MODE, UNCONSCIOUSNESS

8. WAKING-UP TIME

9. REAL TIME REACTION
I need to get up, I’m late for work!

10. REAL TIME REACTION
I need to get up, I’m late for work!

11. MEMORY
I need to bring my files to work today!

12. YOUR BRAIN (OR FULL INTELLECT)
Full-recovery! Full use of grey matter!

13. FREUD’s
DREAM INTERPRETATION METHOD
• WE WILL USE THE RAW DATA (JUST LIKE USING AN
OPERATING SYSTEM IN SAFE MODE – NOT FULLY) WHICH HAS
BECOME SYMBOLS TO BE DECRYPTED
• Exercise 1: breaking down each element
• Exercise 2: making links to real life situations and objects
• Exercise 3: understand why and interpretation

14. FLUSHED NEURONAL PATHWAYS AT
NIGHT

15. Freud’s own dream (the example he
used in his book)
He’s sitting at a table with other people for
dinner. They serve spinach.
Miss E.L. (that Freud knows in real life but hasn’t
seen her for quite a long time) is sitting there
next to him and she’s staring at him.
Then she tells him: “you have beautiful eyes”
and touches his knee. And suddenly, he sees a
pictures of a glass, in fact, 2 glasses, that take
the shape of a pair of reading glasses.”

16. The goal is to break down each
element
(1)He’s sitting at a table with other people for
dinner. (2)They serve spinach.
(3) Miss E.L. (that Freud knows in real life but
hasn’t seen her for quite a long time) is sitting
there next to him and she’s staring at him.
Then she tells him: “you have beautiful eyes”
and touches his knee. (4)And suddenly, he sees
a pictures of a glass, in fact, 2 glasses, that take
the shape of a pair of reading glasses.”

17. Element 1
(1)He’s sitting at a table with other people for
dinner.
Freud had been to a dinner party just the
night before.

18. Element 2
(2)They serve spinach.
Freud hated spinach when he was young but he
started enjoying them as an adult.

19. Element 3
(3) Miss E.L. (that Freud knows in real life but
hasn’t seen her for quite a long time) is sitting
there next to him and she’s staring at him.
Then she tells him: “you have beautiful eyes”
and touches his knee.
The evening before, Freud’s wife talked a lot to
other people, making him feel he was ignored.

20. Element 4
(4)And suddenly, he sees a pictures of a glass,
in fact, 2 glasses, that take the shape of a pair
of reading glasses.”
His friend is an eye doctor and sells spectacles
(reading glasses).

21. We have just decomposed the dream
• Assigned each element to a real life entity
• Now, during the workshop, we’ll look at the
reason why Freud made this dream
• I’ll also show you an example (or 2) of my own
dreams
• And hopefully, you will come with your own
dream that we will try to understand

22. Linking symbolic elements to real life
• It is only during waking up time that one can
actually realize the hidden meanings of the
dream

23. INTERPRETING DREAMS
Manifest
content:
THE DREAM
Latent content:
ITS HIDDEN
MEANING

24. INTERPRETING DREAMS
ACTION
PERSON
PLACE
IMPERSONATION?
PLACE
SWAPPING?
OPPOSITE ACTION TO
SATISFY UNFULFILLED
DESIRES?

25. (1)He’s sitting at a table with other people for
dinner.
There is no place swapping, Freud re-modelled his
evening in his dream.
(2)They serve spinach.
The meaning may be to make him remember he is
an adult, and that as an adult, he can eat spinach –
which, symbolically meant that he can or should be
able to endure things that he couldn’t when he was
young.
Freud’s dream interpretation

26. Freud’s dream interpretation
(3) Miss E.L. (that Freud knows in real life but hasn’t seen her for
quite a long time) is sitting there next to him and she’s staring at him.
Then she tells him: “you have beautiful eyes” and touches his knee.
Freud’s old friend impersonated his wife – or his wife was
impersonated by an old friend. There was a swap of people in the
dream. In other words, his wife reminded him of an old friend – or
worse, his wife might just have been a friend during that dinner
because she ignored him in her behaviour.
But in the dream, Miss E.L. shows him love. It meant that a friend
could become a lover, and a lover could become a friend. Where is the
frontier between friend and lover?
The dream, in a way, is asking a question. But may not answer it
directly. It is in one’s awake time that one can try to answer the
question that the dream poses.

27. Freud’s dream interpretation
(4)And suddenly, he sees a pictures of a glass, in
fact, 2 glasses, that take the shape of a pair of
reading glasses.”
The drinking glass, duplicated into reading glasses
could be a symbol of reality, in more precisely of
the understanding of reality. What’s more, it is his
friend’s job to sell spectacles, reminding him he’s
part of a group of friends. The thing – the pair of
glass – may also have been the impersation of his
friend.

28. My dream in its manifest form
• I’M INSIDE A SHOP BUYING SOMETHING. AND
MY SON – 10 YEARS OLD – IS OUTSIDE.
• I SEE HIM THROUGH THE GLASS WINDOW.
• AND HE’S SMOKING A CIGARETTE.
• And I didn’t know how to react. And I didn’t
get angry. But I was disappointed because of
my reaction against my son smoking was, I
thought, too weak.

29. My dream in its manifest form
• I’M INSIDE A SHOP BUYING SOMETHING.
AND MY SON – 10 YEARS OLD – IS OUTSIDE. I
SEE HIM THROUGH THE GLASS WINDOW. AND
HE’S SMOKING A CIGARETTE.
The shop in the dream is the Italian restaurant in a
movie, Leon The Professional, where Leo always
meets the godfather, his boss.
In the movie, Matilda, waits for Leon outside, and
she smokes a cigarette.

30. INTERPRETATION 1
I was clueless on
how to react
MY SON
SHOP
Matilda,(Natalie
Portman) the 14 year
old character in the
movie
ITALIAN
RESTAURANT
Leon tells her not to
smoke

31. INTERPRETATION 2
Matilda,(Natalie
Portman) the 14
year old character
in the movie
ITALIAN
RESTAURANT
Leon tells her not to
smoke
I told my student
I didn’t smoke
My student who came
late and “accused” me of
smoking weed
university

32. My dream (2) in its manifest form
• My parents are eating on the floor (the way
Vietnamese do). But it is taking place in France
in their house, more precisely, in my mom’s
office – where they never eat.
• My dad did not behave the way he usually
does. He called my brother to eat in a way I’m
completely unfamiliar with. My brother came
heads down not saying anything.

33. INTERPRETATION
Eating on the
floor
Dad and
brother
Their house, eating
in the office
Impersonating my
Vietnamese in-laws
Vietnamese House
Eating like Vietnamese

34. Dream classification
• Reasonable -> easy to understand, while
sleeping, your body feels thirsty, so you dream
that you’re drinking water. Then you feel fine,
having fulfilled the thirst and go back to sleep
• unreasonable - > surprising, disturbing
(something terrible that you wouldn’t suspect
happened in the dream)
• Confusing dreams