Interpreting the Evidence
What can we conclude about the experimental support for Freud ’st h e o r yo f
dream interpretation? On one hand, researchers have produced a number of
findings consistent with Freud ’s speculations. The content of our dreams is not
random, and dreaming appears to serve some positive psychological functions.
However, in almost all cases, psychologists can account for the findings with-
out relying on Freudian concepts. Moreover, researchers have also uncovered
results that are difficult to explain within Freudian theory (Domhoff, 2004).For example, why do newborn babies experience as much as 8 hours of REM
sleep per day? What unconscious conflicts are they working out? For that mat-
ter, REM sleep has been found in nearly all mammals and possibly even in hu-man fetuses (Crick & Mitchison, 1983). In short, the search for definitive
answers to some of the questions Freud raised continues. Most of us have a
difficult time abandoning the feeling that at least some of our dreams containimportant psychological messages and that dreaming serves some important
psychological function. Understanding the silly and frightening stories that
play in our mind while we sleep no doubt will remain one of the irresistible
mysteries for personality researchers for many years to come.
DEFENSE MECHANISMS
Among the discoveries Freud encountered when he first began to peek under
the surface of human consciousness were the curious ways his patients dealt
with emotional pain. As early as 1894, Freud wrote about his patients ’un-
conscious efforts to conceal painful thoughts and described many of their
neurotic symptoms as manifestations of defense mechanisms. Freud eventually
identified the defense mechanism repression as the cornerstone of psychoanal-
ysis. However, it was left to some of Freud ’s followers to fully develop the
notion of defense mechanisms and to explore their psychological origins andfunction. In particular, Freud ’s daughter Anna identified 10 defense mechan-
isms depicted either directly or vaguely in her father ’s writings. She also de-
scribed five additional mechanisms on her own, and subsequent psychoanalyticwriters have added to the list. Thus, within the psychoanalytic approach, the egohas many tools at its disposal to fend off anxiety and guilt.
Defense mechanisms remain one of the most intriguing yet elusive aspects
of Freud ’s theory. We are said to regularly employ a wide range of defenses,
yet, by definition, we have no awareness that we are doing so. This is not to
say that we are unaware of the behaviors that stem from these defenses. I
may be quite in touch with my intense desire to compete, the anger I express
at the grocery clerk, and the excuses I make to avoid my parents. But the de-
fensive function that drives these behaviors remains at a level below con-
sciousness. Of course, friends and family members often see the connection.
Indeed, we frequently accuse people of being in denial, projecting their feel-
ings onto others, or rationalizing away their bad habits. Most of us can think
of times when friends displaced their anger onto us instead of onto whatever
or whomever was really upsetting them. It also is the case that we often use
anxiety-reducing techniques quite consciously. For example, you mightDefense Mechanisms 75