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In the second century, a Greek named Artemidorus Daldianus compiled five volumes listing and attempting to interpret hundreds of events and items that appear in dreams. Recognizing how the dreamer\'s life would impinge on any interpretation, he well understood the difficulty of his task. Some 1,800 years later, researchers are still trying to catalog and analyze dreams - and the job has become no easier.
Studies depend on what dreamers report when awake. They may forget or purposely not mention some dream experiences. And the test itself may affect results. Subjects awakened repeatedly in a sleep lab may relate mundane dreams, but after a night of uninterrupted sleep at home may recall only dramatic dreams, presumably having forgotten the dull ones. There were many studies that only showed on important outcome: \"dreams tend to change as people age.\"
Symbols are one way of interpreting dreams. Researchers have tried to find, for each common dream occurence, a psychological situation that matches the dream in some way and link it as a cause. But from my point of view, dream interpretation by catalog of symbols doesn\'t take into account individual differences between dreamers. You can imagine this flaw by taking into account that the cultural background is an important point that should not be neglected. Freud\'s theories, that give high importance to hidden signs of sexual desires, are based on a society that has suppressed sexuality. And so on. In a more global context, asking for special symbols is of dubious value.
Dreams are made up of the dreamer\'s thoughts. It is very difficult, if not impossible, to interpret dreams if you don\'t know the dreamer, since to recognize the meaning of dreams (if there is one) you need to know the background. But nevertheless, sharing dream experiences with the others and getting response, is a nice thing anyway and may help you to find out more about yourself.
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