"Dreams are the subconsciousness mind telling the conscious mind what it needs"

[vinny]

I heard that in The Giant Mechanical Man- a movie. The guy who said this is sort of a douche in the film, so I'm wondering if anything he said actually had merit. I would assume so. What do you guys think about that? I had a dream last night of a girl ignoring me. Every stage (different setting) of my dream was trying to capture her attention. But she continued to ignore me. So does that mean I need her or more enthusiasm? I don't know. Agree, disagree or add?

[JoannaB]

I think saying that dreams are the subconscious mind telling the conscious what it needs is a vast oversimplification. Sure, some dreams are like that, but there is a huge variety of different dreams out there and they serve very different purposes. Not all of them are a profound message from the subconscious. Some dreams may be our mind just getting hung up on a piece of trivia like a picture we saw that day. Some dreams are about need, some are about fun (though of course you could say that then out subcobscious is telling our conscious that it needs more fun). I think that it would be very limiting to phrase all dreams in such terms. It would be sort of like saying that our waking life is all about love. You would ask what about being at work? And I suppose you could then claim, well do you love your work, and if you don't you need to find work you love. Etc etc. I suppose one could describe all of waking life using the love terminology - it would be forced at times, and very limiting. As for your dream of the girl ignoring you, we do not have enough info to be able to even start to guess what this is about. Is this a girl you know in real life and how? If you know her, how do you feel about her and how does she treat you in real life? If you do not know here, do you feel like all girls ignore you? Is there another girl in real life that this one could represent? Or maybe it is not significant that she is a girl at all, maybe you feel like you are being ignored more generically. There are a vast number of other options, but without more information about either this dream or you and your life, I cannot know what to guess. I hope this helps.

[vinny]

Interesting. I do know her in real life, we are acquaintances. And she's attractive.

[Sensei]

I think saying that dreams are the subconscious mind telling the conscious what it needs is a vast oversimplification. Sure, some dreams are like that, but there is a huge variety of different dreams out there and they serve very different purposes. Not all of them are a profound message from the subconscious. Some dreams may be our mind just getting hung up on a piece of trivia like a picture we saw that day. Some dreams are about need, some are about fun (though of course you could say that then out subcobscious is telling our conscious that it needs more fun). I think that it would be very limiting to phrase all dreams in such terms. It would be sort of like saying that our waking life is all about love. You would ask what about being at work? And I suppose you could then claim, well do you love your work, and if you don't you need to find work you love. Etc etc. I suppose one could describe all of waking life using the love terminology - it would be forced at times, and very limiting. As for your dream of the girl ignoring you, we do not have enough info to be able to even start to guess what this is about. Is this a girl you know in real life and how? If you know her, how do you feel about her and how does she treat you in real life? If you do not know here, do you feel like all girls ignore you? Is there another girl in real life that this one could represent? Or maybe it is not significant that she is a girl at all, maybe you feel like you are being ignored more generically. There are a vast number of other options, but without more information about either this dream or you and your life, I cannot know what to guess. I hope this helps. As a person all about love I must disagree. I do work for love. Do everything to the glory of God, because I love him. When I am struggling because work is too hard I can also think of my wife and soon to be child as something to keep me going when I want to quit. @main topic I do agree with it being an oversimplification. Dreams are closer to desires than needs. for instance, last night I had a dream that I was hanging with a friend of mine I have been wanting to gm hang out with, but he has moved a few hours away so I don't see him as often. I want to hang out with him because he has always been onr of my best friends, but I do not think my mind is telling me I need to. Also I have had dreams where I am playing a game of laser tag that restarts every time I get close to winning. Not a desire or a need. I think that the saying should start with the word "some" Very interesting idea though!