The Motivating Drives behind Dreams and Nightmares in ancient Egypt According to Freud's Theory
Heba Maher Mahmoud Ahmed
Bulletin of the Center Papyrological Studies November 1, 2020 DOI: 10.21608/bcps.2020.122135 (opens in new tab)
Study at a glance
AI-extracted from the abstract| Characteristics | Theoretical or philosophical paper Peer reviewed |
|---|---|
| Population | Ancient Egyptian beliefs and practices regarding dreams |
| Topics | Dreaming |
| Keywords | Afterlife Instinct Demon Phenomenon Unconscious mind Psychoanalysis Power physics Aside Death drive Aesthetics Literature Epistemology |
| Citations | 2 |
| Key points | Argues that ancient Egyptians perceived dreams as external, uncontrollable visual phenomena linked to the afterlife and the dead, with both beneficial and harmful potential, and that Freud's theory can explain these dreams as expressions of unconscious desires. |
Abstract
The ancient Egyptians put quite a bit of emphasis on dreams, although they had no verb for dreaming. It may suggest that they did not consider it an activity but rather a visual phenomenon, which was an uncontrollable phenomenon external to the dreamer. They linked sleep to death (and afterlife), felt that the messages delivered in their dreams could achieve the desire, cure an illness, give the power and help them in important decisions, such as where they build a temple to the point of when they wage war. It may be used as a window to see the dead and their activities. However, there were types of scary dreams, which bring Devils and evil spirits. As sometimes the result was a positive beneficial experience, as is attested in New Kingdom royal texts and elite hymns that relate, the awe-inspiring could have contacted a dreamer with a god or a goddess. There was another more disturbing belief that dreams could also allow the vulnerable sleeper to be watched or even assaulted by the hostile dead, while today we call these events ‘nightmares’ and consider them psychological phenomena. The cause of dreams was not ascribed to any particular demon, but rather to the generic hosts of hostile dead and other chaotic beings who had crossed over from the afterlife. According to Freud’s theory, there were motivating drives behind all these types of dreams and nightmares, which is based on linking dreams to unconscious psychological life. It may be returned to one of the instinctive repressed desires, which stored in the subconscious, it makes its way during the sleep from the subconscious to the conscious, and it reveals itself as a dream. Or it may be a different desire from a waking life; some ideas that exist before conscious after it contains conflicting motives. It received support during sleeping from one of the emotional elements. So, the dreams may be emerging from the ego. رکز المصريون القدماء على الأحلام شأنهم شأن العديد من الثقافات القديمة، على الرغم من إنه لم يکن لديهم أي فعل للحلم. ربما يشير ذلک إلى أنهم لم يعتبروا ذلک نشاطًا، بل ظاهرة مرئية، لا يمکن السيطرة عليها. ولقد ربطوا بين النوم والموت (والحياة الآخرة)، وشعروا أن الرسائل المرسلة في أحلامهم يمکن أن تحقق رغبة، وتعالج مرض، وتمنح سلطة، بل وتساعدتهم على اتخاذ قرارات هامة إلى حد تحديد مکان بناء معبد جديد أو متى تُشن حرب. ويمکن أن تکون الأحلام بمثابة نافذة لرؤية أنشطة الموتى. ومع ذلک کانوا يخشون في کثير من الأحيان أنواع أخرى من الأحلام تُسمَّى "الکوابيس"، يمکن أن تؤدي إلى ضرر أو إلى رؤية أرواح غير مرغوب فيها. ووفقًا لنظرية فرويد لتفسير الأحلام، کانت هناک دوافع مُحفِزة وراء کل أنواع الأحلام والکوابيس؛ حيث هناک علاقة بين الأحلام واللاوعي لدى الحالم؛ فربما سببتها واحدة من الرغبات الغريزية المکبوتة بداخله، والمخزنة بالعقل الباطن والتي أخذت طريقها من اللاوعي إلى الوعي أثناء النوم، ثم کشفت عن نفسها في صورة حلم. أو ربما سببتها رغبة مختلفة عن حياة اليقظة للحالم؛ حيث بعض الأفکار الموجودة قبل الوعي بعد أن تحتوي على بعض الدوافع المتضاربة والتي تلقي الدعم أثناء النوم من أحد العناصر العاطفية. لذلک قد تنشأ الأحلام من الأنا.
Comparable studies
Other theoretical and historical papers on dreaming, most cited first.
| Study | Year | Design | Participants |
|---|---|---|---|
| Dreaming: a conceptual framework for philosophy of mind and empirical research | 2016 | Theoretical or philosophical paper | |
| Metaphor and hyperassociativity: the imagination mechanisms behind emotion assimilation in sleep and dreaming | 2015 | Theoretical or philosophical paper | |
| Varieties of Lucid Dreaming Experience | 2000 | Theoretical or philosophical paper | |
| Experimental Research on Dreaming: State of the Art and Neuropsychoanalytic Perspectives | 2011 | Theoretical or philosophical paper | |
| The Neurobiology of Consciousness: Lucid Dreaming Wakes Up | 2009 | Theoretical or philosophical paper |