Final answer:
Freud's dream theory asserts that dreams are a form of wish fulfillment, revealing the hidden desires of the unconscious mind through a differentiation between their manifest content and latent content. Critics and alternative theories suggest varied interpretations and functions of dreams.
Step-by-step explanation:
Freudian Dream Theory and Wish Fulfillment
According to Sigmund Freud's dream theory, the main concept associated with dreams is wish fulfillment. Freud suggested that dreams allow individuals to fulfill unmet desires that are not acceptable in waking life. Dreams, for Freud, were primarily the product of the unconscious mind's attempt to resolve inner conflict by portraying repressed desires in a disguised form. The interpretation of dreams is focused on differentiating between the manifest content — the actual storyline of the dream — and the latent content, which contains the symbolic meaning and the hidden wishes the dream represents.
While Freud's perspective emphasized the psychological significance of dreams, not all theorists agree, Carl Jung argued that dreams tap into the collective unconscious and reflect universal archetypes shared across humanity. In contrast, dream researchers like Rosalind Cartwright proposed that dreams reflect important events in the dreamer's life, offering empirical evidence to support this theory.