List of purposes
What you will encounter again and again as you work on dreams is the fact that the unconscious is obviously concerned with building ego-strength in most people (there are glaring exceptions, though, especially in the psychically ill). Dreams reveal new strengths, faculties and talents and help us learn how to use them. These and other reasons for dreams are summarized in the following table:| Some purposes of dreams | |
|---|---|
| 1. | Share or transmit wisdom |
| 2. | Digest emotions and feelings |
| 3. | Give warnings and premonitions |
| 4. | Alter and/or enlarge self-concept via added awareness, deepening |
| 5. | Act as an alarm clock, both figuratively and/or literally |
| 6. | Provide meaning and direction in life |
| 7. | Supply symbols and make energy available |
| 8. | Act as a mirror, increase self-knowledge |
| 9. | Provide hope and healing |
| 10. | Work on and even solve problems |
| 11. | Enlarge palette of choices |
| 12. | Provide humor and lightness |
| 13. | Supply companionship and opposition |
| 14. | Prepare for future directions and/or happenings |
| 15. | Try out possible future scenarios |
| 16. | Maintain physiological homeostasis and psychic balance |
| 17. | Break with the every-day, like a small vacation |
| 18. | Reveal personal myth |
| 19. | Fill in for what is not or cannot be lived |
| 20. | Provide transcendental experiences |
| 21. | . . . |
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