On the Subject of Dreams

Dreams have always interested me, but it wasn't until recently that I became obsessed with the theories about, and purposes of dreams. I picked up a copy of Freud's, "The Interpretation of Dreams," after I had a dream that I believe helped me grieve a little bit over the loss of my grandfather.

I am under the assumption that dreams serve more than one purpose. I believe dreams can help you with a lot of things. Grieve, release oppressed thoughts, even carry out sexual fantasies or urges that you aren't able to achieve in your waking life in some cases.

And since I believe these things, it made me wonder a bit about psychopaths. If dreams can release pent up sexual urges, violent urges, and just general anger and emotions of the like, does that mean that murderers, rapists, child-molesters, ect. don't dream as often?

Most killers, when examined, have some sort of growth, tumor, or dysfunction of the prefrontal cortex of their brains. This has been studied extensively over the last few years by psychologists, criminologists, and students looking to make a name for themselves. So as the...growth starts to effect your impulse control, can it also effect the way you dream? This is an especially difficult question to answer because dreams already differ so much from person to person.

Not only is it difficult for people to remember how many dreams they may have had, if any, but it is also difficult to measure the normality of a person. A perfectly good person, with no history of violence, may just not have a very active brain when sleeping. Others may have a very active one, while having a particularly confrontational personality. So even if a question like this were to be answered, it would have to be answered in a 'generally speaking' sort of manner.

Maybe the question should actually be asked in an opposite light. Is it possible that since these people have little control over their impulses, that their brains are hyperactive in sleep, and have wilder, stranger dreams?

And what about suicidal individuals? The only difference between a killer, and a suicidal person, is that in suicide, anger is directed inward, rather than outward.

So, then, is it also possible that crippling depression could be relieved with more dreams? Could it be, that the dreams a suicidal individual thinks may be destroying them emotionally in their waking life, is actually balancing out some sort of chemical in their brain, and keeping them alive?

For example, a man loses everything and everyone he loves, all at once. He is then overcome with a feeling of depression and begins having suicidal thoughts. The nights go on, and he dreams of how he lost all these things quite graphically. He wakes up crying, thinking the dreams are hurting him. But could it be that they are in fact helping him grieve, and putting to rest some of the things that need to be put to rest?

Here are the questions I would love to see answered eventually:

Does a psychopath have less dreams than a normal person, or are their off-balanced brains causing their dreams to be hyperactive and out of control?

Do dreams actually help protect us from things our body is trying to force during our waking life, like depression?

~~~~~~
A couple questions for you all.

If you ever found yourself very depressed, did you find that you had more or less dreams?

Did they seem to help, or torment you?

If you are a confrontational person, do you find yourself having violent, or graphic dreams?

If you are a nonsexual person, do you find yourself having erotic dreams more often than not?