An Interactive Workshop with Psychotherapist Laura Smith

Tickets include entry to the Museum.

This short introductory workshop is intended to provide a brief overview of Sigmund Freud’s theory of dreams using your own dream as a vehicle to illustrate some of his key ideas and concepts.

Dreams are both mysterious and mundane: we all dream, and most dreams are unremarkable and forgotten almost immediately on waking. However, there are some dreams that conjure extraordinary visions, confusing emotions and puzzling events. The earliest human civilisations believed that dreams were of great significance and contained messages from the spirit world which could only be understood by skilled interpreters. Dream books, containing images and their supposed meanings, existed in ancient Egypt as early as 2000 BCE. Through the ages, dreams have remained a constant source of fascination for human beings, with many societies believing that they bring visions of the future, a means of moral self-improvement or direct messages from a higher being.

Sigmund Freud published “The Interpretation of Dreams” in 1899 (although dated 1900) in which he set out his theory that dreams are a form of wish fulfilment, where the forbidden, unconscious desires of the id find expression in harmless dream images, which are acceptable to the ego and superego and enable us to stay asleep. In this short workshop, we will exchange ideas about dreams and reflect on how Freud’s theory could be applied to your own experience of dreaming.

Please note: You will not undergo any form of dream analysis; any ideas raised will be purely speculative and not designed to be a substitute for analysis with a qualified professional. If you have any queries before joining the workshop, you can contact Laura.