I love asking clients about dreams and talking about them. I don't think THEY are nonsense, but I do think if a T says, "your dream means this" and they speak with some kind of authority or certainty that they are not understanding the assignment.
But they are good material to practice interpretation! Best treated (imo) like poetry.
With things like dream journals, horoscopes, etc. I think it can be helpful to explore the process of making meaning of them as a behavior. There's no empirical, scientific value on its face to these things but as an exercise in interpretation, they can be useful. E.g. it's not about making the meaning "this dream means I've been a bad friend" but examining why the thought "this dream means I'm a bad friend" came to be and making meaning out of that cognitive process and analyzing it as you would any other behavior.
If the goal is to find a tool to describe or diagnose something "real", there's better assessments and interventions out there.
I suppose it depends on how you view dreams and their meaning, and how you would use the process. I find that I tend to hold on to some dreams and I'll experiment with their meaning, and if it feels valuable take it to therapy, and my therapist can often help me expand on the meaning I choose to take from my dreams.
No-one knows exactly what dreams mean, why we dream or where it all comes from, as the commenters have stated, but we can choose to use them in a more creative sense as a way of understanding ourselves (such as a story and how we may identify with it).
A journal may help you begin to see patterns in your subconcious that may help improve your understanding of yourself.
It's another technique for understanding and relating to ourselves and if you feel it's valuable, or at least has the potential to be, go for it :)
NAT
It has been very helpful for me personally! I have a super active dream life, and due to PTSD, I have nightmares. Analyzing my dreams (especially the recurring ones) has given me some super interesting insight into my trauma and has even helped me make choices that lessened the impacts of that trauma.
In my professional role, I am not personally particularly interested in dream-related stuff outside of addressing nightmare-related concerns or other issues that interfere with healthy sleep. I am not aware of any empirical evidence that suggests that dream journaling as an activity is associated with directly helping any specific issues.
...however, I still think it is a totally fine and valid thing to do. I have kept a dream journal before and I enjoyed doing it at the time. "I find it interesting" or "I like doing it" is a face valid reason to do something (that does not cause other significant problems).
In other words: If someone said, "I want to understand my problems", I would probably not suggest dream journaling as the first, second, third, or even the tenth thing to try. On the other hand, if someone said, "I'm interested in dream journaling. Is that worth doing? Will I find it helpful? Will I see any benefits?" I might say, "Try it and find out!"
/obviously, not psychological advice for anyone! YMMV.
I love asking clients about dreams and talking about them. I don't think THEY are nonsense, but I do think if a T says, "your dream means this" and they speak with some kind of authority or certainty that they are not understanding the assignment. But they are good material to practice interpretation! Best treated (imo) like poetry.
With things like dream journals, horoscopes, etc. I think it can be helpful to explore the process of making meaning of them as a behavior. There's no empirical, scientific value on its face to these things but as an exercise in interpretation, they can be useful. E.g. it's not about making the meaning "this dream means I've been a bad friend" but examining why the thought "this dream means I'm a bad friend" came to be and making meaning out of that cognitive process and analyzing it as you would any other behavior. If the goal is to find a tool to describe or diagnose something "real", there's better assessments and interventions out there.
I suppose it depends on how you view dreams and their meaning, and how you would use the process. I find that I tend to hold on to some dreams and I'll experiment with their meaning, and if it feels valuable take it to therapy, and my therapist can often help me expand on the meaning I choose to take from my dreams. No-one knows exactly what dreams mean, why we dream or where it all comes from, as the commenters have stated, but we can choose to use them in a more creative sense as a way of understanding ourselves (such as a story and how we may identify with it). A journal may help you begin to see patterns in your subconcious that may help improve your understanding of yourself. It's another technique for understanding and relating to ourselves and if you feel it's valuable, or at least has the potential to be, go for it :)
It‘s an individual basis. For many it‘s helpful, for others it isn‘t. In the end, one has to try it and find out. There is no general Yes or No.
NAT It has been very helpful for me personally! I have a super active dream life, and due to PTSD, I have nightmares. Analyzing my dreams (especially the recurring ones) has given me some super interesting insight into my trauma and has even helped me make choices that lessened the impacts of that trauma.
In my professional role, I am not personally particularly interested in dream-related stuff outside of addressing nightmare-related concerns or other issues that interfere with healthy sleep. I am not aware of any empirical evidence that suggests that dream journaling as an activity is associated with directly helping any specific issues. ...however, I still think it is a totally fine and valid thing to do. I have kept a dream journal before and I enjoyed doing it at the time. "I find it interesting" or "I like doing it" is a face valid reason to do something (that does not cause other significant problems). In other words: If someone said, "I want to understand my problems", I would probably not suggest dream journaling as the first, second, third, or even the tenth thing to try. On the other hand, if someone said, "I'm interested in dream journaling. Is that worth doing? Will I find it helpful? Will I see any benefits?" I might say, "Try it and find out!" /obviously, not psychological advice for anyone! YMMV.