My mother is a psychologist and she's really big into dreams and what have you... I do recognize that dreams are largely based upon subconscious thoughts and ideas... I get it. However, I think that some man claiming he can properly interpret what (as in your example) a cow symbolizes to you without being completely within your frame of reference, is ludicrous. I'm here in Texas and a cow to many people may symbolize the food they need to survive... to a vegan, it may symbolize the evils of humanity as we force millions to slaughter... to a hindu, it may symbolize all things holy.
Yes, a psychoanalyst may attempt to analyze things that have recently occurred to you and interpret them... but without the ability to fully see life from your frame of reference, it is impossible other than through the use of definitions that are largely assigned to a symbol.
My real point here is that due to different upbringings and life experiences, we each have differing connotations to various words and phrases. Without the ability to know precisely how you feel about certain words, phrases, objects, situations, etc, they cannot make a legitimate interpretation any more than a psychic can tell you your future.
That's actually a part of the work of a psychoanalist, to analyze and decrypt the messages from the subconscious and try to reach the source of the problem that your mind may be encountering. It's true that a cow does not represent the same psychic image in everyone, but it is true that knowing the pacient's experiences you get to know how does his mind work and what could a cow mean to him, specially when the dreams are a nexus between the conscious and the subconscious.
So again, you NEED to know the experiences and the point of view of the pacient to actually decrypt these subconscious masks, and that's one of the many purposes of psychology.
Edited by Frostorm, 25 March 2011 - 12:02 PM.
