Clinical Psychology Vocabulary Practice Test

Dream analysis is the process of interpreting dreams to uncover symbolic meanings. It focuses on translating the dream’s symbolic imagery into insights about unconscious wishes, conflicts, or concerns. The surface content you remember—the storyline and images—is called manifest content, while the hidden, symbolic meaning beneath that surface is latent content, which dream analysis aims to interpret. Free association is a broader psychoanalytic technique used to explore unconscious material by verbalizing whatever comes to mind; it isn’t limited to dreams. So the technique that specifically describes examining dreams for symbolic meaning is dream analysis.