The Freudian idea that dreams represent repressed infantile wishes seems as if, with some revision, it could apply to many (although not all) dreams. The most important revision, I think, is to remove the 'infantile,' either replacing it with 'childhood' or nothing at all.
With this revision in place, I find myself wondering about the nature of these repressed desires. What could be so terrible that it requires the many layers of chaos and confusion often found in dreams, while being commonplace enough that everyone feels it? There are a few obvious candidates which, although they are not common to everyone (or in some cases, even the majority of people), are common enough that in combination they could conceivably account for the dreams of virtually everyone. The most obvious seem likely to be sadistic, masochistic, or otherwise violent feelings (not universal, but present in a fair number of people), unusual - or in some cases, even commonplace - sexual desires (common to everyone but a few people with disorders, and a few more who are asexual), and possibly desires to do something the dreamer considers to be morally wrong (most people have at least a few things they feel this way about, whether they be stealing, doing drugs, or overeating).
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