Theories of dream function.

Some contemporary and psychoanalytic theories of dream function are reviewed. Particular attention is given to Jung's model of personality and theory of dream function, a dynamic, open-system approach that stands in contrast to Freud's mechanistic, drive-reduction model. Contemporary theories tend to focus on the function of environmental mastery, viewed from one of three perspectives: (a) problem solving, (i) information processing, or (c) ego consolidation. Only a few have gone beyond environmental control to consider creative functions of the dream. Most contemporary theories are at least partially supported by data, and many are not mutually exclusive, dealing with different processes or proposing similar processes in different-sounding languages. Some dream theories do differ from others in underlying model, in scope, or in the degree to which nonrational processes are admissable as data. Jung's approach has much to add to contemporary dream theory, particularly in making room for creative and nonrational processes, as well as in the specific proposition that dreams function to balance and complete waking consciousness.