Psychosis, Hallucinations and Dreams

When people think about psychosis and hallucinations, they usually think about severe mental illness, loss of reality and drugs. We never think in terms of dreams. So, is there really a relationship between psychosis, hallucinations and dreams?

First, let me briefly describe psychosis and hallucinations. When someone sees or hears something that isn't really there, it can be considered a hallucination. Psychosis occurs when a person sees and hears hallucinations all the time, or for a period of time. So clearly, there is a relationship between psychosis and hallucinations.

If you've never experienced psychosis and hallucinations, consider yourself fortunate. It is terribly frightening to experience and believe these images and voices are real. Your conscious reality becomes the hallucinations – a monster trying to get you, your hand moving through a wall, voices telling you that you are doomed and so many other possibilities. There also are times when hallucinations are pleasant – beautiful colors, peaceful helpers and guides, knowing all there is to know about the universe and human nature – but even with pleasant experiences, the person is moved outside of everyday reality and consciousness.

How does this relate to dreams? Well, don't dreams move us outside of everyday reality? We have all dreamed; therefore, we have all experienced hallucinations and psychosis. Recall that dreams are symbolic images from the unconscious (hidden psychology). The interactions of dream images/symbols often do not make sense, compared to everyday life. Of course, there are dreams that do reflect everyday life but quite often dreams combine symbols that resemble Alice's Wonderland.

The difference between you and someone living with psychosis every day, or for a period of time, is that when you wake from a dream, you are conscious of your daily surroundings and life events. The person living a psychosis doesn't wake from the psychosis. The symbols and hallucinations created by the unconscious are the person's daily reality. This is a huge difference between you and the person who is living with a psychosis. Your unconscious remains unconscious, influencing you unconsciously, while the other person's unconscious takes over the consciousness role and controls the person's reality. Clearly, with psychosis a crossing of symbols from the unconscious to consciousness occurs. Fortunately, this is not occurring within you.

There are occasions when people who are not experiencing psychosis, and perhaps you are one, experience unusual visions. Again, this is a brief experience of the unconscious crossing to consciousness but while a person is awake.

As you can see, our unconscious psychologies are the source of hallucinations and psychosis, and, of course, dreams.