Oneirocritica

Part of speech: noun

Definitions

1. The practice or study of interpreting dreams to uncover meaning or predict future events, often linking symbolic images or narratives experienced during sleep to waking life circumstances or messages
2. An ancient or modern discipline involving the analysis and explanation of dream content, aiming to find insight, guidance, or prophecy through the symbols and stories presented in dreams
3. The art or science focused on decoding the imagery and themes of dreams to understand subconscious thoughts or divine warnings, frequently used to derive personal or collective significance from nocturnal visions

Etymology: Artemidorus of Daldis, a Greek writer working in the second century CE, gave this discipline its best-known text. He travelled through Greece, Italy, and Asia Minor collecting dream reports and checking how they turned out, and he presented the work as a practical skill built on that evidence. His five books, written in Greek, are a catalogue of dream symbols and what each signified for a particular dreamer. The Greek source is a compound of "oneiros," meaning "dream," and "kritikos," meaning "able to judge or discern," from the verb "krinein," "to separate or decide." The name thus means something like "the art of judging dreams," and the Greek term was "oneirokritikē," with "technē" (art) understood. Artemidorus insisted that the same image could mean different things to different people. A dream of a ship, for example, meant one thing to a sailor and another to a farmer, because the meaning depended on the dreamer's occupation, age, and circumstances. This emphasis on the individual is what separates his approach from simple lists of omens.

Synonyms: dream interpretation