This paper aims to answer several research questions with respect to the meanings of dreams in psychoanalysis. Even though the author does not present new data or evidence, he briefly summarizes the studies of several renowned psychoanalysts that have worked on this topic. In the first part of the article, Freud’s perspective on the origin and characteristics of punishment, distress and trauma dreams is presented and partly contested. The criticism regards the pleasure / displeasure experience and it is supported by arguments brought by other scholars, such as Fiss, Fosshag, Kohut and Velotti and Zavattini. The main claim is that Freud’s approach discombobulates the prerogatives of dreams: protecting the sleeping experience and gratifying the desires. Also, the author explains and illustrates that the model of the dismissed desire has long been rejected by clinical evidence. The second part of the paper presents the proposal: the dream representations as creative metaphorizations, aimed at reorganizing biographical memories and emotional operative schemata.