What value does Foucault give to dreams and the unconscious?

In "The History of Sexuality" Foucault critiques Freudian views of the unconscious, attempting to remove the central focus of the study of the unconscious away from sexuality as its core. Foucault instead wanted to examine the unconscious as a way to both explore the inner landscape of the human psyche, and at the same time use it as a means of  learning resistance to the baser impulses driving the human animal.

Foucault could see in...

In "The History of Sexuality" Foucault critiques Freudian views of the unconscious, attempting to remove the central focus of the study of the unconscious away from sexuality as its core. Foucault instead wanted to examine the unconscious as a way to both explore the inner landscape of the human psyche, and at the same time use it as a means of  learning resistance to the baser impulses driving the human animal.

Foucault could see in Freud's work that the exploration of the unconscious was a critical key in unlocking the innate healing powers of the human subconscious. A modern contemporary of Foucault, Malcolm Gladwell, in his book, "Blink," examines the use of dreams and the always active subconscious, in realizing Eureka moments - in other words, charting the possibilities of the power of the unconscious to better our lives, to achieve what we might never achieve without access to our deepest selves.

Foucault ultimately and wisely rejected Freud's centralized focus on sexuality as the driving force of the subconscious, opening its possibilities to the wider spectrum of the wholeness of human existence.