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diff --git a/.gitattributes b/.gitattributes new file mode 100644 index 0000000..d7b82bc --- /dev/null +++ b/.gitattributes @@ -0,0 +1,4 @@ +*.txt text eol=lf +*.htm text eol=lf +*.html text eol=lf +*.md text eol=lf diff --git a/75333-0.txt b/75333-0.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..ddfe560 --- /dev/null +++ b/75333-0.txt @@ -0,0 +1,2256 @@ + +*** START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK 75333 *** + + + + + + ON DREAMS + + + BY + PROF. DR. SIGM. FREUD + + ONLY AUTHORISED ENGLISH TRANSLATION + BY + M. D. EDER + FROM THE SECOND GERMAN EDITION + + WITH AN INTRODUCTION BY + + W. LESLIE MACKENZIE, M.A., M.D., LL.D. + + MEDICAL MEMBER OF THE LOCAL GOVERNMENT BOARD FOR SCOTLAND; LATE FERGUSON + SCHOLAR IN PHILOSOPHY; LATE EXAMINER IN MENTAL PHILOSOPHY, UNIVERSITY OF + ABERDEEN + +[Illustration: AGE QUOD AGIS] + + NEW YORK + REBMAN COMPANY + HERALD SQUARE BUILDING + 141–145 WEST 36TH STREET + + + + + _All rights reserved_ + + + + + CONTENTS + + + PAGE + I. THE SCIENTIFIC AND POPULAR VIEWS OF DREAMS CONTRASTED 1 + II. DREAMS HAVE A MEANING—ANALYSIS OF A DREAM—MANIFEST AND + LATENT CONTENT OF DREAMS 6 + III. THE DREAM AS REALISATION OF UNFULFILLED DESIRES—INFANTILE + TYPE OF DREAMS 21 + IV. THE DREAM-MECHANISM—CONDENSATION—DRAMATISATION 33 + V. THE DREAM-MECHANISM CONTINUED—DISPLACEMENT—TRANSVALUATION OF + ALL PSYCHICAL VALUES 45 + VI. THE DREAM-MECHANISM CONTINUED—THE EGO IN THE DREAM 54 + VII. THE DREAM-MECHANISM CONTINUED—REGARD FOR INTELLIGIBILITY 68 + VIII. RELATION OF DREAMS TO OTHER UNCONSCIOUS MENTAL + PROCESSES—REPRESSION 78 + IX. THREE CLASSES OF DREAMS 84 + X. WHY THE DREAM DISGUISES THE DESIRES—THE CENSORSHIP 88 + XI. THE DREAM THE GUARDIAN OF SLEEP 92 + XII. DREAM SYMBOLISM—MYTHS AND FOLKLORE 100 + XIII. ELEMENTS COMMON TO NORMAL AND ABNORMAL PSYCHOLOGY 107 + + + + + INTRODUCTION + + +“The interpretation of dreams,” says Professor Freud in one place, “is +the royal road to a knowledge of the part the unconscious plays in the +mental life.” + +Even standing alone this statement is sufficiently striking; it is at +once a theory and a challenge. But it does not stand alone. It comes at +the end of many years of research among every class of mental diseases. +It comes, therefore, with the authentication of experience. It is not to +be lightly set aside; it claims our study; and the study of it will not +go unrewarded. The short essay here translated by Dr. Eder is but an +introduction to the vast field opened up by Professor Sigm. Freud and +his colleagues. Already the journals of clinical psychology, normal or +morbid, are full of the discussions of Professor Freud’s methods and +results. There is a “Freud School.” That alone is a proof that the +method is novel if not new. There are, of course, violent opponents and +critical students. The opponents may provoke, but it is to the critical +students that Professor Freud will prefer to speak. “The condemnation,” +said Hegel, “that a great man lays upon the world is to force it to +explain him.” Of a new method, either of research or of treatment—and +the Freud method is both—the same may be said. It is certain that, +whatever our prejudice against details may be, the theory of +“psycho-analysis” and the treatment based upon it deserves, if only as a +mental exercise, our critical consideration. But Professor Freud is not +alone in the world of morbid psychology. Let me digress for a moment. + +Over twenty years ago it was my special business to study and criticise +several textbooks on insanity. To the study of these textbooks I came +after many years of discipline in normal psychology and the related +sciences. When I came to insanity proper, I found that practically not a +single textbook made any systematic effort to show how the morbid +symptoms we classified as “mental diseases” had their roots in the +mental processes of the normal mind. In his small book, “Sanity and +Insanity,” Dr. Charles Mercier did make an effort to lay out, as it +were, the institutes of insanity, the normal groundwork out of which the +insanities grew, the groups of ideas that to-day serve to direct our +conduct and to-morrow lose their adjustment to any but a specially +adapted environment. In his later works, particularly in “Psychology, +Normal and Morbid,” Dr. Mercier has followed up the central ideas of the +early study. All the more recent textbooks in English contain efforts in +the same direction; but with a few striking exceptions they are studies +rather of physical symptoms associated with mental processes than of +morbid psychology proper. It was not until there came from across the +Channel Dr. Pierre Janet’s carefully elaborated studies on Hysteria that +I realised what a wealth of psychological material had remained hidden +in our asylums, in our nervous homes, even in our ordinary hospitals, +and in the multitudes of strange cases that occur in private practice. +Janet, a pupil of the Charcot School—Charcot, who made _la Salpetrière_ +famous—pushed the minute analysis of morbid mental states into regions +practically hitherto untouched. He was not alone. His colleague, +Professor Raymond, and others in France and Germany, all work with the +same main ideas. Janet’s books read like romances. His studies on +Psychological Automatism, the Mental State of Hystericals, Neuroses and +Fixed Ideas, and many others on the part played by the unconscious, were +such rich mines of fact and suggestion that Professor William James, in +his “Principles of Psychology,” said of them: “All these facts taken +together, form unquestionably the beginning of an inquiry which is +destined to throw a new light into the very abysses of our nature.” +Curiously, not in this country—the country of great psychologists, +Locke, Berkeley, Hume, Hartley, Thomas Reid, Dugald Stewart, Adam Smith, +James Mill, John Stuart Mill, Bain, Spencer, among the dead, and whole +schools of distinguished psychologists among the living—not in this +country, but in America, was the value of the new material seriously +considered. Here and there, within recent years, in this country, +Janet’s elaborate studies have not been fruitless; but I could not +readily name any clinician in this country that has produced similar +studies. It is to the continents of Europe and America, which in this +field are in intimate touch, that we must go if we are to see the rich +outgrowths of morbid psychology. I do not say that the work done by our +English students of insanity is not, of its kind, as great and as +important as any done in the world, but it is none the less true that, +until a few years ago, the methods of Janet, Raymond, Bernheim, Beaunis, +not to speak of Moll, Forel, and Oppenheim, were practically unstudied +here. In America it has been entirely different. Even the names of the +men are now familiar in our English magazines—Muensterberg, Morton +Prince, Boris Sidis, Ernest Jones, J. Mark Baldwin, not to mention +William James and Stanley Hall. It looks as if every new idea unearthed +in the Old World is put to the test by someone in the new. Britain +remains curiously cold. + +It would be interesting to ask the reason. Is it our metaphysical +training? Is it the failure of the philosophical schools to realize the +value of all this new raw material of study? Is it, perhaps, the fear +that “the unity of consciousness” may be endangered by the study of +Double Personality, Multiple Personality, Dissociation of Consciousness, +Dormant Complexes, Hysterias, Phobias, Obsessions, Psychoneuroses, Fixed +Ideas, Hysterical Amnesias, Hypermnesias, and the masses of other +notions correlated, roughly, under the term “unconscious”? The +suggestion of fear is not mere conjecture. Many years ago a +distinguished student of philosophy, a pupil and friend of Sir William +Hamilton, indicated to me, when I spoke to him of some recent work on +Double Personality, that he had difficulty in placing the new work, +feeling that, in admitting the possibility of multiple personality, he +was sacrificing the primary concept of philosophy, the unity of +consciousness. It did not perhaps occur to him that, when two so-called +“persons” speak together, there are, in popular language, “two +personalities”—each, no doubt, in a separate body, but each having his +own “unity of consciousness.” + +If this be a fact, is there any greater difficulty in explaining the +other fact that two persons may be, as James put it, under the same hat? +The metaphysical difficulty, if there be a difficulty, is neither more +nor less in the one case than in the other. But it is needless to ask +why a whole field of study has been, relatively, neglected in this +country. For now we have begun to make up leeway. + +This translation by Dr. Eder is an introduction to the latest phase of +the study of the unconscious. It brings us back to the point I began +with, the relation of the normal to the morbid. Dreams are a part of +everyone’s normal experience, yet they are shown here to be of the same +tissue, of the same mental nature, as other phenomena that are +undoubtedly morbid. Dreams therefore offer in the normal a budding-point +for the study of morbid growths. And the study of dreams by Freud came +long after his studies of such neuroses as the phobias, hysterias, and +the rest. To dreams he applied the same method of investigation and +treatment as to the others, and he found that dreams offered an +unlimited field for the same kind of study. + +Perhaps, before going further, I should attempt to disarm criticism +about the term “unconscious.” We speak of subconsciousness, +co-consciousness, unconscious mind, unconscious cerebration; or what +other terms should we use? Here it is better to avoid discussion, for we +are concerned less with theory than with practice. And in Freud’s work, +whether we accept his theory or not, the practice is of primary +importance. He takes the view that no conscious experience is entirely +lost; what seems to have vanished from the current consciousness has +really passed into a subconsciousness, where it lives on in an organised +form as real as if it were still part of the conscious personality. This +view, with various modifications, is adopted by many students of morbid +psychology. But there is another view. Muensterberg, for instance, +maintains that it is unnecessary to speak of “subconsciousness,” for +every fact can be explained in terms of physiology. He would accept the +term “co-conscious” or “co-consciousness”; but in one chapter he ends +the discussion by saying: “But whether we prefer the physiological +account or insist on the co-conscious phenomena, in either case is there +any chance for the subconscious to slip in? That a content of +consciousness is to a high degree dissociated, or that the idea of the +personality is split off, is certainly a symptom of pathological +disturbance, but it has nothing to do with the constituting of two +different kinds of consciousness, or with breaking the continuous +sameness of consciousness itself. The most exceptional and most uncanny +occurrences of the hospital teach after all the same which our daily +experience ought to teach us: there is no subconsciousness” +(“Psychotherapy,” p. 157). + +There are many refinements of distinction that we could make here, and +if any reader is anxious to consider them, he will find some of them in +a small volume on “Subconscious Phenomena,” by Muensterberg, Ribot, and +others (Rebman, London). + +Here it is not of primary importance to come to any conclusion on the +best term to use or the complement theory of the facts. The discussion +is far from an end; but the harvest of facts need not wait for the end +of the discussion. + +Meanwhile, let it be said that Professor Freud has been steeped in this +whole subject from his student days. It is, however, less important to +discuss his theory than to understand his method. The method is called +“psycho-analysis.” The name is not inviting, and it might apply to any +form of mental analysis; but it is at least consistently Greek in +etymology, and has taken on a technical meaning in the medical schools. +What is the method? + +Let it be granted that a person has undergone a strongly emotional +experience—for example, a sudden shock or fright. If the person is +highly nervous, the shock may result in some degree of dissociation. +This may take the form of a loss of memory for certain parts of the +experience. Let it be so. The ultimate result may be an unreasonable +fear of some entirely harmless object or situation. The person is afraid +of a crowd, or afraid of a closed door, or has an intense fear of some +animal or person. For this fear he can give no reason; he cannot tell +when it began nor why it persists. He may more or less overcome it; but +he may not. All through his future life he will go about with a +helplessly unreasonable fear of a closed door (claustrophobia) or of a +crowd (agoraphobia). Minor varieties of such an affection are to be +found in every person’s experience. On investigation, however, the root +of the fear can be discovered: it is the product of the original +emotional shock. The intellectual details of the emotional experience +have completely vanished from the memory, but the emotion remains, and +it is attached to some accidental object or circumstance present in the +original experience. Thousands of illustrations could be given. They +are, unfortunately, only too numerous. In this essay on the +Interpretation of Dreams the reader will find many simple cases. + +If, now, the person so affected is placed in a quiet room, if he is +requested to concentrate his mind on the disturbing object or idea +associated with his fear, if he is encouraged to observe passively the +chance ideas which float up to him when he thus concentrates himself, if +he utters, under the direction of his medical attendant, every such idea +as it comes into his mind, there is a strange result. These ideas, +coming apparently by chance from nowhere in particular, are, when +carefully studied, found to be linked up with some past experience, +dating, perhaps, from months or years away. If each idea as it emerges +is followed up, if the other ideas dragged into consciousness by it are +carefully recorded, it is found that sooner or later entirely forgotten +experiences come into clear consciousness. There are many ways of +helping this process. One of the ways is this: Let a series of words be +arranged; let the doctor speak one of them to the patient; let the +patient, in the shortest time possible to him, say right out whatever +idea is suggested to him by the word; let the time taken to make the +response be recorded in seconds and fractions of a second—a thing easy +enough to do with a stop-watch. Then, when the responses to a long +series of words are all recorded, and the time each response has taken, +it is found that some responses have taken much longer than others. This +prolongation of the response-time is always found whenever the test word +has stirred up a memory associated with emotion. By following up further +the ideas stirred by this word, more ideas of a related kind are +discovered, often to the patient’s surprise. Things long forgotten come +back to memory; circumstances that apparently had no relation to the +present consciousness are found to be linked in sequence with +it—emotions, unreasoning fears, anxieties, that apparently had no +relation to any particular experience, are found at last to be part and +parcel of things that happened long ago. Once the doctor has his cue, he +can range in many directions, and probe the mind again and again, until +he reveals multitudes of suppressed memories, forgotten ideas, forgotten +elements of experience. He can even get back into early childhood, +which, to the patient himself, leaves many and many a blank area in the +memory. But always the doctor lights, sooner or later, on some complex +experience in which the particular fear or anxiety arose. + +But now, if the case is a suitable one, a still stranger thing happens. +When the forgotten experience has thus artfully been brought into the +full light of consciousness, the patient finds himself satisfied with +the explanation, and loses his particular fear. He can now go back over +the whole history of its genesis; he can link up the old experience to +the new, and so he attains once more satisfaction and peace of mind. Up +till now he could not be reasoned out of his anxiety; he had always an +answer for any explanation; he had always a fresh foolish reason for his +fear. Now all this vanishes. He finds his mind once more running +smoothly, and his “phobia” gone. The unreasoning dread has been tracked +back to its lair, and its lair has been destroyed in the process. + +There are many other methods of achieving the same result; let this +generalised sketch suffice. + +What now is the theory? The theory is that the mental experience or +“complex” had, for some reason and by some mechanism, been submerged, or +suppressed, or forgotten. Freud maintains that there is a fundamental +tendency in the mind to suppress every experience that is associated +with painful emotion. This doctrine is allied to Bain’s “Law of +Conservation”—that painful experiences depress the vitality and tend to +disappear, while pleasant experiences exalt the vitality and tend to +remain in memory. At any rate, by some process the painful experience +disappears from conscious memory, but it does not cease to exist. It may +lie dormant, or it may work subconsciously, and throw up the emotional +bubbles that continue, without a known reason, to excite the ordinary +consciousness. But the complex, though deep and partly dormant, never +gets beyond reach. By the method of concentration, by the use of “free +associations,” by the following up of all the clues offered by the ideas +“fished up,” the submerged complex can, element by element, be brought +back. When once it is brought back the patient is restored, the dormant +complexes once more resume their place in the total current of his +experience, and the mind flows at peace. + +This is, roughly, the method of psycho-analysis. It has been applied in +various types of neurosis—hysterias, obsessions, phobias, etc. It has +not always succeeded in removing the morbid conditions, but it has +succeeded so often that it may legitimately be regarded as a method of +treatment. As a matter of discovery it is arduous, and demands the +highest skill and invention if it is to succeed. Incidentally it reveals +masses of unpleasant ideas, of painful ideas, even of disgusting ideas; +but, in the right hands, it leads to the healing of the mind. + + MACBETH. How does your patient, doctor? + + DOCTOR. Not so sick, my lord, + + As she is troubled with thick-coming fancies, + + That keep her from her rest. + + MACBETH. Cure her of that; + + Canst thou not minister to a mind diseas’d; + + Pluck from the memory a rooted sorrow; + + Raze out the written troubles of the brain; + + And, with some sweet oblivious antidote, + + Cleanse the stuff’d bosom of that perilous stuff, + + Which weighs upon the heart? + + DOCTOR. Therein the patient + + Must minister to himself. + +And here, insensibly, we have passed into the World of Dreams. The +morbid and the normal have come together. Dreams are the awaking of +dormant complexes; they are transfigured experiences; they come into +consciousness trailing clouds of emotion, and fill the dreamer’s +imagination with mysterious images. It is here that the method of +psycho-analysis most fascinates the student. It looks as if once more +the “interpretation of dreams” had become a reality. The results of +psycho-analysis, even when the method is applied with a master hand and +the details are interpreted with a skill that comes only of a quick +imagination, are not entirely convincing; but they are certainly such as +to make more and more observation desirable. In the present short essay +Professor Freud gives a sketch of psycho-analysis as it is applied to +the interpretations of dreams. His examples, if they are enough to +illustrate the theory, are hardly enough to prove it, but they are +intended as an introduction to his more elaborate studies; and, +hitherto, observers as they have increased in experience have gained in +conviction. That the method goes a long way to prove that dreams are not +a chaotic sport of the brain, but are a manifestation of ordered mental +experience, is beyond doubt. It would be easy to show where the theory +does not cover facts, but it is equally easy to show many facts that it +does cover. + +What, then, is the theory? Briefly this, that dreams are very largely +the expressions of unfulfilled desires. Where, as in children, the +waking experience and the sleeping experience differ from each other by +very little, the dream, or sleeping experience, readily takes the form +of the ungratified desires of the day. But as the mind grows older the +dream expression of a desire gets more intricate. By-and-by it is too +intricate to be deciphered from direct memory, and then there is a +chance for the method of psycho-analysis. What of the dream is +remembered gives the cue for the analysis. Take a remembered element of +a dream, track it back and back by free association or other method, and +you will find that, at one or two removes, the remembered element stirs +up forgotten elements, and ultimately brings coherence out of +incoherence. + +This appears simple, but let the reader study the dreams analysed in +this essay, and he will find himself stirred by a thousand suggestions. +For Professor Freud has constructed empirical laws out of his masses of +material. The dream as it appears to the dreamer he calls the _manifest +dream ideas_. But as these are too absurd to form a coherent reality, he +gives ground for believing that they represent _latent dream ideas_. The +manifest dream is a mass of symbols representing elements in the latent +dream ideas. How the latent dream ideas generate the manifest dream is +discovered by psycho-analysis, the translation from the latent to the +manifest is the effect of the _dream work_. The dream work is the very +core of the difficulty. It is round this that Professor Freud’s greatest +subtleties of method are focussed. He shows that every dream is linked +to something that occurs on the previous day, some recent experience, +but the experience emerges in the dream as part of the current panorama +of the subjective life, and there is no date to the beginning of the +panorama—it may go back to any point in the individual’s history, even +into the preconscious days of early infancy. The day’s experience and +the life’s experience flow in a single stream, and the images that +appear in dreams are but the symbols of all the latent ideas of that +experience. How, by displacement of this element or that, compound +symbols are formed; how, by the foreshortening of experience and the +linking of the past with the present in a single idea, masses of old +memories are clotted into a single point; how, in the freedom of the +dream world, where the tension of the waking life is relaxed, where the +exacting stimulations of the day are reduced, where the consciousness of +duty to be done in the highly organised conditions of social conduct is +lowered, where, in a word, the _censor_ is drowsy or asleep, where the +dream symbols shape themselves into dramatic scenes of endless +variety—these it is that Professor Freud’s theory endeavours to set +forth. Displacement, condensation, dramatisation—these are the short +names for these long and complicated processes. In the course of his +expositions, Professor Freud uses these processes almost as if they were +demons, and he admits frankly their figurative character. But he pleads +that they represent real processes, and is ready to accept better names +when he finds them. To trace back the dream images to a definite meaning +in experience is the aim of the psycho-analysis of dreams. And the +successes in these must be tested by the facts. Sometimes the results +are highly persuasive, sometimes they look highly fanciful, always they +are full of suggestion and keep close to realities. + +The dream symbolism, in particular, it is easy to criticise; but, after +all, dream symbolism is a reality. The point to investigate is, what +dream images are legitimately considered symbolic and what not. One has +only to remember that every word spoken or written is a symbol, and a +symbol in much the same sense as the symbolism of dreams, for every +written or spoken word is a complicated series of motions that express +meanings. The dream images are complicated series of images that express +meanings. The difficulty of symbolism is no greater in the one case than +in the other. But the variety of dream symbols is so immense that the +difficulties of tracing their meaning are enormous. It is here that the +method meets its greatest difficulties; but, equally, it is here that it +scores its greatest triumphs. Spoken or written language is a +technically organised system of symbols; dream language is as yet a +poorly organised system of symbols. The method of psycho-analysis aims +at organising them. Some test results are described in this essay; +multitudes of others are to be found in the literature that is flowing +from the application of the psycho-analytic method. Time alone will show +how far the organisation of dream symbols into a definite “language of +dreams” is, in any given society, actual or possible. But the effort of +organisation has led Professor Freud to another fine fetch of theory, +for his dream symbolism suggests many curious explanations for the +mythologies of all ages and all countries. Myth symbols, that seem to +defy explanation, he traces back to their roots in the “unconscious” of +primitive man. + +That the emotions of sex should play an enormous part in the processes +of analysis is to be expected; for the sex emotions are among the +deepest, if not the deepest, of our nature, and colour every experience. +From their proximate beginning in infancy—and Freud’s theory here is of +immense significance—to their multiform derivatives in adult life, the +sex emotions exercise an influence on every phase of development, and, +in one form or another, are themselves a normal index of the stages of +development. It is therefore reasonable to expect that they should play +a great part in the formation of obsessions, of fixed ideas, of +perversions, of repressed complexes. In every civilisation, as Freud +indicates, the sex emotions are the most difficult to control, and have +demanded the greatest amount of restraint. + +Restraints lead to repressions, repressions lead to dissociations, +dissociations lead to irregularities of action. When, therefore, as in +dreams, the restraints of the social day are withdrawn, naturally the +repressed ideas tend to emerge once more. How much these ideas account +for in the hysterias, how much “the shocks of despised love” affect even +the normal life, needs no emphasis, but Freud pushes his analysis +farther, and tracks the sex emotions, like many other fundamental +emotions, into a thousand by-paths of ordinary experience. But it would +be foolishness to say that sex emotions are everything in the ruins of +the “Buried Temple.” Far from it. What is true of the sex emotions is +true of all other emotions in their varying degrees, and often what +looks like predominant sex emotions may turn out to be accidental rather +than causative, a concomitant symptom rather than the initiatory centre +of disturbance. But these points are all controversial. It is the object +of Freud to put them to the test. If his general theory be true, the +dream-world will more and more become the revealer of our deepest and +oldest experience. + +It would be easy to fill many pages with illustrative items and relative +criticisms, but that is not the purpose of an introduction. Here I am +concerned simply to recommend this essay to the careful study of all +those interested in the mental history of the individual, and in the +blotting out from the mind of needless fears and anxieties. And no one +need hesitate to enter on this study, whatever his metaphysical theories +may be. Even the “unity of consciousness” will not suffer, for, through +his unending efforts to link the experiences of the day with the whole +experience of the individual life, Professor Freud, by the union of +buried consciousness, restores to the mind a new unity of consciousness. + +Dr. Eder, whose studies in this field have been long and varied, does +well to present to British readers this essay which serves as an +introduction to the more elaborate studies of FREUD and his school, and +I am glad to have the privilege of saying so. + + W. LESLIE MACKENZIE. + + + + + I. + + +In what we may term “prescientific days” people were in no uncertainty +about the interpretation of dreams. When they were recalled after +awakening they were regarded as either the friendly or hostile +manifestation of some higher powers, demoniacal and Divine. With the +rise of scientific thought the whole of this expressive mythology was +transferred to psychology; to-day there is but a small minority among +educated persons who doubt that the dream is the dreamer’s own psychical +act. + +But since the downfall of the mythological hypothesis an interpretation +of the dream has been wanting. The conditions of its origin; its +relationship to our psychical life when we are awake; its independence +of disturbances which, during the state of sleep, seem to compel notice; +its many peculiarities repugnant to our waking thought; the incongruence +between its images and the feelings they engender; then the dream’s +evanescence, the way in which, on awakening, our thoughts thrust it +aside as something bizarre, and our reminiscences mutilating or +rejecting it—all these and many other problems have for many hundred +years demanded answers which up till now could never have been +satisfactory. Before all there is the question as to the meaning of the +dream, a question which is in itself double-sided. There is, firstly, +the psychical significance of the dream, its position with regard to the +psychical processes, as to a possible biological function; secondly, has +the dream a meaning—can sense be made of each single dream as of other +mental syntheses? + +Three tendencies can be observed in the estimation of dreams. Many +philosophers have given currency to one of these tendencies, one which +at the same time preserves something of the dream’s former +over-valuation. The foundation of dream life is for them a peculiar +state of psychical activity, which they even celebrate as elevation to +some higher state. Schubert, for instance, claims: “The dream is the +liberation of the spirit from the pressure of external nature, a +detachment of the soul from the fetters of matter.” Not all go so far as +this, but many maintain that dreams have their origin in real spiritual +excitations, and are the outward manifestations of spiritual powers +whose free movements have been hampered during the day (“Dream +Phantasies,” Scherner, Volkelt). A large number of observers acknowledge +that dream life is capable of extraordinary achievements—at any rate, in +certain fields (“Memory”). + +In striking contradiction with this the majority of medical writers +hardly admit that the dream is a psychical phenomenon at all. According +to them dreams are provoked and initiated exclusively by stimuli +proceeding from the senses or the body, which either reach the sleeper +from without or are accidental disturbances of his internal organs. The +dream has no greater claim to meaning and importance than the sound +called forth by the ten fingers of a person quite unacquainted with +music running his fingers over the keys of an instrument. The dream is +to be regarded, says Binz, “as a physical process always useless, +frequently morbid.” All the peculiarities of dream life are explicable +as the incoherent effort, due to some physiological stimulus, of certain +organs, or of the cortical elements of a brain otherwise asleep. + +But slightly affected by scientific opinion and untroubled as to the +origin of dreams, the popular view holds firmly to the belief that +dreams really have got a meaning, in some way they do foretell the +future, whilst the meaning can be unravelled in some way or other from +its oft bizarre and enigmatical content. The reading of dreams consists +in replacing the events of the dream, so far as remembered, by other +events. This is done either scene by scene, _according to some rigid +key_, or the dream as a whole is replaced by something else of which it +was a _symbol_. Serious-minded persons laugh at these efforts—“Dreams +are but sea-foam!” + + + + + II. + + +One day I discovered to my amazement that the popular view grounded in +superstition, and not the medical one, comes nearer to the truth about +dreams. I arrived at new conclusions about dreams by the use of a new +method of psychological investigation, one which had rendered me good +service in the investigation of phobias, obsessions, illusions, and the +like, and which, under the name “psycho-analysis,” had found acceptance +by a whole school of investigators. The manifold analogies of dream life +with the most diverse conditions of psychical disease in the waking +state have been rightly insisted upon by a number of medical observers. +It seemed, therefore, _a priori_, hopeful to apply to the interpretation +of dreams methods of investigation which had been tested in +psychopathological processes. Obsessions and those peculiar sensations +of haunting dread remain as strange to normal consciousness as do dreams +to our waking consciousness; their origin is as unknown to consciousness +as is that of dreams. It was practical ends that impelled us, in these +diseases, to fathom their origin and formation. Experience had shown us +that a cure and a consequent mastery of the obsessing ideas did result +when once those thoughts, the connecting links between the morbid ideas +and the rest of the psychical content, were revealed which were +heretofore veiled from consciousness. The procedure I employed for the +interpretation of dreams thus arose from psychotherapy. + +This procedure is readily described, although its practice demands +instruction and experience. Suppose the patient is suffering from +intense morbid dread. He is requested to direct his attention to the +idea in question, without, however, as he has so frequently done, +meditating upon it. Every impression about it, without any exception, +which occurs to him should be imparted to the doctor. The statement +which will be perhaps then made, that he cannot concentrate his +attention upon anything at all, is to be countered by assuring him most +positively that such a blank state of mind is utterly impossible. As a +matter of fact, a great number of impressions will soon occur, with +which others will associate themselves. These will be invariably +accompanied by the expression of the observer’s opinion that they have +no meaning or are unimportant. It will be at once noticed that it is +this self-criticism which prevented the patient from imparting the +ideas, which had indeed already excluded them from consciousness. If the +patient can be induced to abandon this self-criticism and to pursue the +trains of thought which are yielded by concentrating the attention, most +significant matter will be obtained, matter which will be presently seen +to be clearly linked to the morbid idea in question. Its connection with +other ideas will be manifest, and later on will permit the replacement +of the morbid idea by a fresh one, which is perfectly adapted to +psychical continuity. + +This is not the place to examine thoroughly the hypothesis upon which +this experiment rests, or the deductions which follow from its +invariable success. It must suffice to state that we obtain matter +enough for the resolution of every morbid idea if we especially direct +our attention to the _unbidden_ associations _which disturb our +thoughts_—those which are otherwise put aside by the critic as worthless +refuse. If the procedure is exercised on oneself, the best plan of +helping the experiment is to write down at once all one’s first +indistinct fancies. + +I will now point out where this method leads when I apply it to the +examination of dreams. Any dream could be made use of in this way. From +certain motives I, however, choose a dream of my own, which appears +confused and meaningless to my memory, and one which has the advantage +of brevity. Probably my dream of last night satisfies the requirements. +Its content, fixed immediately after awakening, runs as follows: + +“_Company; at table or table d’hôte.... Spinach is served. Mrs. E. L., +sitting next to me, gives me her undivided attention, and places her +hand familiarly upon my knee. In defence I remove her hand. Then she +says: ‘But you have always had such beautiful eyes.’... I then +distinctly see something like two eyes as a sketch or as the contour of +a spectacle lens._...” + +This is the whole dream, or, at all events, all that I can remember. It +appears to me not only obscure and meaningless, but more especially odd. +Mrs. E. L. is a person with whom I am scarcely on visiting terms, nor to +my knowledge have I ever desired any more cordial relationship. I have +not seen her for a long time, and do not think there was any mention of +her recently. No emotion whatever accompanied the dream process. + +Reflecting upon this dream does not make it a bit clearer to my mind. I +will now, however, present the ideas, without premeditation and without +criticism, which introspection yielded. I soon notice that it is an +advantage to break up the dream into its elements, and to search out the +ideas which link themselves to each fragment. + +_Company; at table or table d’hôte._ The recollection of the slight +event with which the evening of yesterday ended is at once called up. I +left a small party in the company of a friend, who offered to drive me +home in his cab. “I prefer a taxi,” he said; “that gives one such a +pleasant occupation; there is always something to look at.” When we were +in the cab, and the cab-driver turned the disc so that the first sixty +hellers were visible, I continued the jest. “We have hardly got in and +we already owe sixty hellers. The taxi always reminds me of the table +d’hôte. It makes me avaricious and selfish by continuously reminding me +of my debt. It seems to me to mount up too quickly, and I am always +afraid that I shall be at a disadvantage, just as I cannot resist at +table d’hôte the comical fear that I am getting too little, that I must +look after myself.” In far-fetched connection with this I quote: + + “To earth, this weary earth, ye bring us, + To guilt ye let us heedless go.” + +Another idea about the table d’hôte. A few weeks ago I was very cross +with my dear wife at the dinner-table at a Tyrolese health resort, +because she was not sufficiently reserved with some neighbours with whom +I wished to have absolutely nothing to do. I begged her to occupy +herself rather with me than with the strangers. That is just as if I had +_been at a disadvantage at the table d’hôte_. The contrast between the +behaviour of my wife at that table and that of Mrs. E. L. in the dream +now strikes me: “_Addresses herself entirely to me._” + +Further, I now notice that the dream is the reproduction of a little +scene which transpired between my wife and myself when I was secretly +courting her. The caressing under cover of the tablecloth was an answer +to a wooer’s passionate letter. In the dream, however, my wife is +replaced by the unfamiliar E. L. + +Mrs. E. L. is the daughter of a man to whom I _owed money_! I cannot +help noticing that here there is revealed an unsuspected connection +between the dream content and my thoughts. If the chain of associations +be followed up which proceeds from one element of the dream one is soon +led back to another of its elements. The thoughts evoked by the dream +stir up associations which were not noticeable in the dream itself. + +Is it not customary, when someone expects others to look after his +interests without any advantage to themselves, to ask the innocent +question satirically: “Do you think this will be done _for the sake of +your beautiful eyes_?” Hence Mrs. E. L.’s speech in the dream. “You have +always had such beautiful eyes,” means nothing but “people always do +everything to you for love of you; you have had _everything for +nothing_.” The contrary is, of course, the truth; I have always paid +dearly for whatever kindness others have shown me. Still, the fact that +_I had a ride for nothing_ yesterday when my friend drove me home in his +cab must have made an impression upon me. + +In any case, the friend whose guests we were yesterday has often made me +his debtor. Recently I allowed an opportunity of requiting him to go by. +He has had only one present from me, an antique shawl, upon which eyes +are painted all round, a so-called Occhiale, as a _charm_ against the +_Malocchio_. Moreover, he is an _eye specialist_. That same evening I +had asked him after a patient whom I had sent to him for _glasses_. + +As I remarked, nearly all parts of the dream have been brought into this +new connection. I still might ask why in the dream it was _spinach_ that +was served up. Because spinach called up a little scene which recently +occurred at our table. A child, whose _beautiful eyes_ are really +deserving of praise, refused to eat _spinach_. As a child I was just the +same; for a long time I loathed _spinach_, until in later life my tastes +altered, and it became one of my favourite dishes. The mention of this +dish brings my own childhood and that of my child’s near together. “You +should be glad that you have some spinach,” his mother had said to the +little gourmet. “Some children would be very glad to get spinach.” Thus +I am reminded of the parents’ duties towards their children. Goethe’s +words— + + “To earth, this weary earth, ye bring us, + To guilt ye let us heedless go”— + +take on another meaning in this connection. + +Here I will stop in order that I may recapitulate the results of the +analysis of the dream. By following the associations which were linked +to the single elements of the dream torn from their context, I have been +led to a series of thoughts and reminiscences where I am bound to +recognise interesting expressions of my psychical life. The matter +yielded by an analysis of the dream stands in intimate relationship with +the dream content, but this relationship is so special that I should +never have been able to have inferred the new discoveries directly from +the dream itself. The dream was passionless, disconnected, and +unintelligible. During the time that I am unfolding the thoughts at the +back of the dream I feel intense and well-grounded emotions. The +thoughts themselves fit beautifully together into chains logically bound +together with certain central ideas which ever repeat themselves. Such +ideas not represented in the dream itself are in this instance the +antitheses _selfish, unselfish, to be indebted, to work for nothing_. I +could draw closer the threads of the web which analysis has disclosed, +and would then be able to show how they all run together into a single +knot; I am debarred from making this work public by considerations of a +private, not of a scientific, nature. After having cleared up many +things which I do not willingly acknowledge as mine, I should have much +to reveal which had better remain my secret. Why, then, do not I choose +another dream whose analysis would be more suitable for publication, so +that I could awaken a fairer conviction of the sense and cohesion of the +results disclosed by analysis? The answer is, because every dream which +I investigate leads to the same difficulties and places me under the +same need of discretion; nor should I forgo this difficulty any the more +were I to analyse the dream of someone else. That could only be done +when opportunity allowed all concealment to be dropped without injury to +those who trusted me. + +The conclusion which is now forced upon me is that the dream is a _sort +of substitution_ for those emotional and intellectual trains of thought +which I attained after complete analysis. I do not yet know the process +by which the dream arose from those thoughts, but I perceive that it is +wrong to regard the dream as psychically unimportant, a purely physical +process which has arisen from the activity of isolated cortical elements +awakened out of sleep. + +I must further remark that the dream is far shorter than the thoughts +which I hold it replaces; whilst analysis discovered that the dream was +provoked by an unimportant occurrence the evening before the dream. + +Naturally, I would not draw such far-reaching conclusions if only one +analysis were known to me. Experience has shown me that when the +associations of any dream are honestly followed such a chain of thought +is revealed, the constituent parts of the dream reappear correctly and +sensibly linked together; the slight suspicion that this concatenation +was merely an accident of a single first observation must, therefore, be +absolutely relinquished. I regard it, therefore, as my right to +establish this new view by a proper nomenclature. I contrast the dream +which my memory evokes with the dream and other added matter revealed by +analysis: the former I call the dream’s _manifest content_; the latter, +without at first further subdivision, its _latent content_. I arrive at +two new problems hitherto unformulated: (1) What is the psychical +process which has transformed the latent content of the dream into its +manifest content? (2) What is the motive or the motives which have made +such transformation exigent. The process by which the change from latent +to manifest content is executed I name the _dream work_. In contrast +with this is the _work of analysis_, which produces the reverse +transformation. The other problems of the dream—the inquiry as to its +stimuli, as to the source of its materials, as to its possible purpose, +the function of dreaming, the forgetting of dreams—these I will discuss +in connection with the latent dream content. + +I shall take every care to avoid a confusion between the _manifest_ and +the _latent content_, for I ascribe all the contradictory as well as the +incorrect accounts of dreamlife to the ignorance of this latent content, +now first laid bare through analysis. + + + + + III. + + +The conversion of the latent dream thoughts into those manifest deserves +our close study as the first known example of the transformation of +psychical stuff from one mode of expression into another. From a mode of +expression which, moreover, is readily intelligible into another which +we can only penetrate by effort and with guidance, although this new +mode must be equally reckoned as an effort of our own psychical +activity. From the standpoint of the relationship of latent to manifest +dream content, dreams can be divided into three classes. We can, in the +first place, distinguish those dreams which have a _meaning_ and are, at +the same time, _intelligible_, which allow us to penetrate into our +psychical life without further ado. Such dreams are numerous; they are +usually short, and, as a general rule, do not seem very noticeable, +because everything remarkable or exciting surprise is absent. Their +occurrence is, moreover, a strong argument against the doctrine which +derives the dream from the isolated activity of certain cortical +elements. All signs of a lowered or subdivided psychical activity are +wanting. Yet we never raise any objection to characterising them as +dreams, nor do we confound them with the products of our waking life. + +A second group is formed by those dreams which are indeed self-coherent +and have a distinct meaning, but appear strange because we are unable to +reconcile their meaning with our mental life. That is the case when we +dream, for instance, that some dear relative has died of plague when we +know of no ground for expecting, apprehending, or assuming anything of +the sort; we can only ask ourself wonderingly: “What brought that into +my head?” To the third group those dreams belong which are void of both +meaning and intelligibility; they are _incoherent, complicated, and +meaningless_. The overwhelming number of our dreams partake of this +character, and this has given rise to the contemptuous attitude towards +dreams and the medical theory of their limited psychical activity. It is +especially in the longer and more complicated dream-plots that signs of +incoherence are seldom missing. + +The contrast between manifest and latent dream content is clearly only +of value for the dreams of the second and more especially for those of +the third class. Here are problems which are only solved when the +manifest dream is replaced by its latent content; it was an example of +this kind, a complicated and unintelligible dream, that we subjected to +analysis. Against our expectation we, however, struck upon reasons which +prevented a complete cognizance of the latent dream thought. On the +repetition of this same experience we were forced to the supposition +that there is an _intimate bond, with laws of its own, between the +unintelligible and complicated nature of the dream and the difficulties +attending communication of the thoughts connected with the dream_. +Before investigating the nature of this bond, it will be advantageous to +turn our attention to the more readily intelligible dreams of the first +class where, the manifest and latent content being identical, the dream +work seems to be omitted. + +The investigation of these dreams is also advisable from another +standpoint. The dreams of _children_ are of this nature; they have a +meaning, and are not bizarre. This, by the way, is a further objection +to reducing dreams to a dissociation of cerebral activity in sleep, for +why should such a lowering of psychical functions belong to the nature +of sleep in adults, but not in children? We are, however, fully +justified in expecting that the explanation of psychical processes in +children, essentially simplified as they may be, should serve as an +indispensable preparation towards the psychology of the adult. + +I shall therefore cite some examples of dreams which I have gathered +from children. A girl of nineteen months was made to go without food for +a day because she had been sick in the morning, and, according to nurse, +had made herself ill through eating strawberries. During the night, +after her day of fasting, she was heard calling out her name during +sleep, and adding: “_Tawberry, eggs, pap._” She is dreaming that she is +eating, and selects out of her menu exactly what she supposes she will +not get much of just now. + +The same kind of dream about a forbidden dish was that of a little boy +of twenty-two months. The day before he was told to offer his uncle a +present of a small basket of cherries, of which the child was, of +course, only allowed one to taste. He woke up with the joyful news: +“Hermann eaten up all the cherries.” + +A girl of three and a half years had made during the day a sea trip +which was too short for her, and she cried when she had to get out of +the boat. The next morning her story was that during the night she had +been on the sea, thus continuing the interrupted trip. + +A boy of five and a half years was not at all pleased with his party +during a walk in the Dachstein region. Whenever a new peak came into +sight he asked if that were the Dachstein, and, finally, refused to +accompany the party to the waterfall. His behaviour was ascribed to +fatigue; but a better explanation was forthcoming when the next morning +he told his dream: _he had ascended the Dachstein_. Obviously he +expected the ascent of the Dachstein to be the object of the excursion, +and was vexed by not getting a glimpse of the mountain. The dream gave +him what the day had withheld. The dream of a girl of six was similar; +her father had cut short the walk before reaching the promised objective +on account of the lateness of the hour. On the way back she noticed a +signpost giving the name of another place for excursions; her father +promised to take her there also some other day. She greeted her father +next day with the news that she had dreamt that _her father had been +with her to both places_. + +What is common in all these dreams is obvious. They completely satisfy +wishes excited during the day which remain unrealised. They are simply +and undisguisedly realisations of wishes. + +The following child-dream, not quite understandable at first sight, is +nothing else than a wish realised. On account of poliomyelitis a girl, +not quite four years of age, was brought from the country into town, and +remained over night with a childless aunt in a big—for her, naturally, +huge—bed. The next morning she stated that she had dreamt that _the bed +was much too small for her, so that she could find no place in it_. To +explain this dream as a wish is easy when we remember that to be “big” +is a frequently expressed wish of all children. The bigness of the bed +reminded Miss Little-Would-be-Big only too forcibly of her smallness. +This nasty situation became righted in her dream, and she grew so big +that the bed now became too small for her. + +Even when children’s dreams are complicated and polished, their +comprehension as a realisation of desire is fairly evident. A boy of +eight dreamt that he was being driven with Achilles in a war-chariot, +guided by Diomedes. The day before he was assiduously reading about +great heroes. It is easy to show that he took these heroes as his +models, and regretted that he was not living in those days. + +From this short collection a further characteristic of the dreams of +children is manifest—_their connection with the life of the day_. The +desires which are realised in these dreams are left over from the day +or, as a rule, the day previous, and the feeling has become intently +emphasised and fixed during the day thoughts. Accidental and indifferent +matters, or what must appear so to the child, find no acceptance in the +contents of the dream. + +Innumerable instances of such dreams of the infantile type can be found +among adults also, but, as mentioned, these are mostly exactly like the +manifest content. Thus, a random selection of persons will generally +respond to thirst at night-time with a dream about drinking, thus +striving to get rid of the sensation and to let sleep continue. Many +persons frequently have these comforting _dreams_ before waking, just +when they are called. They then dream that they are already up, that +they are washing, or already in school, at the office, etc., where they +ought to be at a given time. The night before an intended journey one +not infrequently dreams that one has already arrived at the destination; +before going to a play or to a party the dream not infrequently +anticipates, in impatience, as it were, the expected pleasure. At other +times the dream expresses the realisation of the desire somewhat +indirectly; some connection, some sequel must be known—the first step +towards recognising the desire. Thus, when a husband related to me the +dream of his young wife, that her monthly period had begun, I had to +bethink myself that the young wife would have expected a pregnancy if +the period had been absent. The dream is then a sign of pregnancy. Its +meaning is that it shows the wish realised that pregnancy should not +occur just yet. Under unusual and extreme circumstances, these dreams of +the infantile type become very frequent. The leader of a polar +expedition tells us, for instance, that during the wintering amid the +ice the crew, with their monotonous diet and slight rations, dreamt +regularly, like children, of fine meals, of mountains of tobacco, and of +home. + +It is not uncommon that out of some long, complicated and intricate +dream one specially lucid part stands out containing unmistakably the +realisation of a desire, but bound up with much unintelligible matter. +On more frequently analysing the seemingly more transparent dreams of +adults, it is astonishing to discover that these are rarely as simple as +the dreams of children, and that they cover another meaning beyond that +of the realisation of a wish. + +It would certainly be a simple and convenient solution of the riddle if +the work of analysis made it at all possible for us to trace the +meaningless and intricate dreams of adults back to the infantile type, +to the realisation of some intensely experienced desire of the day. But +there is no warrant for such an expectation. Their dreams are generally +full of the most indifferent and bizarre matter, and no trace of the +realisation of the wish is to be found in their content. + +Before leaving these infantile dreams, which are obviously unrealised +desires, we must not fail to mention another chief characteristic of +dreams, one that has been long noticed, and one which stands out most +clearly in this class. I can replace any of these dreams by a phrase +expressing a desire. If the sea trip had only lasted longer; if I were +only washed and dressed; if I had only been allowed to keep the cherries +instead of giving them to my uncle. But the dream gives something more +than the choice, for here the desire is already realised; its +realisation is real and actual. The dream presentations consist chiefly, +if not wholly, of scenes and mainly of visual sense images. Hence a kind +of transformation is not entirely absent in this class of dreams, and +this may be fairly designated as the dream work. _An idea merely +existing in the region of possibility is replaced by a vision of its +accomplishment._ + + + + + IV. + + +We are compelled to assume that such transformation of scene has also +taken place in intricate dreams, though we do not know whether it has +encountered any possible desire. The dream instanced at the +commencement, which we analysed somewhat thoroughly, did give us +occasion in two places to suspect something of the kind. Analysis +brought out that my wife was occupied with others at table, and that I +did not like it; in the dream itself _exactly the opposite_ occurs, for +the person who replaces my wife gives me her undivided attention. But +can one wish for anything pleasanter after a disagreeable incident than +that the exact contrary should have occurred, just as the dream has it? +The stinging thought in the analysis, that I have never had anything for +nothing, is similarly connected with the woman’s remark in the dream: +“You have always had such beautiful eyes.” Some portion of the +opposition between the latent and manifest content of the dream must be +therefore derived from the realisation of a wish. + +Another manifestation of the dream work which all incoherent dreams have +in common is still more noticeable. Choose any instance, and compare the +number of separate elements in it, or the extent of the dream, if +written down, with the dream thoughts yielded by analysis, and of which +but a trace can be refound in the dream itself. There can be no doubt +that the dream working has resulted in an extraordinary compression or +_condensation_. It is not at first easy to form an opinion as to the +extent of the condensation; the more deeply you go into the analysis, +the more deeply you are impressed by it. There will be found no factor +in the dream whence the chains of associations do not lead in two or +more directions, no scene which has not been pieced together out of two +or more impressions and events. For instance, I once dreamt about a kind +of swimming-bath where the bathers suddenly separated in all directions; +at one place on the edge a person stood bending towards one of the +bathers as if to drag him out. The scene was a composite one, made up +out of an event that occurred at the time of puberty, and of two +pictures, one of which I had seen just shortly before the dream. The two +pictures were The Surprise in the Bath, from Schwind’s Cycle of the +Melusine (note the bathers suddenly separating), and a picture of The +Flood, by an Italian master. The little incident was that I once +witnessed a lady, who had tarried in the swimming-bath until the men’s +hour, being helped out of the water by the swimming-master. The scene in +the dream which was selected for analysis led to a whole group of +reminiscences, each one of which had contributed to the dream content. +First of all came the little episode from the time of my courting, of +which I have already spoken; the pressure of a hand under the table gave +rise in the dream to the “under the table,” which I had subsequently to +find a place for in my recollection. There was, of course, at the time +not a word about “undivided attention.” Analysis taught me that this +factor is the realisation of a desire through its contradictory and +related to the behaviour of my wife at the table d’hôte. An exactly +similar and much more important episode of our courtship, one which +separated us for an entire day, lies hidden behind this recent +recollection. The intimacy, the hand resting upon the knee, refers to a +quite different connection and to quite other persons. This element in +the dream becomes again the starting-point of two distinct series of +reminiscences, and so on. + +The stuff of the dream thoughts which has been accumulated for the +formation of the dream scene must be naturally fit for this application. +There must be one or more common factors. The dream work proceeds like +Francis Galton with his family photographs. The different elements are +put one on top of the other; what is common to the composite picture +stands out clearly, the opposing details cancel each other. This process +of reproduction partly explains the wavering statements, of a peculiar +vagueness, in so many elements of the dream. For the interpretation of +dreams this rule holds good: When analysis discloses _uncertainty_ as to +_either_—_or_ read _and_, taking each section of the apparent +alternatives as a separate outlet for a series of impressions. + +When there is nothing in common between the dream thoughts, the dream +work takes the trouble to create a something, in order to make a common +presentation feasible in the dream. The simplest way to approximate two +dream thoughts, which have as yet nothing in common, consists in making +such a change in the actual expression of one idea as will meet a slight +responsive recasting in the form of the other idea. The process is +analogous to that of rhyme, when consonance supplies the desired common +factor. A good deal of the dream work consists in the creation of those +frequently very witty, but often exaggerated, digressions. These vary +from the common presentation in the dream content to dream thoughts +which are as varied as are the causes in form and essence which give +rise to them. In the analysis of our example of a dream, I find a like +case of the transformation of a thought in order that it might agree +with another essentially foreign one. In following out the analysis I +struck upon the thought: _I should like to have something for nothing_. +But this formula is not serviceable to the dream. Hence it is replaced +by another one: “I should like to enjoy something free of cost.”[1] The +word “kost” (taste), with its double meaning, is appropriate to a table +d’hôte; it, moreover, is in place through the special sense in the +dream. At home if there is a dish which the children decline, their +mother first tries gentle persuasion, with a “Just taste it.” That the +dream work should unhesitatingly use the double meaning of the word is +certainly remarkable; ample experience has shown, however, that the +occurrence is quite usual. + +Footnote 1: + + “Ich möchte gerne etwas geniessen ohne ‘Kosten’ zu haben.” A pun upon + the word “kosten,” which has two meanings—“taste” and “cost.” In “Die + Traumdeutung,” third edition, p. 71 footnote, Professor Freud remarks + that “the finest example of dream interpretation left us by the + ancients is based upon a pun” (from “The Interpretation of Dreams,” by + Artemidorus Daldianus). “Moreover, dreams are so intimately bound up + with language that Ferenczi truly points out that every tongue has its + own language of dreams. A dream is as a rule untranslatable into other + languages.”—TRANSLATOR. + +Through condensation of the dream certain constituent parts of its +content are explicable which are peculiar to the dream life alone, and +which are not found in the waking state. Such are the composite and +mixed persons, the extraordinary mixed figures, creations comparable +with the fantastic animal compositions of Orientals; a moment’s thought +and these are reduced to unity, whilst the fancies of the dream are ever +formed anew in an inexhaustible profusion. Everyone knows such images in +his own dreams; manifold are their origins. I can build up a person by +borrowing one feature from one person and one from another, or by giving +to the form of one the name of another in my dream. I can also visualise +one person, but place him in a position which has occurred to another. +There is a meaning in all these cases when different persons are +amalgamated into one substitute. Such cases denote an “and,” a “just +like,” a comparison of the original person from a certain point of view, +a comparison which can be also realised in the dream itself. As a rule, +however, the identity of the blended persons is only discoverable by +analysis, and is only indicated in the dream content by the formation of +the “combined” person. + +The same diversity in their ways of formation and the same rules for its +solution hold good also for the innumerable medley of dream contents, +examples of which I need scarcely adduce. Their strangeness quite +disappears when we resolve not to place them on a level with the objects +of perception as known to us when awake, but to remember that they +represent the art of dream condensation by an exclusion of unnecessary +detail. Prominence is given to the common character of the combination. +Analysis must also generally supply the common features. The dream says +simply: _All these things have an “x” in common._ The decomposition of +these mixed images by analysis is often the quickest way to an +interpretation of the dream. Thus I once dreamt that I was sitting with +one of my former university tutors on a bench, which was undergoing a +rapid continuous movement amidst other benches. This was a combination +of lecture-room and moving staircase. I will not pursue the further +result of the thought. Another time I was sitting in a carriage, and on +my lap an object in shape like a top-hat, which, however, was made of +transparent glass. The scene at once brought to my mind the proverb: “He +who keeps his hat in his hand will travel safely through the land.” By a +slight turn the _glass hat_ reminded me of _Auer’s light_, and I knew +that I was about to invent something which was to make me as rich and +independent as his invention had made my countryman, Dr. Auer, of +Welsbach; then I should be able to travel instead of remaining in +Vienna. In the dream I was travelling with my invention, with the, it is +true, rather awkward glass top-hat. The dream work is peculiarly adept +at representing two contradictory conceptions by means of the same mixed +image. Thus, for instance, a woman dreamt of herself carrying a tall +flower-stalk, as in the picture of the Annunciation (Chastity-Mary is +her own name), but the stalk was bedecked with thick white blossoms +resembling camellias (contrast with chastity: La dame aux Camelias). + +A great deal of what we have called “dream condensation” can be thus +formulated. Each one of the elements of the dream content is +_overdetermined_ by the matter of the dream thoughts; it is not derived +from one element of these thoughts, but from a whole series. These are +not necessarily interconnected in any way, but may belong to the most +diverse spheres of thought. The dream element truly represents all this +disparate matter in the dream content. Analysis, moreover, discloses +another side of the relationship between dream content and dream +thoughts. Just as one element of the dream leads to associations with +several dream thoughts, so, as a rule, the _one dream thought represents +more than one dream element_. The threads of the association do not +simply converge from the dream thoughts to the dream content, but on the +way they overlap and interweave in every way. + +Next to the transformation of one thought in the scene (its +“dramatisation”), condensation is the most important and most +characteristic feature of the dream work. We have as yet no clue as to +the motive calling for such compression of the content. + + + + + V. + + +In the complicated and intricate dreams with which we are now concerned, +condensation and dramatisation do not wholly account for the difference +between dream contents and dream thoughts. There is evidence of a third +factor, which deserves careful consideration. + +When I have arrived at an understanding of the dream thoughts by my +analysis I notice, above all, that the matter of the manifest is very +different from that of the latent dream content. That is, I admit, only +an apparent difference which vanishes on closer investigation, for in +the end I find the whole dream content carried out in the dream +thoughts, nearly all the dream thoughts again represented in the dream +content. Nevertheless, there does remain a certain amount of difference. + +The essential content which stood out clearly and broadly in the dream +must, after analysis, rest satisfied with a very subordinate rôle among +the dream thoughts. These very dream thoughts which, going by my +feelings, have a claim to the greatest importance are either not present +at all in the dream content, or are represented by some remote allusion +in some obscure region of the dream. I can thus describe these +phenomena: _During the dream work the psychical intensity of those +thoughts and conceptions to which it properly pertains flows to others +which, in my judgment, have no claim to such emphasis._ There is no +other process which contributes so much to concealment of the dream’s +meaning and to make the connection between the dream content and dream +ideas irrecognisable. During this process, which I will call _the dream +displacement_, I notice also the psychical intensity, significance, or +emotional nature of the thoughts become transposed in sensory vividness. +What was clearest in the dream seems to me, without further +consideration, the most important; but often in some obscure element of +the dream I can recognise the most direct offspring of the principal +dream thought. + +I could only designate this dream displacement as the _transvaluation of +psychical values_. The phenomena will not have been considered in all +its bearings unless I add that this displacement or transvaluation is +shared by different dreams in extremely varying degrees. There are +dreams which take place almost without any displacement. These have the +same time, meaning, and intelligibility as we found in the dreams which +recorded a desire. In other dreams not a bit of the dream idea has +retained its own psychical value, or everything essential in these dream +ideas has been replaced by unessentials, whilst every kind of transition +between these conditions can be found. The more obscure and intricate a +dream is, the greater is the part to be ascribed to the impetus of +displacement in its formation. + +The example that we chose for analysis shows, at least, this much of +displacement—that its content has a different centre of interest from +that of the dream ideas. In the forefront of the dream content the main +scene appears as if a woman wished to make advances to me; in the dream +idea the chief interest rests on the desire to enjoy disinterested love +which shall “cost nothing”; this idea lies at the back of the talk about +the beautiful eyes and the far-fetched allusion to “spinach.” + +If we abolish the dream displacement, we attain through analysis quite +certain conclusions regarding two problems of the dream which are most +disputed—as to what provokes a dream at all, and as to the connection of +the dream with our waking life. There are dreams which at once expose +their links with the events of the day; in others no trace of such a +connection can be found. By the aid of analysis it can be shown that +every dream, without any exception, is linked up with our impression of +the day, or perhaps it would be more correct to say of the day previous +to the dream. The impressions which have incited the dream may be so +important that we are not surprised at our being occupied with them +whilst awake; in this case we are right in saying that the dream carries +on the chief interest of our waking life. More usually, however, when +the dream contains anything relating to the impressions of the day, it +is so trivial, unimportant, and so deserving of oblivion, that we can +only recall it with an effort. The dream content appears, then, even +when coherent and intelligible, to be concerned with those indifferent +trifles of thought undeserving of our waking interest. The depreciation +of dreams is largely due to the predominance of the indifferent and the +worthless in their content. + +Analysis destroys the appearance upon which this derogatory judgment is +based. When the dream content discloses nothing but some indifferent +impression as instigating the dream, analysis ever indicates some +significant event, which has been replaced by something indifferent with +which it has entered into abundant associations. Where the dream is +concerned with uninteresting and unimportant conceptions, analysis +reveals the numerous associative paths which connect the trivial with +the momentous in the psychical estimation of the individual. _It is only +the action of displacement if what is indifferent obtains recognition in +the dream content instead of those impressions which are really the +stimulus, or instead of the things of real interest._ In answering the +question as to what provokes the dream, as to the connection of the +dream, in the daily troubles, we must say, in terms of the insight given +us by replacing the manifest latent dream content: _The dream does never +trouble itself about things which are not deserving of our concern +during the day, and trivialities which do not trouble us during the day +have no power to pursue us whilst asleep._ + +What provoked the dream in the example which we have analysed? The +really unimportant event, that a friend invited me to a _free ride in +his cab_. The table d’hôte scene in the dream contains an allusion to +this indifferent motive, for in conversation I had brought the taxi +parallel with the table d’hôte. But I can indicate the important event +which has as its substitute the trivial one. A few days before I had +disbursed a large sum of money for a member of my family who is very +dear to me. Small wonder, says the dream thought, if this person is +grateful to me for this—this love is not cost-free. But love that shall +cost nothing is one of the prime thoughts of the dream. The fact that +shortly before this I had had several _drives_ with the relative in +question puts the one drive with my friend in a position to recall the +connection with the other person. The indifferent impression which, by +such ramifications, provokes the dream is subservient to another +condition which is not true of the real source of the dream—the +impression must be a recent one, everything arising from the day of the +dream. + +I cannot leave the question of dream displacement without the +consideration of a remarkable process in the formation of dreams in +which condensation and displacement work together towards one end. In +condensation we have already considered the case where two conceptions +in the dream having something in common, some point of contact, are +replaced in the dream content by a mixed image, where the distinct germ +corresponds to what is common, and the indistinct secondary +modifications to what is distinctive. If displacement is added to +condensation, there is no formation of a mixed image, but a _common +mean_ which bears the same relationship to the individual elements as +does the resultant in the parallelogram of forces to its components. In +one of my dreams, for instance, there is talk of an injection with +_propyl_. On first analysis I discovered an indifferent but true +incident where _amyl_ played a part as the excitant of the dream. I +cannot yet vindicate the exchange of amyl for propyl. To the round of +ideas of the same dream, however, there belongs the recollection of my +first visit to Munich, when the _Propylæa_ struck me. The attendant +circumstances of the analysis render it admissible that the influence of +this second group of conceptions caused the displacement of amyl to +propyl. _Propyl_ is, so to say, the mean idea between _amyl_ and +_propylæa_; it got into the dream as a kind of _compromise_ by +simultaneous condensation and displacement. + +The need of discovering some motive for this bewildering work of the +dream is even more called for in the case of displacement than in +condensation. + + + + + VI. + + +Although the work of displacement must be held mainly responsible if the +dream thoughts are not refound or recognised in the dream content +(unless the motive of the changes be guessed), it is another and milder +kind of transformation which will be considered with the dream thoughts +which leads to the discovery of a new but readily understood act of the +dream work. The first dream thoughts which are unravelled by analysis +frequently strike one by their unusual wording. They do not appear to be +expressed in the sober form which our thinking prefers; rather are they +expressed symbolically by allegories and metaphors like the figurative +language of the poets. It is not difficult to find the motives for this +degree of constraint in the expression of dream ideas. The dream content +consists chiefly of visual scenes; hence the dream ideas must, in the +first place, be prepared to make use of these forms of presentation. +Conceive that a political leader’s or a barrister’s address had to be +transposed into pantomime, and it will be easy to understand the +transformations to which the dream work is constrained by regard for +this _dramatisation of the dream content_. + +Around the psychical stuff of dream thoughts there are ever found +reminiscences of impressions, not infrequently of early childhood—scenes +which, as a rule, have been visually grasped. Whenever possible, this +portion of the dream ideas exercises a definite influence upon the +modelling of the dream content; it works like a centre of +crystallisation, by attracting and rearranging the stuff of the dream +thoughts. The scene of the dream is not infrequently nothing but a +modified repetition, complicated by interpolations of events that have +left such an impression; the dream but very seldom reproduces accurate +and unmixed reproductions of real scenes. + +The dream content does not, however, consist exclusively of scenes, but +it also includes scattered fragments of visual images, conversations, +and even bits of unchanged thoughts. It will be perhaps to the point if +we instance in the briefest way the means of dramatisation which are at +the disposal of the dream work for the repetition of the dream thoughts +in the peculiar language of the dream. + +The dream thoughts which we learn from the analysis exhibit themselves +as a psychical complex of the most complicated superstructure. Their +parts stand in the most diverse relationship to each other; they form +backgrounds and foregrounds, stipulations, digressions, illustrations, +demonstrations, and protestations. It may be said to be almost the rule +that one train of thought is followed by its contradictory. No feature +known to our reason whilst awake is absent. If a dream is to grow out of +all this, the psychical matter is submitted to a pressure which +condenses it extremely, to an inner shrinking and displacement, creating +at the same time fresh surfaces, to a selective interweaving among the +constituents best adapted for the construction of these scenes. Having +regard to the origin of this stuff, the term _regression_ can be fairly +applied to this process. The logical chains which hitherto held the +psychical stuff together become lost in this transformation to the dream +content. The dream work takes on, as it were, only the essential content +of the dream thoughts for elaboration. It is left to analysis to restore +the connection which the dream work has destroyed. + +The dream’s means of expression must therefore be regarded as meagre in +comparison with those of our imagination, though the dream does not +renounce all claims to the restitution of logical relation to the dream +thoughts. It rather succeeds with tolerable frequency in replacing these +by formal characters of its own. + +By reason of the undoubted connection existing between all the parts of +dream thoughts, the dream is able to embody this matter into a single +scene. It upholds a _logical connection_ as _approximation in time and +space_, just as the painter, who groups all the poets for his picture of +Parnassus who, though they have never been all together on a mountain +peak, yet form ideally a community. The dream continues this method of +presentation in individual dreams, and often when it displays two +elements close together in the dream content it warrants some special +inner connection between what they represent in the dream thoughts. It +should be, moreover, observed that all the dreams of one night prove on +analysis to originate from the same sphere of thought. + +The causal connection between two ideas is either left without +presentation, or replaced by two different long portions of dreams one +after the other. This presentation is frequently a reversed one, the +beginning of the dream being the deduction, and its end the hypothesis. +The direct _transformation_ of one thing into another in the dream seems +to serve the relationship of _cause_ and _effect_. + +The dream never utters the _alternative_ “_either-or_,” but accepts both +as having equal rights in the same connection. When “either-or” is used +in the reproduction of dreams, it is, as I have already mentioned, to be +replaced by “_and_.” + +Conceptions which stand in opposition to one another are preferably +expressed in dreams by the same element.[2] There seems no “not” in +dreams. Opposition between two ideas, the relation of conversion, is +represented in dreams in a very remarkable way. It is expressed by the +reversal of another part of the dream content just as if by way of +appendix. We shall later on deal with another form of expressing +disagreement. The common dream sensation of _movement checked_ serves +the purpose of representing disagreement of impulses—a _conflict of the +will_. + +Footnote 2: + + It is worthy of remark that eminent philologists maintain that the + oldest languages used the same word for expressing quite general + antitheses. In C. Abel’s essay, “Ueber den Gegensinn der Urworter” + (1884), the following examples of such words in English are given: + “gleam—gloom”; “to lock—loch”; “down—The Downs”; “to step—to stop.” In + his essay on “The Origin of Language” (“Linguistic Essays,” p. 240), + Abel says: “When the Englishman says ‘without,’ is not his judgment + based upon the comparative juxtaposition of two opposites, ‘with’ and + ‘out’; ‘with’ itself originally meant ‘without,’ as may still be seen + in ‘withdraw.’ ‘Bid’ includes the opposite sense of giving and of + proffering” (Abel, “The English Verbs of Command,” “Linguistic + Essays,” p. 104; see also Freud, “Ueber den Gegensinn der Urworte”: + _Jahrbuch für Psychoanalytische und Psychopathologische Forschungen_, + Band ii., part i., p. 179).—TRANSLATOR. + +Only one of the logical relationships—that of _similarity_, _identity_, +_agreement_—is found highly developed in the mechanism of dream +formation. Dream work makes use of these cases as a starting-point for +condensation, drawing together everything which shows such agreement to +a _fresh unity_. + +These short, crude observations naturally do not suffice as an estimate +of the abundance of the dream’s formal means of presenting the logical +relationships of the dream thoughts. In this respect, individual dreams +are worked up more nicely or more carelessly, our text will have been +followed more or less closely, auxiliaries of the dream work will have +been taken more or less into consideration. In the latter case they +appear obscure, intricate, incoherent. When the dream appears openly +absurd, when it contains an obvious paradox in its content, it is so of +purpose. Through its apparent disregard of all logical claims, it +expresses a part of the intellectual content of the dream ideas. +Absurdity in the dream denotes _disagreement_, _scorn_, _disdain_ in the +dream thoughts. As this explanation is in entire disagreement with the +view that the dream owes its origin to dissociated, uncritical cerebral +activity, I will emphasise my view by an example: + +“_One of my acquaintances, Mr. M——, has been attacked by no less a +person than Goethe in an essay with, we all maintain, unwarrantable +violence. Mr. M—— has naturally been ruined by this attack. He complains +very bitterly of this at a dinner-party, but his respect for Goethe has +not diminished through this personal experience. I now attempt to clear +up the chronological relations which strike me as improbable. Goethe +died in 1832. As his attack upon Mr. M—— must, of course, have taken +place before, Mr. M—— must have been then a very young man. It seems to +me plausible that he was eighteen. I am not certain, however, what year +we are actually in, and the whole calculation falls into obscurity. The +attack was, moreover, contained in Goethe’s well-known essay on +‘Nature.’_” + +The absurdity of the dream becomes the more glaring when I state that +Mr. M—— is a young business man without any poetical or literary +interests. My analysis of the dream will show what method there is in +this madness. The dream has derived its material from three sources: + +1. Mr. M——, to whom I was introduced at a dinner-party, begged me one +day to examine his elder brother, who showed signs of mental trouble. In +conversation with the patient, an unpleasant episode occurred. Without +the slightest occasion he disclosed one of his brother’s _youthful +escapades_. I had asked the patient the _year of his birth_ (_year of +death_ in dream), and led him to various calculations which might show +up his want of memory. + +2. A medical journal which displayed my name among others on the cover +had published a _ruinous_ review of a book by my friend F—— of Berlin, +from the pen of a very _juvenile_ reviewer. I communicated with the +editor, who, indeed, expressed his regret, but would not promise any +redress. Thereupon I broke off my connection with the paper; in my +letter of resignation I expressed the hope that our _personal relations +would not suffer from this_. Here is the real source of the dream. The +derogatory reception of my friend’s work had made a deep impression upon +me. In my judgment, it contained a fundamental biological discovery +which only now, several years later, commences to find favour among the +professors. + +3. A little while before, a patient gave me the medical history of her +brother, who, exclaiming “_Nature, Nature!_” had gone out of his mind. +The doctors considered that the exclamation arose from a study of +_Goethe’s_ beautiful essay, and indicated that the patient had been +overworking. I expressed the opinion that it seemed more _plausible_ to +me that the exclamation “Nature!” was to be taken in that sexual meaning +known also to the less educated in our country. It seemed to me that +this view had something in it, because the unfortunate youth afterwards +mutilated his genital organs. The patient was eighteen years old when +the attack occurred. + +The first person in the dream thoughts behind the ego was my friend who +had been so scandalously treated. “_I now attempted to clear up the +chronological relations._” My friend’s book deals with the chronological +relations of life, and, amongst other things, correlates _Goethe’s_ +duration of life with a number of days in many ways important to +biology. The ego is, however, represented as a general paralytic (“_I am +not certain what year we are actually in_”). The dream exhibits my +friend as behaving like a general paralytic, and thus riots in +absurdity. But the dream thoughts run ironically. “Of course he is a +madman, a fool, and you are the genius who understands all about it. But +shouldn’t it be the _other way round_?” This inversion obviously took +place in the dream when Goethe attacked the young man, which is absurd, +whilst anyone, however young, can to-day easily attack the great Goethe. + +I am prepared to maintain that no dream is inspired by other than +egoistic emotions. The ego in the dream does not, indeed, represent only +my friend, but stands for myself also. I identify myself with him +because the fate of his discovery appears to me typical of the +acceptance _of my own_. If I were to publish my own theory, which gives +sexuality predominance in the ætiology of psycho-neurotic disorders (see +the allusion to the eighteen-year-old patient—“_Nature, Nature!_”), the +same criticism would be levelled at me, and it would even now meet with +the same contempt. + +When I follow out the dream thoughts closely, I ever find only _scorn_ +and _contempt_ as _correlated with the dream’s absurdity_. It is well +known that the discovery of a cracked sheep’s skull on the Lido in +Venice gave Goethe the hint for the so-called vertebral theory of the +skull. My friend plumes himself on having as a student raised a hubbub +for the resignation of an aged professor who had done good work +(including some in this very subject of comparative anatomy), but who, +on account of _decrepitude_, had become quite incapable of teaching. The +agitation my friend inspired was so successful because in the German +Universities an _age limit_ is not demanded for academic work. _Age is +no protection against folly._ In the hospital here I had for years the +honour to serve under a chief who, long fossilised, was for decades +notoriously _feeble-minded_, and was yet permitted to continue in his +responsible office. A trait, after the manner of the find in the Lido, +forces itself upon me here. It was to this man that some youthful +colleagues in the hospital adapted the then popular slang of that day: +“No Goethe has written that,” “No Schiller composed that,” etc. + + + + + VII. + + +We have not exhausted our valuation of the dream work. In addition to +condensation, displacement, and definite arrangement of the psychical +matter, we must ascribe to it yet another activity—one which is, indeed, +not shared by every dream. I shall not treat this position of the dream +work exhaustively; I will only point out that the readiest way to arrive +at a conception of it is to take for granted, probably unfairly, that it +_only subsequently influences the dream content which has already been +built up_. Its mode of action thus consists in so co-ordinating the +parts of the dream that these coalesce to a coherent whole, to a dream +composition. The dream gets a kind of façade which, it is true, does not +conceal the whole of its content. There is a sort of preliminary +explanation to be strengthened by interpolations and slight alterations. +Such elaboration of the dream content must not be too pronounced; the +misconception of the dream thoughts to which it gives rise is merely +superficial, and our first piece of work in analysing a dream is to get +rid of these early attempts at interpretation. + +The motives for this part of the dream work are easily gauged. +This final elaboration of the dream is due to a _regard for +intelligibility_—a fact at once betraying the origin of an action which +behaves towards the actual dream content just as our normal psychical +action behaves towards some proffered perception that is to our liking. +The dream content is thus secured under the pretence of certain +expectations, is perceptually classified by the supposition of its +intelligibility, thereby risking its falsification, whilst, in fact, the +most extraordinary misconceptions arise if the dream can be correlated +with nothing familiar. Everyone is aware that we are unable to look at +any series of unfamiliar signs, or to listen to a discussion of unknown +words, without at once making perpetual changes through _our regard for +intelligibility_, through our falling back upon what is familiar. + +We can call those dreams _properly made up_ which are the result of an +elaboration in every way analogous to the psychical action of our waking +life. In other dreams there is no such action; not even an attempt is +made to bring about order and meaning. We regard the dream as “quite +mad,” because on awaking it is with this last-named part of the dream +work, the dream elaboration, that we identify ourselves. So far, +however, as our analysis is concerned, the dream, which resembles a +medley of disconnected fragments, is of as much value as the one with a +smooth and beautifully polished surface. In the former case we are +spared, to some extent, the trouble of breaking down the +super-elaboration of the dream content. + +All the same, it would be an error to see in the dream façade nothing +but the misunderstood and somewhat arbitrary elaboration of the dream +carried out at the instance of our psychical life. Wishes and phantasies +are not infrequently employed in the erection of this façade, which were +already fashioned in the dream thoughts; they are akin to those of our +waking life—“day-dreams,” as they are very properly called. These wishes +and phantasies, which analysis discloses in our dreams at night, often +present themselves as repetitions and refashionings of the scenes of +infancy. Thus the dream façade may show us directly the true core of the +dream, distorted through admixture with other matter. + +Beyond these four activities there is nothing else to be discovered in +the dream work. If we keep closely to the definition that dream work +denotes the transference of dream thoughts to dream content, we are +compelled to say that the dream work is not creative; it develops no +fancies of its own, it judges nothing, decides nothing. It does nothing +but prepare the matter for condensation and displacement, and refashions +it for dramatisation, to which must be added the inconstant last-named +mechanism—that of explanatory elaboration. It is true that a good deal +is found in the dream content which might be understood as the result of +another and more intellectual performance; but analysis shows +conclusively every time that these _intellectual operations were already +present in the dream thoughts, and have only been taken over by the +dream content_. A syllogism in the dream is nothing other than the +repetition of a syllogism in the dream thoughts; it seems inoffensive if +it has been transferred to the dream without alteration; it becomes +absurd if in the dream work it has been transferred to other matter. A +calculation in the dream content simply means that there was a +calculation in the dream thoughts; whilst this is always correct, the +calculation in the dream can furnish the silliest results by the +condensation of its factors and the displacement of the same operations +to other things. Even speeches which are found in the dream content are +not new compositions; they prove to be pieced together out of speeches +which have been made or heard or read; the words are faithfully copied, +but the occasion of their utterance is quite overlooked, and their +meaning is most violently changed. + +It is, perhaps, not superfluous to support these assertions by examples: + +1. _A seemingly inoffensive, well-made dream of a patient. She was going +to market with her cook, who carried the basket. The butcher said to her +when she asked him for something: “That is all gone,” and wished to give +her something else, remarking: “That’s very good.” She declines, and +goes to the greengrocer, who wants to sell her a peculiar vegetable +which is bound up in bundles and of a black colour. She says: “I don’t +know that; I won’t take it.”_ + +The remark “That is all gone” arose from the treatment. A few days +before I said myself to the patient that the earliest reminiscences of +childhood _are all gone_ as such, but are replaced by transferences and +dreams. Thus I am the butcher. + +The second remark, “_I don’t know that_,” arose in a very different +connection. The day before she had herself called out in rebuke to the +cook (who, moreover, also appears in the dream): “_Behave yourself +properly_; I don’t know _that_”—that is, “I don’t know this kind of +behaviour; I won’t have it.” The more harmless portion of this speech +was arrived at by a displacement of the dream content; in the dream +thoughts only the other portion of the speech played a part, because the +dream work changed an imaginary situation into utter irrecognisability +and complete inoffensiveness (while in a certain sense I behave in an +unseemly way to the lady). The situation resulting in this phantasy is, +however, nothing but a new edition of one that actually took place. + +2. A dream apparently meaningless relates to figures. “_She wants to pay +something; her daughter takes three florins sixty-five kreuzers out of +her purse; but she says: ‘What are you doing? It only costs twenty-one +kreuzers.’_” + +The dreamer was a stranger who had placed her child at school in Vienna, +and who was able to continue under my treatment so long as her daughter +remained at Vienna. The day before the dream the directress of the +school had recommended her to keep the child another year at school. In +this case she would have been able to prolong her treatment by one year. +The figures in the dream become important if it be remembered that time +is money. One year equals 365 days, or, expressed in kreuzers, 365 +kreuzers, which is three florins sixty-five kreuzers. The twenty-one +kreuzers correspond with the three weeks which remained from the day of +the dream to the end of the school term, and thus to the end of the +treatment. It was obviously financial considerations which had moved the +lady to refuse the proposal of the directress, and which were answerable +for the triviality of the amount in the dream. + +3. A lady, young, but already ten years married, heard that a friend of +hers, Miss Elise L——, of about the same age, had become engaged. This +gave rise to the following dream: + +_She was sitting with her husband in the theatre; the one side of the +stalls was quite empty. Her husband tells her, Elise L—— and her fiancé +had intended coming, but could only get some cheap seats, three for one +florin fifty kreuzers, and these they would not take. In her opinion, +that would not have mattered very much._ + +The origin of the figures from the matter of the dream thoughts and the +changes the figures underwent are of interest. Whence came the one +florin fifty kreuzers? From a trifling occurrence of the previous day. +Her sister-in-law had received 150 florins as a present from her +husband, and had quickly got rid of it by buying some ornament. Note +that 150 florins is one hundred times one florin fifty kreuzers. For the +_three_ concerned with the tickets, the only link is that Elise L—— is +exactly three months younger than the dreamer. The scene in the dream is +the repetition of a little adventure for which she has often been teased +by her husband. She was once in a great hurry to get tickets in time for +a piece, and when she came to the theatre _one side of the stalls was +almost empty_. It was therefore quite unnecessary for her to have been +in _such a hurry_. Nor must we overlook the absurdity of the dream that +two persons should take three tickets for the theatre. + +Now for the dream ideas. It was _stupid_ to have married so early; _I +need not_ have been _in so great a hurry_. Elise L——’s example shows me +that I should have been able to get a husband later; indeed, one a +_hundred times better_ if I had but waited. I could have bought _three_ +such men with the money (dowry). + + + + + VIII. + + +In the foregoing exposition we have now learnt something of the dream +work; we must regard it as a quite special psychical process, which, so +far as we are aware, resembles nothing else. To the dream work has been +transferred that bewilderment which its product, the dream, has aroused +in us. In truth, the dream work is only the first recognition of a group +of psychical processes to which must be referred the origin of +hysterical symptoms, the ideas of morbid dread, obsession, and illusion. +Condensation, and especially displacement, are never-failing features in +these other processes. The regard for appearance remains, on the other +hand, peculiar to the dream work. If this explanation brings the dream +into line with the formation of psychical disease, it becomes the more +important to fathom the essential conditions of processes like dream +building. It will be probably a surprise to hear that neither the state +of sleep nor illness is among the indispensable conditions. A whole +number of phenomena of the everyday life of healthy persons, +forgetfulness, slips in speaking and in holding things, together with a +certain class of mistakes, are due to a psychical mechanism analogous to +that of the dream and the other members of this group. + +Displacement is the core of the problem, and the most striking of all +the dream performances. A thorough investigation of the subject shows +that the essential condition of displacement is purely psychological; it +is in the nature of a motive. We get on the track by thrashing out +experiences which one cannot avoid in the analysis of dreams. I had to +break off the relations of my dream thoughts in the analysis of my dream +on p. 11 because I found some experiences which I do not wish strangers +to know, and which I could not relate without serious damage to +important considerations. I added, it would be no use were I to select +another instead of that particular dream; in every dream where the +content is obscure or intricate, I should hit upon dream thoughts which +call for secrecy. If, however, I continue the analysis for myself, +without regard to those others, for whom, indeed, so personal an event +as my dream cannot matter, I arrive finally at ideas which surprise me, +which I have not known to be mine, which not only appear _foreign_ to +me, but which are _unpleasant_, and which I would like to oppose +vehemently, whilst the chain of ideas running through the analysis +intrudes upon me inexorably. I can only take these circumstances into +account by admitting that these thoughts are actually part of my +psychical life, possessing a certain psychical intensity or energy. +However, by virtue of a particular psychological condition, the +_thoughts could not become conscious to me_. I call this particular +condition “_Repression_.” It is therefore impossible for me not to +recognise some causal relationship between the obscurity of the dream +content and this state of repression—this _incapacity of consciousness_. +Whence I conclude that the cause of the obscurity is _the desire to +conceal these thoughts_. Thus I arrive at the conception of the _dream +distortion_ as the deed of the dream work, and of _displacement_ serving +to disguise this object. + +I will test this in my own dream, and ask myself, What is the thought +which, quite innocuous in its distorted form, provokes my liveliest +opposition in its real form? I remember that the free drive reminded me +of the last expensive drive with a member of my family, the +interpretation of the dream being: I should for once like to experience +affection for which I should not have to pay, and that shortly before +the dream I had to make a heavy disbursement for this very person. In +this connection, I cannot get away from the thought _that I regret this +disbursement_. It is only when I acknowledge this feeling that there is +any sense in my wishing in the dream for an affection that should entail +no outlay. And yet I can state on my honour that I did not hesitate for +a moment when it became necessary to expend that sum. The regret, the +counter-current, was unconscious to me. Why it was unconscious is quite +another question which would lead us far away from the answer which, +though within my knowledge, belongs elsewhere. + +If I subject the dream of another person instead of one of my own to +analysis, the result is the same; the motives for convincing others is, +however, changed. In the dream of a healthy person the only way for me +to enable him to accept this repressed idea is the coherence of the +dream thoughts. He is at liberty to reject this explanation. But if we +are dealing with a person suffering from any neurosis—say from +hysteria—the recognition of these repressed ideas is compulsory by +reason of their connection with the symptoms of his illness and of the +improvement resulting from exchanging the symptoms for the repressed +ideas. Take the patient from whom I got the last dream about the three +tickets for one florin fifty kreuzers. Analysis shows that she does not +think highly of her husband, that she regrets having married him, that +she would be glad to change him for someone else. It is true that she +maintains that she loves her husband, that her emotional life knows +nothing about this depreciation (a hundred times better!), but all her +symptoms lead to the same conclusion as this dream. When her repressed +memories had rewakened a certain period when she was conscious that she +did not love her husband, her symptoms disappeared, and therewith +disappeared her resistance to the interpretation of the dream. + + + + + IX. + + +This conception of repression once fixed, together with the distortion +of the dream in relation to repressed psychical matter, we are in a +position to give a general exposition of the principal results which the +analysis of dreams supplies. We learnt that the most intelligible and +meaningful dreams are unrealised desires; the desires they pictured as +realised are known to consciousness, have been held over from the +daytime, and are of absorbing interest. The analysis of obscure and +intricate dreams discloses something very similar; the dream scene again +pictures as realised some desire which regularly proceeds from the dream +ideas, but the picture is unrecognisable, and is only cleared up in the +analysis. The desire itself is either one repressed, foreign to +consciousness, or it is closely bound up with repressed ideas. The +formula for these dreams may be thus stated: _They are concealed +realisations of repressed desires._ It is interesting to note that they +are right who regard the dream as foretelling the future. Although the +future which the dream shows us is not that which will occur, but that +which we would like to occur. Folk psychology proceeds here according to +its wont; it believes what it wishes to believe. + +Dreams can be divided into three classes according to their relation +towards the realisation of desire. Firstly come those which exhibit a +_non-repressed, non-concealed desire_; these are dreams of the infantile +type, becoming ever rarer among adults. Secondly, dreams which express +in _veiled_ form some _repressed desire_; these constitute by far the +larger number of our dreams, and they require analysis for their +understanding. Thirdly, these dreams where repression exists, but +_without_ or with but slight concealment. These dreams are invariably +accompanied by a feeling of dread which brings the dream to an end. This +feeling of dread here replaces dream displacement; I regarded the dream +work as having prevented this in the dream of the second class. It is +not very difficult to prove that what is now present as intense dread in +the dream was once desire, and is now secondary to the repression. + +There are also definite dreams with a painful content, without the +presence of any anxiety in the dream. These cannot be reckoned among +dreams of dread; they have, however, always been used to prove the +unimportance and the psychical futility of dreams. An analysis of such +an example will show that it belongs to our second class of dreams—a +_perfectly concealed_ realisation of repressed desires. Analysis will +demonstrate at the same time how excellently adapted is the work of +displacement to the concealment of desires. + +A girl dreamt that she saw lying dead before her the only surviving +child of her sister amid the same surroundings as a few years before she +saw the first child lying dead. She was not sensible of any pain, but +naturally combated the view that the scene represented a desire of hers. +Nor was that view necessary. Years ago it was at the funeral of the +child that she had last seen and spoken to the man she loved. Were the +second child to die, she would be sure to meet this man again in her +sister’s house. She is longing to meet him, but struggles against this +feeling. The day of the dream she had taken a ticket for a lecture, +which announced the presence of the man she always loved. The dream is +simply a dream of impatience common to those which happen before a +journey, theatre, or simply anticipated pleasures. The longing is +concealed by the shifting of the scene to the occasion when any joyous +feeling were out of place, and yet where it did once exist. Note, +further, that the emotional behaviour in the dream is adapted, not to +the displaced, but to the real but suppressed dream ideas. The scene +anticipates the long-hoped-for meeting; there is here no call for +painful emotions. + + + + + X. + + +There has hitherto been no occasion for philosophers to bestir +themselves with a psychology of repression. We must be allowed to +construct some clear conception as to the origin of dreams as the first +steps in this unknown territory. The scheme which we have formulated not +only from a study of dreams is, it is true, already somewhat +complicated, but we cannot find any simpler one that will suffice. We +hold that our psychical apparatus contains two procedures for the +construction of thoughts. The second one has the advantage that its +products find an open path to consciousness, whilst the activity of the +first procedure is unknown to itself, and can only arrive at +consciousness through the second one. At the borderland of these two +procedures, where the first passes over into the second, a censorship is +established which only passes what pleases it, keeping back everything +else. That which is rejected by the censorship is, according to our +definition, in a state of repression. Under certain conditions, one of +which is the sleeping state, the balance of power between the two +procedures is so changed that what is repressed can no longer be kept +back. In the sleeping state this may possibly occur through the +negligence of the censor; what has been hitherto repressed will now +succeed in finding its way to consciousness. But as the censorship is +never absent, but merely off guard, certain alterations must be conceded +so as to placate it. It is a compromise which becomes conscious in this +case—a compromise between what one procedure has in view and the demands +of the other. _Repression_, _laxity of the censor_, _compromise_—this is +the foundation for the origin of many another psychological process, +just as it is for the dream. In such compromises we can observe the +processes of condensation, of displacement, the acceptance of +superficial associations, which we have found in the dream work. + +It is not for us to deny the demonic element which has played a part in +constructing our explanation of dream work. The impression left is that +the formation of obscure dreams proceeds as if a person had something to +say which must be disagreeable for another person upon whom he is +dependent to hear. It is by the use of this image that we figure to +ourselves the conception of the _dream distortion_ and of the +censorship, and ventured to crystallise our impression in a rather +crude, but at least definite, psychological theory. Whatever explanation +the future may offer of these first and second procedures, we shall +expect a confirmation of our correlate that the second procedure +commands the entrance to consciousness, and can exclude the first from +consciousness. + +Once the sleeping state overcome, the censorship resumes complete sway, +and is now able to revoke that which was granted in a moment of +weakness. That the _forgetting_ of dreams explains this in part, at +least, we are convinced by our experience, confirmed again and again. +During the relation of a dream, or during analysis of one, it not +infrequently happens that some fragment of the dream is suddenly +forgotten. This fragment so forgotten invariably contains the best and +readiest approach to an understanding of the dream. Probably that is why +it sinks into oblivion—_i.e._, into a renewed suppression. + + + + + XI. + + +Viewing the dream content as the representation of a realised desire, +and referring its vagueness to the changes made by the censor in the +repressed matter, it is no longer difficult to grasp the function of +dreams. In fundamental contrast with those saws which assume that sleep +is disturbed by dreams, we hold the _dream as the guardian of sleep_. So +far as children’s dreams are concerned, our view should find ready +acceptance. + +The sleeping state or the psychical change to sleep, whatsoever it be, +is brought about by the child being sent to sleep or compelled thereto +by fatigue, only assisted by the removal of all stimuli which might open +other objects to the psychical apparatus. The means which serve to keep +external stimuli distant are known; but what are the means we can employ +to depress the internal psychical stimuli which frustrate sleep? Look at +a mother getting her child to sleep. The child is full of beseeching; he +wants another kiss; he wants to play yet awhile. His requirements are in +part met, in part drastically put off till the following day. Clearly +these desires and needs, which agitate him, are hindrances to sleep. +Everyone knows the charming story of the bad boy (Baldwin Groller’s) who +awoke at night bellowing out, “_I want the rhinoceros_.” A really good +boy, instead of bellowing, would have _dreamt_ that he was playing with +the rhinoceros. Because the dream which realises his desire is believed +during sleep, it removes the desire and makes sleep possible. It cannot +be denied that this belief accords with the dream image, because it is +arrayed in the psychical appearance of probability; the child is without +the capacity which it will acquire later to distinguish hallucinations +or phantasies from reality. + +The adult has learnt this differentiation; he has also learnt the +futility of desire, and by continuous practice manages to postpone his +aspirations, until they can be granted in some roundabout method by a +change in the external world. For this reason it is rare for him to have +his wishes realised during sleep in the short psychical way. It is even +possible that this never happens, and that everything which appears to +us like a child’s dream demands a much more elaborate explanation. Thus +it is that for adults—for every sane person without exception—a +differentiation of the psychical matter has been fashioned which the +child knew not. A psychical procedure has been reached which, informed +by the experience of life, exercises with jealous power a dominating and +restraining influence upon psychical emotions; by its relation to +consciousness, and by its spontaneous mobility, it is endowed with the +greatest means of psychical power. A portion of the infantile emotions +has been withheld from this procedure as useless to life, and all the +thoughts which flow from these are found in the state of repression. + +Whilst the procedure in which we recognise our normal ego reposes upon +the desire for sleep, it appears compelled by the psycho-physiological +conditions of sleep to abandon some of the energy with which it was wont +during the day to keep down what was repressed. This neglect is really +harmless; however much the emotions of the child’s spirit may be +stirred, they find the approach to consciousness rendered difficult, and +that to movement blocked in consequence of the state of sleep. The +danger of their disturbing sleep must, however, be avoided. Moreover, we +must admit that even in deep sleep some amount of free attention is +exerted as a protection against sense-stimuli which might, perchance, +make an awakening seem wiser than the continuance of sleep. Otherwise we +could not explain the fact of our being always awakened by stimuli of +certain quality. As the old physiologist Burdach pointed out, the mother +is awakened by the whimpering of her child, the miller by the cessation +of his mill, most people by gently calling out their names. This +attention, thus on the alert, makes use of the internal stimuli arising +from repressed desires, and fuses them into the dream, which as a +compromise satisfies both procedures at the same time. The dream creates +a form of psychical release for the wish which is either suppressed or +formed by the aid of repression, inasmuch as it presents it as realised. +The other procedure is also satisfied, since the continuance of the +sleep is assured. Our ego here gladly behaves like a child; it makes the +dream pictures believable, saying, as it were, “Quite right, but let me +sleep.” The contempt which, once awakened, we bear the dream, and which +rests upon the absurdity and apparent illogicality of the dream, is +probably nothing but the reasoning of our sleeping ego on the feelings +about what was repressed; with greater right it should rest upon the +incompetency of this disturber of our sleep. In sleep we are now and +then aware of this contempt; the dream content transcends the censorship +rather too much, we think, “It’s only a dream,” and sleep on. + +It is no objection to this view if there are border-lines for the dream +where its function, to preserve sleep from interruption, can no longer +be maintained—as in the dreams of impending dread. It is here changed +for another function—to suspend the sleep at the proper time. It acts +like a conscientious night-watchman, who first does his duty by quelling +disturbances so as not to waken the citizen, but equally does his duty +quite properly when he awakens the street should the causes of the +trouble seem to him serious and himself unable to cope with them alone. + +This function of dreams becomes especially well marked when there arises +some incentive for the sense perception. That the senses aroused during +sleep influence the dream is well known, and can be experimentally +verified; it is one of the certain but much overestimated results of the +medical investigation of dreams. Hitherto there has been an insoluble +riddle connected with this discovery. The stimulus to the sense by which +the investigator affects the sleeper is not properly recognised in the +dream, but is intermingled with a number of indefinite interpretations, +whose determination appears left to psychical free-will. There is, of +course, no such psychical free-will. To an external sense-stimulus the +sleeper can react in many ways. Either he awakens or he succeeds in +sleeping on. In the latter case he can make use of the dream to dismiss +the external stimulus, and this, again, in more ways than one. For +instance, he can stay the stimulus by dreaming of a scene which is +absolutely intolerable to him. This was the means used by one who was +troubled by a painful perineal abscess. He dreamt that he was on +horseback, and made use of the poultice, which was intended to alleviate +his pain, as a saddle, and thus got away from the cause of the trouble. +Or, as is more frequently the case, the external stimulus undergoes a +new rendering, which leads him to connect it with a repressed desire +seeking its realisation, and robs him of its reality, and is treated as +if it were a part of the psychical matter. Thus, someone dreamt that he +had written a comedy which embodied a definite _motif_; it was being +performed; the first act was over amid enthusiastic applause; there was +great clapping. At this moment the dreamer must have succeeded in +prolonging his sleep despite the disturbance, for when he woke he no +longer heard the noise; he concluded rightly that someone must have been +beating a carpet or bed. The dreams which come with a loud noise just +before waking have all attempted to cover the stimulus to waking by some +other explanation, and thus to prolong the sleep for a little while. + + + + + XII. + + +Whosoever has firmly accepted this _censorship_ as the chief motive for +the distortion of dreams will not be surprised to learn as the result of +dream interpretation that most of the dreams of adults are traced by +analysis to erotic desires. This assertion is not drawn from dreams +obviously of a sexual nature, which are known to all dreamers from their +own experience, and are the only ones usually described as “sexual +dreams.” These dreams are ever sufficiently mysterious by reason of the +choice of persons who are made the objects of sex, the removal of all +the barriers which cry halt to the dreamer’s sexual needs in his waking +state, the many strange reminders as to details of what are called +perversions. But analysis discovers that, in many other dreams in whose +manifest content nothing erotic can be found, the work of interpretation +shows them up as, in reality, realisation of sexual desires; whilst, on +the other hand, that much of the thought-making when awake, the thoughts +saved us as surplus from the day only, reaches presentation in dreams +with the help of repressed erotic desires. + +Towards the explanation of this statement, which is no theoretical +postulate, it must be remembered that no other class of instincts has +required so vast a suppression at the behest of civilisation as the +sexual, whilst their mastery by the highest psychical processes are in +most persons soonest of all relinquished. Since we have learnt to +understand _infantile sexuality_, often so vague in its expression, so +invariably overlooked and misunderstood, we are justified in saying that +nearly every civilised person has retained at some point or other the +infantile type of sex life; thus we understand that repressed infantile +sex desires furnish the most frequent and most powerful impulses for the +formation of dreams.[3] + +Footnote 3: + + Freud, “Three Contributions to Sexual Theory,” translated by A. A. + Brill (_Journal of Nervous and Mental Disease_ Publishing Company, New + York). + +If the dream, which is the expression of some erotic desire, succeeds in +making its manifest content appear innocently asexual, it is only +possible in one way. The matter of these sexual presentations cannot be +exhibited as such, but must be replaced by allusions, suggestions, and +similar indirect means; differing from other cases of indirect +presentation, those used in dreams must be deprived of direct +understanding. The means of presentation which answer these requirements +are commonly termed “symbols.” A special interest has been directed +towards these, since it has been observed that the dreamers of the same +language use the like symbols—indeed, that in certain cases community of +symbol is greater than community of speech. Since the dreamers do not +themselves know the meaning of the symbols they use, it remains a puzzle +whence arises their relationship with what they replace and denote. The +fact itself is undoubted, and becomes of importance for the technique of +the interpretation of dreams, since by the aid of a knowledge of this +symbolism it is possible to understand the meaning of the elements of a +dream, or parts of a dream, occasionally even the whole dream itself, +without having to question the dreamer as to his own ideas. We thus come +near to the popular idea of an interpretation of dreams, and, on the +other hand, possess again the technique of the ancients, among whom the +interpretation of dreams was identical with their explanation through +symbolism. + +Though the study of dream symbolism is far removed from finality, we now +possess a series of general statements and of particular observations +which are quite certain. There are symbols which practically always have +the same meaning: Emperor and Empress (King and Queen) always mean the +parents; room, a woman,[4] and so on. The sexes are represented by a +great variety of symbols, many of which would be at first quite +incomprehensible had not the clues to the meaning been often obtained +through other channels. + +Footnote 4: + + The words from “and” to “channels” in the next sentence is a short + summary of the passage in the original. As this book will be read by + other than professional people the passage has not been translated, in + deference to English opinion.—TRANSLATOR. + +There are symbols of universal circulation, found in all dreamers, of +one range of speech and culture; there are others of the narrowest +individual significance which an individual has built up out of his own +material. In the first class those can be differentiated whose claim can +be at once recognised by the replacement of sexual things in common +speech (those, for instance, arising from agriculture, as reproduction, +seed) from others whose sexual references appear to reach back to the +earliest times and to the obscurest depths of our image-building. The +power of building symbols in both these special forms of symbols has not +died out. Recently discovered things, like the airship, are at once +brought into universal use as sex symbols. + +It would be quite an error to suppose that a profounder knowledge of +dream symbolism (the “Language of Dreams”) would make us independent of +questioning the dreamer regarding his impressions about the dream, and +would give us back the whole technique of ancient dream interpreters. +Apart from individual symbols and the variations in the use of what is +general, one never knows whether an element in the dream is to be +understood symbolically or in its proper meaning; the whole content of +the dream is certainly not to be interpreted symbolically. The knowledge +of dream symbols will only help us in understanding portions of the +dream content, and does not render the use of the technical rules +previously given at all superfluous. But it must be of the greatest +service in interpreting a dream just when the impressions of the dreamer +are withheld or are insufficient. + +Dream symbolism proves also indispensable for understanding the +so-called “typical” dreams and the dreams that “repeat themselves.” If +the value of the symbolism of dreams has been so incompletely set out in +this brief portrayal, this attempt will be corrected by reference to a +point of view which is of the highest import in this connection. Dream +symbolism leads us far beyond the dream; it does not belong only to +dreams, but is likewise dominant in legend, myth, and saga, in wit and +in folklore. It compels us to pursue the inner meaning of the dream in +these productions. But we must acknowledge that symbolism is not a +result of the dream work, but is a peculiarity probably of our +unconscious thinking, which furnishes to the dream work the matter for +condensation, displacement, and dramatisation. + + + + + XIII. + + +I disclaim all pretension to have thrown light here upon all the +problems of the dream, or to have dealt convincingly with everything +here touched upon. If anyone is interested in the whole of dream +literature, I refer him to the works of Sante de Sanctis (I sogni, +Turin, 1899). For a more complete investigation of my conception of the +dream, my work should be consulted: “Die Traumdeutung,” Leipzig and +Vienna, third edition, 1911.[5] I will only point out in what direction +my exposition on dream work should be followed up. + +Footnote 5: + + Freud, “The Interpretation of Dreams,” third edition, translated by A. + A. Brill. London: George Allen and Company, Ltd. + +If I posit as the problem of dream interpretation the replacement of the +dream by its latent ideas—that is, the resolution of that which the +dream work has woven—I raise a series of new psychological problems +which refer to the mechanism of this dream work as well as to the nature +and the conditions of this so-called repression. On the other hand, I +claim the existence of dream thoughts as a very valuable foundation for +psychical construction of the highest order, provided with all the signs +of normal intellectual performance. This matter is, however, removed +from consciousness until it is rendered in the distorted form of the +dream content. I am compelled to believe that all persons have such +ideas, since nearly all, even the most normal, can have dreams. To the +unconsciousness of dream ideas, or their relationship to consciousness +and to repression, are linked questions of the greatest psychological +importance. Their solution must be postponed until the analysis of the +origin of other psychopathic growths, such as the symptoms of hysteria +and of obsessions, has been made clear. + + + + + LITERATURE + + +For a completer study of Dream Symbolism, consult the work of +Artemidorus Daldianus: The Interpretation of Dreams. Rendered into +English by “R. W.”—_i.e._, Robert Wood. The fourth edition, newly +written. B. L., London, 1644. The last edition was published in 1786. + + SCHERNER, R. A. Das Leben des Traumes. Berlin, 1861. + + FREUD. The Interpretation of Dreams. + +For the symbolism of legend, myth, and saga compared with dreams, see— + + ABRAHAM, KARL. Traum und Mythus. + + RANK, OTTO. Der Mythus von der Geburt des Helden. + + RIKLIN, F. Wunscherfüllung und Symbolik im Märchen. + +These three works are published by Franz Deuticke, Vienna. + +English translations are ready, or are in preparation. + +Recent literature will be found in— + + Jahrbuch für Psychoanalytische und Psychopathologische Forschungen: + Franz Deuticke. + + Internationale Zeitschrift für Ärztliche Psychoanalyse; and Imago + (both published by Hugo Heller and Co., Vienna). + + + BILLING AND SONS, LTD., PRINTERS, GUILDFORD + +------------------------------------------------------------------------ + + + + + TRANSCRIBER’S NOTES + + + ● Typos fixed; non-standard spelling and dialect retained. + ● Enclosed italics font in _underscores_. + + + +*** END OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK 75333 *** diff --git a/75333-h/75333-h.htm b/75333-h/75333-h.htm new file mode 100644 index 0000000..68726ed --- /dev/null +++ b/75333-h/75333-h.htm @@ -0,0 +1,3666 @@ +<!DOCTYPE html> +<html lang="en"> + <head> + <meta charset="UTF-8"> + <title>On Dreams | Project Gutenberg</title> + <link rel="icon" href="images/cover.jpg" type="image/x-cover"> + <style> + body { margin-left: 8%; 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} + body {font-family: Georgia, serif; text-align: justify; } + table {font-size: .9em; padding: 1.5em .5em 1em; page-break-inside: avoid; + clear: both; } + div.titlepage {text-align: center; page-break-before: always; + page-break-after: always; } + div.titlepage p {text-align: center; text-indent: 0em; font-weight: bold; + line-height: 1.5; margin-top: 3em; } + .ph2 { text-indent: 0em; font-weight: bold; font-size: x-large; margin: .75em auto; + page-break-before: always; } + .x-ebookmaker p.dropcap:first-letter { float: left; } + </style> + </head> + <body> +<div style='text-align:center'>*** START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK 75333 ***</div> + +<div class='tnotes covernote'> + +<p class='c000'><strong>Transcriber’s Note:</strong></p> + +<p class='c000'>New original cover art included with this eBook is granted to the public domain.</p> + +</div> + +<div class='titlepage'> + +<div> + <h1 class='c001'>ON DREAMS</h1> +</div> + +<div class='nf-center-c0'> +<div class='nf-center c002'> + <div>BY</div> + <div><span class='xlarge'>PROF. DR. SIGM. FREUD</span></div> + <div class='c003'><span class='small'>ONLY AUTHORISED ENGLISH TRANSLATION</span></div> + <div><span class='small'>BY</span></div> + <div><span class='large'>M. D. EDER</span></div> + <div><span class='small'>FROM THE SECOND GERMAN EDITION</span></div> + <div class='c003'><span class='small'>WITH AN INTRODUCTION BY</span></div> + <div class='c003'><span class='large'>W. LESLIE MACKENZIE, <span class='fss'>M.A.</span>, <span class='fss'>M.D.</span>, <span class='fss'>LL.D.</span></span></div> + <div class='c003'><span class='small'>MEDICAL MEMBER OF THE LOCAL GOVERNMENT BOARD FOR SCOTLAND; LATE FERGUSON SCHOLAR IN PHILOSOPHY; LATE EXAMINER IN MENTAL PHILOSOPHY, UNIVERSITY OF ABERDEEN</span></div> + </div> +</div> + +<div class='figcenter id001'> +<img src='images/i_title.jpg' alt='AGE QUOD AGIS' class='ig001'> +</div> + +<div class='nf-center-c0'> + <div class='nf-center'> + <div>NEW YORK</div> + <div>REBMAN COMPANY</div> + <div>HERALD SQUARE BUILDING</div> + <div>141–145 WEST <span class='fss'>36TH</span> STREET</div> + </div> +</div> + +</div> + +<div class='nf-center-c0'> +<div class='nf-center c004'> + <div><span class='small'><em>All rights reserved</em></span></div> + </div> +</div> + +<div class='chapter'> + <span class='pageno' id='Page_iii'>iii</span> + <h2 class='c005'>CONTENTS</h2> +</div> + +<table class='table0'> + <tr> + <th class='c006'></th> + <th class='c007'> </th> + <th class='c008'>PAGE</th> + </tr> + <tr> + <td class='c006'>I.</td> + <td class='c007'>THE SCIENTIFIC AND POPULAR VIEWS OF DREAMS CONTRASTED</td> + <td class='c008'><a href='#Page_1'>1</a></td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td class='c006'>II.</td> + <td class='c007'>DREAMS HAVE A MEANING—ANALYSIS OF A DREAM—MANIFEST AND LATENT CONTENT OF DREAMS</td> + <td class='c008'><a href='#Page_6'>6</a></td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td class='c006'>III.</td> + <td class='c007'>THE DREAM AS REALISATION OF UNFULFILLED DESIRES—INFANTILE TYPE OF DREAMS</td> + <td class='c008'><a href='#Page_21'>21</a></td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td class='c006'>IV.</td> + <td class='c007'>THE DREAM-MECHANISM—CONDENSATION—DRAMATISATION</td> + <td class='c008'><a href='#Page_33'>33</a></td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td class='c006'>V.</td> + <td class='c007'>THE DREAM-MECHANISM CONTINUED—DISPLACEMENT—TRANSVALUATION OF ALL PSYCHICAL VALUES</td> + <td class='c008'><a href='#Page_45'>45</a></td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td class='c006'>VI.</td> + <td class='c007'>THE DREAM-MECHANISM CONTINUED—THE EGO IN THE DREAM</td> + <td class='c008'><a href='#Page_54'>54</a></td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td class='c006'>VII.</td> + <td class='c007'>THE DREAM-MECHANISM CONTINUED—REGARD FOR INTELLIGIBILITY</td> + <td class='c008'><a href='#Page_68'>68</a></td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td class='c006'>VIII.</td> + <td class='c007'>RELATION OF DREAMS TO OTHER UNCONSCIOUS MENTAL PROCESSES—REPRESSION</td> + <td class='c008'><a href='#Page_78'>78</a></td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td class='c006'>IX.</td> + <td class='c007'>THREE CLASSES OF DREAMS</td> + <td class='c008'><a href='#Page_84'>84</a></td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td class='c006'>X.</td> + <td class='c007'>WHY THE DREAM DISGUISES THE DESIRES—THE CENSORSHIP</td> + <td class='c008'><a href='#Page_88'>88</a></td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td class='c006'>XI.</td> + <td class='c007'>THE DREAM THE GUARDIAN OF SLEEP</td> + <td class='c008'><a href='#Page_92'>92</a></td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td class='c006'>XII.</td> + <td class='c007'>DREAM SYMBOLISM—MYTHS AND FOLKLORE</td> + <td class='c008'><a href='#Page_100'>100</a></td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td class='c006'>XIII.</td> + <td class='c007'>ELEMENTS COMMON TO NORMAL AND ABNORMAL PSYCHOLOGY</td> + <td class='c008'><a href='#Page_107'>107</a></td> + </tr> +</table> + +<div class='chapter'> + <span class='pageno' id='Page_v'>v</span> + <h2 class='c005'>INTRODUCTION</h2> +</div> + +<p class='c009'>“The interpretation of dreams,” says Professor +Freud in one place, “is the royal +road to a knowledge of the part the unconscious +plays in the mental life.”</p> + +<p class='c010'>Even standing alone this statement is +sufficiently striking; it is at once a theory +and a challenge. But it does not stand +alone. It comes at the end of many years +of research among every class of mental +diseases. It comes, therefore, with the +authentication of experience. It is not to +be lightly set aside; it claims our study; and +the study of it will not go unrewarded. +The short essay here translated by Dr. Eder +is but an introduction to the vast field +opened up by Professor Sigm. Freud and +his colleagues. Already the journals of +clinical psychology, normal or morbid, are +full of the discussions of Professor Freud’s +<span class='pageno' id='Page_vi'>vi</span>methods and results. There is a “Freud +School.” That alone is a proof that the +method is novel if not new. There are, of +course, violent opponents and critical students. +The opponents may provoke, but +it is to the critical students that Professor +Freud will prefer to speak. “The condemnation,” +said Hegel, “that a great man +lays upon the world is to force it to explain +him.” Of a new method, either of research +or of treatment—and the Freud method is +both—the same may be said. It is certain +that, whatever our prejudice against details +may be, the theory of “psycho-analysis” +and the treatment based upon it deserves, +if only as a mental exercise, our critical +consideration. But Professor Freud is not +alone in the world of morbid psychology. +Let me digress for a moment.</p> + +<p class='c010'>Over twenty years ago it was my special +business to study and criticise several textbooks +on insanity. To the study of these +textbooks I came after many years of discipline +in normal psychology and the related +<span class='pageno' id='Page_vii'>vii</span>sciences. When I came to insanity proper, +I found that practically not a single textbook +made any systematic effort to show +how the morbid symptoms we classified as +“mental diseases” had their roots in the +mental processes of the normal mind. In +his small book, “Sanity and Insanity,” +Dr. Charles Mercier did make an effort to +lay out, as it were, the institutes of insanity, +the normal groundwork out of which the +insanities grew, the groups of ideas that +to-day serve to direct our conduct and +to-morrow lose their adjustment to any but +a specially adapted environment. In his +later works, particularly in “Psychology, +Normal and Morbid,” Dr. Mercier has followed +up the central ideas of the early study. +All the more recent textbooks in English +contain efforts in the same direction; but +with a few striking exceptions they are +studies rather of physical symptoms associated +with mental processes than of morbid +psychology proper. It was not until there +came from across the Channel Dr. Pierre +<span class='pageno' id='Page_viii'>viii</span>Janet’s carefully elaborated studies on +Hysteria that I realised what a wealth of +psychological material had remained hidden +in our asylums, in our nervous homes, even +in our ordinary hospitals, and in the multitudes +of strange cases that occur in private +practice. Janet, a pupil of the Charcot +School—Charcot, who made <em>la Salpetrière</em> +famous—pushed the minute analysis of +morbid mental states into regions practically +hitherto untouched. He was not alone. +His colleague, Professor Raymond, and +others in France and Germany, all work +with the same main ideas. Janet’s books +read like romances. His studies on Psychological +Automatism, the Mental State of +Hystericals, Neuroses and Fixed Ideas, and +many others on the part played by the +unconscious, were such rich mines of fact +and suggestion that Professor William +James, in his “Principles of Psychology,” +said of them: “All these facts taken together, +form unquestionably the beginning +of an inquiry which is destined to throw a +<span class='pageno' id='Page_ix'>ix</span>new light into the very abysses of our +nature.” Curiously, not in this country—the +country of great psychologists, Locke, +Berkeley, Hume, Hartley, Thomas Reid, +Dugald Stewart, Adam Smith, James Mill, +John Stuart Mill, Bain, Spencer, among the +dead, and whole schools of distinguished +psychologists among the living—not in this +country, but in America, was the value of +the new material seriously considered. Here +and there, within recent years, in this +country, Janet’s elaborate studies have not +been fruitless; but I could not readily name +any clinician in this country that has produced +similar studies. It is to the continents +of Europe and America, which in this +field are in intimate touch, that we must +go if we are to see the rich outgrowths of +morbid psychology. I do not say that the +work done by our English students of +insanity is not, of its kind, as great and as +important as any done in the world, but it +is none the less true that, until a few years +ago, the methods of Janet, Raymond, +<span class='pageno' id='Page_x'>x</span>Bernheim, Beaunis, not to speak of Moll, +Forel, and Oppenheim, were practically unstudied +here. In America it has been +entirely different. Even the names of the +men are now familiar in our English magazines—Muensterberg, +Morton Prince, Boris +Sidis, Ernest Jones, J. Mark Baldwin, not +to mention William James and Stanley +Hall. It looks as if every new idea unearthed +in the Old World is put to the test +by someone in the new. Britain remains +curiously cold.</p> + +<p class='c010'>It would be interesting to ask the reason. +Is it our metaphysical training? Is it the +failure of the philosophical schools to realize +the value of all this new raw material +of study? Is it, perhaps, the fear that “the +unity of consciousness” may be endangered +by the study of Double Personality, Multiple +Personality, Dissociation of Consciousness, +Dormant Complexes, Hysterias, Phobias, +Obsessions, Psychoneuroses, Fixed +Ideas, Hysterical Amnesias, Hypermnesias, +and the masses of other notions correlated, +<span class='pageno' id='Page_xi'>xi</span>roughly, under the term “unconscious”? +The suggestion of fear is not mere conjecture. +Many years ago a distinguished +student of philosophy, a pupil and friend +of Sir William Hamilton, indicated to me, +when I spoke to him of some recent work +on Double Personality, that he had difficulty +in placing the new work, feeling that, +in admitting the possibility of multiple +personality, he was sacrificing the primary +concept of philosophy, the unity of consciousness. +It did not perhaps occur to +him that, when two so-called “persons” +speak together, there are, in popular language, +“two personalities”—each, no +doubt, in a separate body, but each having +his own “unity of consciousness.”</p> + +<p class='c010'>If this be a fact, is there any greater difficulty +in explaining the other fact that two +persons may be, as James put it, under +the same hat? The metaphysical difficulty, +if there be a difficulty, is neither +more nor less in the one case than in the +other. But it is needless to ask why a whole +<span class='pageno' id='Page_xii'>xii</span>field of study has been, relatively, neglected +in this country. For now we have begun +to make up leeway.</p> + +<p class='c010'>This translation by Dr. Eder is an introduction +to the latest phase of the study of +the unconscious. It brings us back to the +point I began with, the relation of the +normal to the morbid. Dreams are a part +of everyone’s normal experience, yet they +are shown here to be of the same tissue, +of the same mental nature, as other phenomena +that are undoubtedly morbid. +Dreams therefore offer in the normal a +budding-point for the study of morbid +growths. And the study of dreams by +Freud came long after his studies of such +neuroses as the phobias, hysterias, and the +rest. To dreams he applied the same method +of investigation and treatment as to the +others, and he found that dreams offered an +unlimited field for the same kind of study.</p> + +<p class='c010'>Perhaps, before going further, I should +attempt to disarm criticism about the +term “unconscious.” We speak of subconsciousness, +<span class='pageno' id='Page_xiii'>xiii</span>co-consciousness, unconscious +mind, unconscious cerebration; or what +other terms should we use? Here it is +better to avoid discussion, for we are concerned +less with theory than with practice. +And in Freud’s work, whether we accept +his theory or not, the practice is of primary +importance. He takes the view that no +conscious experience is entirely lost; what +seems to have vanished from the current +consciousness has really passed into a subconsciousness, +where it lives on in an +organised form as real as if it were still +part of the conscious personality. This +view, with various modifications, is adopted +by many students of morbid psychology. +But there is another view. Muensterberg, +for instance, maintains that it is unnecessary +to speak of “subconsciousness,” for +every fact can be explained in terms of +physiology. He would accept the term +“co-conscious” or “co-consciousness”; but +in one chapter he ends the discussion by +saying: “But whether we prefer the physiological +<span class='pageno' id='Page_xiv'>xiv</span>account or insist on the co-conscious +phenomena, in either case is there any +chance for the subconscious to slip in? +That a content of consciousness is to a high +degree dissociated, or that the idea of the +personality is split off, is certainly a symptom +of pathological disturbance, but it has +nothing to do with the constituting of two +different kinds of consciousness, or with +breaking the continuous sameness of consciousness +itself. The most exceptional and +most uncanny occurrences of the hospital +teach after all the same which our daily +experience ought to teach us: there is +no subconsciousness” (“Psychotherapy,” +p. 157).</p> + +<p class='c010'>There are many refinements of distinction +that we could make here, and if any reader +is anxious to consider them, he will find +some of them in a small volume on “Subconscious +Phenomena,” by Muensterberg, +Ribot, and others (Rebman, London).</p> + +<p class='c010'>Here it is not of primary importance to +come to any conclusion on the best term +<span class='pageno' id='Page_xv'>xv</span>to use or the complement theory of the +facts. The discussion is far from an end; +but the harvest of facts need not wait for +the end of the discussion.</p> + +<p class='c010'>Meanwhile, let it be said that Professor +Freud has been steeped in this whole subject +from his student days. It is, however, +less important to discuss his theory than +to understand his method. The method is +called “psycho-analysis.” The name is +not inviting, and it might apply to any +form of mental analysis; but it is at least +consistently Greek in etymology, and has +taken on a technical meaning in the medical +schools. What is the method?</p> + +<p class='c010'>Let it be granted that a person has undergone +a strongly emotional experience—for +example, a sudden shock or fright. If the +person is highly nervous, the shock may +result in some degree of dissociation. This +may take the form of a loss of memory for +certain parts of the experience. Let it be +so. The ultimate result may be an unreasonable +fear of some entirely harmless +<span class='pageno' id='Page_xvi'>xvi</span>object or situation. The person is afraid +of a crowd, or afraid of a closed door, or has +an intense fear of some animal or person. +For this fear he can give no reason; he +cannot tell when it began nor why it persists. +He may more or less overcome it; +but he may not. All through his future life +he will go about with a helplessly unreasonable +fear of a closed door (claustrophobia) +or of a crowd (agoraphobia). Minor varieties +of such an affection are to be found in every +person’s experience. On investigation, however, +the root of the fear can be discovered: +it is the product of the original emotional +shock. The intellectual details of the emotional +experience have completely vanished +from the memory, but the emotion remains, +and it is attached to some accidental object +or circumstance present in the original +experience. Thousands of illustrations +could be given. They are, unfortunately, +only too numerous. In this essay on the +Interpretation of Dreams the reader will +find many simple cases.</p> + +<p class='c010'><span class='pageno' id='Page_xvii'>xvii</span>If, now, the person so affected is placed +in a quiet room, if he is requested to concentrate +his mind on the disturbing object +or idea associated with his fear, if he is +encouraged to observe passively the chance +ideas which float up to him when he thus +concentrates himself, if he utters, under the +direction of his medical attendant, every +such idea as it comes into his mind, there is +a strange result. These ideas, coming apparently +by chance from nowhere in particular, +are, when carefully studied, found +to be linked up with some past experience, +dating, perhaps, from months or years +away. If each idea as it emerges is followed +up, if the other ideas dragged into +consciousness by it are carefully recorded, +it is found that sooner or later entirely +forgotten experiences come into clear consciousness. +There are many ways of helping +this process. One of the ways is this: +Let a series of words be arranged; let the +doctor speak one of them to the patient; +let the patient, in the shortest time possible +<span class='pageno' id='Page_xviii'>xviii</span>to him, say right out whatever idea is +suggested to him by the word; let the time +taken to make the response be recorded in +seconds and fractions of a second—a thing +easy enough to do with a stop-watch. +Then, when the responses to a long series +of words are all recorded, and the time each +response has taken, it is found that some +responses have taken much longer than +others. This prolongation of the response-time +is always found whenever the test +word has stirred up a memory associated +with emotion. By following up further the +ideas stirred by this word, more ideas of a +related kind are discovered, often to the +patient’s surprise. Things long forgotten +come back to memory; circumstances that +apparently had no relation to the present +consciousness are found to be linked in +sequence with it—emotions, unreasoning +fears, anxieties, that apparently had no +relation to any particular experience, are +found at last to be part and parcel of things +that happened long ago. Once the doctor +<span class='pageno' id='Page_xix'>xix</span>has his cue, he can range in many directions, +and probe the mind again and again, until +he reveals multitudes of suppressed memories, +forgotten ideas, forgotten elements of +experience. He can even get back into +early childhood, which, to the patient himself, +leaves many and many a blank area in +the memory. But always the doctor lights, +sooner or later, on some complex experience +in which the particular fear or anxiety +arose.</p> + +<p class='c010'>But now, if the case is a suitable one, a +still stranger thing happens. When the +forgotten experience has thus artfully been +brought into the full light of consciousness, +the patient finds himself satisfied with the +explanation, and loses his particular fear. +He can now go back over the whole history +of its genesis; he can link up the old experience +to the new, and so he attains once +more satisfaction and peace of mind. Up +till now he could not be reasoned out of his +anxiety; he had always an answer for any +explanation; he had always a fresh foolish +<span class='pageno' id='Page_xx'>xx</span>reason for his fear. Now all this vanishes. +He finds his mind once more running +smoothly, and his “phobia” gone. The +unreasoning dread has been tracked back +to its lair, and its lair has been destroyed +in the process.</p> + +<p class='c010'>There are many other methods of achieving +the same result; let this generalised +sketch suffice.</p> + +<p class='c010'>What now is the theory? The theory is +that the mental experience or “complex” +had, for some reason and by some mechanism, +been submerged, or suppressed, or forgotten. +Freud maintains that there is a +fundamental tendency in the mind to suppress +every experience that is associated +with painful emotion. This doctrine is allied +to Bain’s “Law of Conservation”—that +painful experiences depress the vitality and +tend to disappear, while pleasant experiences +exalt the vitality and tend to remain +in memory. At any rate, by some process +the painful experience disappears from conscious +memory, but it does not cease to +<span class='pageno' id='Page_xxi'>xxi</span>exist. It may lie dormant, or it may work +subconsciously, and throw up the emotional +bubbles that continue, without a known +reason, to excite the ordinary consciousness. +But the complex, though deep and partly +dormant, never gets beyond reach. By the +method of concentration, by the use of +“free associations,” by the following up of +all the clues offered by the ideas “fished +up,” the submerged complex can, element +by element, be brought back. When once +it is brought back the patient is restored, +the dormant complexes once more resume +their place in the total current of his experience, +and the mind flows at peace.</p> + +<p class='c010'>This is, roughly, the method of psycho-analysis. +It has been applied in various +types of neurosis—hysterias, obsessions, phobias, +etc. It has not always succeeded in +removing the morbid conditions, but it has +succeeded so often that it may legitimately +be regarded as a method of treatment. As +a matter of discovery it is arduous, and +demands the highest skill and invention if +<span class='pageno' id='Page_xxii'>xxii</span>it is to succeed. Incidentally it reveals +masses of unpleasant ideas, of painful ideas, +even of disgusting ideas; but, in the right +hands, it leads to the healing of the mind.</p> + + <dl class='dl_1'> + <dt><span class='sc'>Macbeth.</span></dt> + <dd>How does your patient, doctor? + </dd> + <dt><span class='sc'>Doctor.</span></dt> + <dd>Not so sick, my lord, + </dd> + <dt> </dt> + <dd>As she is troubled with thick-coming fancies, + </dd> + <dt> </dt> + <dd>That keep her from her rest. + </dd> + <dt><span class='sc'>Macbeth.</span></dt> + <dd>Cure her of that; + </dd> + <dt> </dt> + <dd>Canst thou not minister to a mind diseas’d; + </dd> + <dt> </dt> + <dd>Pluck from the memory a rooted sorrow; + </dd> + <dt> </dt> + <dd>Raze out the written troubles of the brain; + </dd> + <dt> </dt> + <dd>And, with some sweet oblivious antidote, + </dd> + <dt> </dt> + <dd>Cleanse the stuff’d bosom of that perilous stuff, + </dd> + <dt> </dt> + <dd>Which weighs upon the heart? + </dd> + <dt><span class='sc'>Doctor.</span></dt> + <dd>Therein the patient + </dd> + <dt> </dt> + <dd>Must minister to himself. + </dd> + </dl> + +<p class='c010'>And here, insensibly, we have passed into +the World of Dreams. The morbid and +the normal have come together. Dreams +<span class='pageno' id='Page_xxiii'>xxiii</span>are the awaking of dormant complexes; +they are transfigured experiences; they come +into consciousness trailing clouds of emotion, +and fill the dreamer’s imagination with +mysterious images. It is here that the +method of psycho-analysis most fascinates +the student. It looks as if once more the +“interpretation of dreams” had become a +reality. The results of psycho-analysis, +even when the method is applied with a +master hand and the details are interpreted +with a skill that comes only of a quick +imagination, are not entirely convincing; +but they are certainly such as to make more +and more observation desirable. In the +present short essay Professor Freud gives a +sketch of psycho-analysis as it is applied to +the interpretations of dreams. His examples, +if they are enough to illustrate the +theory, are hardly enough to prove it, but +they are intended as an introduction to his +more elaborate studies; and, hitherto, observers +as they have increased in experience +have gained in conviction. That the +<span class='pageno' id='Page_xxiv'>xxiv</span>method goes a long way to prove that +dreams are not a chaotic sport of the brain, +but are a manifestation of ordered mental +experience, is beyond doubt. It would be +easy to show where the theory does not +cover facts, but it is equally easy to show +many facts that it does cover.</p> + +<p class='c010'>What, then, is the theory? Briefly this, +that dreams are very largely the expressions +of unfulfilled desires. Where, as in +children, the waking experience and the +sleeping experience differ from each other +by very little, the dream, or sleeping experience, +readily takes the form of the ungratified +desires of the day. But as the mind +grows older the dream expression of a desire +gets more intricate. By-and-by it is too +intricate to be deciphered from direct +memory, and then there is a chance for the +method of psycho-analysis. What of the +dream is remembered gives the cue for the +analysis. Take a remembered element of a +dream, track it back and back by free +association or other method, and you will +<span class='pageno' id='Page_xxv'>xxv</span>find that, at one or two removes, the +remembered element stirs up forgotten +elements, and ultimately brings coherence +out of incoherence.</p> + +<p class='c010'>This appears simple, but let the reader +study the dreams analysed in this essay, +and he will find himself stirred by a thousand +suggestions. For Professor Freud has +constructed empirical laws out of his masses +of material. The dream as it appears to +the dreamer he calls the <em>manifest dream +ideas</em>. But as these are too absurd to form +a coherent reality, he gives ground for +believing that they represent <em>latent dream +ideas</em>. The manifest dream is a mass of +symbols representing elements in the latent +dream ideas. How the latent dream ideas +generate the manifest dream is discovered +by psycho-analysis, the translation from +the latent to the manifest is the effect +of the <em>dream work</em>. The dream work +is the very core of the difficulty. It is +round this that Professor Freud’s greatest +subtleties of method are focussed. He +<span class='pageno' id='Page_xxvi'>xxvi</span>shows that every dream is linked to something +that occurs on the previous day, +some recent experience, but the experience +emerges in the dream as part of the current +panorama of the subjective life, and there +is no date to the beginning of the panorama—it +may go back to any point in the individual’s +history, even into the preconscious +days of early infancy. The day’s experience +and the life’s experience flow in a +single stream, and the images that appear +in dreams are but the symbols of all the +latent ideas of that experience. How, by +displacement of this element or that, compound +symbols are formed; how, by the +foreshortening of experience and the linking +of the past with the present in a single idea, +masses of old memories are clotted into a +single point; how, in the freedom of the +dream world, where the tension of the +waking life is relaxed, where the exacting +stimulations of the day are reduced, where +the consciousness of duty to be done in the +highly organised conditions of social conduct +<span class='pageno' id='Page_xxvii'>xxvii</span>is lowered, where, in a word, the <em>censor</em> is +drowsy or asleep, where the dream symbols +shape themselves into dramatic scenes of +endless variety—these it is that Professor +Freud’s theory endeavours to set forth. +Displacement, condensation, dramatisation—these +are the short names for these long +and complicated processes. In the course +of his expositions, Professor Freud uses +these processes almost as if they were +demons, and he admits frankly their figurative +character. But he pleads that they +represent real processes, and is ready to +accept better names when he finds them. +To trace back the dream images to a definite +meaning in experience is the aim of the +psycho-analysis of dreams. And the successes +in these must be tested by the facts. +Sometimes the results are highly persuasive, +sometimes they look highly fanciful, +always they are full of suggestion and +keep close to realities.</p> + +<p class='c010'>The dream symbolism, in particular, it is +easy to criticise; but, after all, dream symbolism +<span class='pageno' id='Page_xxviii'>xxviii</span>is a reality. The point to investigate +is, what dream images are legitimately considered +symbolic and what not. One has +only to remember that every word spoken +or written is a symbol, and a symbol in +much the same sense as the symbolism of +dreams, for every written or spoken word +is a complicated series of motions that +express meanings. The dream images are +complicated series of images that express +meanings. The difficulty of symbolism is +no greater in the one case than in the other. +But the variety of dream symbols is so +immense that the difficulties of tracing their +meaning are enormous. It is here that +the method meets its greatest difficulties; +but, equally, it is here that it scores its +greatest triumphs. Spoken or written language +is a technically organised system of +symbols; dream language is as yet a poorly +organised system of symbols. The method +of psycho-analysis aims at organising them. +Some test results are described in this essay; +multitudes of others are to be found in the +<span class='pageno' id='Page_xxix'>xxix</span>literature that is flowing from the application +of the psycho-analytic method. Time +alone will show how far the organisation of +dream symbols into a definite “language +of dreams” is, in any given society, actual +or possible. But the effort of organisation +has led Professor Freud to another fine fetch +of theory, for his dream symbolism suggests +many curious explanations for the mythologies +of all ages and all countries. Myth +symbols, that seem to defy explanation, +he traces back to their roots in the “unconscious” +of primitive man.</p> + +<p class='c010'>That the emotions of sex should play an +enormous part in the processes of analysis +is to be expected; for the sex emotions are +among the deepest, if not the deepest, of +our nature, and colour every experience. +From their proximate beginning in infancy—and +Freud’s theory here is of immense +significance—to their multiform derivatives +in adult life, the sex emotions exercise an +influence on every phase of development, +and, in one form or another, are themselves +<span class='pageno' id='Page_xxx'>xxx</span>a normal index of the stages of development. +It is therefore reasonable to expect +that they should play a great part in the +formation of obsessions, of fixed ideas, of +perversions, of repressed complexes. In +every civilisation, as Freud indicates, the +sex emotions are the most difficult to control, +and have demanded the greatest +amount of restraint.</p> + +<p class='c010'>Restraints lead to repressions, repressions +lead to dissociations, dissociations lead to +irregularities of action. When, therefore, +as in dreams, the restraints of the social day +are withdrawn, naturally the repressed +ideas tend to emerge once more. How +much these ideas account for in the hysterias, +how much “the shocks of despised +love” affect even the normal life, needs no +emphasis, but Freud pushes his analysis +farther, and tracks the sex emotions, like +many other fundamental emotions, into a +thousand by-paths of ordinary experience. +But it would be foolishness to say that sex +emotions are everything in the ruins of the +<span class='pageno' id='Page_xxxi'>xxxi</span>“Buried Temple.” Far from it. What is +true of the sex emotions is true of all other +emotions in their varying degrees, and +often what looks like predominant sex emotions +may turn out to be accidental rather +than causative, a concomitant symptom +rather than the initiatory centre of disturbance. +But these points are all controversial. +It is the object of Freud to put +them to the test. If his general theory be +true, the dream-world will more and more +become the revealer of our deepest and +oldest experience.</p> + +<p class='c010'>It would be easy to fill many pages with +illustrative items and relative criticisms, +but that is not the purpose of an introduction. +Here I am concerned simply to +recommend this essay to the careful study +of all those interested in the mental history +of the individual, and in the blotting out +from the mind of needless fears and +anxieties. And no one need hesitate to +enter on this study, whatever his metaphysical +theories may be. Even the “unity +<span class='pageno' id='Page_xxxii'>xxxii</span>of consciousness” will not suffer, for, +through his unending efforts to link the +experiences of the day with the whole experience +of the individual life, Professor +Freud, by the union of buried consciousness, +restores to the mind a new unity of consciousness.</p> + +<p class='c010'>Dr. Eder, whose studies in this field have +been long and varied, does well to present +to British readers this essay which serves +as an introduction to the more elaborate +studies of <span class='sc'>Freud</span> and his school, and I am +glad to have the privilege of saying so.</p> + +<div class='lg-container-r'> + <div class='linegroup'> + <div class='group'> + <div class='line'>W. LESLIE MACKENZIE.</div> + </div> + </div> +</div> + +<div class='chapter'> + <span class='pageno' id='Page_1'>1</span> + <h2 class='c005'>I.</h2> +</div> + +<p class='c009'>In what we may term “prescientific days” +people were in no uncertainty about the +interpretation of dreams. When they were +recalled after awakening they were regarded +as either the friendly or hostile manifestation +of some higher powers, demoniacal and +Divine. With the rise of scientific thought +the whole of this expressive mythology was +transferred to psychology; to-day there is +but a small minority among educated persons +who doubt that the dream is the +dreamer’s own psychical act.</p> + +<p class='c010'>But since the downfall of the mythological +hypothesis an interpretation of the +dream has been wanting. The conditions +of its origin; its relationship to our psychical +life when we are awake; its independence of +disturbances which, during the state of +sleep, seem to compel notice; its many peculiarities +<span class='pageno' id='Page_2'>2</span>repugnant to our waking thought; +the incongruence between its images and +the feelings they engender; then the dream’s +evanescence, the way in which, on awakening, +our thoughts thrust it aside as something +bizarre, and our reminiscences mutilating +or rejecting it—all these and many +other problems have for many hundred +years demanded answers which up till now +could never have been satisfactory. Before +all there is the question as to the meaning +of the dream, a question which is in itself +double-sided. There is, firstly, the psychical +significance of the dream, its position +with regard to the psychical processes, as +to a possible biological function; secondly, +has the dream a meaning—can sense be +made of each single dream as of other +mental syntheses?</p> + +<p class='c010'>Three tendencies can be observed in the +estimation of dreams. Many philosophers +have given currency to one of these tendencies, +one which at the same time preserves +something of the dream’s former +<span class='pageno' id='Page_3'>3</span>over-valuation. The foundation of dream +life is for them a peculiar state of psychical +activity, which they even celebrate as +elevation to some higher state. Schubert, +for instance, claims: “The dream is the +liberation of the spirit from the pressure of +external nature, a detachment of the soul +from the fetters of matter.” Not all go so +far as this, but many maintain that dreams +have their origin in real spiritual excitations, +and are the outward manifestations +of spiritual powers whose free movements +have been hampered during the day +(“Dream Phantasies,” Scherner, Volkelt). +A large number of observers acknowledge +that dream life is capable of extraordinary +achievements—at any rate, in certain fields +(“Memory”).</p> + +<p class='c010'>In striking contradiction with this the +majority of medical writers hardly admit +that the dream is a psychical phenomenon +at all. According to them dreams are provoked +and initiated exclusively by stimuli +proceeding from the senses or the body, +<span class='pageno' id='Page_4'>4</span>which either reach the sleeper from without +or are accidental disturbances of his internal +organs. The dream has no greater claim +to meaning and importance than the sound +called forth by the ten fingers of a person +quite unacquainted with music running his +fingers over the keys of an instrument. +The dream is to be regarded, says Binz, +“as a physical process always useless, frequently +morbid.” All the peculiarities of +dream life are explicable as the incoherent +effort, due to some physiological stimulus, +of certain organs, or of the cortical elements +of a brain otherwise asleep.</p> + +<p class='c010'>But slightly affected by scientific opinion +and untroubled as to the origin of dreams, +the popular view holds firmly to the belief +that dreams really have got a meaning, in +some way they do foretell the future, whilst +the meaning can be unravelled in some way +or other from its oft bizarre and enigmatical +content. The reading of dreams consists in +replacing the events of the dream, so far as +remembered, by other events. This is done +<span class='pageno' id='Page_5'>5</span>either scene by scene, <em>according to some +rigid key</em>, or the dream as a whole is replaced +by something else of which it was a <em>symbol</em>. +Serious-minded persons laugh at these +efforts—“Dreams are but sea-foam!”</p> + +<div class='chapter'> + <span class='pageno' id='Page_6'>6</span> + <h2 class='c005'>II.</h2> +</div> + +<p class='c009'>One day I discovered to my amazement +that the popular view grounded in superstition, +and not the medical one, comes +nearer to the truth about dreams. I +arrived at new conclusions about dreams +by the use of a new method of psychological +investigation, one which had rendered me +good service in the investigation of phobias, +obsessions, illusions, and the like, and +which, under the name “psycho-analysis,” +had found acceptance by a whole school of +investigators. The manifold analogies of +dream life with the most diverse conditions +of psychical disease in the waking state have +been rightly insisted upon by a number +of medical observers. It seemed, therefore, +<em>a priori</em>, hopeful to apply to the +interpretation of dreams methods of investigation +which had been tested in psychopathological +<span class='pageno' id='Page_7'>7</span>processes. Obsessions and +those peculiar sensations of haunting dread +remain as strange to normal consciousness +as do dreams to our waking consciousness; +their origin is as unknown to consciousness +as is that of dreams. It was practical ends +that impelled us, in these diseases, to +fathom their origin and formation. Experience +had shown us that a cure and a +consequent mastery of the obsessing ideas +did result when once those thoughts, the +connecting links between the morbid ideas +and the rest of the psychical content, were +revealed which were heretofore veiled from +consciousness. The procedure I employed +for the interpretation of dreams thus arose +from psychotherapy.</p> + +<p class='c010'>This procedure is readily described, although +its practice demands instruction +and experience. Suppose the patient is +suffering from intense morbid dread. He +is requested to direct his attention to the +idea in question, without, however, as he +has so frequently done, meditating upon it. +<span class='pageno' id='Page_8'>8</span>Every impression about it, without any +exception, which occurs to him should be +imparted to the doctor. The statement +which will be perhaps then made, that he +cannot concentrate his attention upon anything +at all, is to be countered by assuring +him most positively that such a blank state +of mind is utterly impossible. As a matter +of fact, a great number of impressions will +soon occur, with which others will associate +themselves. These will be invariably accompanied +by the expression of the observer’s +opinion that they have no meaning +or are unimportant. It will be at once +noticed that it is this self-criticism which +prevented the patient from imparting the +ideas, which had indeed already excluded +them from consciousness. If the patient +can be induced to abandon this self-criticism +and to pursue the trains of thought +which are yielded by concentrating the +attention, most significant matter will be +obtained, matter which will be presently +seen to be clearly linked to the morbid idea +<span class='pageno' id='Page_9'>9</span>in question. Its connection with other +ideas will be manifest, and later on will permit +the replacement of the morbid idea by +a fresh one, which is perfectly adapted to +psychical continuity.</p> + +<p class='c010'>This is not the place to examine thoroughly +the hypothesis upon which this +experiment rests, or the deductions which +follow from its invariable success. It must +suffice to state that we obtain matter +enough for the resolution of every morbid +idea if we especially direct our attention to +the <em>unbidden</em> associations <em>which disturb our +thoughts</em>—those which are otherwise put +aside by the critic as worthless refuse. If +the procedure is exercised on oneself, the +best plan of helping the experiment is to +write down at once all one’s first indistinct +fancies.</p> + +<p class='c010'>I will now point out where this method +leads when I apply it to the examination of +dreams. Any dream could be made use +of in this way. From certain motives I, +however, choose a dream of my own, which +<span class='pageno' id='Page_10'>10</span>appears confused and meaningless to my +memory, and one which has the advantage +of brevity. Probably my dream of last +night satisfies the requirements. Its content, +fixed immediately after awakening, +runs as follows:</p> + +<p class='c010'>“<em>Company; at table or table d’hôte.... +Spinach is served. Mrs. E. L., sitting next +to me, gives me her undivided attention, and +places her hand familiarly upon my knee. +In defence I remove her hand. Then she +says: ‘But you have always had such beautiful +eyes.’... I then distinctly see something +like two eyes as a sketch or as the contour of +a spectacle lens.</em>...”</p> + +<p class='c010'>This is the whole dream, or, at all events, +all that I can remember. It appears to +me not only obscure and meaningless, but +more especially odd. Mrs. E. L. is a person +with whom I am scarcely on visiting terms, +nor to my knowledge have I ever desired +any more cordial relationship. I have not +seen her for a long time, and do not think +there was any mention of her recently. No +<span class='pageno' id='Page_11'>11</span>emotion whatever accompanied the dream +process.</p> + +<p class='c010'>Reflecting upon this dream does not make +it a bit clearer to my mind. I will now, +however, present the ideas, without premeditation +and without criticism, which +introspection yielded. I soon notice that +it is an advantage to break up the dream +into its elements, and to search out the +ideas which link themselves to each fragment.</p> + +<p class='c010'><em>Company; at table or table d’hôte.</em> The +recollection of the slight event with which +the evening of yesterday ended is at once +called up. I left a small party in the +company of a friend, who offered to drive +me home in his cab. “I prefer a taxi,” he +said; “that gives one such a pleasant +occupation; there is always something to +look at.” When we were in the cab, and the +cab-driver turned the disc so that the first +sixty hellers were visible, I continued the +jest. “We have hardly got in and we +already owe sixty hellers. The taxi always +<span class='pageno' id='Page_12'>12</span>reminds me of the table d’hôte. It makes +me avaricious and selfish by continuously +reminding me of my debt. It seems to me +to mount up too quickly, and I am always +afraid that I shall be at a disadvantage, +just as I cannot resist at table d’hôte the +comical fear that I am getting too little, +that I must look after myself.” In far-fetched +connection with this I quote:</p> + +<div class='lg-container-b c011'> + <div class='linegroup'> + <div class='group'> + <div class='line'>“To earth, this weary earth, ye bring us,</div> + <div class='line'>To guilt ye let us heedless go.”</div> + </div> + </div> +</div> + +<p class='c010'>Another idea about the table d’hôte. A +few weeks ago I was very cross with my +dear wife at the dinner-table at a Tyrolese +health resort, because she was not sufficiently +reserved with some neighbours +with whom I wished to have absolutely +nothing to do. I begged her to occupy +herself rather with me than with the +strangers. That is just as if I had <em>been at +a disadvantage at the table d’hôte</em>. The +contrast between the behaviour of my wife +at that table and that of Mrs. E. L. in +<span class='pageno' id='Page_13'>13</span>the dream now strikes me: “<em>Addresses +herself entirely to me.</em>”</p> + +<p class='c010'>Further, I now notice that the dream is +the reproduction of a little scene which +transpired between my wife and myself +when I was secretly courting her. The +caressing under cover of the tablecloth was +an answer to a wooer’s passionate letter. +In the dream, however, my wife is replaced +by the unfamiliar E. L.</p> + +<p class='c010'>Mrs. E. L. is the daughter of a man to +whom I <em>owed money</em>! I cannot help noticing +that here there is revealed an unsuspected +connection between the dream content +and my thoughts. If the chain of +associations be followed up which proceeds +from one element of the dream one is soon +led back to another of its elements. The +thoughts evoked by the dream stir up +associations which were not noticeable in +the dream itself.</p> + +<p class='c010'>Is it not customary, when someone expects +others to look after his interests without +any advantage to themselves, to ask +<span class='pageno' id='Page_14'>14</span>the innocent question satirically: “Do you +think this will be done <em>for the sake of your +beautiful eyes</em>?” Hence Mrs. E. L.’s speech +in the dream. “You have always had +such beautiful eyes,” means nothing but +“people always do everything to you for +love of you; you have had <em>everything for +nothing</em>.” The contrary is, of course, the +truth; I have always paid dearly for whatever +kindness others have shown me. Still, +the fact that <em>I had a ride for nothing</em> yesterday +when my friend drove me home in his +cab must have made an impression upon me.</p> + +<p class='c010'>In any case, the friend whose guests we +were yesterday has often made me his +debtor. Recently I allowed an opportunity +of requiting him to go by. He has had only +one present from me, an antique shawl, +upon which eyes are painted all round, a +so-called Occhiale, as a <em>charm</em> against the +<em>Malocchio</em>. Moreover, he is an <em>eye specialist</em>. +That same evening I had asked him after a +patient whom I had sent to him for <em>glasses</em>.</p> + +<p class='c010'>As I remarked, nearly all parts of the +<span class='pageno' id='Page_15'>15</span>dream have been brought into this new +connection. I still might ask why in the +dream it was <em>spinach</em> that was served up. +Because spinach called up a little scene +which recently occurred at our table. A +child, whose <em>beautiful eyes</em> are really deserving +of praise, refused to eat <em>spinach</em>. As a +child I was just the same; for a long time +I loathed <em>spinach</em>, until in later life my +tastes altered, and it became one of my +favourite dishes. The mention of this dish +brings my own childhood and that of my +child’s near together. “You should be +glad that you have some spinach,” his +mother had said to the little gourmet. +“Some children would be very glad to get +spinach.” Thus I am reminded of the +parents’ duties towards their children. +Goethe’s words—</p> + +<div class='lg-container-b c011'> + <div class='linegroup'> + <div class='group'> + <div class='line'>“To earth, this weary earth, ye bring us,</div> + <div class='line'>To guilt ye let us heedless go”—</div> + </div> + </div> +</div> + +<p class='c012'>take on another meaning in this connection.</p> + +<p class='c010'>Here I will stop in order that I may +<span class='pageno' id='Page_16'>16</span>recapitulate the results of the analysis of +the dream. By following the associations +which were linked to the single elements of +the dream torn from their context, I have +been led to a series of thoughts and reminiscences +where I am bound to recognise +interesting expressions of my psychical life. +The matter yielded by an analysis of the +dream stands in intimate relationship with +the dream content, but this relationship is +so special that I should never have been +able to have inferred the new discoveries +directly from the dream itself. The dream +was passionless, disconnected, and unintelligible. +During the time that I am +unfolding the thoughts at the back of the +dream I feel intense and well-grounded +emotions. The thoughts themselves fit +beautifully together into chains logically +bound together with certain central ideas +which ever repeat themselves. Such ideas +not represented in the dream itself are in +this instance the antitheses <em>selfish, unselfish, +to be indebted, to work for nothing</em>. I could +<span class='pageno' id='Page_17'>17</span>draw closer the threads of the web which +analysis has disclosed, and would then be +able to show how they all run together into +a single knot; I am debarred from making +this work public by considerations of a +private, not of a scientific, nature. After +having cleared up many things which I do +not willingly acknowledge as mine, I should +have much to reveal which had better +remain my secret. Why, then, do not I +choose another dream whose analysis would +be more suitable for publication, so that I +could awaken a fairer conviction of the +sense and cohesion of the results disclosed +by analysis? The answer is, because every +dream which I investigate leads to the +same difficulties and places me under the +same need of discretion; nor should I forgo +this difficulty any the more were I to analyse +the dream of someone else. That could +only be done when opportunity allowed all +concealment to be dropped without injury +to those who trusted me.</p> + +<p class='c010'>The conclusion which is now forced upon +<span class='pageno' id='Page_18'>18</span>me is that the dream is a <em>sort of substitution</em> +for those emotional and intellectual trains +of thought which I attained after complete +analysis. I do not yet know the process by +which the dream arose from those thoughts, +but I perceive that it is wrong to regard the +dream as psychically unimportant, a purely +physical process which has arisen from the +activity of isolated cortical elements awakened +out of sleep.</p> + +<p class='c010'>I must further remark that the dream is +far shorter than the thoughts which I hold it +replaces; whilst analysis discovered that the +dream was provoked by an unimportant +occurrence the evening before the dream.</p> + +<p class='c010'>Naturally, I would not draw such far-reaching +conclusions if only one analysis +were known to me. Experience has shown +me that when the associations of any dream +are honestly followed such a chain of +thought is revealed, the constituent parts of +the dream reappear correctly and sensibly +linked together; the slight suspicion that +this concatenation was merely an accident +<span class='pageno' id='Page_19'>19</span>of a single first observation must, therefore, +be absolutely relinquished. I regard it, +therefore, as my right to establish this new +view by a proper nomenclature. I contrast +the dream which my memory evokes +with the dream and other added matter +revealed by analysis: the former I call the +dream’s <em>manifest content</em>; the latter, without +at first further subdivision, its <em>latent +content</em>. I arrive at two new problems +hitherto unformulated: (1) What is the +psychical process which has transformed the +latent content of the dream into its manifest +content? (2) What is the motive or the +motives which have made such transformation +exigent. The process by which the +change from latent to manifest content is +executed I name the <em>dream work</em>. In contrast +with this is the <em>work of analysis</em>, which +produces the reverse transformation. The +other problems of the dream—the inquiry +as to its stimuli, as to the source of its +materials, as to its possible purpose, the +function of dreaming, the forgetting of +<span class='pageno' id='Page_20'>20</span>dreams—these I will discuss in connection +with the latent dream content.</p> + +<p class='c010'>I shall take every care to avoid a confusion +between the <em>manifest</em> and the <em>latent +content</em>, for I ascribe all the contradictory +as well as the incorrect accounts of dreamlife +to the ignorance of this latent content, +now first laid bare through analysis.</p> + +<div class='chapter'> + <span class='pageno' id='Page_21'>21</span> + <h2 class='c005'>III.</h2> +</div> + +<p class='c009'>The conversion of the latent dream +thoughts into those manifest deserves our +close study as the first known example of +the transformation of psychical stuff from +one mode of expression into another. From +a mode of expression which, moreover, is +readily intelligible into another which we +can only penetrate by effort and with guidance, +although this new mode must be +equally reckoned as an effort of our own +psychical activity. From the standpoint of +the relationship of latent to manifest dream content, +dreams can be divided into three +classes. We can, in the first place, distinguish +those dreams which have a <em>meaning</em> +and are, at the same time, <em>intelligible</em>, +which allow us to penetrate into our +psychical life without further ado. Such +dreams are numerous; they are usually +<span class='pageno' id='Page_22'>22</span>short, and, as a general rule, do not seem +very noticeable, because everything remarkable +or exciting surprise is absent. Their +occurrence is, moreover, a strong argument +against the doctrine which derives the +dream from the isolated activity of certain +cortical elements. All signs of a lowered or +subdivided psychical activity are wanting. +Yet we never raise any objection to characterising +them as dreams, nor do we confound +them with the products of our waking life.</p> + +<p class='c010'>A second group is formed by those dreams +which are indeed self-coherent and have a +distinct meaning, but appear strange because +we are unable to reconcile their +meaning with our mental life. That is the +case when we dream, for instance, that some +dear relative has died of plague when we +know of no ground for expecting, apprehending, +or assuming anything of the sort; +we can only ask ourself wonderingly: +“What brought that into my head?” To +the third group those dreams belong which +are void of both meaning and intelligibility; +<span class='pageno' id='Page_23'>23</span>they are <em>incoherent, complicated, and meaningless</em>. +The overwhelming number of our +dreams partake of this character, and this +has given rise to the contemptuous attitude +towards dreams and the medical theory +of their limited psychical activity. It is +especially in the longer and more complicated +dream-plots that signs of incoherence +are seldom missing.</p> + +<p class='c010'>The contrast between manifest and latent +dream content is clearly only of value for +the dreams of the second and more especially +for those of the third class. Here are +problems which are only solved when the +manifest dream is replaced by its latent +content; it was an example of this kind, a +complicated and unintelligible dream, that +we subjected to analysis. Against our expectation +we, however, struck upon reasons +which prevented a complete cognizance of +the latent dream thought. On the repetition +of this same experience we were +forced to the supposition that there is an +<em>intimate bond, with laws of its own, between +<span class='pageno' id='Page_24'>24</span>the unintelligible and complicated nature of +the dream and the difficulties attending communication +of the thoughts connected with +the dream</em>. Before investigating the nature +of this bond, it will be advantageous to turn +our attention to the more readily intelligible +dreams of the first class where, the manifest +and latent content being identical, the +dream work seems to be omitted.</p> + +<p class='c010'>The investigation of these dreams is also +advisable from another standpoint. The +dreams of <em>children</em> are of this nature; they +have a meaning, and are not bizarre. This, +by the way, is a further objection to reducing +dreams to a dissociation of cerebral +activity in sleep, for why should such a +lowering of psychical functions belong to +the nature of sleep in adults, but not in +children? We are, however, fully justified +in expecting that the explanation of psychical +processes in children, essentially simplified +as they may be, should serve as an +indispensable preparation towards the psychology +of the adult.</p> + +<p class='c010'><span class='pageno' id='Page_25'>25</span>I shall therefore cite some examples of +dreams which I have gathered from children. +A girl of nineteen months was made +to go without food for a day because she +had been sick in the morning, and, according +to nurse, had made herself ill through +eating strawberries. During the night, +after her day of fasting, she was heard +calling out her name during sleep, and +adding: “<em>Tawberry, eggs, pap.</em>” She is +dreaming that she is eating, and selects +out of her menu exactly what she supposes +she will not get much of just now.</p> + +<p class='c010'>The same kind of dream about a forbidden +dish was that of a little boy of +twenty-two months. The day before he +was told to offer his uncle a present of a +small basket of cherries, of which the child +was, of course, only allowed one to taste. +He woke up with the joyful news: “Hermann +eaten up all the cherries.”</p> + +<p class='c010'>A girl of three and a half years had made +during the day a sea trip which was too +short for her, and she cried when she had +<span class='pageno' id='Page_26'>26</span>to get out of the boat. The next morning +her story was that during the night she had +been on the sea, thus continuing the interrupted +trip.</p> + +<p class='c010'>A boy of five and a half years was not at +all pleased with his party during a walk in +the Dachstein region. Whenever a new +peak came into sight he asked if that were +the Dachstein, and, finally, refused to +accompany the party to the waterfall. His +behaviour was ascribed to fatigue; but a +better explanation was forthcoming when +the next morning he told his dream: <em>he had +ascended the Dachstein</em>. Obviously he expected +the ascent of the Dachstein to be +the object of the excursion, and was vexed +by not getting a glimpse of the mountain. +The dream gave him what the day had +withheld. The dream of a girl of six was +similar; her father had cut short the walk +before reaching the promised objective on +account of the lateness of the hour. On +the way back she noticed a signpost giving +the name of another place for excursions; +<span class='pageno' id='Page_27'>27</span>her father promised to take her there also +some other day. She greeted her father +next day with the news that she had dreamt +that <em>her father had been with her to both +places</em>.</p> + +<p class='c010'>What is common in all these dreams is +obvious. They completely satisfy wishes +excited during the day which remain +unrealised. They are simply and undisguisedly +realisations of wishes.</p> + +<p class='c010'>The following child-dream, not quite +understandable at first sight, is nothing +else than a wish realised. On account of +poliomyelitis a girl, not quite four years of +age, was brought from the country into +town, and remained over night with a +childless aunt in a big—for her, naturally, +huge—bed. The next morning she stated +that she had dreamt that <em>the bed was much +too small for her, so that she could find no +place in it</em>. To explain this dream as a +wish is easy when we remember that to be +“big” is a frequently expressed wish of +all children. The bigness of the bed reminded +<span class='pageno' id='Page_28'>28</span>Miss Little-Would-be-Big only too +forcibly of her smallness. This nasty situation +became righted in her dream, and she +grew so big that the bed now became too +small for her.</p> + +<p class='c010'>Even when children’s dreams are complicated +and polished, their comprehension +as a realisation of desire is fairly evident. +A boy of eight dreamt that he was being +driven with Achilles in a war-chariot, guided +by Diomedes. The day before he was +assiduously reading about great heroes. It +is easy to show that he took these heroes +as his models, and regretted that he was +not living in those days.</p> + +<p class='c010'>From this short collection a further characteristic +of the dreams of children is manifest—<em>their +connection with the life of the day</em>. +The desires which are realised in these +dreams are left over from the day or, as a +rule, the day previous, and the feeling has +become intently emphasised and fixed during +the day thoughts. Accidental and indifferent +matters, or what must appear so +<span class='pageno' id='Page_29'>29</span>to the child, find no acceptance in the +contents of the dream.</p> + +<p class='c010'>Innumerable instances of such dreams of +the infantile type can be found among adults +also, but, as mentioned, these are mostly +exactly like the manifest content. Thus, a +random selection of persons will generally +respond to thirst at night-time with a dream +about drinking, thus striving to get rid of +the sensation and to let sleep continue. +Many persons frequently have these comforting +<em>dreams</em> before waking, just when +they are called. They then dream that +they are already up, that they are washing, +or already in school, at the office, etc., +where they ought to be at a given time. +The night before an intended journey one +not infrequently dreams that one has +already arrived at the destination; before +going to a play or to a party the dream not +infrequently anticipates, in impatience, as +it were, the expected pleasure. At other +times the dream expresses the realisation +of the desire somewhat indirectly; some +<span class='pageno' id='Page_30'>30</span>connection, some sequel must be known—the +first step towards recognising the desire. +Thus, when a husband related to me the +dream of his young wife, that her monthly +period had begun, I had to bethink myself +that the young wife would have expected a +pregnancy if the period had been absent. +The dream is then a sign of pregnancy. Its +meaning is that it shows the wish realised +that pregnancy should not occur just yet. +Under unusual and extreme circumstances, +these dreams of the infantile type become +very frequent. The leader of a polar expedition +tells us, for instance, that during +the wintering amid the ice the crew, with +their monotonous diet and slight rations, +dreamt regularly, like children, of fine meals, +of mountains of tobacco, and of home.</p> + +<p class='c010'>It is not uncommon that out of some long, +complicated and intricate dream one specially +lucid part stands out containing unmistakably +the realisation of a desire, but +bound up with much unintelligible matter. +On more frequently analysing the seemingly +<span class='pageno' id='Page_31'>31</span>more transparent dreams of adults, +it is astonishing to discover that these are +rarely as simple as the dreams of children, +and that they cover another meaning beyond +that of the realisation of a wish.</p> + +<p class='c010'>It would certainly be a simple and convenient +solution of the riddle if the work of +analysis made it at all possible for us to +trace the meaningless and intricate dreams +of adults back to the infantile type, to the +realisation of some intensely experienced +desire of the day. But there is no warrant +for such an expectation. Their dreams are +generally full of the most indifferent and +bizarre matter, and no trace of the realisation +of the wish is to be found in their +content.</p> + +<p class='c010'>Before leaving these infantile dreams, +which are obviously unrealised desires, we +must not fail to mention another chief characteristic +of dreams, one that has been long +noticed, and one which stands out most +clearly in this class. I can replace any of +these dreams by a phrase expressing a +<span class='pageno' id='Page_32'>32</span>desire. If the sea trip had only lasted +longer; if I were only washed and dressed; if +I had only been allowed to keep the cherries +instead of giving them to my uncle. But +the dream gives something more than the +choice, for here the desire is already realised; +its realisation is real and actual. The +dream presentations consist chiefly, if not +wholly, of scenes and mainly of visual sense +images. Hence a kind of transformation +is not entirely absent in this class of dreams, +and this may be fairly designated as the +dream work. <em>An idea merely existing in the +region of possibility is replaced by a vision +of its accomplishment.</em></p> + +<div class='chapter'> + <span class='pageno' id='Page_33'>33</span> + <h2 class='c005'>IV.</h2> +</div> + +<p class='c009'>We are compelled to assume that such +transformation of scene has also taken place +in intricate dreams, though we do not know +whether it has encountered any possible +desire. The dream instanced at the commencement, +which we analysed somewhat +thoroughly, did give us occasion in two +places to suspect something of the kind. +Analysis brought out that my wife was +occupied with others at table, and that I +did not like it; in the dream itself <em>exactly +the opposite</em> occurs, for the person who +replaces my wife gives me her undivided +attention. But can one wish for anything +pleasanter after a disagreeable incident than +that the exact contrary should have occurred, +just as the dream has it? The stinging +thought in the analysis, that I have never +had anything for nothing, is similarly connected +<span class='pageno' id='Page_34'>34</span>with the woman’s remark in the +dream: “You have always had such beautiful +eyes.” Some portion of the opposition +between the latent and manifest content of +the dream must be therefore derived from +the realisation of a wish.</p> + +<p class='c010'>Another manifestation of the dream work +which all incoherent dreams have in common +is still more noticeable. Choose any instance, +and compare the number of separate +elements in it, or the extent of the dream, +if written down, with the dream thoughts +yielded by analysis, and of which but a +trace can be refound in the dream itself. +There can be no doubt that the dream +working has resulted in an extraordinary +compression or <em>condensation</em>. It is not +at first easy to form an opinion as to the +extent of the condensation; the more deeply +you go into the analysis, the more deeply +you are impressed by it. There will be +found no factor in the dream whence the +chains of associations do not lead in two or +more directions, no scene which has not +<span class='pageno' id='Page_35'>35</span>been pieced together out of two or more +impressions and events. For instance, I +once dreamt about a kind of swimming-bath +where the bathers suddenly separated in +all directions; at one place on the edge a +person stood bending towards one of the +bathers as if to drag him out. The scene +was a composite one, made up out of an +event that occurred at the time of puberty, +and of two pictures, one of which I had +seen just shortly before the dream. The +two pictures were The Surprise in the +Bath, from Schwind’s Cycle of the Melusine +(note the bathers suddenly separating), and +a picture of The Flood, by an Italian +master. The little incident was that I once +witnessed a lady, who had tarried in the +swimming-bath until the men’s hour, being +helped out of the water by the swimming-master. +The scene in the dream which +was selected for analysis led to a whole group +of reminiscences, each one of which had +contributed to the dream content. First of +all came the little episode from the time of +<span class='pageno' id='Page_36'>36</span>my courting, of which I have already +spoken; the pressure of a hand under the +table gave rise in the dream to the “under +the table,” which I had subsequently to +find a place for in my recollection. There +was, of course, at the time not a word about +“undivided attention.” Analysis taught +me that this factor is the realisation of a +desire through its contradictory and related +to the behaviour of my wife at the table +d’hôte. An exactly similar and much more +important episode of our courtship, one +which separated us for an entire day, lies +hidden behind this recent recollection. The +intimacy, the hand resting upon the knee, +refers to a quite different connection and +to quite other persons. This element in +the dream becomes again the starting-point +of two distinct series of reminiscences, +and so on.</p> + +<p class='c010'>The stuff of the dream thoughts which +has been accumulated for the formation of +the dream scene must be naturally fit for +this application. There must be one or +<span class='pageno' id='Page_37'>37</span>more common factors. The dream work +proceeds like Francis Galton with his +family photographs. The different elements +are put one on top of the other; what +is common to the composite picture stands +out clearly, the opposing details cancel each +other. This process of reproduction partly +explains the wavering statements, of a +peculiar vagueness, in so many elements of +the dream. For the interpretation of dreams +this rule holds good: When analysis discloses +<em>uncertainty</em> as to <em>either</em>—<em>or</em> read <em>and</em>, taking +each section of the apparent alternatives as +a separate outlet for a series of impressions.</p> + +<p class='c010'>When there is nothing in common between +the dream thoughts, the dream work +takes the trouble to create a something, in +order to make a common presentation +feasible in the dream. The simplest way to +approximate two dream thoughts, which +have as yet nothing in common, consists in +making such a change in the actual expression +of one idea as will meet a slight +responsive recasting in the form of the +<span class='pageno' id='Page_38'>38</span>other idea. The process is analogous to +that of rhyme, when consonance supplies the +desired common factor. A good deal of the +dream work consists in the creation of those +frequently very witty, but often exaggerated, +digressions. These vary from the +common presentation in the dream content +to dream thoughts which are as varied as +are the causes in form and essence which +give rise to them. In the analysis of our +example of a dream, I find a like case of the +transformation of a thought in order that +it might agree with another essentially +foreign one. In following out the analysis I +struck upon the thought: <em>I should like to +have something for nothing</em>. But this formula +is not serviceable to the dream. Hence +it is replaced by another one: “I should +like to enjoy something free of cost.”<a id='r1'></a><a href='#f1' class='c013'><sup>[1]</sup></a> +The word “<span lang="de">kost</span>” (taste), with its double +<span class='pageno' id='Page_39'>39</span>meaning, is appropriate to a table d’hôte; +it, moreover, is in place through the special +sense in the dream. At home if there is a +dish which the children decline, their mother +first tries gentle persuasion, with a “Just +taste it.” That the dream work should +unhesitatingly use the double meaning of +the word is certainly remarkable; ample +experience has shown, however, that the +occurrence is quite usual.</p> + +<div class='footnote' id='f1'> +<p class='c010'><a href='#r1'>1</a>. “<span lang="de">Ich möchte gerne etwas geniessen ohne +‘Kosten’ zu haben.</span>” A pun upon the word +“<span lang="de">kosten</span>,” which has two meanings—“taste” +and “cost.” In “<span lang="de">Die Traumdeutung</span>,” third +edition, p. 71 footnote, Professor Freud remarks +that “the finest example of dream interpretation +left us by the ancients is based upon a pun” +(from “The Interpretation of Dreams,” by +Artemidorus Daldianus). “Moreover, dreams are +so intimately bound up with language that +Ferenczi truly points out that every tongue has its +own language of dreams. A dream is as a rule untranslatable +into other languages.”—<span class='sc'>Translator.</span></p> +</div> + +<p class='c010'>Through condensation of the dream certain +constituent parts of its content are +explicable which are peculiar to the dream +life alone, and which are not found in the +waking state. Such are the composite +and mixed persons, the extraordinary mixed +<span class='pageno' id='Page_40'>40</span>figures, creations comparable with the fantastic +animal compositions of Orientals; a +moment’s thought and these are reduced to +unity, whilst the fancies of the dream are +ever formed anew in an inexhaustible profusion. +Everyone knows such images in +his own dreams; manifold are their origins. +I can build up a person by borrowing one +feature from one person and one from +another, or by giving to the form of one the +name of another in my dream. I can also +visualise one person, but place him in a +position which has occurred to another. +There is a meaning in all these cases when +different persons are amalgamated into one +substitute. Such cases denote an “and,” +a “just like,” a comparison of the original +person from a certain point of view, a comparison +which can be also realised in the +dream itself. As a rule, however, the +identity of the blended persons is only discoverable +by analysis, and is only indicated +in the dream content by the formation of +the “combined” person.</p> + +<p class='c010'><span class='pageno' id='Page_41'>41</span>The same diversity in their ways of formation +and the same rules for its solution +hold good also for the innumerable medley +of dream contents, examples of which I need +scarcely adduce. Their strangeness quite +disappears when we resolve not to place +them on a level with the objects of perception +as known to us when awake, but to +remember that they represent the art of +dream condensation by an exclusion of unnecessary +detail. Prominence is given to +the common character of the combination. +Analysis must also generally supply the +common features. The dream says simply: +<em>All these things have an “x” in common.</em> +The decomposition of these mixed images +by analysis is often the quickest way to an +interpretation of the dream. Thus I once +dreamt that I was sitting with one of my +former university tutors on a bench, which +was undergoing a rapid continuous movement +amidst other benches. This was a +combination of lecture-room and moving +staircase. I will not pursue the further +<span class='pageno' id='Page_42'>42</span>result of the thought. Another time I was +sitting in a carriage, and on my lap an +object in shape like a top-hat, which, however, +was made of transparent glass. The +scene at once brought to my mind the +proverb: “He who keeps his hat in his +hand will travel safely through the land.” +By a slight turn the <em>glass hat</em> reminded me +of <em>Auer’s light</em>, and I knew that I was about +to invent something which was to make +me as rich and independent as his invention +had made my countryman, Dr. Auer, of +Welsbach; then I should be able to travel +instead of remaining in Vienna. In the +dream I was travelling with my invention, +with the, it is true, rather awkward glass +top-hat. The dream work is peculiarly +adept at representing two contradictory +conceptions by means of the same mixed +image. Thus, for instance, a woman dreamt +of herself carrying a tall flower-stalk, as in +the picture of the Annunciation (Chastity-Mary +is her own name), but the stalk was +bedecked with thick white blossoms resembling +<span class='pageno' id='Page_43'>43</span>camellias (contrast with chastity: La +dame aux Camelias).</p> + +<p class='c010'>A great deal of what we have called +“dream condensation” can be thus formulated. +Each one of the elements of the +dream content is <em>overdetermined</em> by the +matter of the dream thoughts; it is not derived +from one element of these thoughts, +but from a whole series. These are not +necessarily interconnected in any way, but +may belong to the most diverse spheres of +thought. The dream element truly represents +all this disparate matter in the dream +content. Analysis, moreover, discloses +another side of the relationship between +dream content and dream thoughts. Just +as one element of the dream leads to associations +with several dream thoughts, so, as +a rule, the <em>one dream thought represents more +than one dream element</em>. The threads of the +association do not simply converge from +the dream thoughts to the dream content, +but on the way they overlap and interweave +in every way.</p> + +<p class='c010'><span class='pageno' id='Page_44'>44</span>Next to the transformation of one thought +in the scene (its “dramatisation”), condensation +is the most important and most +characteristic feature of the dream work. +We have as yet no clue as to the motive +calling for such compression of the content.</p> + +<div class='chapter'> + <span class='pageno' id='Page_45'>45</span> + <h2 class='c005'>V.</h2> +</div> + +<p class='c009'>In the complicated and intricate dreams +with which we are now concerned, condensation +and dramatisation do not wholly +account for the difference between dream +contents and dream thoughts. There is +evidence of a third factor, which deserves +careful consideration.</p> + +<p class='c010'>When I have arrived at an understanding +of the dream thoughts by my analysis I +notice, above all, that the matter of the +manifest is very different from that of the +latent dream content. That is, I admit, +only an apparent difference which vanishes +on closer investigation, for in the end I find +the whole dream content carried out in the +dream thoughts, nearly all the dream +thoughts again represented in the dream +content. Nevertheless, there does remain +a certain amount of difference.</p> + +<p class='c010'>The essential content which stood out +<span class='pageno' id='Page_46'>46</span>clearly and broadly in the dream must, +after analysis, rest satisfied with a very +subordinate rôle among the dream thoughts. +These very dream thoughts which, going by +my feelings, have a claim to the greatest +importance are either not present at all in +the dream content, or are represented by +some remote allusion in some obscure region +of the dream. I can thus describe these +phenomena: <em>During the dream work the +psychical intensity of those thoughts and conceptions +to which it properly pertains flows +to others which, in my judgment, have no +claim to such emphasis.</em> There is no other +process which contributes so much to concealment +of the dream’s meaning and to +make the connection between the dream +content and dream ideas irrecognisable. +During this process, which I will call <em>the +dream displacement</em>, I notice also the psychical +intensity, significance, or emotional +nature of the thoughts become transposed +in sensory vividness. What was clearest +in the dream seems to me, without further +<span class='pageno' id='Page_47'>47</span>consideration, the most important; but +often in some obscure element of the dream +I can recognise the most direct offspring of +the principal dream thought.</p> + +<p class='c010'>I could only designate this dream displacement +as the <em>transvaluation of psychical +values</em>. The phenomena will not have been +considered in all its bearings unless I add +that this displacement or transvaluation is +shared by different dreams in extremely +varying degrees. There are dreams which +take place almost without any displacement. +These have the same time, meaning, +and intelligibility as we found in the +dreams which recorded a desire. In other +dreams not a bit of the dream idea +has retained its own psychical value, or +everything essential in these dream ideas +has been replaced by unessentials, whilst +every kind of transition between these conditions +can be found. The more obscure +and intricate a dream is, the greater is the +part to be ascribed to the impetus of displacement +in its formation.</p> + +<p class='c010'><span class='pageno' id='Page_48'>48</span>The example that we chose for analysis +shows, at least, this much of displacement—that +its content has a different centre of +interest from that of the dream ideas. In +the forefront of the dream content the main +scene appears as if a woman wished to +make advances to me; in the dream idea the +chief interest rests on the desire to enjoy +disinterested love which shall “cost +nothing”; this idea lies at the back of the +talk about the beautiful eyes and the far-fetched +allusion to “spinach.”</p> + +<p class='c010'>If we abolish the dream displacement, +we attain through analysis quite certain +conclusions regarding two problems of the +dream which are most disputed—as to what +provokes a dream at all, and as to the connection +of the dream with our waking life. +There are dreams which at once expose +their links with the events of the day; in +others no trace of such a connection can be +found. By the aid of analysis it can be +shown that every dream, without any exception, +is linked up with our impression of +<span class='pageno' id='Page_49'>49</span>the day, or perhaps it would be more correct +to say of the day previous to the dream. +The impressions which have incited the +dream may be so important that we are not +surprised at our being occupied with them +whilst awake; in this case we are right in +saying that the dream carries on the chief +interest of our waking life. More usually, +however, when the dream contains anything +relating to the impressions of the day, +it is so trivial, unimportant, and so deserving +of oblivion, that we can only recall it +with an effort. The dream content appears, +then, even when coherent and intelligible, +to be concerned with those indifferent +trifles of thought undeserving of our waking +interest. The depreciation of dreams is +largely due to the predominance of the indifferent +and the worthless in their content.</p> + +<p class='c010'>Analysis destroys the appearance upon +which this derogatory judgment is based. +When the dream content discloses nothing +but some indifferent impression as instigating +the dream, analysis ever indicates +<span class='pageno' id='Page_50'>50</span>some significant event, which has been replaced +by something indifferent with which +it has entered into abundant associations. +Where the dream is concerned with uninteresting +and unimportant conceptions, analysis +reveals the numerous associative paths +which connect the trivial with the momentous +in the psychical estimation of the individual. +<em>It is only the action of displacement +if what is indifferent obtains recognition in +the dream content instead of those impressions +which are really the stimulus, or instead of +the things of real interest.</em> In answering the +question as to what provokes the dream, as +to the connection of the dream, in the daily +troubles, we must say, in terms of the insight +given us by replacing the manifest +latent dream content: <em>The dream does never +trouble itself about things which are not deserving +of our concern during the day, and +trivialities which do not trouble us during +the day have no power to pursue us whilst +asleep.</em></p> + +<p class='c010'>What provoked the dream in the example +<span class='pageno' id='Page_51'>51</span>which we have analysed? The +really unimportant event, that a friend invited +me to a <em>free ride in his cab</em>. The +table d’hôte scene in the dream contains an +allusion to this indifferent motive, for in +conversation I had brought the taxi parallel +with the table d’hôte. But I can indicate +the important event which has as its substitute +the trivial one. A few days before I +had disbursed a large sum of money for a +member of my family who is very dear to +me. Small wonder, says the dream thought, +if this person is grateful to me for this—this +love is not cost-free. But love that shall +cost nothing is one of the prime thoughts +of the dream. The fact that shortly +before this I had had several <em>drives</em> with +the relative in question puts the one drive +with my friend in a position to recall the +connection with the other person. The indifferent +impression which, by such ramifications, +provokes the dream is subservient to +another condition which is not true of the +real source of the dream—the impression +<span class='pageno' id='Page_52'>52</span>must be a recent one, everything arising +from the day of the dream.</p> + +<p class='c010'>I cannot leave the question of dream displacement +without the consideration of a +remarkable process in the formation of +dreams in which condensation and displacement +work together towards one end. In +condensation we have already considered +the case where two conceptions in the +dream having something in common, some +point of contact, are replaced in the dream +content by a mixed image, where the distinct +germ corresponds to what is common, +and the indistinct secondary modifications +to what is distinctive. If displacement is +added to condensation, there is no formation +of a mixed image, but a <em>common mean</em> +which bears the same relationship to the +individual elements as does the resultant +in the parallelogram of forces to its components. +In one of my dreams, for instance, +there is talk of an injection with +<em>propyl</em>. On first analysis I discovered an +indifferent but true incident where <em>amyl</em> +<span class='pageno' id='Page_53'>53</span>played a part as the excitant of the dream. +I cannot yet vindicate the exchange of +amyl for propyl. To the round of ideas of +the same dream, however, there belongs the +recollection of my first visit to Munich, +when the <em>Propylæa</em> struck me. The attendant +circumstances of the analysis render +it admissible that the influence of this +second group of conceptions caused the displacement +of amyl to propyl. <em>Propyl</em> is, so +to say, the mean idea between <em>amyl</em> and +<em>propylæa</em>; it got into the dream as a kind +of <em>compromise</em> by simultaneous condensation +and displacement.</p> + +<p class='c010'>The need of discovering some motive for +this bewildering work of the dream is even +more called for in the case of displacement +than in condensation.</p> + +<div class='chapter'> + <span class='pageno' id='Page_54'>54</span> + <h2 class='c005'>VI.</h2> +</div> + +<p class='c009'>Although the work of displacement must +be held mainly responsible if the dream +thoughts are not refound or recognised in +the dream content (unless the motive of the +changes be guessed), it is another and milder +kind of transformation which will be considered +with the dream thoughts which +leads to the discovery of a new but readily +understood act of the dream work. The first +dream thoughts which are unravelled by +analysis frequently strike one by their unusual +wording. They do not appear to be +expressed in the sober form which our +thinking prefers; rather are they expressed +symbolically by allegories and metaphors +like the figurative language of the poets. It +is not difficult to find the motives for this +degree of constraint in the expression of +dream ideas. The dream content consists +<span class='pageno' id='Page_55'>55</span>chiefly of visual scenes; hence the dream +ideas must, in the first place, be prepared +to make use of these forms of presentation. +Conceive that a political leader’s +or a barrister’s address had to be transposed +into pantomime, and it will be +easy to understand the transformations to +which the dream work is constrained by +regard for this <em>dramatisation of the dream +content</em>.</p> + +<p class='c010'>Around the psychical stuff of dream +thoughts there are ever found reminiscences +of impressions, not infrequently of early +childhood—scenes which, as a rule, have +been visually grasped. Whenever possible, +this portion of the dream ideas exercises +a definite influence upon the modelling +of the dream content; it works like a centre +of crystallisation, by attracting and rearranging +the stuff of the dream thoughts. +The scene of the dream is not infrequently +nothing but a modified repetition, complicated +by interpolations of events that have +left such an impression; the dream but very +<span class='pageno' id='Page_56'>56</span>seldom reproduces accurate and unmixed +reproductions of real scenes.</p> + +<p class='c010'>The dream content does not, however, consist +exclusively of scenes, but it also includes +scattered fragments of visual images, conversations, +and even bits of unchanged +thoughts. It will be perhaps to the point +if we instance in the briefest way the means +of dramatisation which are at the disposal +of the dream work for the repetition of the +dream thoughts in the peculiar language of +the dream.</p> + +<p class='c010'>The dream thoughts which we learn from +the analysis exhibit themselves as a psychical +complex of the most complicated +superstructure. Their parts stand in the +most diverse relationship to each other; +they form backgrounds and foregrounds, +stipulations, digressions, illustrations, demonstrations, +and protestations. It may +be said to be almost the rule that one train +of thought is followed by its contradictory. +No feature known to our reason whilst +awake is absent. If a dream is to grow out +<span class='pageno' id='Page_57'>57</span>of all this, the psychical matter is submitted +to a pressure which condenses it extremely, +to an inner shrinking and displacement, +creating at the same time fresh surfaces, +to a selective interweaving among the +constituents best adapted for the construction +of these scenes. Having regard +to the origin of this stuff, the term <em>regression</em> +can be fairly applied to this process. The +logical chains which hitherto held the +psychical stuff together become lost in this +transformation to the dream content. The +dream work takes on, as it were, only the +essential content of the dream thoughts for +elaboration. It is left to analysis to restore +the connection which the dream work has +destroyed.</p> + +<p class='c010'>The dream’s means of expression must +therefore be regarded as meagre in comparison +with those of our imagination, +though the dream does not renounce all +claims to the restitution of logical relation +to the dream thoughts. It rather +succeeds with tolerable frequency in replacing +<span class='pageno' id='Page_58'>58</span>these by formal characters of +its own.</p> + +<p class='c010'>By reason of the undoubted connection +existing between all the parts of dream +thoughts, the dream is able to embody this +matter into a single scene. It upholds a +<em>logical connection</em> as <em>approximation in time +and space</em>, just as the painter, who groups +all the poets for his picture of Parnassus +who, though they have never been all together +on a mountain peak, yet form ideally +a community. The dream continues this +method of presentation in individual +dreams, and often when it displays two elements +close together in the dream content +it warrants some special inner connection +between what they represent in the dream +thoughts. It should be, moreover, observed +that all the dreams of one night +prove on analysis to originate from the +same sphere of thought.</p> + +<p class='c010'>The causal connection between two ideas +is either left without presentation, or replaced +by two different long portions of +<span class='pageno' id='Page_59'>59</span>dreams one after the other. This presentation +is frequently a reversed one, the beginning +of the dream being the deduction, +and its end the hypothesis. The direct +<em>transformation</em> of one thing into another in +the dream seems to serve the relationship +of <em>cause</em> and <em>effect</em>.</p> + +<p class='c010'>The dream never utters the <em>alternative</em> +“<em>either-or</em>,” but accepts both as having +equal rights in the same connection. When +“either-or” is used in the reproduction of +dreams, it is, as I have already mentioned, +to be replaced by “<em>and</em>.”</p> + +<p class='c010'>Conceptions which stand in opposition to +one another are preferably expressed in +dreams by the same element.<a id='r2'></a><a href='#f2' class='c013'><sup>[2]</sup></a> There +<span class='pageno' id='Page_60'>60</span>seems no “not” in dreams. Opposition +between two ideas, the relation of conversion, +is represented in dreams in a very +remarkable way. It is expressed by the +reversal of another part of the dream content +just as if by way of appendix. We +shall later on deal with another form of +expressing disagreement. The common +dream sensation of <em>movement checked</em> serves +the purpose of representing disagreement of +impulses—a <em>conflict of the will</em>.</p> + +<div class='footnote' id='f2'> +<p class='c010'><a href='#r2'>2</a>. It is worthy of remark that eminent philologists +maintain that the oldest languages used +the same word for expressing quite general antitheses. +In C. Abel’s essay, “<span lang="de">Ueber den Gegensinn +der Urworter</span>” (1884), the following examples +of such words in English are given: “gleam—gloom”; +“to lock—loch”; “down—The +Downs”; “to step—to stop.” In his essay on +“The Origin of Language” (“Linguistic Essays,” +p. 240), Abel says: “When the Englishman says +‘without,’ is not his judgment based upon the +comparative juxtaposition of two opposites, ‘with’ +and ‘out’; ‘with’ itself originally meant ‘without,’ +as may still be seen in ‘withdraw.’ ‘Bid’ includes +the opposite sense of giving and of proffering” +(Abel, “The English Verbs of Command,” “Linguistic +Essays,” p. 104; see also Freud, <span lang="de">“Ueber +den Gegensinn der Urworte”: <cite>Jahrbuch für Psychoanalytische +und Psychopathologische Forschungen</cite></span>, +Band ii., part i., p. 179).—<span class='sc'>Translator.</span></p> +</div> + +<p class='c010'>Only one of the logical relationships—that +of <em>similarity</em>, <em>identity</em>, <em>agreement</em>—is found +highly developed in the mechanism of +<span class='pageno' id='Page_61'>61</span>dream formation. Dream work makes use +of these cases as a starting-point for condensation, +drawing together everything which +shows such agreement to a <em>fresh unity</em>.</p> + +<p class='c010'>These short, crude observations naturally +do not suffice as an estimate of the abundance +of the dream’s formal means of presenting +the logical relationships of the +dream thoughts. In this respect, individual +dreams are worked up more nicely +or more carelessly, our text will have been +followed more or less closely, auxiliaries of +the dream work will have been taken more +or less into consideration. In the latter +case they appear obscure, intricate, incoherent. +When the dream appears openly +absurd, when it contains an obvious paradox +in its content, it is so of purpose. +Through its apparent disregard of all +logical claims, it expresses a part of the +intellectual content of the dream ideas. +Absurdity in the dream denotes <em>disagreement</em>, +<em>scorn</em>, <em>disdain</em> in the dream thoughts. +As this explanation is in entire disagreement +<span class='pageno' id='Page_62'>62</span>with the view that the dream owes its origin +to dissociated, uncritical cerebral activity, +I will emphasise my view by an example:</p> + +<p class='c010'>“<em>One of my acquaintances, Mr. M——, +has been attacked by no less a person than +Goethe in an essay with, we all maintain, +unwarrantable violence. Mr. M—— has +naturally been ruined by this attack. He +complains very bitterly of this at a dinner-party, +but his respect for Goethe has not +diminished through this personal experience. +I now attempt to clear up the chronological +relations which strike me as improbable. +Goethe died in 1832. As his attack upon +Mr. M—— must, of course, have taken place +before, Mr. M—— must have been then a +very young man. It seems to me plausible +that he was eighteen. I am not certain, however, +what year we are actually in, and the +whole calculation falls into obscurity. The +attack was, moreover, contained in Goethe’s +well-known essay on ‘Nature.’</em>”</p> + +<p class='c010'>The absurdity of the dream becomes the +more glaring when I state that Mr. M—— is +<span class='pageno' id='Page_63'>63</span>a young business man without any poetical +or literary interests. My analysis of the +dream will show what method there is in +this madness. The dream has derived its +material from three sources:</p> + +<p class='c010'>1. Mr. M——, to whom I was introduced +at a dinner-party, begged me one day to examine +his elder brother, who showed signs +of mental trouble. In conversation with +the patient, an unpleasant episode occurred. +Without the slightest occasion he +disclosed one of his brother’s <em>youthful escapades</em>. +I had asked the patient the <em>year of +his birth</em> (<em>year of death</em> in dream), and led him +to various calculations which might show +up his want of memory.</p> + +<p class='c010'>2. A medical journal which displayed my +name among others on the cover had published +a <em>ruinous</em> review of a book by my +friend F—— of Berlin, from the pen of a +very <em>juvenile</em> reviewer. I communicated +with the editor, who, indeed, expressed his +regret, but would not promise any redress. +Thereupon I broke off my connection with +<span class='pageno' id='Page_64'>64</span>the paper; in my letter of resignation I expressed +the hope that our <em>personal relations +would not suffer from this</em>. Here is the real +source of the dream. The derogatory reception +of my friend’s work had made a deep +impression upon me. In my judgment, it +contained a fundamental biological discovery +which only now, several years later, +commences to find favour among the professors.</p> + +<p class='c010'>3. A little while before, a patient gave +me the medical history of her brother, who, +exclaiming “<em>Nature, Nature!</em>” had gone +out of his mind. The doctors considered +that the exclamation arose from a study of +<em>Goethe’s</em> beautiful essay, and indicated that +the patient had been overworking. I expressed +the opinion that it seemed more +<em>plausible</em> to me that the exclamation +“Nature!” was to be taken in that sexual +meaning known also to the less educated in +our country. It seemed to me that this +view had something in it, because the unfortunate +youth afterwards mutilated his +<span class='pageno' id='Page_65'>65</span>genital organs. The patient was eighteen +years old when the attack occurred.</p> + +<p class='c010'>The first person in the dream thoughts behind +the ego was my friend who had been so +scandalously treated. “<em>I now attempted to +clear up the chronological relations.</em>” My +friend’s book deals with the chronological +relations of life, and, amongst other things, +correlates <em>Goethe’s</em> duration of life with +a number of days in many ways important +to biology. The ego is, however, +represented as a general paralytic (“<em>I am +not certain what year we are actually in</em>”). +The dream exhibits my friend as behaving +like a general paralytic, and thus riots in +absurdity. But the dream thoughts run +ironically. “Of course he is a madman, a +fool, and you are the genius who understands +all about it. But shouldn’t it be the +<em>other way round</em>?” This inversion obviously +took place in the dream when Goethe +attacked the young man, which is absurd, +whilst anyone, however young, can to-day +easily attack the great Goethe.</p> + +<p class='c010'><span class='pageno' id='Page_66'>66</span>I am prepared to maintain that no dream +is inspired by other than egoistic emotions. +The ego in the dream does not, indeed, represent +only my friend, but stands for myself +also. I identify myself with him because +the fate of his discovery appears to +me typical of the acceptance <em>of my own</em>. If +I were to publish my own theory, which +gives sexuality predominance in the ætiology +of psycho-neurotic disorders (see the +allusion to the eighteen-year-old patient—“<em>Nature, +Nature!</em>”), the same criticism +would be levelled at me, and it would even +now meet with the same contempt.</p> + +<p class='c010'>When I follow out the dream thoughts +closely, I ever find only <em>scorn</em> and <em>contempt</em> +as <em>correlated with the dream’s absurdity</em>. It +is well known that the discovery of a +cracked sheep’s skull on the Lido in Venice +gave Goethe the hint for the so-called vertebral +theory of the skull. My friend +plumes himself on having as a student +raised a hubbub for the resignation of an +aged professor who had done good work +<span class='pageno' id='Page_67'>67</span>(including some in this very subject of comparative +anatomy), but who, on account +of <em>decrepitude</em>, had become quite incapable of +teaching. The agitation my friend inspired +was so successful because in the German +Universities an <em>age limit</em> is not demanded +for academic work. <em>Age is no protection +against folly.</em> In the hospital here I had for +years the honour to serve under a chief who, +long fossilised, was for decades notoriously +<em>feeble-minded</em>, and was yet permitted to +continue in his responsible office. A trait, +after the manner of the find in the Lido, +forces itself upon me here. It was to this +man that some youthful colleagues in the +hospital adapted the then popular slang of +that day: “No Goethe has written that,” +“No Schiller composed that,” etc.</p> + +<div class='chapter'> + <span class='pageno' id='Page_68'>68</span> + <h2 class='c005'>VII.</h2> +</div> + +<p class='c009'>We have not exhausted our valuation of +the dream work. In addition to condensation, +displacement, and definite arrangement +of the psychical matter, we must +ascribe to it yet another activity—one +which is, indeed, not shared by every +dream. I shall not treat this position of +the dream work exhaustively; I will only +point out that the readiest way to arrive at +a conception of it is to take for granted, +probably unfairly, that it <em>only subsequently +influences the dream content which has already +been built up</em>. Its mode of action thus consists +in so co-ordinating the parts of the +dream that these coalesce to a coherent +whole, to a dream composition. The dream +gets a kind of façade which, it is true, does +not conceal the whole of its content. There +is a sort of preliminary explanation to be +<span class='pageno' id='Page_69'>69</span>strengthened by interpolations and slight +alterations. Such elaboration of the dream +content must not be too pronounced; the +misconception of the dream thoughts to +which it gives rise is merely superficial, and +our first piece of work in analysing a dream +is to get rid of these early attempts at interpretation.</p> + +<p class='c010'>The motives for this part of the dream +work are easily gauged. This final elaboration +of the dream is due to a <em>regard for intelligibility</em>—a +fact at once betraying the +origin of an action which behaves towards +the actual dream content just as our normal +psychical action behaves towards some +proffered perception that is to our liking. +The dream content is thus secured under the +pretence of certain expectations, is perceptually +classified by the supposition of its +intelligibility, thereby risking its falsification, +whilst, in fact, the most extraordinary +misconceptions arise if the dream can be +correlated with nothing familiar. Everyone +is aware that we are unable to look at +<span class='pageno' id='Page_70'>70</span>any series of unfamiliar signs, or to listen +to a discussion of unknown words, without +at once making perpetual changes through +<em>our regard for intelligibility</em>, through our +falling back upon what is familiar.</p> + +<p class='c010'>We can call those dreams <em>properly made +up</em> which are the result of an elaboration +in every way analogous to the psychical +action of our waking life. In other dreams +there is no such action; not even an attempt +is made to bring about order and meaning. +We regard the dream as “quite mad,” +because on awaking it is with this last-named +part of the dream work, the dream +elaboration, that we identify ourselves. So +far, however, as our analysis is concerned, +the dream, which resembles a medley of +disconnected fragments, is of as much value +as the one with a smooth and beautifully +polished surface. In the former case we +are spared, to some extent, the trouble of +breaking down the super-elaboration of the +dream content.</p> + +<p class='c010'>All the same, it would be an error to see +<span class='pageno' id='Page_71'>71</span>in the dream façade nothing but the misunderstood +and somewhat arbitrary elaboration +of the dream carried out at the instance +of our psychical life. Wishes and +phantasies are not infrequently employed in +the erection of this façade, which were +already fashioned in the dream thoughts; +they are akin to those of our waking life—“day-dreams,” +as they are very properly +called. These wishes and phantasies, which +analysis discloses in our dreams at night, +often present themselves as repetitions and +refashionings of the scenes of infancy. +Thus the dream façade may show us directly +the true core of the dream, distorted through +admixture with other matter.</p> + +<p class='c010'>Beyond these four activities there is +nothing else to be discovered in the dream +work. If we keep closely to the definition +that dream work denotes the transference +of dream thoughts to dream content, we +are compelled to say that the dream work +is not creative; it develops no fancies of its +own, it judges nothing, decides nothing. It +<span class='pageno' id='Page_72'>72</span>does nothing but prepare the matter for +condensation and displacement, and refashions +it for dramatisation, to which must be +added the inconstant last-named mechanism—that +of explanatory elaboration. It is +true that a good deal is found in the dream +content which might be understood as the +result of another and more intellectual performance; +but analysis shows conclusively +every time that these <em>intellectual operations +were already present in the dream thoughts, +and have only been taken over by the dream +content</em>. A syllogism in the dream is +nothing other than the repetition of a syllogism +in the dream thoughts; it seems inoffensive +if it has been transferred to the +dream without alteration; it becomes +absurd if in the dream work it has been +transferred to other matter. A calculation +in the dream content simply means that +there was a calculation in the dream +thoughts; whilst this is always correct, the +calculation in the dream can furnish the +silliest results by the condensation of its +<span class='pageno' id='Page_73'>73</span>factors and the displacement of the same +operations to other things. Even speeches +which are found in the dream content are +not new compositions; they prove to be +pieced together out of speeches which have +been made or heard or read; the words are +faithfully copied, but the occasion of their +utterance is quite overlooked, and their +meaning is most violently changed.</p> + +<p class='c010'>It is, perhaps, not superfluous to support +these assertions by examples:</p> + +<p class='c010'>1. <em>A seemingly inoffensive, well-made +dream of a patient. She was going to market +with her cook, who carried the basket. The +butcher said to her when she asked him for +something: “That is all gone,” and wished +to give her something else, remarking: +“That’s very good.” She declines, and goes +to the greengrocer, who wants to sell her a +peculiar vegetable which is bound up in +bundles and of a black colour. She says: +“I don’t know that; I won’t take it.”</em></p> + +<p class='c010'>The remark “That is all gone” arose +from the treatment. A few days before I +<span class='pageno' id='Page_74'>74</span>said myself to the patient that the earliest +reminiscences of childhood <em>are all gone</em> as +such, but are replaced by transferences and +dreams. Thus I am the butcher.</p> + +<p class='c010'>The second remark, “<em>I don’t know that</em>,” +arose in a very different connection. The +day before she had herself called out in +rebuke to the cook (who, moreover, also +appears in the dream): “<em>Behave yourself +properly</em>; I don’t know <em>that</em>”—that is, “I +don’t know this kind of behaviour; I won’t +have it.” The more harmless portion of +this speech was arrived at by a displacement +of the dream content; in the dream thoughts +only the other portion of the speech played +a part, because the dream work changed an +imaginary situation into utter irrecognisability +and complete inoffensiveness (while in +a certain sense I behave in an unseemly way +to the lady). The situation resulting in this +phantasy is, however, nothing but a new +edition of one that actually took place.</p> + +<p class='c010'>2. A dream apparently meaningless relates +to figures. “<em>She wants to pay something; +<span class='pageno' id='Page_75'>75</span>her daughter takes three florins sixty-five +kreuzers out of her purse; but she says: +‘What are you doing? It only costs twenty-one +kreuzers.’</em>”</p> + +<p class='c010'>The dreamer was a stranger who had +placed her child at school in Vienna, and +who was able to continue under my treatment +so long as her daughter remained at +Vienna. The day before the dream the +directress of the school had recommended +her to keep the child another year at school. +In this case she would have been able to +prolong her treatment by one year. The +figures in the dream become important if +it be remembered that time is money. +One year equals 365 days, or, expressed in +kreuzers, 365 kreuzers, which is three florins +sixty-five kreuzers. The twenty-one kreuzers +correspond with the three weeks which +remained from the day of the dream to the +end of the school term, and thus to the end +of the treatment. It was obviously financial +considerations which had moved the +lady to refuse the proposal of the directress, +<span class='pageno' id='Page_76'>76</span>and which were answerable for the triviality +of the amount in the dream.</p> + +<p class='c010'>3. A lady, young, but already ten years +married, heard that a friend of hers, Miss +Elise L——, of about the same age, had +become engaged. This gave rise to the +following dream:</p> + +<p class='c010'><em>She was sitting with her husband in the +theatre; the one side of the stalls was quite +empty. Her husband tells her, Elise L—— +and her fiancé had intended coming, but could +only get some cheap seats, three for one florin +fifty kreuzers, and these they would not take. +In her opinion, that would not have mattered +very much.</em></p> + +<p class='c010'>The origin of the figures from the matter +of the dream thoughts and the changes the +figures underwent are of interest. Whence +came the one florin fifty kreuzers? From +a trifling occurrence of the previous day. +Her sister-in-law had received 150 florins +as a present from her husband, and had +quickly got rid of it by buying some ornament. +Note that 150 florins is one hundred +<span class='pageno' id='Page_77'>77</span>times one florin fifty kreuzers. For the +<em>three</em> concerned with the tickets, the only +link is that Elise L—— is exactly three +months younger than the dreamer. The +scene in the dream is the repetition of a +little adventure for which she has often been +teased by her husband. She was once in +a great hurry to get tickets in time for a +piece, and when she came to the theatre +<em>one side of the stalls was almost empty</em>. It +was therefore quite unnecessary for her to +have been in <em>such a hurry</em>. Nor must we +overlook the absurdity of the dream that +two persons should take three tickets for +the theatre.</p> + +<p class='c010'>Now for the dream ideas. It was <em>stupid</em> +to have married so early; <em>I need not</em> have +been <em>in so great a hurry</em>. Elise L——’s example +shows me that I should have been +able to get a husband later; indeed, one a +<em>hundred times better</em> if I had but waited. I +could have bought <em>three</em> such men with the +money (dowry).</p> + +<div class='chapter'> + <span class='pageno' id='Page_78'>78</span> + <h2 class='c005'>VIII.</h2> +</div> + +<p class='c009'>In the foregoing exposition we have now +learnt something of the dream work; we +must regard it as a quite special psychical +process, which, so far as we are aware, resembles +nothing else. To the dream work +has been transferred that bewilderment +which its product, the dream, has aroused +in us. In truth, the dream work is only the +first recognition of a group of psychical processes +to which must be referred the origin +of hysterical symptoms, the ideas of morbid +dread, obsession, and illusion. Condensation, +and especially displacement, are never-failing +features in these other processes. +The regard for appearance remains, on the +other hand, peculiar to the dream work. +If this explanation brings the dream into +line with the formation of psychical disease, +it becomes the more important to fathom +<span class='pageno' id='Page_79'>79</span>the essential conditions of processes like +dream building. It will be probably a surprise +to hear that neither the state of sleep +nor illness is among the indispensable conditions. +A whole number of phenomena of +the everyday life of healthy persons, forgetfulness, +slips in speaking and in holding +things, together with a certain class of mistakes, +are due to a psychical mechanism +analogous to that of the dream and the other +members of this group.</p> + +<p class='c010'>Displacement is the core of the problem, +and the most striking of all the dream performances. +A thorough investigation of +the subject shows that the essential condition +of displacement is purely psychological; +it is in the nature of a motive. We get on +the track by thrashing out experiences +which one cannot avoid in the analysis of +dreams. I had to break off the relations +of my dream thoughts in the analysis of my +dream on p. <a href='#Page_11'>11</a> because I found some experiences +which I do not wish strangers to +know, and which I could not relate without +<span class='pageno' id='Page_80'>80</span>serious damage to important considerations. +I added, it would be no use were I to select +another instead of that particular dream; +in every dream where the content is obscure +or intricate, I should hit upon dream +thoughts which call for secrecy. If, however, +I continue the analysis for myself, +without regard to those others, for whom, +indeed, so personal an event as my dream +cannot matter, I arrive finally at ideas +which surprise me, which I have not known +to be mine, which not only appear <em>foreign</em> +to me, but which are <em>unpleasant</em>, and which +I would like to oppose vehemently, whilst +the chain of ideas running through the analysis +intrudes upon me inexorably. I can +only take these circumstances into account +by admitting that these thoughts are actually +part of my psychical life, possessing +a certain psychical intensity or energy. +However, by virtue of a particular psychological +condition, the <em>thoughts could not become +conscious to me</em>. I call this particular +condition “<em>Repression</em>.” It is therefore +<span class='pageno' id='Page_81'>81</span>impossible for me not to recognise some +causal relationship between the obscurity +of the dream content and this state of repression—this +<em>incapacity of consciousness</em>. +Whence I conclude that the cause of the +obscurity is <em>the desire to conceal these +thoughts</em>. Thus I arrive at the conception +of the <em>dream distortion</em> as the deed of the +dream work, and of <em>displacement</em> serving to +disguise this object.</p> + +<p class='c010'>I will test this in my own dream, and ask +myself, What is the thought which, quite +innocuous in its distorted form, provokes +my liveliest opposition in its real form? I +remember that the free drive reminded me +of the last expensive drive with a member +of my family, the interpretation of the +dream being: I should for once like to experience +affection for which I should not +have to pay, and that shortly before the +dream I had to make a heavy disbursement +for this very person. In this connection, +I cannot get away from the thought <em>that I +regret this disbursement</em>. It is only when I +<span class='pageno' id='Page_82'>82</span>acknowledge this feeling that there is any +sense in my wishing in the dream for an +affection that should entail no outlay. And +yet I can state on my honour that I did +not hesitate for a moment when it became +necessary to expend that sum. The regret, +the counter-current, was unconscious to me. +Why it was unconscious is quite another +question which would lead us far away +from the answer which, though within my +knowledge, belongs elsewhere.</p> + +<p class='c010'>If I subject the dream of another person +instead of one of my own to analysis, the +result is the same; the motives for convincing +others is, however, changed. In +the dream of a healthy person the only way +for me to enable him to accept this repressed +idea is the coherence of the dream +thoughts. He is at liberty to reject this +explanation. But if we are dealing with a +person suffering from any neurosis—say +from hysteria—the recognition of these repressed +ideas is compulsory by reason of +their connection with the symptoms of his +<span class='pageno' id='Page_83'>83</span>illness and of the improvement resulting +from exchanging the symptoms for the repressed +ideas. Take the patient from whom +I got the last dream about the three tickets +for one florin fifty kreuzers. Analysis shows +that she does not think highly of her +husband, that she regrets having married +him, that she would be glad to change him +for someone else. It is true that she maintains +that she loves her husband, that her +emotional life knows nothing about this +depreciation (a hundred times better!), but +all her symptoms lead to the same conclusion +as this dream. When her repressed +memories had rewakened a certain period +when she was conscious that she did not +love her husband, her symptoms disappeared, +and therewith disappeared her resistance +to the interpretation of the dream.</p> + +<div class='chapter'> + <span class='pageno' id='Page_84'>84</span> + <h2 class='c005'>IX.</h2> +</div> + +<p class='c009'>This conception of repression once fixed, together +with the distortion of the dream in +relation to repressed psychical matter, we +are in a position to give a general exposition +of the principal results which the analysis +of dreams supplies. We learnt that the +most intelligible and meaningful dreams +are unrealised desires; the desires they pictured +as realised are known to consciousness, +have been held over from the daytime, +and are of absorbing interest. The analysis +of obscure and intricate dreams discloses +something very similar; the dream scene +again pictures as realised some desire which +regularly proceeds from the dream ideas, +but the picture is unrecognisable, and is +only cleared up in the analysis. The desire +itself is either one repressed, foreign to +consciousness, or it is closely bound up with +<span class='pageno' id='Page_85'>85</span>repressed ideas. The formula for these +dreams may be thus stated: <em>They are concealed +realisations of repressed desires.</em> It is +interesting to note that they are right who +regard the dream as foretelling the future. +Although the future which the dream shows +us is not that which will occur, but that which +we would like to occur. Folk psychology +proceeds here according to its wont; it +believes what it wishes to believe.</p> + +<p class='c010'>Dreams can be divided into three classes +according to their relation towards the +realisation of desire. Firstly come those +which exhibit a <em>non-repressed, non-concealed +desire</em>; these are dreams of the infantile +type, becoming ever rarer among adults. +Secondly, dreams which express in <em>veiled</em> +form some <em>repressed desire</em>; these constitute +by far the larger number of our dreams, +and they require analysis for their understanding. +Thirdly, these dreams where +repression exists, but <em>without</em> or with but +slight concealment. These dreams are invariably +accompanied by a feeling of dread +<span class='pageno' id='Page_86'>86</span>which brings the dream to an end. This +feeling of dread here replaces dream displacement; +I regarded the dream work as +having prevented this in the dream of the +second class. It is not very difficult to +prove that what is now present as intense +dread in the dream was once desire, and is +now secondary to the repression.</p> + +<p class='c010'>There are also definite dreams with a +painful content, without the presence of +any anxiety in the dream. These cannot be +reckoned among dreams of dread; they +have, however, always been used to prove +the unimportance and the psychical futility +of dreams. An analysis of such an example +will show that it belongs to our second class +of dreams—a <em>perfectly concealed</em> realisation +of repressed desires. Analysis will demonstrate +at the same time how excellently +adapted is the work of displacement to the +concealment of desires.</p> + +<p class='c010'>A girl dreamt that she saw lying dead +before her the only surviving child of her +sister amid the same surroundings as a few +years before she saw the first child lying +<span class='pageno' id='Page_87'>87</span>dead. She was not sensible of any pain, +but naturally combated the view that the +scene represented a desire of hers. Nor +was that view necessary. Years ago it +was at the funeral of the child that she had +last seen and spoken to the man she loved. +Were the second child to die, she would be +sure to meet this man again in her sister’s +house. She is longing to meet him, but +struggles against this feeling. The day of +the dream she had taken a ticket for a +lecture, which announced the presence of +the man she always loved. The dream is +simply a dream of impatience common to +those which happen before a journey, +theatre, or simply anticipated pleasures. +The longing is concealed by the shifting of +the scene to the occasion when any joyous +feeling were out of place, and yet where it +did once exist. Note, further, that the +emotional behaviour in the dream is +adapted, not to the displaced, but to the +real but suppressed dream ideas. The scene +anticipates the long-hoped-for meeting; +there is here no call for painful emotions.</p> + +<div class='chapter'> + <span class='pageno' id='Page_88'>88</span> + <h2 class='c005'>X.</h2> +</div> + +<p class='c009'>There has hitherto been no occasion for +philosophers to bestir themselves with a +psychology of repression. We must be +allowed to construct some clear conception +as to the origin of dreams as the first steps +in this unknown territory. The scheme +which we have formulated not only from +a study of dreams is, it is true, already +somewhat complicated, but we cannot find +any simpler one that will suffice. We hold +that our psychical apparatus contains two +procedures for the construction of thoughts. +The second one has the advantage that its +products find an open path to consciousness, +whilst the activity of the first procedure is +unknown to itself, and can only arrive at +consciousness through the second one. At +the borderland of these two procedures, +where the first passes over into the second, +<span class='pageno' id='Page_89'>89</span>a censorship is established which only +passes what pleases it, keeping back everything +else. That which is rejected by the +censorship is, according to our definition, +in a state of repression. Under certain +conditions, one of which is the sleeping +state, the balance of power between the +two procedures is so changed that what is +repressed can no longer be kept back. In +the sleeping state this may possibly occur +through the negligence of the censor; what +has been hitherto repressed will now succeed +in finding its way to consciousness. But +as the censorship is never absent, but +merely off guard, certain alterations must +be conceded so as to placate it. It is a +compromise which becomes conscious in +this case—a compromise between what one +procedure has in view and the demands of +the other. <em>Repression</em>, <em>laxity of the censor</em>, +<em>compromise</em>—this is the foundation for the +origin of many another psychological process, +just as it is for the dream. In such +compromises we can observe the processes +<span class='pageno' id='Page_90'>90</span>of condensation, of displacement, the acceptance +of superficial associations, which +we have found in the dream work.</p> + +<p class='c010'>It is not for us to deny the demonic +element which has played a part in constructing +our explanation of dream work. +The impression left is that the formation +of obscure dreams proceeds as if a person +had something to say which must be disagreeable +for another person upon whom +he is dependent to hear. It is by the use +of this image that we figure to ourselves +the conception of the <em>dream distortion</em> and +of the censorship, and ventured to crystallise +our impression in a rather crude, but at +least definite, psychological theory. Whatever +explanation the future may offer of +these first and second procedures, we shall +expect a confirmation of our correlate that +the second procedure commands the entrance +to consciousness, and can exclude +the first from consciousness.</p> + +<p class='c010'>Once the sleeping state overcome, the +censorship resumes complete sway, and is +<span class='pageno' id='Page_91'>91</span>now able to revoke that which was granted +in a moment of weakness. That the <em>forgetting</em> +of dreams explains this in part, at +least, we are convinced by our experience, +confirmed again and again. During the +relation of a dream, or during analysis of +one, it not infrequently happens that some +fragment of the dream is suddenly forgotten. +This fragment so forgotten invariably +contains the best and readiest +approach to an understanding of the dream. +Probably that is why it sinks into oblivion—<em>i.e.</em>, +into a renewed suppression.</p> + +<div class='chapter'> + <span class='pageno' id='Page_92'>92</span> + <h2 class='c005'>XI.</h2> +</div> + +<p class='c009'>Viewing the dream content as the representation +of a realised desire, and referring +its vagueness to the changes made by the +censor in the repressed matter, it is no longer +difficult to grasp the function of dreams. +In fundamental contrast with those saws +which assume that sleep is disturbed by +dreams, we hold the <em>dream as the guardian +of sleep</em>. So far as children’s dreams are +concerned, our view should find ready +acceptance.</p> + +<p class='c010'>The sleeping state or the psychical change +to sleep, whatsoever it be, is brought about +by the child being sent to sleep or compelled +thereto by fatigue, only assisted by +the removal of all stimuli which might open +other objects to the psychical apparatus. +The means which serve to keep external +stimuli distant are known; but what are +<span class='pageno' id='Page_93'>93</span>the means we can employ to depress the +internal psychical stimuli which frustrate +sleep? Look at a mother getting her child +to sleep. The child is full of beseeching; +he wants another kiss; he wants to play +yet awhile. His requirements are in part +met, in part drastically put off till the +following day. Clearly these desires and +needs, which agitate him, are hindrances to +sleep. Everyone knows the charming story +of the bad boy (Baldwin Groller’s) who +awoke at night bellowing out, “<em>I want the +rhinoceros</em>.” A really good boy, instead of +bellowing, would have <em>dreamt</em> that he was +playing with the rhinoceros. Because the +dream which realises his desire is believed +during sleep, it removes the desire and +makes sleep possible. It cannot be denied +that this belief accords with the dream +image, because it is arrayed in the psychical +appearance of probability; the child is +without the capacity which it will acquire +later to distinguish hallucinations or phantasies +from reality.</p> + +<p class='c010'><span class='pageno' id='Page_94'>94</span>The adult has learnt this differentiation; +he has also learnt the futility of desire, and +by continuous practice manages to postpone +his aspirations, until they can be +granted in some roundabout method by a +change in the external world. For this +reason it is rare for him to have his wishes +realised during sleep in the short psychical +way. It is even possible that this never +happens, and that everything which appears +to us like a child’s dream demands a +much more elaborate explanation. Thus it +is that for adults—for every sane person +without exception—a differentiation of the +psychical matter has been fashioned which +the child knew not. A psychical procedure +has been reached which, informed by the +experience of life, exercises with jealous +power a dominating and restraining influence +upon psychical emotions; by its relation +to consciousness, and by its spontaneous +mobility, it is endowed with the +greatest means of psychical power. A +portion of the infantile emotions has been +<span class='pageno' id='Page_95'>95</span>withheld from this procedure as useless to +life, and all the thoughts which flow from +these are found in the state of repression.</p> + +<p class='c010'>Whilst the procedure in which we recognise +our normal ego reposes upon the desire +for sleep, it appears compelled by the +psycho-physiological conditions of sleep to +abandon some of the energy with which it +was wont during the day to keep down +what was repressed. This neglect is really +harmless; however much the emotions of +the child’s spirit may be stirred, they find +the approach to consciousness rendered +difficult, and that to movement blocked in +consequence of the state of sleep. The +danger of their disturbing sleep must, +however, be avoided. Moreover, we must +admit that even in deep sleep some amount +of free attention is exerted as a protection +against sense-stimuli which might, perchance, +make an awakening seem wiser +than the continuance of sleep. Otherwise +we could not explain the fact of our being +always awakened by stimuli of certain +<span class='pageno' id='Page_96'>96</span>quality. As the old physiologist Burdach +pointed out, the mother is awakened by +the whimpering of her child, the miller by +the cessation of his mill, most people by +gently calling out their names. This attention, +thus on the alert, makes use of the internal +stimuli arising from repressed desires, +and fuses them into the dream, which +as a compromise satisfies both procedures +at the same time. The dream creates a +form of psychical release for the wish which +is either suppressed or formed by the aid +of repression, inasmuch as it presents it as +realised. The other procedure is also satisfied, +since the continuance of the sleep is +assured. Our ego here gladly behaves like +a child; it makes the dream pictures believable, +saying, as it were, “Quite right, +but let me sleep.” The contempt which, +once awakened, we bear the dream, and +which rests upon the absurdity and apparent +illogicality of the dream, is probably +nothing but the reasoning of our sleeping +ego on the feelings about what was repressed; +<span class='pageno' id='Page_97'>97</span>with greater right it should rest +upon the incompetency of this disturber of +our sleep. In sleep we are now and then +aware of this contempt; the dream content +transcends the censorship rather too much, +we think, “It’s only a dream,” and sleep +on.</p> + +<p class='c010'>It is no objection to this view if there are +border-lines for the dream where its function, +to preserve sleep from interruption, +can no longer be maintained—as in the +dreams of impending dread. It is here +changed for another function—to suspend +the sleep at the proper time. It acts like +a conscientious night-watchman, who first +does his duty by quelling disturbances so +as not to waken the citizen, but equally +does his duty quite properly when he +awakens the street should the causes of the +trouble seem to him serious and himself +unable to cope with them alone.</p> + +<p class='c010'>This function of dreams becomes especially +well marked when there arises some +incentive for the sense perception. That +<span class='pageno' id='Page_98'>98</span>the senses aroused during sleep influence +the dream is well known, and can be experimentally +verified; it is one of the certain +but much overestimated results of the +medical investigation of dreams. Hitherto +there has been an insoluble riddle connected +with this discovery. The stimulus +to the sense by which the investigator +affects the sleeper is not properly recognised +in the dream, but is intermingled with a +number of indefinite interpretations, whose +determination appears left to psychical +free-will. There is, of course, no such +psychical free-will. To an external sense-stimulus +the sleeper can react in many +ways. Either he awakens or he succeeds +in sleeping on. In the latter case he can +make use of the dream to dismiss the external +stimulus, and this, again, in more +ways than one. For instance, he can stay +the stimulus by dreaming of a scene which +is absolutely intolerable to him. This was +the means used by one who was troubled +by a painful perineal abscess. He dreamt +<span class='pageno' id='Page_99'>99</span>that he was on horseback, and made use of +the poultice, which was intended to alleviate +his pain, as a saddle, and thus got away +from the cause of the trouble. Or, as is +more frequently the case, the external +stimulus undergoes a new rendering, which +leads him to connect it with a repressed +desire seeking its realisation, and robs him +of its reality, and is treated as if it were a +part of the psychical matter. Thus, someone +dreamt that he had written a comedy +which embodied a definite <em>motif</em>; it was +being performed; the first act was over +amid enthusiastic applause; there was great +clapping. At this moment the dreamer +must have succeeded in prolonging his sleep +despite the disturbance, for when he woke +he no longer heard the noise; he concluded +rightly that someone must have been beating +a carpet or bed. The dreams which +come with a loud noise just before waking +have all attempted to cover the stimulus +to waking by some other explanation, and +thus to prolong the sleep for a little while.</p> + +<div class='chapter'> + <span class='pageno' id='Page_100'>100</span> + <h2 class='c005'>XII.</h2> +</div> + +<p class='c009'>Whosoever has firmly accepted this <em>censorship</em> +as the chief motive for the distortion +of dreams will not be surprised to learn +as the result of dream interpretation that +most of the dreams of adults are traced by +analysis to erotic desires. This assertion +is not drawn from dreams obviously of a +sexual nature, which are known to all +dreamers from their own experience, and +are the only ones usually described as +“sexual dreams.” These dreams are ever +sufficiently mysterious by reason of the +choice of persons who are made the objects +of sex, the removal of all the barriers which +cry halt to the dreamer’s sexual needs in +his waking state, the many strange reminders +as to details of what are called +perversions. But analysis discovers that, in +many other dreams in whose manifest content +<span class='pageno' id='Page_101'>101</span>nothing erotic can be found, the work +of interpretation shows them up as, in +reality, realisation of sexual desires; whilst, +on the other hand, that much of the +thought-making when awake, the thoughts +saved us as surplus from the day only, +reaches presentation in dreams with the +help of repressed erotic desires.</p> + +<p class='c010'>Towards the explanation of this statement, +which is no theoretical postulate, it +must be remembered that no other class of +instincts has required so vast a suppression +at the behest of civilisation as the sexual, +whilst their mastery by the highest psychical +processes are in most persons soonest +of all relinquished. Since we have learnt +to understand <em>infantile sexuality</em>, often so +vague in its expression, so invariably overlooked +and misunderstood, we are justified +in saying that nearly every civilised +person has retained at some point or other +the infantile type of sex life; thus we +understand that repressed infantile sex +desires furnish the most frequent and most +<span class='pageno' id='Page_102'>102</span>powerful impulses for the formation of +dreams.<a id='r3'></a><a href='#f3' class='c013'><sup>[3]</sup></a></p> + +<div class='footnote' id='f3'> +<p class='c010'><a href='#r3'>3</a>. Freud, “Three Contributions to Sexual +Theory,” translated by A. A. Brill (<cite>Journal of +Nervous and Mental Disease</cite> Publishing Company, +New York).</p> +</div> + +<p class='c010'>If the dream, which is the expression of +some erotic desire, succeeds in making its +manifest content appear innocently asexual, +it is only possible in one way. The matter +of these sexual presentations cannot be +exhibited as such, but must be replaced by +allusions, suggestions, and similar indirect +means; differing from other cases of indirect +presentation, those used in dreams must +be deprived of direct understanding. The +means of presentation which answer these +requirements are commonly termed “symbols.” +A special interest has been directed +towards these, since it has been observed +that the dreamers of the same language use +the like symbols—indeed, that in certain +cases community of symbol is greater than +community of speech. Since the dreamers +<span class='pageno' id='Page_103'>103</span>do not themselves know the meaning of +the symbols they use, it remains a puzzle +whence arises their relationship with what +they replace and denote. The fact itself +is undoubted, and becomes of importance +for the technique of the interpretation of +dreams, since by the aid of a knowledge of +this symbolism it is possible to understand +the meaning of the elements of a dream, +or parts of a dream, occasionally even the +whole dream itself, without having to question +the dreamer as to his own ideas. We +thus come near to the popular idea of an +interpretation of dreams, and, on the other +hand, possess again the technique of the +ancients, among whom the interpretation of +dreams was identical with their explanation +through symbolism.</p> + +<p class='c010'>Though the study of dream symbolism +is far removed from finality, we now possess +a series of general statements and of particular +observations which are quite certain. +There are symbols which practically always +have the same meaning: Emperor and Empress +<span class='pageno' id='Page_104'>104</span>(King and Queen) always mean the +parents; room, a woman,<a id='r4'></a><a href='#f4' class='c013'><sup>[4]</sup></a> and so on. The +sexes are represented by a great variety of +symbols, many of which would be at first +quite incomprehensible had not the clues +to the meaning been often obtained through +other channels.</p> + +<div class='footnote' id='f4'> +<p class='c010'><a href='#r4'>4</a>. The words from “and” to “channels” in the +next sentence is a short summary of the passage +in the original. As this book will be read by +other than professional people the passage has +not been translated, in deference to English +opinion.—<span class='sc'>Translator.</span></p> +</div> + +<p class='c010'>There are symbols of universal circulation, +found in all dreamers, of one range of +speech and culture; there are others of the +narrowest individual significance which an +individual has built up out of his own +material. In the first class those can be +differentiated whose claim can be at once +recognised by the replacement of sexual +things in common speech (those, for instance, +arising from agriculture, as reproduction, +seed) from others whose sexual +<span class='pageno' id='Page_105'>105</span>references appear to reach back to the +earliest times and to the obscurest depths +of our image-building. The power of building +symbols in both these special forms of +symbols has not died out. Recently discovered +things, like the airship, are at once +brought into universal use as sex symbols.</p> + +<p class='c010'>It would be quite an error to suppose +that a profounder knowledge of dream +symbolism (the “Language of Dreams”) +would make us independent of questioning +the dreamer regarding his impressions about +the dream, and would give us back the whole +technique of ancient dream interpreters. +Apart from individual symbols and the +variations in the use of what is general, +one never knows whether an element in the +dream is to be understood symbolically or +in its proper meaning; the whole content of +the dream is certainly not to be interpreted +symbolically. The knowledge of dream +symbols will only help us in understanding +portions of the dream content, and does not +render the use of the technical rules previously +<span class='pageno' id='Page_106'>106</span>given at all superfluous. But it must +be of the greatest service in interpreting a +dream just when the impressions of the +dreamer are withheld or are insufficient.</p> + +<p class='c010'>Dream symbolism proves also indispensable +for understanding the so-called +“typical” dreams and the dreams that +“repeat themselves.” If the value of the +symbolism of dreams has been so incompletely +set out in this brief portrayal, this +attempt will be corrected by reference to +a point of view which is of the highest import +in this connection. Dream symbolism +leads us far beyond the dream; it does not +belong only to dreams, but is likewise +dominant in legend, myth, and saga, in wit +and in folklore. It compels us to pursue +the inner meaning of the dream in these +productions. But we must acknowledge +that symbolism is not a result of the dream +work, but is a peculiarity probably of our +unconscious thinking, which furnishes to +the dream work the matter for condensation, +displacement, and dramatisation.</p> + +<div class='chapter'> + <span class='pageno' id='Page_107'>107</span> + <h2 class='c005'>XIII.</h2> +</div> + +<p class='c009'>I disclaim all pretension to have thrown +light here upon all the problems of the +dream, or to have dealt convincingly with +everything here touched upon. If anyone +is interested in the whole of dream literature, +I refer him to the works of Sante +de Sanctis (I sogni, Turin, 1899). For a +more complete investigation of my conception +of the dream, my work should be consulted: +“Die Traumdeutung,” Leipzig and +Vienna, third edition, 1911.<a id='r5'></a><a href='#f5' class='c013'><sup>[5]</sup></a> I will only +point out in what direction my exposition +on dream work should be followed up.</p> + +<div class='footnote' id='f5'> +<p class='c010'><a href='#r5'>5</a>. Freud, “The Interpretation of Dreams,” third +edition, translated by A. A. Brill. London: +George Allen and Company, Ltd.</p> +</div> + +<p class='c010'>If I posit as the problem of dream interpretation +the replacement of the dream by +its latent ideas—that is, the resolution of +<span class='pageno' id='Page_108'>108</span>that which the dream work has woven—I +raise a series of new psychological problems +which refer to the mechanism of this +dream work as well as to the nature and +the conditions of this so-called repression. +On the other hand, I claim the existence +of dream thoughts as a very valuable +foundation for psychical construction of the +highest order, provided with all the signs +of normal intellectual performance. This +matter is, however, removed from consciousness +until it is rendered in the distorted +form of the dream content. I am compelled +to believe that all persons have such +ideas, since nearly all, even the most +normal, can have dreams. To the unconsciousness +of dream ideas, or their relationship +to consciousness and to repression, are +linked questions of the greatest psychological +importance. Their solution must +be postponed until the analysis of the +origin of other psychopathic growths, such +as the symptoms of hysteria and of obsessions, +has been made clear.</p> + +<div class='chapter'> + <span class='pageno' id='Page_109'>109</span> + <h2 class='c005'>LITERATURE</h2> +</div> +<p class='c014'>For a completer study of Dream Symbolism, consult +the work of Artemidorus Daldianus: The +Interpretation of Dreams. Rendered into English by +“R. W.”—<em>i.e.</em>, Robert Wood. The fourth edition, +newly written. B. L., London, 1644. The last +edition was published in 1786.</p> + +<p class='c015'><span class='sc'>Scherner, R. A.</span> Das Leben des Traumes. Berlin, +1861.</p> + +<p class='c015'><span class='sc'>Freud.</span> The Interpretation of Dreams.</p> + +<p class='c010'>For the symbolism of legend, myth, and saga compared +with dreams, see—</p> + +<p class='c015'><span class='sc'>Abraham, Karl.</span> Traum und Mythus.</p> + +<p class='c015'><span class='sc'>Rank, Otto.</span> Der Mythus von der Geburt des +Helden.</p> + +<p class='c015'><span class='sc'>Riklin, F.</span> Wunscherfüllung und Symbolik im Märchen.</p> + +<p class='c010'>These three works are published by Franz Deuticke, +Vienna.</p> + +<p class='c010'>English translations are ready, or are in preparation.</p> + +<p class='c010'><span class='pageno' id='Page_110'>110</span>Recent literature will be found in—</p> + +<p class='c015'>Jahrbuch für Psychoanalytische und Psychopathologische +Forschungen: Franz Deuticke.</p> + +<p class='c015'>Internationale Zeitschrift für Ärztliche Psychoanalyse; +and Imago (both published by Hugo +Heller and Co., Vienna).</p> + +<div class='nf-center-c0'> +<div class='nf-center c002'> + <div><span class='small'>BILLING AND SONS, LTD., PRINTERS, GUILDFORD</span></div> + </div> +</div> + +<div class='pbb'> + <hr class='pb c003'> +</div> +<div class='tnotes x-ebookmaker'> + +<div class='chapter ph2'> + +<div class='nf-center-c0'> +<div class='nf-center c004'> + <div>TRANSCRIBER’S NOTES</div> + </div> +</div> + +</div> + + <ul class='ul_1 c002'> + <li>Typos fixed; non-standard spelling and dialect retained. + </li> + </ul> + +</div> + +<div style='text-align:center'>*** END OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK 75333 ***</div> + </body> + <!-- created with ppgen.py 3.57e on 2025-01-20 06:11:24 GMT --> +</html> + diff --git a/75333-h/images/cover.jpg b/75333-h/images/cover.jpg Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..931f1ea --- /dev/null +++ b/75333-h/images/cover.jpg diff --git a/75333-h/images/i_title.jpg b/75333-h/images/i_title.jpg Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..b51cb4d --- /dev/null +++ b/75333-h/images/i_title.jpg diff --git a/LICENSE.txt b/LICENSE.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..6312041 --- /dev/null +++ b/LICENSE.txt @@ -0,0 +1,11 @@ +This eBook, including all associated images, markup, improvements, +metadata, and any other content or labor, has been confirmed to be +in the PUBLIC DOMAIN IN THE UNITED STATES. + +Procedures for determining public domain status are described in +the "Copyright How-To" at https://www.gutenberg.org. + +No investigation has been made concerning possible copyrights in +jurisdictions other than the United States. 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