The Interpretation of Dreams


Sigmund Freud (1900)









Sigmund Freud



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The Interpretation of Dreams - Sigmund Freud

Contents - Click on the Links Below



Preface
Chapter 1 (part 1) The Scientific Literature of


Dream-Problems (up to 1900)
Chapter1 (part 2)


Chapter 2 The Method of Dream Interpretation
Chapter 3 The Dream as Wish Fulfilment


Chapter 4 Distortion in Dreams
Chapter 5 (part 1) The Material and Sources of


Dreams
Chapter 5 (part 2)


Chapter 6 (part 1) The Dream-Work



Chapter 6 (part 2)
Chapter 6 (part 3)
Chapter 6 (part 4)


Chapter 7 (part 1) The Psychology of the

Dream Process



Chapter 7 (part 2)

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PREFACE TO THE THIRD EDITION


Wheras there was a space of nine years
between the first and second editions of this book,


the need of a third edition was apparent when little
more than a year had elapsed. I ought to be


gratified by this change; but if I was unwilling
previously to attribute the neglect of my work to its


small value, I cannot take the interest which is now
making its appearance as proof of its quality.


The advance of scientific knowledge has not
left The Interpretation of Dreams untouched. When I


wrote this book in 1899 there was as yet no "sexual



theory," and the analysis of the more complicated

forms of the psychoneuroses was still in its infancy.


The interpretation of dreams was intended as an

expedient to facilitate the psychological analysis of


the neuroses; but since then a profounder

understanding of the neuroses has contributed
towards the comprehension of the dream. The



doctrine of dream-interpretation itself has evolved in

a direction which was insufficiently emphasized in

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the first edition of this book. From my own

experience, and the works of Stekel and other


writers, [1] I have since learned to appreciate more


accurately the significance of symbolism in dreams
(or rather, in unconscious thought). In the course of


years, a mass of data has accumulated which
demands consideration. I have endeavored to deal


with these innovations by interpolations in the text
and footnotes. If these additions do not always quite


adjust themselves to the framework of the treatise,
or if the earlier text does not everywhere come up to


the standard of our present knowledge, I must beg

indulgence for this deficiency, since it is only the


result and indication of the increasingly rapid



advance of our science. I will even venture to

predict the directions in which further editions of this


book- should there be a demand for them- may

diverge from previous editions. Dream-
interpretation must seek a closer union with the rich



material of poetry, myth, and popular idiom, and it

must deal more faithfully than has hitherto been

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possible with the relations of dreams to the neuroses

and to mental derangement.


Herr Otto Rank has afforded me valuable


assistance in the selection of supplementary
examples, and has revised the proofs of this edition.


I have to thank him and many other colleagues for
their contributions and corrections.


Vienna, 1911 -
[1] Omitted in subsequent editions.









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PREFACE TO THE SECOND EDITION

That there should have been a demand for a


second edition of this book--a book which cannot be


described as easy to read--before the completion of
its first decade is not to be explained by the interest


of the professional circles to which I was addressing
myself. My psychiatric colleagues have not,


apparently, attempted to look beyond the
astonishment which may at first have been aroused


by my novel conception of the dream; and the
professional philosophers, who are anyhow


accustomed to disposing of the dream in a few

sentences- mostly the same- as a supplement to the


states of consciousness, have evidently failed to



realize that precisely in this connection it was

possible to make all manner of deductions, such as


must lead to a fundamental modification of our

psychological doctrines. The attitude of the scientific
reviewers was such to lead me to expect that the



fate of the book would be to fall into oblivion; and

the little flock of faithful adherents, who follow my

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lead in the therapeutic application of psycho-

analysis, and interpret dreams by my method, could


not have exhausted the first edition of this book. I


feel, therefore, that my thanks are due to the wider
circle of cultured and inquiring readers whose


sympathy has induced me, after the lapse of nine
years, once more to take up this difficult work,


which has so many fundamental bearings.
I am glad to be able to say that I found


little in the book that called for alteration. Here and
there I have interpolated fresh material, or have


added opinions based on more extensive experience,

or I have sought to elaborate individual points; but


the essential passages treating of dreams and their



interpretation, and the psychological doctrines to be

deduced therefrom, have been left unaltered;


subjectively, at all events, they have stood the test

of time. Those who are acquainted with my other
writings (on the aetiology and mechanism of the



psychoneuroses) will know that I never offer

unfinished work as finished, and that I have always

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endeavoured to revise my conclusions in accordance

with my maturing opinions; but as regards the


subject of the dream-life, I am able to stand by my


original text. In my many years' work upon the
problems of the neuroses I have often hesitated,


and I have often gone astray; and then it was
always the interpretation of dreams that restored


my self-confidence. My many scientific opponents
are actuated by a wise instinct when they decline to


follow me into the region of oneirology.
Even the material of this book, even my


own dreams, defaced by time or superseded, by

means of which I have demonstrated the rules of


dream-interpretation, revealed, when I came to



revise these pages, a continuity that resisted

revision. For me, of course, this book has an


additional subjective significance, which I did not

understand until after its completion. It reveals itself
to me as a piece of my self-analysis, as my reaction



to the death of my father, that is, to the most

important event, the most poignant loss in a man's

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life. Once I had realized this, I felt that I could not

obliterate the traces of this influence. But to my


readers the material from which they learn to


evaluate and interpret dreams will be a matter of
indifference.


Where an inevitable comment could not be
fitted into the old context, I have indicated by


square brackets that it does not occur in the first
edition.[2]


Berchtesgaden, 1908 -
[2] Omitted in subsequent editions.







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INTRODUCTORY NOTE (to the first

edition)


In this volume I have attempted to expound


the methods and results of dream-interpretation;
and in so doing I do not think I have overstepped


the boundary of neuro-pathological science. For the
dream proves on psychological investigation to be


the first of a series of abnormal psychic formations,
a series whose succeeding members- the hysterical


phobias, the obsessions, the delusions- must, for
practical reasons, claim the attention of the


physician. The dream, as we shall see, has no title

to such practical importance, but for that very


reason its theoretical value as a typical formation is



all the greater, and the physician who cannot

explain the origin of dream-images will strive in vain


to understand the phobias and the obsessive and

delusional ideas, or to influence them by therapeutic
methods.



But the very context to which our subject

owes its importance must be held responsible for the

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deficiencies of the following chapters. The abundant

lacunae in this exposition represent so many points


of contact at which the problem of dream-formation


is linked up with the more comprehensive problems
of psycho- pathology; problems which cannot be


treated in these pages, but which, if time and
powers suffice and if further material presents itself,


may be elaborated elsewhere.
The peculiar nature of the material


employed to exemplify the interpretation of dreams
has made the writing even of this treatise a difficult


task. Consideration of the methods of dream-

interpretation will show why the dreams recorded in


the literature on the subject, or those collected by



persons unknown to me, were useless for my

purpose; I had only the choice between my own


dreams and those of the patients whom I was

treating by psychoanalytic methods. But this later
material was inadmissible, since the dream-



processes were undesirably complicated by the

intervention of neurotic characters. And if I relate

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my own dreams I must inevitably reveal to the gaze

of strangers more of the intimacies of my psychic


life than is agreeable to me, and more than seems


fitting in a writer who is not a poet but a scientific
investigator. To do so is painful, but unavoidable; I


have submitted to the necessity, for otherwise I
could not have demonstrated my psychological


conclusions. Sometimes, of course, I could not resist
the temptation to mitigate my indiscretions by


omissions and substitutions; but wherever I have
done so the value of the example cited has been


very definitely diminished. I can only express the

hope that my readers will understand my difficult


position, and will be indulgent; and further, that all



those persons who are in any way concerned in the

dreams recorded will not seek to forbid our dream-


life at all events to exercise freedom of thought!



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CHAPTER 1 (Part 1)
THE SCIENTIFIC LITERATURE OF


DREAM-PROBLEMS (UP TO 1900)


In the following pages I shall demonstrate
that there is a psychological technique which makes


it possible to interpret dreams, and that on the
application of this technique every dream will reveal


itself as a psychological structure, full of
significance, and one which may be assigned to a


specific place in the psychic activities of the waking
state. Further, I shall endeavour to elucidate the


processes which underlie the strangeness and

obscurity of dreams, and to deduce from these


processes the nature of the psychic forces whose



conflict or cooperation is responsible for our dreams.

This done, my investigation will terminate, as it will


have reached the point where the problem of the

dream merges into more comprehensive problems,
and to solve these we must have recourse to



material of a different kind.

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I shall begin by giving a short account of the

views of earlier writers on this subject, and of the


status of the dream-problem in contemporary


science; since in the course of this treatise I shall
not often have occasion to refer to either. In spite of


thousands of years of endeavour, little progress has
been made in the scientific understanding of


dreams. This fact has been so universally
acknowledged by previous writers on the subject


that it seems hardly necessary to quote individual
opinions. The reader will find, in the works listed at


the end of this work, many stimulating observations,

and plenty of interesting material relating to our


subject, but little or nothing that concerns the true



nature of the dream, or that solves definitely any of

its enigmas. The educated layman, of course, knows


even less of the matter.

The conception of the dream that was held
in prehistoric ages by primitive peoples, and the



influence which it may have exerted on the

formation of their conceptions of the universe, and

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of the soul, is a theme of such great interest that it

is only with reluctance that I refrain from dealing


with it in these pages. I will refer the reader to the


well-known works of Sir John Lubbock (Lord
Avebury), Herbert Spencer, E. B. Tylor, and other


writers; I will only add that we shall not realize the
importance of these problems and speculations until


we have completed the task of dream- interpretation
that lies before us.


A reminiscence of the concept of the dream
that was held in primitive times seems to underlie


the evaluation of the dream which was current

among the peoples of classical antiquity.[1] They


took it for granted that dreams were related to the



world of the supernatural beings in whom they

believed, and that they brought inspirations from


the gods and demons. Moreover, it appeared to

them that dreams must serve a special purpose in
respect of the dreamer; that, as a rule, they



predicted the future. The extraordinary variations in

the content of dreams, and in the impressions which

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they produced on the dreamer, made it, of course,

very difficult to formulate a coherent conception of


them, and necessitated manifold differentiations and


group-formations, according to their value and
reliability. The valuation of dreams by the individual


philosophers of antiquity naturally depended on the
importance which they were prepared to attribute to


manticism in general.
In the two works of Aristotle in which there


is mention of dreams, they are already regarded as
constituting a problem of psychology. We are told


that the dream is not god-sent, that it is not of

divine but of demonic origin. For nature is really


demonic, not divine; that is to say, the dream is not



a supernatural revelation, but is subject to the laws

of the human spirit, which has, of course, a kinship


with the divine. The dream is defined as the psychic

activity of the sleeper, inasmuch as he is asleep.
Aristotle was acquainted with some of the



characteristics of the dream-life; for example, he

knew that a dream converts the slight sensations

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perceived in sleep into intense sensations ("one

imagines that one is walking through fire, and feels


hot, if this or that part of the body becomes only


quite slightly warm"), which led him to conclude that
dreams might easily betray to the physician the first


indications of an incipient physical change which
escaped observation during the day.[2]


As has been said, those writers of antiquity
who preceded Aristotle did not regard the dream as


a product of the dreaming psyche, but as an
inspiration of divine origin, and in ancient times the


two opposing tendencies which we shall find

throughout the ages in respect of the evaluation of


the dream- life were already perceptible. The



ancients distinguished between the true and

valuable dreams which were sent to the dreamer as


warnings, or to foretell future events, and the vain,

fraudulent, and empty dreams whose object was to
misguide him or lead him to destruction.



Gruppe[3] speaks of such a classification of

dreams, citing Macrobius and Artemidorus: "Dreams

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were divided into two classes; the first class was

believed to be influenced only by the present (or the


past), and was unimportant in respect of the future;


it included the enuknia (insomnia), which directly
reproduce a given idea or its opposite; e.g., hunger


or its satiation; and the phantasmata, which
elaborate the given idea phantastically, as e.g. the


nightmare, ephialtes. The second class of dreams,
on the other hand, was determinative of the future.


To this belonged:
1. Direct prophecies received in the dream


(chrematismos, oraculum);
2. the foretelling of a future event (orama,


visio);


3. the symbolic dream, which requires

interpretation (oneiros, somnium.)


This theory survived for many centuries."

Connected with these varying estimations of
the dream was the problem of "dream-



interpretation." Dreams in general were expected to

yield important solutions, but not every dream was

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immediately understood, and it was impossible to be

sure that a certain incomprehensible dream did not


really foretell something of importance, so that an


effort was made to replace the incomprehensible
content of the dream by something that should be at


once comprehensible and significant. In later
antiquity Artemidorus of Daldis was regarded as the


greatest authority on dream-interpretation. His
comprehensive works must serve to compensate us


for the lost works of a similar nature[4] The pre-
scientific conception of the dream which obtained


among the ancients was, of course, in perfect

keeping with their general conception of the


universe, which was accustomed to project as an



external reality that which possessed reality only in

the life of the psyche. Further, it accounted for the


main impression made upon the waking life by the

morning memory of the dream; for in this memory
the dream, as compared with the rest of the psychic



content, seems to be something alien, coming, as it

were, from another world. It would be an error to

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suppose that theory of the supernatural origin of

dreams lacks followers even in our own times; for


quite apart from pietistic and mystical writers- who


cling, as they are perfectly justified in doing, to the
remnants of the once predominant realm of the


supernatural until these remnants have been swept
away by scientific explanation- we not infrequently


find that quite intelligent persons, who in other
respects are averse from anything of a romantic


nature, go so far as to base their religious belief in
the existence and co-operation of superhuman


spiritual powers on the inexplicable nature of the

phenomena of dreams (Haffner). The validity


ascribed to the dream-life by certain schools of



philosophy- for example, by the school of Schelling-

is a distinct reminiscence of the undisputed belief in


the divinity of dreams which prevailed in antiquity;

and for some thinkers the mantic or prophetic power
of dreams is still a subject of debate. This is due to



the fact that the explanations attempted by

psychology are too inadequate to cope with the

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accumulated material, however strongly the

scientific thinker may feel that such superstitious


doctrines should be repudiated.


To write strongly the history of our scientific
knowledge of the dream- problem is extremely


difficult, because, valuable though this knowledge
may be in certain respects, no real progress in a


definite direction is as yet discernible. No real
foundation of verified results has hitherto been


established on which future investigators might
continue to build. Every new author approaches the


same problems afresh, and from the very beginning.

If I were to enumerate such authors in chronological


order, giving a survey of the opinions which each



has held concerning the problems of the dream, I

should be quite unable to draw a clear and complete


picture of the present state of our knowledge on the

subject. I have therefore preferred to base my
method of treatment on themes rather than on



authors, and in attempting the solution of each

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problem of the dream I shall cite the material found

in the literature of the subject.


But as I have not succeeded in mastering


the whole of this literature- for it is widely dispersed,
and interwoven with the literature of other subjects-


I must ask my readers to rest content with my
survey as it stands, provided that no fundamental


fact or important point of view has been overlooked.
Until recently most authors have been


inclined to deal with the subjects of sleep and
dreams in conjunction, and together with these they


have commonly dealt with analogous conditions of a

psycho-pathological nature, and other dream-like


phenomena, such as hallucinations, visions, etc. In



recent works, on the other hand, there has been a

tendency to keep more closely to the theme, and to


consider, as a special subject, the separate problems

of the dream-life. In this change I should like to
perceive an expression of the growing conviction



that enlightenment and agreement in such obscure

matters may be attained only by a series of detailed

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investigations. Such a detailed investigation, and

one of a special psychological nature, is expounded


in these pages. I have had little occasion to concern


myself with the problem of sleep, as this is
essentially a physiological problem, although the


changes in the functional determination of the
psychic apparatus should be included in a


description of the sleeping state. The literature of
sleep will therefore not be considered here.


A scientific interest in the phenomena of
dreams as such leads us to propound the following


problems, which to a certain extent, interdependent,

merge into one another.


A. The Relation of the Dream to the



Waking State
The naive judgment of the dreamer on


waking assumes that the dream- even if it does not

come from another world- has at all events
transported the dreamer into another world. The old



physiologist, Burdach, to whom we are indebted for

a careful and discriminating description of the

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phenomena of dreams, expressed this conviction in

a frequently quoted passage (p. 474): "The waking


life, with its trials and joys, its pleasures and pains,


is never repeated; on the contrary, the dream aims
at relieving us of these. Even when our whole mind


is filled with one subject, when our hearts are rent
by bitter grief, or when some task has been taxing


our mental capacity to the utmost, the dream either
gives us something entirely alien, or it selects for its


combinations only a few elements of reality; or it
merely enters into the key of our mood, and


symbolizes reality." J. H. Fichte (I. 541) speaks in

precisely the same sense of supplementary dreams,


calling them one of the secret, self-healing benefits



of the psyche. L. Strumpell expresses himself to the

same effect in his Natur und Entstehung der


Traume, a study which is deservedly held in high

esteem. "He who dreams turns his back upon the
world of waking consciousness" (p. 16); "In the



dream the memory of the orderly content of waking

consciousness and its normal behaviour is almost

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entirely lost" (p. 17); "The almost complete and

unencumbered isolation of the psyche in the dream


from the regular normal content and course of the


waking state..." (p. 19).
Yet the overwhelming majority of writers on


the subject have adopted the contrary view of the
relation of the dream to waking life. Thus Haffner (p.


19): "To begin with, the dream continues the waking
life. Our dreams always connect themselves with


such ideas as have shortly before been present in
our consciousness. Careful examination will nearly


always detect a thread by which the dream has

linked itself to the experiences of the previous day."


Weygandt (p. 6) flatly contradicts the statement of



Burdach. "For it may often be observed, apparently

indeed in the great majority of dreams, that they


lead us directly back into everyday life, instead of

releasing us from it." Maury (p. 56) expresses the
same idea in a concise formula: "Nous revons de ce



que nous avons vu, dit, desire, ou fait."[5] Jessen,

in his Psychologie, published in 1855 (p. 530), is

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rather more explicit: "The content of dreams is

always more or less determined by the personality,


the age, sex, station in life, education and habits,


and by the events and experiences of the whole past
life of the individual."


The philosopher, I. G. E. Maas, adopts the
most unequivocal attitude in respect of this question


(Uber die Leidenschaften, 1805): "Experience
corroborates our assertion that we dream most


frequently of those things toward which our warmest
passions are directed. This shows us that our


passions must influence the generation of our

dreams. The ambitious man dreams of the laurels


which he has won (perhaps only in imagination), or



has still to win, while the lover occupies himself, in

his dreams, with the object of his dearest hopes....


All the sensual desires and loathings which slumber

in the heart, if they are stimulated by any cause,
may combine with other ideas and give rise to a



dream; or these ideas may mingle in an already

existing dream."[6]

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The ancients entertained the same idea

concerning the dependence of the dream-content on


life. I will quote Radestock (p. 139): "When Xerxes,


before his expedition against Greece, was dissuaded
from his resolution by good counsel, but was again


and again incited by dreams to undertake it, one of
the old, rational dream-interpreters of the Persians,


Artabanus, told him, and very appropriately, that
dream-images for the most part contain that of


which one has been thinking in the waking state."
In the didactic poem of Lucretius, On the


Nature of Things (IV. 962), there occurs this

passage:


"Et quo quisque fere studio devinctus



adhaeret, aut quibus in rebus multum sumus ante

morati atque in ea ratione fuit contenta magis mens,


in somnis eadem plerumque videmur obire; causidici

causas agere et componere leges, induperatores
pugnare ac proelia obire,"... etc., etc.[7] Cicero (De



Divinatione, II. LXVII) says, in a similar strain, as

does also Maury many centuries later: "Maximeque

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'reliquiae' rerum earum moventur in animis et

agitantur, de quibus vigilantes aut cogitavimus aut


egimus."[8]


The contradiction between these two views
concerning the relation between dream life and


waking life seems indeed irresolvable. Here we may
usefully cite the opinion of F. W. Hildebrandt (1875),


who held that on the whole the peculiarities of the
dream can only be described as "a series of


contrasts which apparently amount to
contradictions" (p. 8). "The first of these contrasts is


formed by the strict isolation or seclusion of the

dream from true and actual life on the one hand,


and on the other hand by the continuous



encroachment of the one upon the other, and the

constant dependence of the one upon the other. The


dream is something absolutely divorced from the

reality experienced during the waking state; one
may call it an existence hermetically sealed up and



insulated from real life by an unbridgeable chasm. It

frees us from reality, blots out the normal

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recollection of reality, and sets us in another world

and a totally different life, which fundamentally has


nothing in common with real life...." Hildebrandt


then asserts that in falling asleep our whole being,
with its forms of existence, disappears "as through


an invisible trapdoor." In one's dream one is
perhaps making a voyage to St. Helena in order to


offer the imprisoned Napoleon an exquisite vintage
of Moselle. One is most affably received by the ex-


emperor, and one feels almost sorry when, on
waking, the interesting illusion is destroyed. But let


us now compare the situation existing in the dream

with the actual reality. The dreamer has never been


a wine-merchant, and has no desire to become one.



He has never made a sea-voyage, and St. Helena is

the last place in the world that he would choose as


the destination of such a voyage. The dreamer feels

no sympathy for Napoleon, but on the contrary a
strong patriotic aversion. And lastly, the dreamer



was not yet among the living when Napoleon died on

the island of St. Helena; so that it was beyond the

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realms of possibility that he should have had any

personal relations with Napoleon. The dream-


experience thus appears as something entirely


foreign, interpolated between two mutually related
and successive periods of time.


"Nevertheless," continues Hildebrandt, "the
apparent contrary is just as true and correct. I


believe that side by side with this seclusion and
insulation there may still exist the most intimate


interrelation. We may therefore justly say: Whatever
the dream may offer us, it derives its material from


reality, and from the psychic life centered upon this

reality. However extraordinary the dream may


seem, it can never detach itself from the real world,



and its most sublime as well as its most ridiculous

constructions must always borrow their elementary


material either from that which our eyes have

beheld in the outer world, or from that which has
already found a place somewhere in our waking



thoughts; in other words, it must be taken from that

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which we have already experienced, either

objectively or subjectively."


B. The Material of Dreams- Memory in


Dreams
That all the material composing the content


of a dream is somehow derived from experience,
that it is reproduced or remembered in the dream-


this at least may be accepted as an incontestable
fact. Yet it would be wrong to assume that such a


connection between the dream-content and reality
will be easily obvious from a comparison between


the two. On the contrary, the connection must be

carefully sought, and in quite a number of cases it


may for a long while elude discovery. The reason for



this is to be found in a number of peculiarities

evinced by the faculty of memory in dreams; which


peculiarities, though generally observed, have

hitherto defied explanation. It will be worth our
while to examine these characteristics exhaustively.



To begin with, it happens that certain

material appears in the dream- content which

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cannot be subsequently recognized, in the waking

state, as being part of one's knowledge and


experience. One remembers clearly enough having


dreamed of the thing in question, but one cannot
recall the actual experience or the time of its


occurrence. The dreamer is therefore in the dark as
to the source which the dream has tapped, and is


even tempted to believe in an independent
productive activity on the part of the dream, until,


often long afterwards, a fresh episode restores the
memory of that former experience, which had been


given up for lost, and so reveals the source of the

dream. One is therefore forced to admit that in the


dream something was known and remembered that



cannot be remembered in the waking state.[9]

Delboeuf relates from his own experience an


especially impressive example of this kind. He saw

in his dream the courtyard of his house covered with
snow, and found there two little lizards, half-frozen



and buried in the snow. Being a lover of animals he

picked them up, warmed them, and put them back

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into the hole in the wall which was reserved

especially for them. He also gave them a few fronds


of a little fern which was growing on the wall, and of


which he knew they were very fond. In the dream
he knew the name of the plant; Asplenium ruta


muralis. The dream continued returning after a
digression to the lizards, and to his astonishment


Delboeuf saw two other little lizards falling upon
what was left of the ferns. On turning his eyes to the


open fields he saw a fifth and a sixth lizard making
for the hole in the wall, and finally the whole road


was covered by a procession of lizards, all

wandering in the same direction.


In his waking state Delboeuf knew only a



few Latin names of plants, and nothing of any

Asplenium. To his great surprise he discovered that


a fern of this name did actually exist, and that the

correct name was Asplenium ruta muraria, which the
dream had slightly distorted. An accidental



coincidence was of course inconceivable; yet where

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he got his knowledge of the name Asplenium in the

dream remained a mystery to him.


The dream occurred in 1862. Sixteen years


later, while at the house of one of his friends, the
philosopher noticed a small album containing dried


plants, such as are sold as souvenirs to visitors in
many parts of Switzerland. A sudden recollection


came to him: he opened the herbarium, discovered
therein the Asplenium of his dream, and recognized


his own handwriting in the accompanying Latin
name. The connection could now be traced. In 1860,


two years before the date of the lizard dream, one

of his friend's sisters, while on her wedding-journey,


had paid a visit to Delboeuf. She had with her at the



time this very album, which was intended for her

brother, and Delboeuf had taken the trouble to


write, at the dictation of a botanist, the Latin name

under each of the dried plants.
The same good fortune which gave this



example its unusual value enabled Delboeuf to trace

yet another portion of this dream to its forgotten

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source. One day in 1877 he came upon an old

volume of an illustrated periodical, in which he found


the whole procession of lizards pictured, just as he


had dreamt of it in 1862. The volume bore the date
1861, and Delboeuf remembered that he had


subscribed to the journal since its first appearance.
That dreams have at their disposal


recollections which are inaccessible to the waking
state is such a remarkable and theoretically


important fact that I should like to draw attention to
the point by recording yet other hypermnesic


dreams. Maury relates that for some time the word

Mussidan used to occur to him during the day. He


knew it to be the name of a French city, but that



was all. One night he dreamed of a conversation

with a certain person, who told him that she came


from Mussidan, and, in answer to his question as to

where the city was, she replied: "Mussidan is the
principal town of a district in the department of



Dordogne." On waking, Maury gave no credence to

the information received in his dream; but the

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gazetteer showed it to be perfectly correct. In this

case the superior knowledge of the dreamer was


confirmed, but it was not possible to trace the


forgotten source of this knowledge.
Jessen (p. 55) refers to a very similar


incident, the period of which is more remote.
"Among others we may here mention the dream of


the elder Scaliger (Hennings, l.c., p. 300), who
wrote a poem in praise of the famous men of


Verona, and to whom a man named Brugnolus
appeared in a dream, complaining that he had been


neglected. Though Scaliger could not remember that

he had heard of the man, he wrote some verses in


his honour, and his son learned subsequently that a



certain Brugnolus had at one time been famed in

Verona as a critic."


A hypermnesic dream, especially remarkable

for the fact that a memory not at first recalled was
afterwards recognized in a dream which followed the



first, is narrated by the Marquis d'Hervey de St.

Denis:[10] "I once dreamed of a young woman with

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fair golden hair, whom I saw chatting with my sister

as she showed her a piece of embroidery. In my


dream she seemed familiar to me; I thought,


indeed, that I had seen her repeatedly. After
waking, her face was still quite vividly before me,


but I was absolutely unable to recognize it. I fell
asleep again; the dream-picture repeated itself. In


this new dream I addressed the golden-haired lady
and asked her whether I had not had the pleasure of


meeting her somewhere. 'Of course,' she replied;
'don't you remember the bathing-place at Pornic?'


Thereupon I awoke, and I was then able to recall

with certainty and in detail the incidents with which


this charming dream-face was connected."



The same author[11] recorded that a

musician of his acquaintance once heard in a dream


a melody which was absolutely new to him. Not until

many years later did he find it in an old collection of
musical compositions, though still he could not



remember ever having seen it before.

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I believe that Myers has published a whole

collection of such hypermnesic dreams in the


Proceedings of the Society for Psychical Research,


but these, unfortunately, are inaccessible to me. I
think everyone who occupies himself with dreams


will recognize, as a very common phenomenon, the
fact that a dream will give proof of the knowledge


and recollection of matters of which the dreamer, in
his waking state, did not imagine himself to be


cognizant. In my analytic investigations of nervous
patients, of which I shall speak later, I find that it


happens many times every week that I am able to

convince them, from their dreams, that they are


perfectly well acquainted with quotations, obscene



expressions, etc., and make use of them in their

dreams, although they have forgotten them in their


waking state. I shall here cite an innocent example

of dream-hypermnesia, because it was easy to trace
the source of the knowledge which was accessible



only in the dream.

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A patient dreamed amongst other things (in

a rather long dream) that he ordered a kontuszowka


in a cafe, and after telling me this he asked me what


it could be, as he had never heard the name before.
I was able to tell him that kontuszowka was a Polish


liqueur, which he could not have invented in his
dream, as the name had long been familiar to me


from the advertisements. At first the patient would
not believe me, but some days later, after he had


allowed his dream of the cafe to become a reality,
he noticed the name on a signboard at a street


corner which for some months he had been passing

at least twice a day.


I have learned from my own dreams how



largely the discovery of the origin of individual

dream-elements may be dependent on chance.


Thus, for some years before I had thought of writing

this book, I was haunted by the picture of a church
tower of fairly simple construction, which I could not



remember ever having seen. I then suddenly

recognized it, with absolute certainty, at a small

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station between Salzburg and Reichenhall. This was

in the late nineties, and the first time I had travelled


over this route was in 1886. In later years, when I


was already busily engaged in the study of dreams,
I was quite annoyed by the frequent recurrence of


the dream-image of a certain peculiar locality. I saw,
in definite orientation to my own person- on my left-


a dark space in which a number of grotesque
sandstone figures stood out. A glimmering


recollection, which I did not quite believe, told me
that it was the entrance to a beer-cellar; but I could


explain neither the meaning nor the origin of this

dream-picture. In 1907 I happened to go to Padua,


which, to my regret, I had been unable to visit since



1895. My first visit to this beautiful university city

had been unsatisfactory. I had been unable to see


Giotto's frescoes in the church of the Madonna dell'

Arena: I set out for the church, but turned back on
being informed that it was closed for the day. On my



second visit, twelve years later, I thought I would

compensate myself for this disappointment, and

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before doing anything else I set out for Madonna

dell' Arena. In the street leading to it, on my left,


probably at the spot where I had turned back in


1895, I discovered the place, with its sandstone
figures, which I had so often seen in my dream. It


was, in fact, the entrance to a restaurant garden.
One of the sources from which dreams draw


material for reproduction- material of which some
part is not recalled or utilized in our waking


thoughts- is to be found in childhood. Here I will cite
only a few of the authors who have observed and


emphasized this fact:

Hildebrandt (p. 23): "It has already been


expressly admitted that a dream sometimes brings



back to the mind, with a wonderful power of

reproduction, remote and even forgotten


experiences from the earliest periods of one's life."

Strumpell (p. 40): "The subject becomes
more interesting still when we remember how the



dream sometimes drags out, as it were, from the

deepest and densest psychic deposits which later

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years have piled upon the earliest experiences of

childhood, the pictures of certain persons, places


and things, quite intact, and in all their original


freshness. This is confined not merely to such
impressions as were vividly perceived at the time of


their occurrence, or were associated with intense
psychological values, to recur later in the dream as


actual reminiscences which give pleasure to the
waking mind. On the contrary, the depths of the


dream-memory rather contain such images of
persons, places, things and early experiences as


either possessed but little consciousness and no

psychic value whatsoever, or have long since lost


both, and therefore appear totally strange and



unknown, both in the dream and in the waking

state, until their early origin is revealed."


Volkelt (p. 119): "It is especially to be

remarked how readily infantile and youthful
reminiscences enter into our dreams. What we have



long ceased to think about, what has long since lost

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all importance for us, is constantly recalled by the

dream."


The control which the dream exercises over


material from our childhood, most of which, as is
well known, falls into the lacunae of our conscious


memory, is responsible for the production of
interesting hypermnesic dreams, of which I shall cite


a few more examples.
Maury relates (p. 92) that as a child he often


went from his native city, Meaux, to the
neighbouring Trilport, where his father was


superintending the construction of a bridge. One

night a dream transported him to Trilport and he


was once more playing in the streets there. A man



approached him, wearing a sort of uniform. Maury

asked him his name, and he introduced himself,


saying that his name was C, and that he was a

bridge-guard. On waking, Maury, who still doubted
the actuality of the reminiscence, asked his old



servant, who had been with him in his childhood,

whether she remembered a man of this name. "Of

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course," was the reply; "he used to be watchman on

the bridge which your father was building then."


Maury records another example, which


demonstrates no less clearly the reliability of the
reminiscences of childhood that emerge in our


dreams. M. F., who as a child had lived in
Montbrison, decided, after an absence of twenty-five


years, to visit his home and the old friends of his
family. The night before his departure he dreamt


that he had reached his destination, and that near
Montbrison he met a man whom he did not know by


sight, and who told him that he was M. F., a friend

of his father's. The dreamer remembered that as a


child he had known a gentleman of this name, but



on waking he could no longer recall his features.

Several days later, having actually arrived at


Montbrison, he found once more the locality of his

dream, which he had thought was unknown to him,
and there he met a man whom he at once



recognized as the M. F. of his dream, with only this

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difference, that the real person was very much older

than his dream-image.


Here I might relate one of my own dreams,


in which the recalled impression takes the form of
an association. In my dream I saw a man whom I


recognized, while dreaming, as the doctor of my
native town. His face was not distinct, but his


features were blended with those of one of my
schoolmasters, whom I still meet from time to time.


What association there was between the two
persons I could not discover on waking, but upon


questioning my mother concerning the doctor I

learned that he was a one- eyed man. The


schoolmaster, whose image in my dream obscured



that of the physician, had also only one eye. I had

not seen the doctor for thirty- eight years, and as


far as I know I had never thought of him in my

waking state, although a scar on my chin might
have reminded me of his professional attentions.



As though to counterbalance the excessive

part which is played in our dreams by the

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impressions of childhood, many authors assert that

the majority of dreams reveal elements drawn from


our most recent experiences. Robert (p. 46) even


declares that the normal dream generally occupies
itself only with the impressions of the last few days.


We shall find, indeed, that the theory of the dream
advanced by Robert absolutely requires that our


oldest impressions should be thrust into the
background, and our most recent ones brought to


the fore. However, the fact here stated by Robert is
correct; this I can confirm from my own


investigations. Nelson, an American author, holds

that the impressions received in a dream most


frequently date from the second day before the



dream, or from the third day before it, as though the

impressions of the day immediately preceding the


dream were not sufficiently weakened and remote.

Many authors who are unwilling to question
the intimate connection between the dream-content



and the waking state have been struck by the fact

that the impressions which have intensely occupied

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the waking mind appear in dreams only after they

have been to some extent removed from the mental


activities of the day. Thus, as a rule, we do not


dream of a beloved person who is dead while we are
still overwhelmed with sorrow (Delage). Yet Miss


Hallam, one of the most recent observers, has
collected examples which reveal the very opposite


behaviour in this respect, and upholds the claims of
psychological individuality in this matter.


The third, most remarkable, and at the same
time most incomprehensible, peculiarity of memory


in dreams is shown in the selection of the material

reproduced; for here it is not, as in the waking


state, only the most significant things that are held



to be worth remembering, but also the most

indifferent and insignificant details. In this


connection I will quote those authors who have

expressed their surprise in the most emphatic
language.



Hildebrandt (p. 11): "For it is a remarkable

fact that dreams do not, as a rule, take their

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elements from important and far-reaching events, or

from the intense and urgent interests of the


preceding day, but from unimportant incidents, from


the worthless odds and ends of recent experience or
of the remoter past. The most shocking death in our


family, the impressions of which keep us awake long
into the night, is obliterated from our memories until


the first moment of waking brings it back to us with
distressing force. On the other hand, the wart on the


forehead of a passing stranger, to whom we did not
give a moment's thought once he was out of sight,


finds a place in our dreams."

Strumpell (p. 39) speaks of "cases in which


the analysis of a dream brings to light elements



which, although derived from the experiences of

yesterday or the day before yesterday, were yet so


unimportant and worthless for the waking state that

they were forgotten soon after they were
experienced. Some experiences may be the chance-



heard remarks of other persons, or their superficially

observed actions, or, fleeting perceptions of things

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or persons, or isolated phrases that we have read,

etc."


Havelock Ellis (p. 727): "The profound


emotions of waking life, the questions and problems
on which we spend our chief voluntary mental


energy, are not those which usually present
themselves at once to dream- consciousness. It is,


so far as the immediate past is concerned, mostly
the trifling, the incidental, the 'forgotten'


impressions of daily life which reappear in our
dreams. The psychic activities that are awake most


intensely are those that sleep most profoundly."

It is precisely in connection with these


characteristics of memory in dreams that Binz (p.



45) finds occasion to express dissatisfaction with the

explanations of dreams which he himself had


favoured: "And the normal dream raises similar

questions. Why do we not always dream of mental
impressions of the day before, instead of going



back, without any perceptible reason, to the almost

forgotten past, now lying far behind us? Why, in a

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dream, does consciousness so often revive the

impression of indifferent memory- pictures, while


the cerebral cells that bear the most sensitive


records of experience remain for the most part inert
and numb, unless an acute revival during the


waking state has quite recently excited them?"
We can readily understand how the strange


preference shown by the dream- memory for the
indifferent and therefore disregarded details of daily


experience must commonly lead us altogether to
overlook the dependence of dreams on the waking


state, or must at least make it difficult for us to

prove this dependence in any individual case. Thus it


happened that in the statistical treatment of her own



and her friend's dream, Miss Whiton Calkins found

that 11 per cent of the entire number showed no


relation to the waking state. Hildebrandt was

certainly correct in his assertion that all our dream-
images could be genetically explained if we devoted



enough time and material to the tracing of their

origin. To be sure, he calls this "a most tedious and

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thankless job. For most often it would lead us to

ferret out all sorts of psychically worthless things


from the remotest corners of our storehouse of


memories, and to bring to light all sorts of quite
indifferent events of long ago from the oblivion


which may have overtaken them an hour after their
occurrence." I must, however, express my regret


that this discerning author refrained from following
the path which at first sight seemed so unpromising,


for it would have led him directly to the central point
of the explanation of dreams.


The behaviour of memory in dreams is

surely most significant for any theory of memory


whatsoever. It teaches us that "nothing which we



have once psychically possessed is ever entirely

lost" (Scholz, p. 34); or as Delboeuf puts it, "que


toute impression, meme la plus insignificante, laisse

une trace inalterable, indifiniment susceptible de
reparaitre au jour";[12] a conclusion to which we



are urged by so many other pathological

manifestations of mental life. Let us bear in mind

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this extraordinary capacity of the memory in

dreams, in order the more keenly to realize the


contradiction which has to be put forward in certain


dream-theories to be mentioned later, which seek to
explain the absurdities and incoherences of dreams


by a partial forgetting of what we have known
during the day.


It might even occur to one to reduce the
phenomenon of dreaming to that of remembering,


and to regard the dream as the manifestation of a
reproductive activity, unresting even at night, which


is an end in itself. This would seem to be in

agreement with statements such as those made by


Pilcz, according to which definite relations between



the time of dreaming and the contents of a dream

may be demonstrated, inasmuch as the impressions


reproduced by the dream in deep sleep belong to

the remote past, while those reproduced towards
morning are of recent origin. But such a conception



is rendered improbable from the outset by the

manner in which the dream deals with the material

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to be remembered. Strumpell rightly calls our

attention to the fact that repetitions of experiences


do not occur in dreams. It is true that a dream will


make a beginning in that direction, but the next link
is wanting; it appears in a different form, or is


replaced by something entirely novel. The dream
gives us only fragmentary reproductions; this is so


far the rule that it permits of a theoretical
generalization. Still, there are exceptions in which


an episode is repeated in a dream as completely as
it can be reproduced by our waking memory.


Delboeuf relates of one of his university colleagues

that a dream of his repeated, in all its details, a


perilous drive in which he escaped accident as if by



miracle. Miss Calkins mentions two dreams the

contents of which exactly reproduced an experience


of the previous day, and in a later chapter I shall

have occasion to give an example that came to my
knowledge of a childish experience which recurred



unchanged in a dream.[13]

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C. Dream-Stimuli and Sources

What is meant by dream-stimuli and dream-


sources may be explained by a reference to the


popular saying: "Dreams come from the stomach."
This notion covers a theory which conceives the


dream as resulting from a disturbance of sleep. We
should not have dreamed if some disturbing element


had not come into play during our sleep, and the
dream is the reaction against this disturbance.


The discussion of the exciting causes of
dreams occupies a great deal of space in the


literature of dreams. It is obvious that this problem

could have made its appearance only after dreams


had become an object of biological investigation.



The ancients, who conceived of dreams as divine

inspirations, had no need to look for stimuli; for


them a dream was due to the will of divine or

demonic powers, and its content was the product of
their special knowledge and intention. Science,



however, immediately raised the question whether

the stimuli of dreams were single or multiple, and

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this in turn led to the consideration whether the

causal explanation of dreams belonged to the region


of psychology or to that of physiology. Most authors


appear to assume that disturbance of sleep, and
hence dreams, may arise from various causes, and


that physical as well as mental stimuli may play the
part of dream-excitants. Opinions differ widely in


preferring this or the other factor as the cause of
dreams, and in classifying them in the order of


importance.
Whenever the sources of dreams are


completely enumerated they fall into the following

four categories, which have also been employed in


the classification of dreams: (1) external (objective)



sensory stimuli; (2) internal (subjective) sensory

stimuli; (3) internal (organic) physical stimuli; (4)


Purely psychical sources of excitation.

1. External sensory stimuli
The younger Strumpell, the son of the



philosopher, whose work on dreams has already

more than once served us as a guide in considering

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the problems of dreams, has, as is well known,

recorded his observations of a patient afflicted with


general anaesthesia of the skin and with paralysis of


several of the higher sensory organs. This man
would laps into sleep whenever the few remaining


sensory paths between himself and the outer world
were closed. When we wish to fall asleep we are


accustomed to strive for a condition similar to that
obtaining in Strumpell's experiment. We close the


most important sensory portals, the eyes, and we
endeavour to protect the other senses from all


stimuli or from any change of the stimuli already

acting upon them. We then fall asleep, although our


preparations are never wholly successful. For we can



never completely insulate the sensory organs, nor

can we entirely abolish the excitability of the


sensory organs themselves. That we may at any

time be awakened by intenser stimuli should prove
to us "that the mind has remained in constant



communication with the external world even during

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sleep." The sensory stimuli that reach us during

sleep may easily become the source of dreams.


There are a great many stimuli of this


nature, ranging from those unavoidable stimuli
which are proper to the state of sleep or occasionally


admitted by it, to those fortuitous stimuli which are
calculated to wake the sleeper. Thus a strong light


may fall upon the eyes, a noise may be heard, or an
odour may irritate the mucous membranes of the


nose. In our unintentional movements during sleep
we may lay bare parts of the body, and thus expose


them to a sensation of cold, or by a change of

position we may excite sensations of pressure and


touch. A mosquito may bite us, or a slight nocturnal



mischance may simultaneously attack more than

one sense- organ. Observers have called attention


to a whole series of dreams in which the stimulus

ascertained on waking and some part of the dream-
content corresponded to such a degree that the



stimulus could be recognized as the source of the

dream.

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I shall here cite a number of such dreams,

collected by Jessen (p. 527), which are traceable to


more or less accidental objective sensory stimuli.


Every noise indistinctly perceived gives rise to
corresponding dream- representations; the rolling of


thunder takes us into the thick of battle, the crowing
of a cock may be transformed into human shrieks of


terror, and the creaking of a door may conjure up
dreams of burglars breaking into the house. When


one of our blankets slips off us at night we may
dream that we are walking about naked, or falling


into water. If we lie diagonally across the bed with

our feet extending beyond the edge, we may dream


of standing on the brink of a terrifying precipice, or



of falling from a great height. Should our head

accidentally get under the pillow we may imagine a


huge rock overhanging us and about to crush us

under its weight. An accumulation of semen
produces voluptuous dreams, and local pains give



rise to ideas of suffering ill-treatment, of hostile

attacks, or of accidental bodily injuries....

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"Meier (Versuch einer Erklarung des

Nachtwandelns, Halle, 1758, p. 33) once dreamed of


being attacked by several men who threw him flat


on the ground and drove a stake into the earth
between his first and second toes. While imagining


this in his dream he suddenly awoke and felt a piece
of straw sticking between his toes. The same author,


according to Hemmings (Von den Traumen und
Nachtwandlern, Weimar, 1784, p. 258), "dreamed


on another occasion, when his nightshirt was rather
too tight round his neck, that he was being hanged.


In his youth Hoffbauer dreamed of having fallen

from a high wall, and found, on waking, that the


bedstead had come apart, and that he had actually



fallen on to the floor.... Gregory relates that he once

applied a hot-water bottle to his feet, and dreamed


of taking a trip to the summit of Mount Etna, where

he found the heat of the soil almost unbearable.
After having a blister applied to his head, another



man dreamed of being scalped by Indians; still

another, whose shirt was damp, dreamed that he

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was dragged through a stream. An attack of gout

caused a patient to believe that he was in the hands


of the Inquisition, and suffering the pains of torture


(Macnish)."
The argument that there is a resemblance


between the dream-stimulus and the dream-content
would be confirmed if, by a systematic induction of


stimuli, we should succeed in producing dreams
corresponding to these stimuli. According to Macnish


such experiments had already been made by Giron
de Buzareingues. "He left his knee exposed and


dreamed of travelling on a mail- coach by night. He

remarked, in this connection, that travellers were


well aware how cold the knees become in a coach at



night. On another occasion he left the back of his

head uncovered, and dreamed that he was taking


part in a religious ceremony in the open air. In the

country where he lived it was customary to keep the
head always covered except on occasions of this



kind."

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Maury reports fresh observation on self-

induced dreams of his own. (A number of other


experiments were unsuccessful.)


1. He was tickled with a feather on his lips
and on the tip of his nose. He dreamed of an awful


torture, viz., that a mask of pitch was stuck to his
face and then forcibly torn off, bringing the skin with


it.
2. Scissors were whetted against a pair of


tweezers. He heard bells ringing, then sounds of
tumult which took him back to the days of the


Revolution of 1848.
3. Eau de Cologne was held to his nostrils.


He found himself in Cairo, in the shop of Johann



Maria Farina. This was followed by fantastic

adventures which he was not able to recall.


4. His neck was lightly pinched. He dreamed

that a blister was being applied, and thought of a
doctor who had treated him in childhood.



5. A hot iron was brought near his face. He

dreamed that chauffeurs[14] had broken into the

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house, and were forcing the occupants to give up

their money by thrusting their feet into braziers. The


Duchesse d'Abrantes, whose secretary he imagined


himself to be then entered the room.
6. A drop of water was allowed to fall on to


his forehead. He imagined himself in Italy,
perspiring heavily, and drinking the white wine of


Orvieto.
7. When the light of a candle screened with


red paper was allowed to fall on his face, he
dreamed of thunder, of heat, and of a storm at sea


which he once witnessed in the English Channel.

Hervey, Weygandt, and others have made


attempts to produce dreams experimentally.



Many have observed the striking skill of the

dream in interweaving into its structure sudden


impressions from the outer world, in such a manner

as to represent a gradually approaching catastrophe
(Hildebrandt). "In former years," this author relates,



"I occasionally made use of an alarm-clock in order

to wake punctually at a certain hour in the morning.

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It probably happened hundreds of times that the

sound of this instrument fitted into an apparently


very long and connected dream, as though the


entire dream had been especially designed for it, as
though it found in this sound its appropriate and


logically indispensable climax, its inevitable
denouement."


I shall presently have occasion to cite three
of these alarm-clock dreams in a different


connection.
Volkelt (p. 68) relates: "A composer once


dreamed that he was teaching a class, and was just

explaining something to his pupils. When he had


finished he turned to one of the boys with the



question: 'Did you understand me?' The boy cried

out like one possessed 'Oh, ja!' Annoyed by this, he


reprimanded his pupil for shouting. But now the

entire class was screaming 'Orja,' then 'Eurjo,' and
finally 'Feuerjo.' He was then aroused by the actual



fire alarm in the street."

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Garnier (Traite des facultes de l'ame, 1865),

on the authority of Radestock, relates that Napoleon


I, while sleeping in a carriage, was awakened from a


dream by an explosion which took him back to the
crossing of the Tagliamento and the bombardment


of the Austrians, so that he started up, crying, "We
have been undermined."


The following dream of Maury's has become
celebrated: He was ill in bed; his mother was sitting


beside him. He dreamed of the Reign of Terror
during the Revolution. He witnessed some terrible


scenes of murder, and finally he himself was

summoned before the Tribunal. There he saw


Robespierre, Marat, Fouquier-Tinville, and all the



sorry heroes of those terrible days; he had to give

an account of himself, and after all manner of


incidents which did not fix themselves in his

memory, he was sentenced to death. Accompanied
by an enormous crowd, he was led to the place of



execution. He mounted the scaffold; the executioner

tied him to the plank, it tipped over, and the knife of

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the guillotine fell. He felt his head severed from his

trunk, and awakened in terrible anxiety, only to find


that the head-board of the bed had fallen, and had


actually struck the cervical vertebrae just where the
knife of the guillotine would have fallen.


This dream gave rise to an interesting
discussion, initiated by Le Lorrain and Egger in the


Revue Philosophique, as to whether, and how, it was
possible for the dreamer to crowd together an


amount of dream-content apparently so large in the
short space of time elapsing between the perception


of the waking stimulus and the moment of actual

waking.


Examples of this nature show that objective



stimuli occurring in sleep are among the most

firmly-established of all the sources of dreams; they


are, indeed, the only stimuli of which the layman

knows anything whatever. If we ask an educated
person who is not familiar with the literature of



dreams how dreams originate, he is certain to reply

by a reference to a case known to him in which a

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dream has been explained after waking by a

recognized objective stimulus. Science, however,


cannot stop here, but is incited to further


investigation by the observation that the stimulus
influencing the senses during sleep does not appear


in the dream at all in its true form, but is replaced
by some other representation, which is in some way


related to it. But the relation existing between the
stimulus and the resulting dream is, according to


Maury, "une affinite quelconque mais qui n'est pas
unique et exclusive"[15] (p. 72). If we read, for


example, three of Hildebrandt's "alarm-clock

dreams," we shall be compelled to ask why the


same casual stimulus evoked so many different



results, and why just these results and no others.

(p. 37): "I am taking a walk on a beautiful


spring morning. I stroll through the green meadows

to a neighbouring village, where I see numbers of
the inhabitants going to church, wearing their best



clothes and carrying their hymn-books under their

arms. I remember that it is Sunday, and that the

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morning service will soon begin. I decide to attend

it, but as I am rather overheated I think I will wait in


the churchyard until I am cooler. While reading the


various epitaphs, I hear the sexton climbing the
church- tower, and I see above me the small bell


which is about to ring for the beginning of service.
For a little while it hangs motionless; then it begins


to swing, and suddenly its notes resound so clearly
and penetratingly that my sleep comes to an end.


But the notes of the bell come from the alarm-
clock."


"A second combination. It is a bright winter

day; the streets are deep in snow. I have promised


to go on a sleigh-ride, but I have to wait some time



before I am told that the sleigh is at the door. Now I

am preparing to get into the sleigh. I put on my


furs, the foot-warmer is put in, and at last I have

taken my seat. But still my departure is delayed. At
last the reins are twitched, the horses start, and the



sleigh bells, now violently shaken, strike up their

familiar music with a force that instantly tears the

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gossamer of my dream. Again it is only the shrill

note of my alarm-clock."


"Yet a third example. I see the kitchen-maid


walking along the passage to the dining-room, with
a pile of several dozen plates. The porcelain column


in her arms seems to me to be in danger of losing
its equilibrium. 'Take care,' I exclaim, 'you will drop


the whole pile!' The usual retort is naturally made-
that she is used to such things, etc. Meanwhile I


continue to follow her with my anxious gaze, and
behold, at the threshold the fragile plates fall and


crash and roll across the floor in hundreds of pieces.

But I soon perceive that the endless din is not really


a rattling but a true ringing, and with this ringing



the dreamer now becomes aware that the alarm-

clock has done its duty."


The question why the dreaming mind

misjudges the nature of the objective sensory
stimulus has been answered by Strumpell, and in an



almost identical fashion by Wundt; their explanation

is that the reaction of the mind to the stimulus

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attacking sleep is complicated and confused by the

formation of illusions. A sensory impression is


recognized by us and correctly interpreted- that is, it


is classed with the memory-group to which it
belongs according to all previous experience if the


impression is strong, clear, and sufficiently
prolonged, and if we have sufficient time to submit it


to those mental processes. But if these conditions
are not fulfilled we mistake the object which gives


rise to the impression, and on the basis of this
impression we construct an illusion. "If one takes a


walk in an open field and perceives indistinctly a

distant object, it may happen that one will at first


take it for a horse." On closer inspection the image



of a cow, resting, may obtrude itself, and the picture

may finally resolve itself with certainty into a group


of people sitting on the ground. The impressions

which the mind receives during sleep from external
stimuli are of a similarly indistinct nature; they give



rise to illusions because the impression evokes a

greater or lesser number of memory-images,

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through which it acquires its psychic value. As for

the question, in which of the many possible spheres


of memory the corresponding images are aroused,


and which of the possible associative connections
are brought into play, that- to quote Strumpell


again- is indeterminable, and is left, as it were, to
the caprices of the mind.


Here we may take our choice. We may admit
that the laws of dream-formation cannot really be


traced any further, and so refrain from asking
whether or not the interpretation of the illusion


evoked by the sensory impression depends upon still

other conditions; or we may assume that the


objective sensory stimulus encroaching upon sleep



plays only a modest role as a dream- source, and

that other factors determine the choice of the


memory-image to be evoked. Indeed, on carefully

examining Maury's experimentally produced dreams,
which I have purposely cited in detail, one is inclined



to object that his investigations trace the origin of

only one element of the dreams, and that the rest of

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the dream-content seems too independent and too

full of detail to be explained by a single requirement,


namely, that it must correspond with the element


experimentally introduced. Indeed, one even begins
to doubt the illusion theory, and the power of


objective impressions to shape the dream, when one
realizes that such impressions are sometimes


subjected to the most peculiar and far-fetched
interpretations in our dreams. Thus M. Simon tells of


a dream in which he saw persons of gigantic
stature[16] seated at a table, and heard distinctly


the horrible clattering produced by the impact of

their jaws as they chewed their food. On waking he


heard the clatter of a horse's hooves as it galloped



past his window. If in this case the sound of the

horse's hooves had revived ideas from the memory-


sphere of Gulliver's Travels, the sojourn with the

giants of Brobdingnag, and the virtuous horse-like
creatures- as I should perhaps interpret the dream



without any assistance on the author's part- ought

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not the choice of a memory-sphere so alien to the

stimulus to be further elucidated by other motives?


2. Internal (subjective) sensory stimuli


All objections to the contrary
notwithstanding, we must admit that the role of the


objective sensory stimuli as producers of dreams
has been indisputably established, and if, having


regard to their nature and their frequency, these
stimuli seem perhaps insufficient to explain all


dream- pictures, this indicates that we should look
for other dream-sources which act in a similar


fashion. I do not know where the idea first arose

that together with the external sensory stimuli the


internal (subjective) stimuli should also be



considered, but as a matter of fact this has been

done more or less explicitly in all the more recent


descriptions of the aetiology of dreams. "I believe,"

says Wundt (p. 363), "that an important part is
played in dream-illusions by those subjective



sensations of sight and hearing which are familiar to

us in the waking state as a luminous chaos in the

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dark field of the vision, and a ringing, buzzing, etc.,

of the ears, and in especial, subjective irritations of


the retina. This explains the remarkable tendency of


dreams to delude the eyes with numbers of similar
or identical objects. Thus we see outspread before


our eyes innumerable birds, butterflies, fishes,
coloured beads, flowers, etc. Here the luminous dust


in the dark field of vision has assumed fantastic
forms, and the many luminous points of which it


consists are embodied in our dreams in as many
single images, which, owing to the mobility of the


luminous chaos, are seen as moving objects. This is

perhaps the reason of the dream's decided


preference for the most varied animal forms, for



owing to the multiplicity of such forms they can

readily adapt themselves to the subjective luminous


images."
The subjective sensory stimuli as a source of
dreams have the obvious advantage that, unlike



objective stimuli, they are independent of external

accidents. They are, so to speak, at the disposal of

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the interpretation whenever they are required. But

they are inferior to the objective sensory stimuli by


the fact that their claim to the role of dream-


inciters- which observation and experiment have
established in the case of objective stimuli- can in


their case be verified with difficulty or not at all. The
main proof of the dream-inciting power of subjective


sensory stimuli is afforded by the so-called
hypnogogic hallucinations, which have been


described by Johann Muller as "phantastic visual
manifestations." They are those very vivid and


changeable pictures which with many people occur

constantly during the period of falling asleep, and


which may linger for a while even after the eyes



have been opened. Maury, who was very subject to

these pictures, made a thorough study of them, and


maintained that they were related to or rather

identical with dream-images. This had already been
asserted by Johann Muller. Maury maintains that a



certain psychic passivity is necessary for their

origin; that it requires a relaxation of the intensity of

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attention (p. 59). But one may perceive a

hypnogogic hallucination in any frame of mind if one


falls into such a lethargy for a moment, after which


one may perhaps wake up, until this oft-repeated
process terminates in sleep. According to Maury, if


one wakes up shortly after such an experience, it is
often possible to trace in the dream the images


which one has perceived before falling asleep as
hypnogogic hallucinations (p. 134). Thus Maury on


one occasion saw a series of images of grotesque
figures with distorted features and curiously dressed


hair, which obtruded themselves upon him with

incredible importunity during the period of falling


asleep, and which, upon waking, he recalled having



seen in his dream. On another occasion, while

suffering from hunger, because he was subjecting


himself to a rather strict diet, he saw in one of his

hypnogogic states a plate, and a hand armed with a
fork taking some food from the plate. In his dream



he found himself at a table abundantly supplied with

food, and heard the clatter of the diner's forks. On

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yet another occasion, after falling asleep with

strained and painful eyes, he had a hypnogogic


hallucination of microscopically small characters,


which he was able to decipher, one by one, only
with a great effort; and on waking from sleep an


hour later he recalled a dream in which there was an
open book with very small letters, which he was


obliged to read through with laborious effort.
Not only pictures, but auditory hallucinations


of words, names, etc., may also occur
hypnogogically, and then repeat themselves in the


dream, like an overture announcing the principal

motif of the opera which is to follow.


A more recent observer of hypnogogic



hallucinations, G. Trumbull Ladd, follows the same

lines as Johann Muller and Maury. By dint of practice


he succeeded in acquiring the faculty of suddenly

arousing himself, without opening his eyes, two to
five minutes after gradually falling asleep. This



enabled him to compare the disappearing retinal

sensations with the dream- images remaining in his

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memory. He assures us that an intimate relation

between the two can always be recognized,


inasmuch as the luminous dots and lines of light


spontaneously perceived by the retina produce, so
to speak, the outline or scheme of the psychically


perceived dream-images. For example, a dream in
which he saw before him clearly printed lines, which


he read and studied, corresponded with a number of
luminous spots arranged in parallel lines; or, to


express it in his own words: The clearly printed page
resolved itself into an object which appeared to his


waking perception like part of an actual printed page

seen through a small hole in a sheet of paper, but at


a distance too great to permit of its being read.



Without in any way underestimating the central

element of the phenomenon, Ladd believes that


hardly any visual dream occurs in our minds that is

not based on material furnished by this internal
condition of retinal irritability. This is particularly



true of dreams which occur shortly after falling

asleep in a dark room, while dreams occurring in the

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morning, near the period of waking, receive their

stimulus from the objective light penetrating the eye


in a brightly-lit room. The shifting and infinitely


variable character of the spontaneous luminous
excitations of the retina exactly corresponds with


the fitful succession of images presented to us in our
dreams. If we attach any importance to Ladd's


observations, we cannot underrate the
productiveness of this subjective source of stimuli;


for visual images, as we know, are the principal
constituents of our dreams. The share contributed


by the other senses, excepting, perhaps, the sense

of hearing, is relatively insignificant and inconstant.


3. Internal (organic) physical stimuli



If we are disposed to look for the sources of

dreams not outside but inside the organism, we


must remember that almost all our internal organs,

which in a state of health hardly remind us of their
existence, may, in states of excitation- as we call



them- or in disease, become a source of the most

painful sensations, and must therefore be put on a

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par with the external excitants of pain and

sensation. Strumpell, for example, gives expression


to a long-familiar experience when he declares that


"during sleep the psyche becomes far more deeply
and broadly conscious of its coporality than in the


waking state, and it is compelled to receive and to
be influenced by certain stimulating impressions


originating in parts of the body, and in alterations of
the body, of which it is unconscious in the waking


state." Even Aristotle declares it to be quite possible
that a dream may draw our attention to incipient


morbid conditions which we have not noticed in the

waking state (owing to the exaggerated intensity of


the impressions experienced in the dream; and



some medical authors, who certainly did not believe

in the prophetic nature of dreams, have admitted


the significance of dreams, at least in so far as the

predicting of disease is concerned. [Cf. M. Simon, p.
31, and many earlier writers.][17]



Among the Greeks there were dream

oracles, which were vouchsafed to patients in quest

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of recovery. The patient betook himself to the

temple of Apollo or Aesculapius; there he was


subjected to various ceremonies, bathed, rubbed


and perfumed. A state of exaltation having been
thus induced, he was made to lie down in the temple


on the skin of a sacrificial ram. He fell asleep and
dreamed of remedies, which he saw in their natural


form, or in symbolic images which the priests
afterwards interpreted.


For further references concerning the
remedial dreams of the Greeks, cf. Lehmann, i, 74;


Bouche-Leclerq; Hermann, Gottesd. Altert. d. Gr.,

SS 41; Privataltert. SS 38, 16; Bottinger in


Sprengel's Beitr. z. Gesch. d. Med., ii, p. 163, et



seq.; W. Lloyd, Magnetism and Mesmerism in

Antiquity, London, 1877; Dollinger, Heidentum und


Judentum, p. 130.
Even in our days there seems to be no lack
of authenticated examples of such diagnostic



achievements on the part of dreams. Thus Tissie

cites from Artigues (Essai sur la valeur

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semeiologique des Reves) the history of a woman of

forty-three, who, during several years of apparently


perfect health, was troubled with anxiety-dreams,


and in whom a medical examination subsequently
revealed an incipient affection of the heart, to which


she presently succumbed.
Serious derangements of the internal organs


clearly excite dreams in quite a number of persons.
The frequency of anxiety-dreams in diseases of the


heart and lungs has been generally realized; indeed,
this function of the dream-life is emphasized by so


many writers that I shall here content myself with a

reference to the literature of the subject (Radestock,


Spitta, Maury, M. Simon, Tissie). Tissie even



believes that the diseased organs impress upon the

dream-content its characteristic features. The


dreams of persons suffering from diseases of the

heart are generally very brief, and end in a terrified
awakening; death under terrible circumstances



almost always find a place in their content. Those

suffering from diseases of the lungs dream of

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suffocation, of being crushed, and of flight, and a

great many of them are subject to the familiar


nightmare- which, by the way, Borner has


succeeded in inducing experimentally by lying on the
face and covering the mouth and nostrils. In


digestive disturbances the dream contains ideas
from the sphere of gustatory enjoyment and disgust.


Finally, the influence of sexual excitement on the
dream-content is obvious enough in everyone's


experience, and provides the strongest confirmation
of the whole theory of dream-instigation by organic


sensation.
Moreover, if we study the literature of


dreams it becomes quite evident that some writers



(Maury, Weygandt) have been led to the study of

dream- problems by the influence their own


pathological state has had on the content of their

dreams.
The enlargement of the number of dream-



sources by such undeniably established facts is,

however, not so important as one might be led to

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suppose; for dreams are, after all, phenomena

which occur in healthy persons- perhaps in all


persons, and every night- and a pathological state of


the organs is evidently not one of the indispensable
conditions. For us, however, the question is not


whence particular dreams originate, but rather:
what is the exciting cause of ordinary dreams in


normal people?
But we have only to go a step farther to find


a source of dreams which is more prolific than any
of those mentioned above, and which promises


indeed to be inexhaustible. If it is established that

the bodily organs become, in sickness, an exciting


source of dreams, and if we admit that the mind,



when diverted during sleep from the outer world,

can devote more of its attention to the interior of


the body, we may readily assume that the organs

need not necessarily become diseased in order to
permit stimuli, which in one way or another grow



into dream-images, to reach the sleeping mind.

What in the waking state we vaguely perceive as a

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general sensation, perceptible by its quality alone- a

sensation to which, in the opinion of physicians, all


the organic systems contribute their share- this


general sensation would at night attain a greater
potency, and, acting through its individual


components, would constitute the most prolific as
well as the most usual source of dream-


representations. We should then have to discover
the laws by which organic stimuli are translated into


dream- representations.
This theory of the origin of dreams is the


one most favoured by all medical writers. The

obscurity which conceals the essence of our being-


the "moi splanchnique" as Tissie terms it- from our



knowledge, and the obscurity of the origin of

dreams, correspond so closely that it was inevitable


that they should be brought into relation with one

another. The theory according to which the organic
sensations are responsible for dreams has,



moreover, another attraction for the physician,

inasmuch as it favours the aetiological union of the

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dream with mental derangement, both of which

reveal so many points of agreement in their


manifestations, since changes in the general organic


massive sensation and in the stimuli emanating from
the internal organs are also considered to have a


far-reaching significance as regards the origin of the
psychoses. It is therefore not surprising that the


organic stimulus theory can be traced to several
writers who have propounded this theory


independently.
A number of writers have followed the train


of thought developed by Schopenhauer in 1851. Our

conception of the universe has its origin in the


recasting by the intellect of the impressions which



reach it from without in the moulds of time, space

and causality. During the day the stimuli proceeding


from the interior of the organism, from the

sympathetic nervous system, exert at most an
unconscious influence on our mood. At night,



however, when the overwhelming effect of the

impressions of the day is no longer operative, the

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impressions that surge upward from within are able

to force themselves on our attention- just as in the


night we hear the rippling of the brook that was


drowned in the clamour of the day. But how else can
the intellect react to these stimuli than by


transforming them in accordance with its own
function into things which occupy space and time


and follow the lines of causality?- and so a dream
originates. Thus Scherner, and after him Volkelt,


endeavoured to discover the more intimate relations
between physical sensations and dream-pictures;


but we shall reserve the discussion of this point for

our chapter on the theory of dreams.


As a result of a singularly logical analysis,



the psychiatrist Krauss referred the origin of

dreams, and also of deliria and delusions, to the


same element, namely, to organically determined

sensations. According to him, there is hardly any
part of the organism which might not become the



starting-point of a dream or a delusion. Organically

determined sensations, he says, "may be divided

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into two classes: (1) general sensations- those

affecting the whole system; (2) specific sensations-


those that are immanent in the principal systems of


the vegetative organism, and which may in turn be
subdivided into five groups: (a) the muscular, (b)


the pneumatic, (c) the gastric, (d) the sexual, (e)
the peripheral sensations (p. 33 of the second


article)."
The origin of the dream-image from physical


sensations is conceived by Krauss as follows: The
awakened sensation, in accordance with some law of


association, evokes an idea or image bearing some

relation to it, and combines with this idea or image,


forming an organic structure, towards which,



however, the consciousness does not maintain its

normal attitude. For it does not bestow any attention


on the sensation, but concerns itself entirely with

the accompanying ideas; and this explains why the
facts of the case have been so long misunderstood



(p. 11 ff.). Krauss even gives this process the

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special name of "transubstantiation of the sensations

into dream-images" (p. 24).


The influence of organic physical stimuli on


the formation of dreams is today almost universally
admitted, but the question as to the nature of the


law underlying this relation is answered in various
ways, and often obscurely. On the basis of the


theory of physical excitation the special task of
dream-interpretation is to trace back the content of


a dream to the causative organic stimulus, and if we
do not accept the rules of interpretation advanced


by Scherner, we shall often find ourselves

confronted by the awkward fact that the organic


source of excitation reveals itself only in the content



of the dream.
A certain agreement, however, appears in


the interpretation of the various forms of dreams

which have been designated as "typical," because
they recur in so many persons with almost the same



content. Among these are the well- known dreams

of falling from a height, of the dropping out of teeth,

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of flying, and of embarrassment because one is

naked or scantily clad. This last type of dream is


said to be caused simply by the dreamer's


perception, felt in his sleep, that he has thrown off
the bedclothes and is uncovered. The dream that


one's teeth are dropping out is explained by "dental
irritation," which does not, however, of necessity


imply a morbid condition of irritability in the teeth.
According to Strumpell, the flying dream is the


adequate image employed by the mind to interpret
the quantum of stimulus emanating from the rising


and sinking of the pulmonary lobes when the

cutaneous sensation of the thorax has lapsed into


insensibility. This latter condition causes the



sensation which gives rise to images of hovering in

the air. The dream of falling from a height is said to


be due to the fact that an arm falls away from the

body, or a flexed knee is suddenly extended, after
unconsciousness of the sensation of cutaneous



pressure has supervened, whereupon this sensation

returns to consciousness, and the transition from

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unconsciousness to consciousness embodies itself

psychically as a dream of falling (Strumpell, p. 118).


The weakness of these fairly plausible attempts at


explanation clearly lies in the fact that without any
further elucidation they allow this or that group of


organic sensations to disappear from psychic
perception, or to obtrude themselves upon it, until


the constellation favourable for the explanation has
been established. Later on, however, I shall have


occasion to return to the subject of typical dreams
and their origin.


From a comparison of a series of similar

dreams, M. Simon endeavoured to formulate certain


rules governing the influence of organic sensations



on the nature of the resulting dream. He says (p.

34): "If during sleep any organic apparatus, which


normally participates in the expression of an affect,

for any reason enters into the state of excitation to
which it is usually aroused by the affect, the dream



thus produced will contain representations which

harmonize with that affect."

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Another rule reads as follows (p. 35): "If,

during sleep, an organic apparatus is in a state of


activity, stimulation, or disturbance, the dream will


present ideas which correspond with the nature of
the organic function performed by that apparatus."


Mourly Vold has undertaken to prove the
supposed influence of bodily sensation on the


production of dreams by experimenting on a single
physiological territory. He changed the positions of a


sleeper's limbs, and compared the resulting dreams
with these changes. He recorded the following


results:
1. The position of a limb in a dream


corresponds approximately to that of reality, i.e., we



dream of a static condition of the limb which

corresponds with the actual condition.


2. When one dreams of a moving limb it

always happens that one of the positions occurring
in the execution of this movement corresponds with



the actual position.

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3. The position of one's own limb may in the

dream be attributed to another person.


4. One may also dream that the movement


in question is impeded.
5. The limb in any particular position may


appear in the dream as an animal or monster, in
which case a certain analogy between the two is


established.
6. The behaviour of a limb may in the dream


incite ideas which bear some relation or other to this
limb. Thus, for example, if we are using our fingers


we dream of numerals.
Results such as these would lead me to


conclude that even the theory of organic stimulation



cannot entirely abolish the apparent freedom of the

determination of the dream-picture which will be


evoked.[18]
4. Psychic sources of excitation
When considering the relation of dreams to



waking life, and the provenance of the material of

dreams, we learned that the earliest as well as the

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most recent investigators are agreed that men

dream of what they do during the day, and of the


things that interest them in the waking state. This


interest, continued from waking life into sleep, is not
only a psychic bond, joining the dream to life, but it


is also a source of dreams whose importance must
not be underestimated, and which, taken together


with those stimuli which become active and of
interest during sleep, suffices to explain the origin of


all dream-images. Yet we have also heard the very
contrary of this asserted; namely, that dreams bear


the sleeper away from the interests of the day, and

that in most cases we do not dream of things which


have occupied our attention during the day until



after they have lost, for our waking life, the

stimulating force of belonging to the present. Hence


in the analysis of dream-life we are reminded at

every step that it is inadmissible to frame general
rules without making provision for qualifications by



introducing such terms as "frequently," "as a rule,"

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"in most cases," and without being prepared to

admit the validity of exceptions.


If interest during the waking state together


with the internal and external stimuli that occur
during sleep, sufficed to cover the whole aetiology of


dreams, we should be in a position to give a
satisfactory account of the origin of all the elements


of a dream; the problem of the dream-sources
would then be solved, leaving us only the task of


discriminating between the part played by the
psychic and that played by the somatic dream-


stimuli in individual dreams. But as a matter of fact

no such complete solution of a dream has ever been


achieved in any case, and everyone who has



attempted such a solution has found that

components of the dream- and usually a great many


of them- are left whose source he is unable to trace.

The interests of the day as a psychic source of
dreams are obviously not so influential as to justify



the confident assertion that every dreamer

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continues the activities of his waking life in his

dreams.


Other dream-sources of a psychic nature are


not known. Hence, with the exception perhaps of the
explanation of dreams given by Scherner, to which


reference will be made later on, all the explanations
found in the literature of the subject show a


considerable hiatus whenever there is a question of
tracing the images and ideas which are the most


characteristic material of dreams. In this dilemma
the majority of authors have developed a tendency


to belittle as far as possible the share of the psychic

factor, which is so difficult to determine, in the


evocation of dreams. To be sure, they distinguish as



major divisions the nerve-stimulus dream and the

association-dream, and assert that the latter has its


source exclusively in reproduction (Wundt, p. 365),

but they cannot dismiss the doubt as to "whether
they appear without any impulsion from organic



stimuli" (Volkelt, p. 127). And even the

characteristic quality of the pure association-dream

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disappears. To quote Volkelt (p. 118): "In the

association-dream proper, there is no longer any


question of such a stable nucleus. Here the loose


grouping penetrates even to the very centre of the
dream. The imaginative life, already released from


the control of reason and intellect, is here no longer
held together by the more important psychical and


physical stimuli, but is left to its own uncontrolled
and confused divagations." Wundt, too, attempts to


belittle the psychic factor in the evocation of dreams
by asserting that "the phantasms of the dream are


perhaps unjustly regarded as pure hallucinations.

Probably most dream-representations are really


illusions, inasmuch as they emanate from the slight



sensory impressions which are never extinguished

during sleep" (p. 359, et seq.). Weygandt has


adopted this view, and generalizes upon it. He

asserts that "the most immediate causes of all
dream-representations are sensory stimuli to which



reproductive associations then attach themselves"

(p. 17). Tissie goes still further in suppressing the

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psychic sources of excitation (p. 183): "Les reves

d'origine absolument psychique n'existent pas";[19]


and elsewhere (p. 6), "Les pensees de nos reves


nous viennent de dehors...."[20]
Those writers who, like the eminent


philosopher Wundt, adopt a middle course, do not
hesitate to assert that in most dreams there is a


cooperation of the somatic stimuli and psychic
stimuli which are either unknown or are identified


with the interests of the day.
We shall learn later that the problem of


dream-formation may be solved by the disclosure of

an entirely unsuspected psychic source of excitation.


In the meanwhile we shall not be surprised at the



over-estimation of the influence of those stimuli

which do not originate in the psychic life. It is not


merely because they alone may easily be found, and

even confirmed by experiment, but because the
somatic conception of the origin of dreams entirely



corresponds with the mode of thought prevalent in

modern psychiatry. Here, it is true, the mastery of

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the brain over the organism is most emphatically

stressed; but everything that might show that the


psychic life is independent of demonstrable organic


changes, or spontaneous in its manifestations, is
alarming to the contemporary psychiatrist, as


though such an admission must mean a return to
the old-world natural philosophy and the


metaphysical conception of the nature of the soul.
The distrust of the psychiatrist has placed the


psyche under tutelage, so to speak; it requires that
none of the impulses of the psyche shall reveal an


autonomous power. Yet this attitude merely betrays

a lack of confidence in the stability of the causal


concatenation between the physical and the psychic.



Even where on investigation the psychic may be

recognized as the primary cause of a phenomenon,


a more profound comprehension of the subject will

one day succeed in following up the path that leads
to the organic basis of the psychic. But where the



psychic must, in the present state of our knowledge,

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be accepted as the terminus, it need not on that

account be disavowed.


D. Why Dreams Are Forgotten After


Waking
That a dream fades away in the morning is


proverbial. It is, indeed, possible to recall it. For we
know the dream, of course, only by recalling it after


waking; but we very often believe that we
remember it incompletely, that during the night


there was more of it than we remember. We may
observe how the memory of a dream which in the


morning was still vivid fades in the course of the

day, leaving only a few trifling remnants. We are


often aware that we have been dreaming, but we do



not know of what we have dreamed; and we are so

well used to this fact- that the dream is liable to be


forgotten- that we do not reject as absurd the

possibility that we may have been dreaming even
when, in the morning, we know nothing either of the



content of the dream or of the fact that we have

dreamed. On the other hand, it often happens that

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dreams manifest an extraordinary power of

maintaining themselves in the memory. I have had


occasion to analyse, with my patients, dreams which


occurred to them twenty-five years or more
previously, and I can remember a dream of my own


which is divided from the present day by at least
thirty-seven years, and yet has lost nothing of its


freshness in my memory. All this is very remarkable,
and for the present incomprehensible.


The forgetting of dreams is treated in the
most detailed manner by Strumpell. This forgetting


is evidently a complex phenomenon; for Strumpell

attributes it not to a single cause, but to quite a


number of causes.


In the first place, all those factors which

induce forgetfulness in the waking state determine


also the forgetting of dreams. In the waking state

we commonly very soon forget a great many
sensations and perceptions because they are too



slight to remember, and because they are charged

with only a slight amount of emotional feeling. This

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is true also of many dream-images; they are

forgotten because they are too weak, while the


stronger images in their neighbourhood are


remembered. However, the factor of intensity is in
itself not the only determinant of the preservation of


dream-images; Strumpell, as well as other authors
(Calkins), admits that dream-images are often


rapidly forgotten although they are known to have
been vivid, whereas, among those that are retained


in the memory, there are many that are very
shadowy and unmeaning. Besides, in the waking


state one is wont to forget rather easily things that

have happened only once, and to remember more


readily things which occur repeatedly. But most



dream-images are unique experiences,[21] and this

peculiarity would contribute towards the forgetting


of all dreams equally. Of much greater significance

is a third cause of forgetting. In order that feelings,
representations, ideas and the like should attain a



certain degree of memorability, it is important that

they should not remain isolated, but that they

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should enter into connections and associations of an

appropriate nature. If the words of a verse of poetry


are taken and mixed together, it will be very difficult


to remember them. "Properly placed, in a significant
sequence, one word helps another, and the whole,


making sense, remains and is easily and lastingly
fixed in the memory. Contradictions, as a rule, are


retained with just as much difficulty and just as
rarely as things that are confused and disorderly."


Now dreams, in most cases, lack sense and order.
Dream-compositions, by their very nature, are


insusceptible of being remembered, and they are

forgotten because as a rule they fall to pieces the


very next moment. To be sure, these conclusions



are not entirely consistent with Radestock's

observation (p. 168), that we most readily retain


just those dreams which are most peculiar.

According to Strumpell, other factors,
deriving from the relation of the dream to the



waking state, are even more effective in causing us

to forget our dreams. The forgetfulness of dreams

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manifested by the waking consciousness is evidently

merely the counterpart of the fact already


mentioned, namely, that the dream hardly ever


takes over an orderly series of memories from the
waking state, but only certain details of these


memories, which it removes from the habitual
psychic connections in which they are remembered


in the waking state. The dream-composition,
therefore, has no place in the community of the


psychic series which fill the mind. It lacks all
mnemonic aids. "In this manner the dream-structure


rises, as it were, from the soil of our psychic life,

and floats in psychic space like a cloud in the sky,


quickly dispelled by the first breath of reawakening



life" (p. 87). This situation is accentuated by the fact

that on waking the attention is immediately


besieged by the inrushing world of sensation, so that

very few dream-images are capable of withstanding
its force. They fade away before the impressions of



the new day like the stars before the light of the
sun.

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Finally, we should remember that the fact

that most people take but little interest in their


dreams is conducive to the forgetting of dreams.


Anyone who for some time applies himself to the
investigation of dreams, and takes a special interest


in them, usually dreams more during that period
than at any other; he remembers his dreams more


easily and more frequently.
Two other reasons for the forgetting of


dreams, which Bonatelli (cited by Benini) adds to
those adduced by Strumpell, have already been


included in those enumerated above; namely, (1)

that the difference of the general sensation in the


sleeping and the waking state is unfavourable to



mutual reproduction, and (2) that the different

arrangement of the material in the dream makes the


dream untranslatable, so to speak, for the waking

consciousness.
It is therefore all the more remarkable, as



Strumpell himself observes, that, in spite of all these

reasons for forgetting the dream, so many dreams

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are retained in the memory. The continual efforts of

those who have written on the subject to formulate


laws for the remembering of dreams amount to an


admission that here, too, there is something
puzzling and unexplained. Certain peculiarities


relating to the remembering of dreams have
attracted particular attention of late; for example,


the fact that the dream which is believed to be
forgotten in the morning may be recalled in the


course of the day on the occasion of some
perception which accidentally touches the forgotten


content of the dream (Radestock, Tissie). But the

whole recollection of dreams is open to an objection


which is calculated greatly to depreciate its value in



critical eyes. One may doubt whether our memory,

which omits so much from the dream, does not


falsify what it retains.

This doubt as to the exactness of the
reproduction of dreams is expressed by Strumpell



when he says: "It may therefore easily happen that

the waking consciousness involuntarily interpolates a

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great many things in the recollection of the dream;

one imagines that one has dreamt all sorts of things


which the actual dream did not contain."


Jessen (p. 547) expresses himself in very
decided terms:


"Moreover, we must not lose sight of the
fact, hitherto little heeded, that in the investigation


and interpretation of coherent and logical dreams we
almost always take liberties with the truth when we


recall a dream to memory. Unconsciously and
unintentionally we fill up the gaps and supplement


the dream-images. Rarely, and perhaps never, has a

connected dream been as connected as it appears to


us in memory. Even the most truth-loving person



can hardly relate a dream without exaggerating and

embellishing it in some degree. The human mind so


greatly tends to perceive everything in a connected

form that it intentionally supplies the missing links in
any dream which is in some degree incoherent."



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The observations of V. Eggers, though of

course independently conceived, read almost like a


translation of Jessen's words:


"...L'observation des reves a ses difficultes
speciales et le seul moyen d'eviter toute erreur en


pareille matiere est de confier au papier sans le
moindre retard ce que l'on vient d'eprouver et de


remarquer; sinon, l'oubli vient vite ou total ou
partiel; l'oubli total est sans gravite; mais l'oubli


partiel est perfide: car si l'on se met ensuite a
raconter ce que l'on n'a pas oublie, on est expose a


completer par imagination les fragments incoherents

et disjoints fourni par la memoire... on devient


artiste a son insu, et le recit, periodiquement repete



s'impose a la creance de son auteur, qui, de bonne

foi, le presente comme un fait authentique, dument


etabli selon les bonnes methodes...."[22]

Similarly Spitta, who seems to think that it
is only in the attempt to reproduce the dream that



we bring order and arrangement into loosely

associated dream-elements--"turning juxtaposition

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into concatenation; that is, adding the process of

logical connection which is absent in the dream."


Since we can test the reliability of our


memory only by objective means, and since such a
test is impossible in the case of dreams, which are


our own personal experience, and for which we
know no other source than our memory, what value


do our recollections of our dreams possess?


Footnotes
1
The following remarks are based on


Buchsenschutz's careful essay, Traum und

Traumdeutung im Altertum (Berlin 1868).


2
The relationship between dreams and


disease is discussed by Hippocrates in a chapter of

his famous work.
3


Griechische Mythologie und

Religionsgeschichte, p. 390.
4
For the later history of dream-interpretation



in the Middle Ages consult Diepgen, and the special

investigations of M. Forster, Gotthard, and others.

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The interpretation of dreams among the Jews has

been studied by Amoli, Amram, and Lowinger, and


recently, with reference to the psycho- analytic


standpoint, by Lauer. Details of the Arabic methods
of dream- interpretation are furnished by Drexl, F.


Schwarz, and the missionary Tfinkdji. The
interpretation of dreams among the Japanese has


been investigated by Miura and Iwaya, among the
Chinese by Secker, and among the Indians by


Negelein.
5
We dream of what we have seen, said,


desired, or done.
6
Communicated by Winterstein to the


Zentralblatt fur Psychoanalyse.



7
And whatever be the pursuit to which one
clings with devotion, whatever the things on which


we have been occupied much in the past, the mind

being thus more intent upon that pursuit, it is
generally the same things that we seem to



encounter in dreams; pleaders to plead their cause

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and collate laws, generals to contend and engage

battle.


8
And especially the "remnant" of our waking


thoughts and deeds move and stir within the soul.
9
Vaschide even maintains that it has often


been observed that in one's dreams one speaks
foreign languages more fluently and with greater


purity than in the waking state.
10
See Vaschide, p. 232.


11
Vaschide, p. 233
12
That every impression, even the most


insignificant, leaves an ineradicable mark,

indefinitely capable of reappearing by day.


13
From subsequent experience I am able to


state that it is not at all rare to find in dreams

reproductions of simple and unimportant


occupations of everyday life, such as packing trunks,

preparing food in the kitchen, etc., but in such
dreams the dreamer himself emphasizes not the



character of the recollection but its "reality"- "I

really did this during the day."

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14
Chauffeurs were bands of robbers in the
Vendee who resorted to this form of torture.


15
A sort of relation which is, however,


neither unique nor exclusive.
16
Gigantic persons in a dream justify the


assumption that the dream is dealing with a scene
from the dreamer's childhood. This interpretation of


the dream as a reminiscence of Gulliver's Travels is,
by the way, a good example of how an


interpretation should not be made. The dream-
interpreter should not permit his own intelligence to


operate in disregard of the dreamer's impressions.

17
In addition to the diagnostic valuation of


dreams (e.g., by Hippocrates) mention must also be



made of their therapeutic significance in antiquity.

18
See below for a further discussion of the


two volumes of records of dreams since published by

this writer.
19
Dreams do not exist whose origin is totally



psychic.

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20
The thoughts of our dreams come from
outside.


21
Periodically recurrent dreams have been


observed repeatedly. Compare the collection made
by Chabaneix.


22
...The observation of dreams has its
special difficulties, and the only way to avoid all


error in such matter is to put on paper without the
least delay what has just been experienced and


noticed; otherwise, totally or partially the dream is
quickly forgotten; total forgetting is without


seriousness; but partial forgetting is treacherous:

for, if one then starts to recount what has not been


forgotten, one is likely to supplement from the



imagination the incoherent and disjointed fragments

provided by the memory.... unconsciously one


becomes an artist, and the story, repeated from

time to time, imposes itself on the belief of its
author, who, in good faith, tells it as authentic fact,



regularly established according to proper

methods....

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CHAPTER 1 (Part 2)
THE SCIENTIFIC LITERATURE OF


DREAM-PROBLEMS (UP TO 1900)


E. The Psychological Peculiarities of
Dreams


In our scientific investigation of dreams we
start with the assumption that dreams are a


phenomenon of our own psychic activity; yet the
completed dream appears to us as something alien,


whose authorship we are so little inclined to
recognize that we should be just as willing to say "A


dream came to me," as "I dreamed." Whence this

"psychic strangeness" of dreams? According to our


exposition of the sources of dreams, we must



assume that it is not determined by the material

which finds its way into the dream-content, since


this is for the most part common both to dream-life

and waking life. We might ask ourselves whether
this impression is not evoked by modifications of the



psychic processes in dreams, and we might even

attempt to suggest that the existence of such

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changes is the psychological characteristic of

dreams.


No one has more strongly emphasized the


essential difference between dream-life and waking
life and drawn more far reaching conclusions from


this difference than G. Th. Fechner in certain
observations contained in his Elemente der


Psychophysik (Part II, p. 520). He believes that
"neither the simple depression of conscious psychic


life under the main threshold," nor the distraction of
the attention from the influences of the outer world,


suffices to explain the peculiarities of dream-life as

compared with waking life. He believes, rather, that


the arena of dreams is other than the arena of the



waking life of the mind. "If the arena of

psychophysical activity were the same during the


sleeping and the waking state, the dream, in my

opinion, could only be a continuation of the waking
ideational life at a lower degree of intensity, so that



it would have to partake of the form and material of

the latter. But this is by no means the case."

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What Fechner really meant by such a

transposition of the psychic activity has never been


made clear, nor has anybody else, to my knowledge,


followed the path which he indicates in this remark.
An anatomical interpretation in the sense of


physiological localization in the brain, or even a
histological stratification of the cerebral cortex, must


of course be excluded. The idea might, however,
prove ingenious and fruitful if it could refer to a


psychical apparatus built up of a number of
successive and connected systems.


Other authors have been content to give

prominence to this or that palpable psychological


peculiarity of the dream-life, and even to take this



as a starting-point for more comprehensive attempts

at explanation.


It has been justly remarked that one of the

chief peculiarities of dream-life makes its
appearance even in the state of falling asleep, and



may be defined as the sleep-heralding phenomenon.

According to Schleiermacher (p. 351), the

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distinguishing characteristic of the waking state is

the fact that its psychic activity occurs in the form of


ideas rather than in that of images. But the dream


thinks mainly in visual images, and it may be noted
that with the approach of sleep the voluntary


activities become impeded in proportion as
involuntary representations make their appearance,


the latter belonging entirely to the category of
images. The incapacity for such ideational activities


as we feel to be deliberately willed, and the
emergence of visual images, which is regularly


connected with this distraction- these are two

constant characteristics of dreams, and on


psychological analysis we are compelled to recognize



them as essential characteristics of dream-life. As

for the images themselves the hypnogogic


hallucinations- we have learned that even in their

content they are identical with dream-images.[23]
Dreams, then, think preponderantly, but not



exclusively, in visual images. They make use also of

auditory images, and, to a lesser extent, of the

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other sensory impressions. Moreover, in dreams, as

in the waking state, many things are simply thought


or imagined (probably with the help of remnants of


verbal conceptions). Characteristic of dreams,
however, are only those elements of their contents


which behave like images, that is, which more
closely resemble perceptions than mnemonic


representations. Without entering upon a discussion
of the nature of hallucinations- a discussion familiar


to every psychiatrist- we may say, with every well-
informed authority, that the dream hallucinates-


that is, that it replaces thoughts by hallucinations.

In this respect visual and acoustic impressions


behave in the same way. It has been observed that



the recollection of a succession of notes heard as we

are falling asleep becomes transformed, when we


have fallen asleep, into a hallucination of the same

melody, to give place, each time we wake, to the
fainter and qualitatively different representations of



the memory, and resuming, each time we doze off

again, its hallucinatory character.

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The transformation of an idea into a

hallucination is not the only departure of the dream


from the more or less corresponding waking


thought. From these images the dream creates a
situation; it represents something as actually


present; it dramatizes an idea, as Spitta (p. 145)
puts it. But the peculiar character of this aspect of


the dream-life is completely intelligible only if we
admit that in dreaming we do not as a rule (the


exceptions call for special examination) suppose
ourselves to be thinking, but actually experiencing;


that is, we accept the hallucination in perfectly good

faith. The criticism that one has experienced


nothing, but that one has merely been thinking in a



peculiar manner- dreaming- occurs to us only on

waking. It is this characteristic which distinguishes


the genuine dream from the day-dream, which is

never confused with reality.
The characteristics of the dream-life thus far



considered have been summed up by Burdach (p.

476) as follows: "As characteristic features of the

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dream we may state (a) that the subjective activity

of our psyche appears as objective, inasmuch as our


perceptive faculties apprehend the products of


phantasy as though they were sensory activities...
(b) that sleep abrogates our voluntary action; hence


falling asleep involves a certain degree of passivity...
The images of sleep are conditioned by the


relaxation of our powers of will."
It now remains to account for the credulity


of the mind in respect to the dream-hallucinations
which are able to make their appearance only after


the suspension of certain voluntary powers.

Strumpell asserts that in this respect the psyche


behaves correctly and in conformity with its



mechanism. The dream-elements are by no means

mere representations, but true and actual


experiences of the psyche, similar to those which

come to the waking state by way of the senses (p.
34). Whereas in the waking state the mind thinks



and imagines by means of verbal images and

language, in dreams it thinks and imagines in actual

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perceptual images (p. 35). Dreams, moreover,

reveal a spatial consciousness, inasmuch as in


dreams, just as in the waking state, sensations and


images are transposed into outer space (p. 36). It
must therefore be admitted that in dreams the mind


preserves the same attitude in respect of images
and perceptions as in the waking state (p. 43). And


if it forms erroneous conclusions in respect of these
images and perceptions, this is due to the fact that


in sleep it is deprived of that criterion which alone
can distinguish between sensory perceptions


emanating from within and those coming from

without. It is unable to subject its images to those


tests which alone can prove their objective reality.



Further, it neglects to differentiate between those

images which can be exchanged at will and those in


respect of which there is no free choice. It errs

because it cannot apply the law of causality to the
content of its dreams (p. 58). In brief, its alienation



from the outer world is the very reason for its belief
in its subjective dream-world.

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Delboeuf arrives at the same conclusion

through a somewhat different line of argument. We


believe in the reality of dream-pictures because in


sleep we have no other impressions with which to
compare them; because we are cut off from the


outer world. But it is not because we are unable,
when asleep, to test our hallucinations that we


believe in their reality. Dreams can make us believe
that we are applying such tests- that we are


touching, say, the rose that we see in our dream;
and yet we are dreaming. According to Delboeuf


there is no valid criterion that can show whether

something is a dream or a waking reality, except-


and that only pragmatically- the fact of waking. "I



conclude that all that has been experienced between

falling asleep and waking is a delusion, if I find on


waking that I am lying undressed in bed" (p. 84). "I

considered the images of my dream real while I was
asleep on account of the unsleeping mental habit of



assuming an outer world with which I can contrast

my ego."[24]

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If the turning-away from the outer world is

accepted as the decisive cause of the most


conspicuous characteristics of our dreams, it will be


worth our while to consider certain subtle
observations of Burdach's, which will throw some


light on the relation of the sleeping psyche to the
outer world, and at the same time serve to prevent


our over-estimating the importance of the above
deductions. "Sleep," says Burdach, "results only


under the condition that the mind is not excited by
sensory stimuli... yet it is not so much a lack of


sensory stimuli that conditions sleep as a lack of

interest in them;[25] some sensory impressions are


even necessary in so far as they serve to calm the



mind; thus the miller can fall asleep only when he

hears the clatter of his mill, and he who finds it


necessary, as a matter of precaution, to burn a light

at night, cannot fall asleep in the dark" (p. 457).
"During sleep the psyche isolates itself from



the outer world, and withdraws from the

periphery.... Nevertheless, the connection is not

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entirely broken; if one did not hear and feel during

sleep, but only after waking, one would assuredly


never be awakened at all. The continuance of


sensation is even more plainly shown by the fact
that we are not always awakened by the mere force


of the sensory impression, but by its relation to the
psyche. An indifferent word does not arouse the


sleeper, but if called by name he wakes... so that
even in sleep the psyche discriminates between


sensations.... Hence one may even be awakened by
the obliteration of a sensory stimulus, if this is


related to anything of imagined importance. Thus

one man wakes when the nightlight is extinguished,


and the miller when his mill comes to a standstill;



that is, waking is due to the cessation of a sensory

activity, and this presupposes that the activity has


been perceived, but has not disturbed the mind, its

effect being indifferent, or actually reassuring" (p.
46, etc.).



Even if we are willing to disregard these by

no means trifling objections, we must yet admit that

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the qualities of dream-life hitherto considered, which

are attributed to withdrawal from the outer world,


cannot fully account for the strangeness of dreams.


For otherwise it would be possible to reconvert the
hallucinations of the dream into mental images, and


the situations of the dream into thoughts, and thus
to achieve the task of dream-interpretation. Now


this is precisely what we do when we reproduce a
dream from memory after waking, and no matter


whether we are fully or only partially successful in
this retranslation, the dream still remains as


mysterious as before.
Furthermore, all writers unhesitatingly


assume that still other and profounder changes take



place in the plastic material of waking life. Strumpell

seeks to isolate one of these changes as follows: (p.


17) "With the cessation of active sensory perception

and of normal consciousness, the psyche is deprived
of the soil in which its feelings, desires, interests,



and activities are rooted. Those psychic states,

feelings, interests, and valuations, which in the

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waking state adhere to memory-images, succumb to

an obscuring pressure, in consequence of which


their connection with these images is severed; the


perceptual images of things, persons, localities,
events and actions of the waking state are,


individually, abundantly reproduced, but none of
these brings with it its psychic value. Deprived of


this, they hover in the mind dependent on their own
resources..."


This annihilation of psychic values, which is
in turn referred to a turning away from the outer


world, is, according to Strumpell, very largely

responsible for the impression of strangeness with


which the dream is coloured in our memory.



We have seen that the very fact of falling

asleep involves a renunciation of one of the psychic


activities- namely, the voluntary guidance of the

flow of ideas. Thus the supposition obtrudes itself
(though it is in any case a natural one) that the



state of sleep may extend even to the psychic

functions. One or another of these functions is

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perhaps entirely suspended; we have now to

consider whether the rest continue to operate


undisturbed, whether they are able to perform their


normal work under the circumstances. The idea
occurs to us that the peculiarities of the dream may


be explained by the restricted activity of the psyche
during sleep, and the impression made by the dream


upon our waking judgment tends to confirm this
view. The dream is incoherent; it reconciles, without


hesitation, the worst contradictions; it admits
impossibilities; it disregards the authoritative


knowledge of the waking state, and it shows us as

ethically and morally obtuse. He who should behave


in the waking state as his dreams represent him as



behaving would be considered insane. He who in the

waking state should speak as he does in his dreams,


or relate such things as occur in his dreams, would

impress us as a feeble-minded or muddle-headed
person. It seems to us, then, that we are merely



speaking in accordance with the facts of the case

when we rate psychic activity in dreams very low,

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and especially when we assert that in dreams the

higher intellectual activities are suspended or at


least greatly impaired.


With unusual unanimity (the exceptions will
be dealt with elsewhere) the writers on the subject


have pronounced such judgments as lead
immediately to a definite theory or explanation of


dream-life. It is now time to supplement the resume
which I have just given by a series of quotations


from a number of authors- philosophers and
physicians- bearing upon the psychological


characteristics of the dream.

According to Lemoine, the incoherence of


the dream-images is the sole essential characteristic



of the dream.
Maury agrees with him (Le Sommeil, p.


163): "Il n'y a pas des reves absolument

raisonnables et qui ne contiennent quelque
incoherence, quelque absurdite."[26]



According to Hegel, quoted by Spitta, the

dream lacks any intelligible objective coherence.

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Dugas says: "Les reve, c'est l'anarchie

psychique, affective et mentale, c'est le jeu des


fonctions livrees a elles-memes et s'exercant sans


controle et sans but; dans le reve l'esprit est un
automate spirituel."[27]


"The relaxation, dissolution, and
promiscuous confusion of the world of ideas and


images held together in waking life by the logical
power of the central ego" is conceded even by


Volkelt (p. 14), according to whose theory the
psychic activity during sleep appears to be by no


means aimless.
The absurdity of the associations of ideas


which occur in dreams can hardly be more strongly



stigmatized than it was by Cicero (De Divinatione,

II. lxxi): "Nihil tam praepostere, tam incondite, tam


monstruose cogitari potest, quod non possimus

somniare."[28]
Fechner says (p. 522): "It is as though the



psychological activity of the brain of a reasonable

person were to migrate into that of a fool."

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Radestock (p. 145): "It seems indeed

impossible to recognize any stable laws in this


preposterous behaviour. Withdrawing itself from the


strict policing of the rational will that guides our
waking ideas, and from the processes of attention,


the dream, in crazy sport, whirls all things about in
kaleidoscopic confusion."


Hildebrandt (p. 45): "What wonderful jumps
the dreamer permits himself, for instance, in his


chain of reasoning! With what unconcern he sees the
most familiar laws of experience turned upside


down! What ridiculous contradictions he is able to

tolerate in the order of nature and of society, before


things go too far, and the very excess of nonsense



leads to an awakening! Sometimes we quite

innocently calculate that three times three make


twenty; and we are not in the least surprised if a

dog recites poetry to us, if a dead person walks to
his grave, or if a rock floats on the water. We



solemnly go to visit the duchy of Bernburg or the

principality of Liechtenstein in order to inspect its

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navy; or we allow ourselves to be recruited as a

volunteer by Charles XII just before the battle of


Poltava."


Binz (p. 33), referring to the theory of
dreams resulting from these impressions, says: "Of


ten dreams nine at least have an absurd content.
We unite in them persons or things which do not


bear the slightest relation to one another. In the
next moment, as in a kaleidoscope, the grouping


changes to one, if possible, even more nonsensical
and irrational than before; and so the shifting play


of the drowsy brain continues, until we wake, put a

hand to our forehead, and ask ourselves whether we


still really possess the faculty of rational imagination



and thought."
Maury, Le Sommeil (p. 50) makes, in


respect of the relation of the dream-image to the

waking thoughts, a comparison which a physician
will find especially impressive: "La production de ces



images que chez l'homme eveille fait le plus souvent

naitre la volonte, correspond, pour l'intelligence, a

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ce que sont pour la motilite certains mouvements

que nous offrent la choree et les affections


paralytiques...."[29] For the rest, he considers the


dream "toute une serie de degradations de la faculte
pensante et raisonnante"[30] (p. 27).


It is hardly necessary to cite the utterances
of those authors who repeat Maury's assertion in


respect of the higher individual psychic activities.
According to Strumpell, in dreams- and


even, of course, where the nonsensical nature of the
dream is not obvious- all the logical operations of


the mind, based on relations and associations,

recede into the background (p. 26). According to


Spitta (p. 148) ideas in dreams are entirely



withdrawn from the laws of causality; while

Radestock and others emphasize the feebleness of


judgment and logical inference peculiar to dreams.

According to Jodl (p. 123), there is no criticism in
dreams, no correcting of a series of perceptions by



the content of consciousness as a whole. The same

author states that "All the activities of consciousness

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occur in dreams, but they are imperfect, inhibited,

and mutually isolated." The contradictions of our


conscious knowledge which occur in dreams are


explained by Stricker and many others on the
ground that facts are forgotten in dreams, or that


the logical relations between ideas are lost (p. 98),
etc., etc.


Those authors who, in general, judge so
unfavourably of the psychic activities of the dreamer


nevertheless agree that dreams do retain a certain
remnant of psychic activity. Wundt, whose teaching


has influenced so many other investigators of

dream-problems, expressly admits this. We may


ask, what are the nature and composition of the



remnants of normal psychic life which manifest

themselves in dreams? It is pretty generally


acknowledged that the reproductive faculty, the

memory, seems to be the least affected in dreams;
it may, indeed, show a certain superiority over the



same function in waking life (see chapter I, B), even

though some of the absurdities of dreams are to be

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explained by the forgetfulness of dream-life.

According to Spitta, it is the sentimental life of the


psyche which is not affected by sleep, and which


thus directs our dreams. By sentiment (Gemut) he
means "the constant sum of the emotions as the


inmost subjective essence of the man" (p. 84).
Scholz (p. 37) sees in dreams a psychic


activity which manifests itself in the "allegorizing
interpretation" to which the dream-material is


subjected. Siebeck (p. 11) likewise perceives in
dreams a "supplementary interpretative activity" of


the psyche, which applies itself to all that is

observed and perceived. Any judgment of the part


played in dreams by what is presumed to be the



highest psychical function, i.e., consciousness,

presents a peculiar difficulty. Since it is only through


consciousness that we can know anything of

dreams, there can be no doubt as to its being
retained. Spitta, however, believes that only



consciousness is retained in the dream, but not self-

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consciousness. Delboeuf confesses that he is unable

to comprehend this distinction.


The laws of association which connect our


mental images hold good also for what is
represented in dreams; indeed, in dreams the


dominance of these laws is more obvious and
complete than in the waking state. Strumpell (p. 70)


says: "Dreams would appear to proceed either
exclusively in accordance with the laws of pure


representation, or in accordance with the laws of
organic stimuli accompanied by such


representations; that is, without being influenced by

reflection, reason, aesthetic taste, or moral


judgment." The authors whose opinions I here



reproduce conceive the formation of the dream

somewhat as follows: The sum of sensory stimuli of


varying origin (discussed elsewhere) that are

operative in sleep at first awaken in the psyche a
number of images which present themselves as



hallucinations (according to Wundt, it is more

correct to say "as illusions," because of their origin

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in external and internal stimuli). These combine with

one another in accordance with the known laws of


association, and, in accordance with the same laws,


they in turn evoke a new series of representations
(images). The whole of this material is then


elaborated as far as possible by the still active
remnant of the thinking and organizing faculties of


the psyche (cf. Wundt and Weygandt). Thus far,
however, no one has been successful in discerning


the motive which would decide what particular law
of association is to be obeyed by those images which


do not originate in external stimuli.

But it has been repeatedly observed that the


associations which connect the dream-images with



one another are of a particular kind, differing from

those found in the activities of the waking mind.


Thus Volkelt (p. 15): "In dreams the ideas chase

and seize upon one another on the strength of
accidental similarities and barely perceptible



connections. All dreams are pervaded by casual and

unconstrained associations of this kind." Maury

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attaches great value to this characteristic of the

connection of ideas, for it allows him to draw a


closer analogy between the dream-life and certain


mental derangements. He recognizes two main
characteristics of "deliria": "(1) une action


spontanee et comme automatique de l'esprit; (2)
une association vicieuse et irreguliere des idees"[31]


(p. 126). Maury gives us two excellent examples
from his own dreams, in which the mere similarity of


sound decides the connection between the dream-
representations. Once he dreamed that he was on a


pilgrimage (pelerinage) to Jerusalem, or to Mecca.

After many adventures he found himself in the


company of the chemist Pelletier; the latter, after



some conversation, gave him a galvanized shovel

(pelle) which became his great broadsword in the


next portion of the dream (p. 137). In another

dream he was walking along a highway where he
read the distances on the kilometre-stones;



presently he found himself at a grocer's who had a

large pair of scales; a man put kilogramme weights

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into the scales, in order to weigh Maury; the grocer

then said to him: "You are not in Paris, but on the


island Gilolo." This was followed by a number of


pictures, in which he saw the flower lobelia, and
then General Lopez, of whose death he had read a


little while previously. Finally he awoke as he was
playing a game of lotto.[32]


We are, indeed, quite well aware that this
low estimate of the psychic activities of the dream


has not been allowed to pass without contradiction
from various quarters. Yet here contradiction would


seem rather difficult. It is not a matter of much

significance that one of the depreciators of dream-


life, Spitta (p. 118), should assure us that the same



psychological laws which govern the waking state

rule the dream also, or that another (Dugas) should


state: "Le reve n'est pas deraison ni meme irraison

pure,"[33] so long as neither of them has attempted
to bring this opinion into harmony with the psychic



anarchy and dissolution of all mental functions in the

dream which they themselves have described.

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However, the possibility seems to have dawned

upon others that the madness of the dream is


perhaps not without its method- that it is perhaps


only a disguise, a dramatic pretence, like that of
Hamlet, to whose madness this perspicacious


judgment refers. These authors must either have
refrained from judging by appearances, or the


appearances were, in their case, altogether
different.


Without lingering over its superficial
absurdity, Havelock Ellis considers the dream as "an


archaic world of vast emotions and imperfect

thoughts," the study of which may acquaint us with


the primitive stages of the development of mental



life. J. Sully (p. 362) presents the same conception

of the dream in a still more comprehensive and


penetrating fashion. His statements deserve all the

more consideration when it is added that he,
perhaps more than any other psychologist, was



convinced of the veiled significance of the dream.

"Now our dreams are a means of conserving these

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successive personalities. When asleep we go back to

the old ways of looking at things and of feeling


about them, to impulses and activities which long


ago dominated us." A thinker like Delboeuf asserts-
without, indeed, adducing proof in the face of


contradictory data, and hence without real
justification- "Dans le sommeil, hormis la


perception, toutes les facultes de l'esprit,
intelligence, imagination, memoire, volonte,


moralite, restent intactes dans leur essence;
seulement, elles s'appliquent a des objets


imaginaires et mobiles. Le songeur est un acteur qui

joue a volonte les fous et les sages, les bourreaux et


les victimes, les nains et les geants, les demons et



les anges"[34] (p. 222). The Marquis Hervey,[35]

who is flatly contradicted by Maury, and whose


essay I have been unable to obtain despite all my

efforts, appears emphatically to protest against the
under-estimation of the psychic capacity in the



dream. Maury speaks of him as follows (p. 19): "M.

le Marquis Hervey prete a l'intelligence durant le

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sommeil toute sa liberte d'action et d'attention, et il

ne semble faire consister le sommeil que dans


l'occlusion des sens, dans leur fermeture au monde


exterieur; en sorte que l'homme qui dort ne se
distingue guere, selon sa maniere de voir, de


l'homme qui laisse vaguer sa pensee en se bouchant
les sens; toute la difference qui separe alors la


pensee ordinaire du celle du dormeur c'est que, chez
celui-ci, l'idee prend une forme visible, objective, et


ressemble, a s'y meprendre, a la sensation
determinee par les objets exterieurs; le souvenir


revet l'apparence du fait present."[36]

Maury adds, however, "qu'il y a une


difference de plus et capitale a savoir que les



facultes intellectuelles de l'homme endormi n'offrent

pas l'equilibre qu'elles gardent chez l'homme


eveille."[37]
In Vaschide, who gives us fully information
as to Hervey's book, we find that this author



expresses himself as follows, in respect to the

apparent incoherence of dreams: "L'image du reve

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est la copie de l'idee. Le principal est l'idee; la vision

n'est pas qu'accessoire. Ceci etabli, il faut savoir


suivre la marche des idees, il faut savoir analyser le


tissu des reves; l'incoherence devient alors
comprehensible, les conceptions les plus fantasques


deviennent des faits simples et parfaitement
logiques"[38] (p. 146). And (p. 147): "Les reves les


plus bizarres trouvent meme une explication des
plus logiques quand on sait les analyser."[39]


J. Starke has drawn attention to the fact
that a similar solution of the incoherence of dreams


was put forward in 1799 by an old writer, Wolf

Davidson, who was unknown to me (p. 136): "The


peculiar leaps of our imaginings in the dream-state



all have their cause in the laws of association, but

this connection often occurs very obscurely in the


soul, so that we frequently seem to observe a leap

of the imagination where none really exists."
The evaluation of the dream as a psychic



product in the literature of the subject varies over a

very wide scale; it extends from the extreme of

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under-estimation, as we have already seen, through

premonitions that it may have a value as yet


unrevealed, to an exaggerated over-estimation,


which sets the dream-life far above the capacities of
waking life. In his psychological characterization of


dream-life, Hildebrandt, as we know, groups it into
three antinomies, and he combines in the third of


these antinomies the two extreme points of this
scale of values (p. 19): "It is the contrast between,


on the one hand, an enhancement, an increase of
potentiality, which often amounts to virtuosity, and


on the other hand a decided diminution and

enfeeblement of the psychic life, often to a sub-


human level."


"As regards the first, who is there that

cannot confirm from his own experience the fact


that in the workings and weavings of the genius of

dreams, there are sometimes exhibited a profundity
and sincerity of emotion, a tenderness of feeling, a



clearness of view, a subtlety of observation and a

readiness of wit, such as we should have modestly

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to deny that we always possessed in our waking life?

Dreams have a wonderful poetry, an apposite


allegory, an incomparable sense of humour, a


delightful irony. They see the world in the light of a
peculiar idealization, and often intensify the effect of


their phenomena by the most ingenious
understanding of the reality underlying them. They


show us earthly beauty in a truly heavenly radiance,
the sublime in its supremest majesty, and that


which we know to be terrible in its most frightful
form, while the ridiculous becomes indescribably and


drastically comical. And on waking we are

sometimes still so full of one of these impressions


that it will occur to us that such things have never



yet been offered to us by the real world."

One might here ask oneself: do these


depreciatory remarks and these enthusiastic praises

really refer to the self-same phenomenon? Have
some writers overlooked the foolish and others the



profound and sensitive dreams? And if both kinds of

dreams do occur- that is, dreams that merit both

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these judgments- does it not seem idle to seek a

psychological characterization of the dream? Would


it not suffice to state that everything is possible in


the dream, from the lowest degradation of the
psychic life to its flight to heights unknown in the


waking state? Convenient as such a solution might
be, it has this against it: that behind the efforts of


all the investigators of dreams there seems to lurk
the assumption that there is in dreams some


characteristic which is universally valid in its
essential features, and which must eliminate all


these contradictions.
It is unquestionably true that the mental


capacities of dreams found readier and warmer



recognition in the intellectual period now lying

behind us, when philosophy rather than exact


natural science ruled the more intelligent minds.

Statements like that of Schubert, to the effect that
the dream frees the mind from the power of external



nature, that it liberates the soul from the chains of

sensory life, together with similar opinions

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expressed by the younger Fichte[40] and others,

who represent dreams as a soaring of the mind to a


higher plane- all these seem hardly conceivable to


us today; they are repeated at present only by
mystics and devotees.[41] With the advance of a


scientific mode of thought a reaction took place in
the estimation of dreams. It is the medical writers


who are most inclined to underrate the psychic
activity in dreams, as being insignificant and


valueless; while philosophers and unprofessional
observers- amateur psychologists- whose


contributions to the subject in especial must not be

overlooked, have for the most part, in agreement


with popular belief, laid emphasis on the



psychological value of dreams. Those who are

inclined to underrate the psychic activity of dreams


naturally show a preference for the somatic sources

of excitation in the aetiology of the dream; those
who admit that the dreaming mind may retain the



greater part of its waking faculties naturally have no

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motive for denying the existence of autonomous

stimulations


Among the superior accomplishments which


one may be tempted, even on a sober comparison,
to ascribe to the dream-life, that of memory is the


most impressive. We have fully discussed the by no
means rare experiences which prove this superiority.


Another privilege of the dream-life, often extolled by
the older writers- namely, the fact that it can


overstep the limitations of time and space- is easily
recognized as an illusion. This privilege, as


Hildebrandt remarks, is merely illusory; dreams

disregard time and space only as does waking


thought, and only because dreaming is itself a form



of thinking. Dreams are supposed to enjoy a further

advantage in respect of time- to be independent of


the passage of time in yet another sense. Dreams

like Maury's dream of his execution (p. 147 above)
seem to show that the perceptual content which the



dream can compress into a very short space of time

far exceeds that which can be mastered by our

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psychic activity in its waking thoughts. These

conclusions have, however, been disputed. The


essays of Le Lorrain and Egger on The Apparent


Duration of Dreams gave rise to a long and
interesting discussion, which in all probability has


not yet found the final explanation of this profound
and delicate problem.[42]


That dreams are able to continue the
intellectual activities of the day and to carry them to


a point which could not be arrived at during the day,
that they may resolve doubts and problems, and


that they may be the source of fresh inspiration in

poets and composers, seems, in the light of


numerous records, and of the collection of instances



compiled by Chabaneix, to be proved beyond

question. But even though the facts may be beyond


dispute, their interpretation is subject to many

doubts on wider grounds.[43]
Finally, the alleged divinatory power of the



dream has become a subject of contention in which

almost insuperable objections are confronted by

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obstinate and reiterated assertions. It is, of course,

right that we should refrain from denying that this


view has any basis whatever in fact, since it is quite


possible that a number of such cases may before
long be explained on purely natural psychological


grounds.
F. The Ethical Sense in Dreams


For reasons which will be intelligible only
after a consideration of my own investigations of


dreams, I have isolated from the psychology of the
dream the subsidiary problem as to whether and to


what extent the moral dispositions and feelings of

waking life extend into dream-life. The same


contradictions which we were surprised to observe in



the descriptions by various authors of all the other

psychic activities will surprise us again here. Some


writers flatly assert that dreams know nothing of

moral obligations; others as decidedly declare that
the moral nature of man persists even in his dream-



life.

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Our ordinary experience of dreams seems to

confirm beyond all doubt the correctness of the first


assertion. Jessen says (p. 553): "Nor does one


become better or more virtuous during sleep; on the
contrary, it seems that conscience is silent in our


dreams, inasmuch as one feels no compassion and
can commit the worst crimes, such as theft, murder,


and homicide, with perfect indifference and without
subsequent remorse."


Radestock (p. 146) says: "It is to be noted
that in dreams associations are effected and ideas


combined without being in any way influenced by

reflection, reason, aesthetic taste, and moral


judgment; the judgment is extremely weak, and



ethical indifference reigns supreme."

Volkelt (p. 23) expresses himself as follows:


"As every one knows, dreams are especially

unbridled in sexual matters. Just as the dreamer
himself is shameless in the extreme, and wholly



lacking in moral feeling and judgment, so likewise

does he see others, even the most respected

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persons, doing things which, even in his thoughts,

he would blush to associate with them in his waking


state."


Utterances like those of Schopenhauer, that
in dreams every man acts and talks in complete


accordance with his character, are in sharpest
contradiction to those mentioned above. R. Ph.


Fischer[44] maintains that the subjective feelings
and desires, or affects and passions, manifest


themselves in the wilfulness of the dream-life, and
that the moral characteristics of a man are mirrored


in his dreams.
Haffner says (p. 25): "With rare


exceptions... a virtuous man will be virtuous also in



his dreams; he will resist temptation, and show no

sympathy for hatred, envy, anger, and all other


vices; whereas the sinful man will, as a rule,

encounter in his dreams the images which he has
before him in the waking state."



Scholz (p. 36): "In dreams there is truth;

despite all camouflage of nobility or degradation, we

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recognize our own true selves.... The honest man

does not commit a dishonouring crime even in his


dreams, or, if he does, he is appalled by it as by


something foreign to his nature. The Roman
emperor who ordered one of his subjects to be


executed because he dreamed that he had cut off
the emperor's head was not far wrong in justifying


his action on the ground that he who has such
dreams must have similar thoughts while awake.


Significantly enough, we say of things that find no
place even in our intimate thoughts: 'I would never


even dream of such a thing.'"

Plato, on the other hand, considers that they


are the best men who only dream the things which


other men do.

Plaff,[45] varying a familiar proverb, says:


"Tell me your dreams for a time and I will tell you

what you are within."
The little essay of Hildebrandt's from which I



have already taken so many quotations (the best-

expressed and most suggestive contribution to the

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literature of the dream-problem which I have

hitherto discovered), takes for its central theme the


problem of morality in dreams. For Hildebrandt, too,


it is an established rule that the purer the life, the
purer the dream; the impurer the life, the impurer


the dream.
The moral nature of man persists even in


dreams. "But while we are not offended or made
suspicious by an arithmetical error, no matter how


obvious, by a reversal of scientific fact, no matter
how romantic, or by an anachronism, no matter how


ridiculous, we nevertheless do not lose sight of the

difference between good and evil, right and wrong,


virtue and vice. No matter how much of that which



accompanies us during the day may vanish in our

hours of sleep, Kant's categorical imperative dogs


our steps as an inseparable companion, of whom we

cannot rid ourselves even in our slumber.... This can
be explained only by the fact that the fundamental



element of human nature, the moral essence, is too

firmly fixed to be subjected to the kaleidoscopic

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shaking-up to which phantasy, reason, memory, and

other faculties of the same order succumb in our


dreams" (p. 45, etc.).


In the further discussion of the subject we
find in both these groups of authors remarkable


evasions and inconsequences. Strictly speaking, all
interest in immoral dreams should be at an end for


those who assert that the moral personality of the
individual falls to pieces in his dreams. They could as


coolly reject all attempts to hold the dreamer
responsible for his dreams, or to infer from the


immorality of his dreams that there is an immoral

strain in his nature, as they have rejected the


apparently analogous attempt to prove from the



absurdity of his dreams the worthlessness of his

intellectual life in the waking state. The others,


according to whom the categorical imperative

extends even into the dream, ought to accept in toto
the notion of full responsibility for immoral dreams;



and we can only hope that their own reprehensible

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dreams do not lead them to abandon their otherwise

firm belief in their own moral worth.


As a matter of fact, however, it would seem


that although no one is positively certain just how
good or how bad he is, he can hardly deny that he


can recollect immoral dreams of his own. That there
are such dreams no one denies; the only question


is: how do they originate? So that, in spite of their
conflicting judgments of dream-morality, both


groups of authors are at pains to explain the genesis
of the immoral dream; and here a new conflict


arises, as to whether its origin is to be sought in the

normal functions of the psychic life, or in the


somatically conditioned encroachments upon this



life. The nature of the facts compels both those who

argue for and those who argue against moral


responsibility in dream-life to agree in recognizing a

special psychic source for the immorality of dreams.
Those who maintain that morality continues



to function in our dream-life nevertheless refrain

from assuming full responsibility for their dreams.

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Haffner says (p. 24): "We are not responsible for our
dreams, because that basis which alone gives our


life truth and reality is withdrawn from our thoughts


and our will. Hence the wishes and actions of our
dreams cannot be virtuous or sinful." Yet the


dreamer is responsible for the sinful dream in so far
as indirectly he brings it about. Thus, as in waking


life, it is his duty, just before going to sleep, morally
to cleanse his mind.


The analysis of this admixture of denial and
recognition of responsibility for the moral content of


dreams is carried much further by Hildebrandt. After

arguing that the dramatic method of representation


characteristic of dreams, the condensation of the



most complicated processes of reflection into the

briefest periods of time, and the debasement and


confusion of the imaginative elements of dreams,

which even he admits must be allowed for in respect
of the immoral appearance of dreams, he



nevertheless confesses that there are the most

serious objections to flatly denying all responsibility

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for the lapses and offenses of which we are guilty in

our dreams.


(p. 49): "If we wish to repudiate very


decisively any sort of unjust accusation, and
especially one which has reference to our intentions


and convictions, we use the expression: 'We should
never have dreamt of such a thing.' By this, it is


true, we mean on the one hand that we consider the
region of dreams the last and remotest place in


which we could be held responsible for our thoughts,
because there these thoughts are so loosely and


incoherently connected with our real being that we

can, after all, hardly regard them as our own; but


inasmuch as we feel impelled expressly to deny the



existence of such thoughts even in this region, we

are at the same time indirectly admitting that our


justification would not be complete unless it

extended even thus far. And I believe that here,
although unconsciously, we are speaking the



language of truth."

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(p. 52): "No dream-action can be imagined

whose first beginnings have not in some shape


already passed through the mind during our waking


hours, in the form of wish, desire, or impulse."
Concerning this original impulse we must say: The


dream has not discovered it- it has only imitated
and extended it; it has only elaborated into dramatic


form a scrap of historical material which it found
already existing within us; it brings to our mind the


words of the Apostle that he who hates his brother is
a murderer. And though, after we wake, being


conscious of our moral strength, we may smile at

the whole widely elaborated structure of the


depraved dream, yet the original material out of



which we formed it cannot be laughed away. One

feels responsible for the transgressions of one's


dreaming self; not for the whole sum of them, but

yet for a certain percentage. "In short, if in this
sense, which can hardly be impugned, we



understand the words of Christ, that out of the heart

come evil thoughts, then we can hardly help being

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convinced that every sin committed in our dreams

brings with it at least a vague minimum of guilt."


Thus Hildebrandt finds the source of the


immorality of dreams in the germs and hints of evil
impulses which pass through our minds during the


day as mental temptations, and he does not hesitate
to include these immoral elements in the ethical


evaluation of the personality. These same thoughts,
and the same evaluation of these thoughts, have, as


we know, caused devout and holy men of all ages to
lament that they were wicked sinners.[46]


The general occurrence of these contrasting

thoughts in the majority of men, and even in other


regions than the ethical, is of course established



beyond a doubt. They have sometimes been judged

in a less serious spirit. Spitta quotes a relevant


passage from A. Zeller (Article "Irre," in the

Allgemeine Encyklopadie der Wissenschaften, Ersch
and Gruber, p. 144): "An intellect is rarely so



happily organized as to be in full command of itself

at all times and seasons, and never to be disturbed

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in the lucid and constant processes of thought by

ideas not merely unessential, but absolutely


grotesque and nonsensical; indeed, the greatest


thinkers have had cause to complain of this dream-
like, tormenting and distressing rabble of ideas,


which disturbs their profoundest contemplations and
their most pious and earnest meditations."


A clearer light is thrown on the psychological
meaning of these contrasting thoughts by a further


observation of Hildebrandt's, to the effect that
dreams permit us an occasional glimpse of the


deepest and innermost recesses of our being, which

are generally closed to us in our waking state (p.


55). A recognition of this fact is betrayed by Kant in



his Anthropology, when he states that our dreams

may perhaps be intended to reveal to us not what


we are but what we might have been if we had had

another upbringing; and by Radestock (p. 84), who
suggests that dreams disclose to us what we do not



wish to admit to ourselves, and that we therefore

unjustly condemn them as lying and deceptive. J. E.

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Erdmann asserts: "A dream has never told me what

I ought to think of a person, but, to my great


surprise, a dream has more than once taught me


what I do really think of him and feel about him."
And J. H. Fichte expresses himself in a like manner:


"The character of our dreams gives a far truer
reflection of our general disposition than anything


that we can learn by self-observation in the waking
state." Such remarks as this of Benini's call our


attention to the fact that the emergence of impulses
which are foreign to our ethical consciousness is


merely analogous to the manner, already familiar to

us, in which the dream disposes of other


representative material: "Certe nostre inclinazioni



che si credevano soffocate e spente da un pezzo, si

ridestano; passioni vecchie e sepolte revivono; cose


e persone a cui non pensiamo mai, ci vengono

dinanzi" (p. 149). Volkelt expresses himself in a
similar fashion: "Even ideas which have entered into



our consciousness almost unnoticed, and which,

perhaps, it has never before called out of oblivion,

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often announce their presence in the mind through a

dream" (p 105). Finally, we may remember that


according to Schleiermacher the state of falling


asleep is accompanied by the appearance of
undesired imaginings.


We may include in such "undesired
imaginings" the whole of that imaginative material


the occurrence of which surprises us in immoral as
well as in absurd dreams. The only important


difference consists in the fact that the undesired
imaginings in the moral sphere are in opposition to


our usual feelings, whereas the others merely

appear strange to us. So far nothing has been done


to enable us to reconcile this difference by a



profounder understanding. But what is the

significance of the emergence of undesired


representations in dreams? What conclusions can

the psychology of the waking and dreaming mind
draw from these nocturnal manifestations of



contrasting ethical impulses? Here we find a fresh

diversity of opinion, and also a different grouping of

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the authors who have treated of the subject. The

line of thought followed by Hildebrandt, and by


others who share his fundamental opinion, cannot


be continued otherwise than by ascribing to the
immoral impulses, even in the waking state, a latent


vitality, which is indeed inhibited from proceeding to
action, and by asserting that during sleep something


falls away from us which, having the effect of an
inhibition, has kept us from becoming aware of the


existence of such impulses. Dreams therefore,
reveal the true, if not the whole, nature of the


dreamer, and are one means of making the hidden

life of the psyche accessible to our understanding. It


is only on such hypotheses that Hildebrandt can



attribute to the dream the role of a monitor who

calls our attention to the secret mischief in the soul,


just as, according to the physicians, it may

announce a hitherto unobserved physical disorder.
Spitta, too, must be influenced by this conception



when he refers, for example, to the stream of

excitations which flow in upon the psyche during

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puberty, and consoles the dreamer by assuring him

that he has done all that is in his power to do if he


has led a strictly virtuous life during his waking


state, if he has made an effort to suppress the sinful
thoughts as often as they arise, and has kept them


from maturing and turning into action. According to
this conception, we might designate as "undesired


imaginings" those that are suppressed during the
day, and we must recognize in their emergence a


genuine psychic phenomenon.
According to certain other authors, we have


no right to draw this last inference. For Jessen (p.

360) the undesired ideas and images, in the dream


as in the waking state, and also in the delirium of



fever, etc., possess "the character of a voluntary

activity laid to rest, and of a procession, to some


extent mechanical, of images and ideas evoked by

inner impulses." An immoral dream proves nothing
in respect of the psychic life of the dreamer except



that he has somehow become cognizant of the

imaginative content in question; it is certainly no

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proof of a psychic impulse of his own mind. Another

writer, Maury, makes us wonder whether he, too,


does not ascribe to the dream-state the power of


dividing the psychic activity into its components,
instead of aimlessly destroying it. He speaks as


follows of dreams in which one oversteps the bounds
of morality: "Ce sont nos penchants qui parlent et


qui nous font agir, sans que la conscience nous
retienne, bien que parfois elle nous avertisse. J'ai


mes defauts et mes penchants vicieux; a l'etat de
veille, je tache de lutter contre eux, et il m'arrive


assez souvent de n'y pas succomber. Mais dans mes

songes j'y succombe toujours, ou pour mieux dire


j'agis par leur impulsion, sans crainte et sans



remords.... Evidemment les visions qui se deroulent

devant ma pensee, et qui constituent le reve, me


sont suggerees par les incitations que je ressens et

que ma volonte absente ne cherche pas a
refouler."[47] Le Sommeil (p. 113).



If one believed in the power of the dream to

reveal an actually existing, but suppressed or

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concealed, immoral disposition of the dreamer, one

could not express one's opinion more emphatically


than in the words of Maury (p. 115): "En reve


l'homme se revele donc tout entier a soi-meme dans
sa nudite et sa misere natives. Des qu'il suspend


l'exercise de sa volonte, il devient le jouet de toutes
les passions contre lesquelles, a l'etat de veille, la


conscience, le sentiment d'honneur, la crainte nous
defendent."[48] In another place makes the striking


assertion (p. 462): "Dans le reve, c'est surtout
l'homme instinctif que se revele.... L'homme revient


pour ainsi dire l'etat de nature quand il reve; mais

moins les idees acquises ont penetre dans son


esprit, plus 'les penchants en desaccord' avec elles



conservent encore sur lui d'influence dans le

rive."[49] He then mentions, as an example, that his


own dreams often reveal him as a victim of just

those superstitions which he has most vigorously
attacked in his writings.



The value of all these acute observations is,

however, impaired in Maury's case, because he

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refuses to recognize in the phenomena which he has

so accurately observed anything more than a proof


of the automatisme psychologique which in his own


opinion dominates the dream-life. He conceives this
automatism as the complete opposite of psychic


activity.
A passage in Stricker's Studien uber das


Bewusstsein reads: "Dreams do not consist purely
and simply of delusions; for example, if one is afraid


of robbers in a dream, the robbers indeed are
imaginary, but the fear is real." Our attention is here


called to the fact that the affective development of a

dream does not admit of the judgment which one


bestows upon the rest of the dream-content, and



the problem then arises: What part of the psychic

processes in a dream may be real? That is to say,


what part of them may claim to be enrolled among

the psychic processes of the waking state?



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G. Dream-Theories and the Function of

the Dream


A statement concerning the dream which


seeks to explain as many as possible of its observed
characteristics from a single point of view, and


which at the same time defines the relation of the
dream to a more comprehensive sphere of


phenomena, may be described as a theory of the
dream. The individual theories of the dream will be


distinguished from one another by their designating
as essential this or that characteristic of dreams,


and relating thereto their data and their

explanations. It is not absolutely necessary that we


should deduce from the theory of the dream a



function, i.e., a use or any such similar role, but

expectation, being as a matter of habit teleologically


inclined, will nevertheless welcome those theories

which afford us some insight into a function of
dreams.



We have already become acquainted with

many conceptions of the dream, which in this sense

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are more or less deserving of the name of dream-

theories. The belief of the ancients that dreams were


sent by the gods in order to guide the actions of


man was a complete theory of the dream, which told
them all that was worth knowing about dreams.


Since dreams have become an object of biological
research we have a greater number of theories,


some of which, however, are very incomplete.
Provided we make no claim to completeness,


we might venture on the following rough grouping of
dream-theories, based on their fundamental


conception of the degree and mode of the psychic

activity in dreams:


1. Theories, like those of Delboeuf, which



allow the full psychic activity of the waking state to

continue in our dreams. Here the psyche does not


sleep; its apparatus remains intact; but under the

conditions of the sleeping state, which differ from
those of the waking state, it must in its normal



functioning give results which differ from those of

the waking state. As regards these theories, it may

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be questioned whether their authors are in a

position to derive the distinction between dreaming


and waking thought entirely from the conditions of


the sleeping state. Moreover, they lack one possible
access to a function of dreams; one does not


understand to what purpose one dreams- why the
complicated mechanism of the psychic apparatus


should continue to operate even when it is placed
under conditions to which it does not appear to be


adapted. There are only two purposeful reactions in
the place of the reaction of dreaming: to sleep


dreamlessly, or to wake when affected by disturbing

stimuli.


2. Theories which, on the contrary, assume



for the dream a diminution of the psychic activity, a

loosening of connections, and an impoverishment of


the available material. In accordance with these

theories, one must assume for sleep a psychological
character entirely different from that given by



Delboeuf. Sleep encroaches widely upon the psyche;

it does not consist in the mere shutting it off from

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the outer world; on the contrary, it enters into its

mechanism, and makes it for the time being


unserviceable. If I may draw a comparison from


psychiatry, I would say that the first group of
theories construes the dream like a paranoia, while


the second represents it as a type of mental
deficiency or amentia.


The theory that only a fragment of the
psychic activity paralysed by sleep finds expression


in dreams is that by far the most favoured by
medical writers, and by scientists in general. In so


far as one may presuppose a general interest in

dream-interpretation, one may indeed describe it as


the most popular theory of dreams. It is remarkable



how nimbly this particular theory avoids the greatest

danger that threatens every dream-interpretation;


that is, shipwreck on one of the contrasts

incorporated in dreams. Since this theory regards
dreams as the result of a partial waking (or, as



Herbart puts it in his Psychologie uber den Traum,

"a gradual, partial, and at the same time very

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anomalous waking"), it is able to cover the whole

series, from the inferior activities of dreams, which


betray themselves by their absurdity, to fully


concentrated intellectual activity, by a series of
states of progressive awakening, ending in complete


wakefulness.
Those who find the physiological mode of


expression indispensable, or who deem it more
scientific, will find this theory of dreams summarized


in Binz's description (p. 43):
"This state (of torpor), however, gradually


comes to an end in the hours of early morning. The

accumulated products of fatigue in the albumen of


the brain gradually diminish. They are slowly



decomposed, or carried away by the constantly

flowing blood-stream. Here and there individual


groups of cells can be distinguished as being awake,

while around them all is still in a state of torpidity.
The isolated work of the individual groups now



appears before our clouded consciousness, which is

still powerless to control other parts of the brain,

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which govern the associations. Hence the pictures

created, which for the most part correspond to the


objective impressions of the immediate past,


combine with one another in a wild and uncontrolled
fashion. As the number of brain-cells set free


constantly increases, the irrationality of the dream
becomes constantly less."


The conception of the dream as an
incomplete, partial waking state, or traces of the


influence of this conception, will of course be found
in the works of all the modern physiologists and


philosophers. It is most completely represented by

Maury. It often seems as though this author


conceives the state of being awake or asleep as



susceptible of shifting from one anatomical region to

another; each anatomical region seeming to him to


be connected with a definite psychic function. Here I

will merely suggest that even if the theory of partial
waking were confirmed, its finer superstructure



would still call for exhaustive consideration.

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No function of dreams, of course, can

emerge from this conception of the dream-life. On


the contrary, Binz, one of the chief proponents of


this theory, consistently enough denies that dreams
have any status or importance. He says (p. 357):


"All the facts, as we see them, urge us to
characterize the dream as a physical process, in all


cases useless, and in many cases definitely morbid."
The expression physical in reference to


dreams (the word is emphasized by the author)
points, of course, in more than one direction. In the


first place, it refers to the aetiology of dreams,

which was of special interest to Binz, as he was


studying the experimental production of dreams by



the administration of drugs. It is certainly in keeping

with this kind of dream-theory to ascribe the


incitement to dreaming, whenever possible,

exclusively to somatic origins. Presented in the most
extreme form the theory is as follows: After we have



put ourselves to sleep by the banishment of stimuli,

there would be no need to dream, and no reason for

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dreaming until the morning, when the gradual

awakening through the fresh invasion of stimuli


might be reflected in the phenomenon of dreaming.


But, as a matter of fact, it is not possible to protect
our sleep from stimuli; like the germs of life of which


Mephistopheles complained, stimuli come to the
sleeper from all directions- from without, from


within, and even from all those bodily regions which
never trouble us during the waking state. Thus our


sleep is disturbed; now this, now that little corner of
the psyche is jogged into the waking state, and the


psyche functions for a while with the awakened

fraction, yet is thankful to fall asleep again. The


dream is the reaction to the disturbance of sleep



caused by the stimulus, but it is, when all is said, a

purely superfluous reaction.


The description of the dream- which, after

all, remains an activity of the psychic organ- as a
physical process has yet another connotation. So to



describe it is to deny that the dream has the dignity

of a psychic process. The old simile of "the ten

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fingers of a person ignorant of music running over

the keyboard of an instrument" perhaps best


illustrates in what esteem the dream is commonly


held by the representatives of exact science. Thus
conceived, it becomes something wholly


insusceptible of interpretation. How could the ten
fingers of a player ignorant of music perform a


musical composition?
The theory of partial wakefulness did not


escape criticism even by the earlier writers. Thus
Burdach wrote in 1830: "If we say that dreaming is


a partial waking, then, in the first place, neither the

waking nor the sleeping state is explained thereby;


secondly, this amounts only to saying that certain



powers of the mind are active in dreams while

others are at rest. But such irregularities occur


throughout life..." (p. 482).

The prevailing dream-theory which
conceives the dream as a "physical" process finds a



certain support in a very interesting conception of

the dream which was first propounded by Robert in

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1866, and which is seductive because it assigns to

the dream a function or a useful result. As the basis


of his theory Robert takes two objectively


observable facts which we have already discussed in
our consideration of dream-material (chapter I., B).


These facts are: (1) that one very often dreams
about the most insignificant impressions of the day;


and (2) that one rarely carries over into the dream
the absorbing interests of the day. Robert asserts as


an indisputable fact that those matters which have
been fully settled and solved never evoke dreams,


but only such as lie incompleted in the mind, or

touch it merely in passing (p. 10). "For this reason


we cannot usually explain our dreams, since their



causes are to be found in sensory impressions of the

preceding day which have not attained sufficient


recognition on the part of the dreamer." The

condition permitting an impression to reach the
dream is, therefore, that this impression has been



disturbed in its elaboration, or that it was too

insignificant to lay claim to such elaboration.

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Robert therefore conceives the dream "as a

physical process of elimination which in its psychic


reaction reaches the consciousness." Dreams are


eliminations of thoughts nipped in the bud. "A man
deprived of the capacity for dreaming would in time


become mentally unbalanced, because an immense
number of unfinished and unsolved thoughts and


superficial impressions would accumulate in his
brain, under the pressure of which all that should be


incorporated in the memory as a completed whole
would be stifled." The dream acts as a safety-valve


for the over-burdened brain. Dreams possess a

healing and unburdening power (p. 32).


We should misunderstand Robert if we were



to ask him how representation in the dream could

bring about an unburdening of the mind. The writer


apparently concluded from these two peculiarities of

the dream-material that during sleep such an
elimination of worthless impressions is effected



somehow as a somatic process; and that dreaming

is not a special psychic process, but only the

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information which we receive of such elimination.

Moreover, elimination is not the only thing that


takes place in the mind during sleep. Robert himself


adds that the stimuli of the day are likewise
elaborated, and "what cannot be eliminated from the


undigested thought-material lying in the mind is
bound up into a completed whole by mental clues


borrowed from the imagination, and is thus enrolled
in the memory as a harmless phantasy-picture" (p.


23).
But it is in his criticism of the sources of


dreams that Robert is most flatly opposed to the

prevailing theory. Whereas according to this theory


there would be no dream if the external and internal



sensory stimuli did not repeatedly wake the mind,

according to Robert the impulse to dream lies in the


mind itself. It lies in the overloading of the mind,

which demands discharge, and Robert considers,
quite consistently, that those causes conditioning



the dream which depend on the physical condition

assume a subordinate rank, and could not incite

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dreams in a mind which contained no material for

dream-formation derived from the waking


consciousness. It is admitted, however, that the


phantasy-images originating in the depths of the
mind may be influenced by nervous stimuli (p. 48).


Thus, according to Robert, dreams are not, after all,
wholly dependent on the somatic element. Dreaming


is, of course, not a psychic process, and it has no
place among the psychic processes of the waking


state; it is a nocturnal somatic process in the
apparatus of mental activity, and has a function to


perform, viz., to guard this apparatus against

excessive strain, or, if we may be allowed to change


the comparison, to cleanse the mind.



Another author, Yves Delage, bases his

theory on the same characteristics of the dream-


characteristics which are perceptible in the selection

of the dream-material, and it is instructive to
observe how a trifling twist in the conception of the



same things gives a final result entirely different in

its bearings. Delage, having lost through death a

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person very dear to him, found that we either do not

dream at all of what occupies us intently during the


day, or that we begin to dream of it only after it is


overshadowed by the other interests of the day. His
investigations in respect of other persons


corroborated the universality of this state of affairs.
Concerning the dreams of newly-married people, he


makes a comment which is admirable if it should
prove to be generally true: "S'ils ont ete fortement


epris, presque jamais ils n'ont reve l'un de l'autre
avant le mariage ou pendant la lune de miel; et s'ils


ont reve d'amour c'est pour etre infideles avec

quelque personne indifferente ou odieuse."[50] But


of what does one dream? Delage recognizes that the



material of our dreams consists of fragments and

remnants of impressions, both from the last few


days and from earlier periods. All that appears in our

dreams, all that we may at first be inclined to
consider the creation of the dream-life, proves on



closer investigation to be unrecognized reproduction,

"souvenir inconscient." But this representative

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material reveals one common characteristic; it

originates from impressions which have probably


affected our senses more forcibly than our mind, or


from which the attention has been deflected soon
after their occurrence. The less conscious, and at


the same time the stronger an impression, the
greater the prospect of its playing a part in our next


dream.
These two categories of impressions- the


insignificant and the undisposed-of- are essentially
the same as those which were emphasized by


Robert, but Delage gives them another significance,

inasmuch as he believes that these impressions are


capable of exciting dreams not because they are



indifferent, but because they are not disposed of.

The insignificant impressions also are, in a sense,


not fully disposed of; they, too, owing to their

character of new impressions, are "autant de
ressorts tendus,"[51] which will be relaxed during



sleep. Still more entitled to a role in the dream than

a weak and almost unnoticed impression is a vivid

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impression which has been accidentally retarded in

its elaboration, or intentionally repressed. The


psychic energy accumulated during the day by


inhibition or suppression becomes the mainspring of
the dream at night. In dreams psychically


suppressed material achieves expression.[52]
Unfortunately Delage does not pursue this


line of thought any farther; he is able to ascribe only
the most insignificant role in our dreams to an


independent psychic activity, and thus, in his theory
of dreams, he reverts to the prevailing doctrine of a


partial slumber of the brain: "En somme le reve est

le produit de la pensee errante, sans but et sans


direction, se fixant successivement sur les



souvenirs, qui ont garde assez d'intensite pour se

placer sur sa route et l'arreter au passage,


etablissant entre eux un lien tantot faible et indecis,

tantot plus fort et plus serre, selon que l'activite
actuelle du cerveau est plus ou moins abolie par le



sommeil."[53]

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3. In a third group we may include those

dream-theories which ascribe to the dreaming mind


the capacity for and propensity to special psychic


activities, which in the waking state it is able to
exert either not at all or imperfectly. In most cases


the manifestation of these activities is held to result
in a useful function of dreams. The evaluations of


dreams by the earlier psychologists fall chiefly within
this category. I shall content myself, however, with


quoting in their stead the assertion of Burdach, to
the effect that dreaming "is the natural activity of


the mind, which is not limited by the power of the

individuality, nor disturbed by self-consciousness,


nor directed by self-determination, but is the vitality



of the sensible focus indulging in free play" (p. 486).

Burdach and others evidently consider this


revelling in the free use of its own powers as a state

in which the mind refreshes itself and gathers fresh
strength for the day's work; something, indeed,



after the fashion of a vacation. Burdach therefore

cites with approval the admirable words in which the

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poet Novalis lauds the power of the dream: "The

dream is a bulwark against the regularity and


commonplace character of life, a free recreation of


the fettered phantasy, in which it intermingles all
the images of life and interrupts the constant


seriousness of the adult by the joyful play of the
child. Without the dream we should surely grow old


earlier, so that the dream may be considered, if not
precisely as a gift from above, yet as a delightful


exercise, a friendly companion on our pilgrimage to
the grave."


The refreshing and healing activity of

dreams is even more impressively described by


Purkinje (p. 456). "The productive dreams in



particular would perform these functions. These are

the unconstrained play of the imagination, and have


no connection with the events of the day. The mind

is loth to continue the tension of the waking life, but
wishes to relax it and recuperate from it. It creates,



in the first place conditions opposed to those of the

waking state. It cures sadness by joy, worry by hope

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and cheerfully distracting images, hatred by love

and friendliness, and fear by courage and


confidence; it appeases doubt by conviction and firm


belief, and vain expectation by realization. Sleep
heals many sore spots in the mind, which the day


keeps continually open, by covering them and
guarding them against fresh irritation. On this


depends in some degree the consoling action of
time." We all feel that sleep is beneficial to the


psychic life, and the vague surmise of the popular
consciousness is apparently loth to surrender the


notion that dreaming is one of the ways in which

sleep bestows its benefits.


The most original and most comprehensive



attempt to explain dreaming as a special activity of

the mind, which can freely unfold itself only in the


sleeping state, is that made by Scherner in 1861.

Scherner's book is written in a heavy and bombastic
style and is inspired by an almost intoxicated



enthusiasm for the subject, which is bound to repel

us unless it can carry us away with it. It places so

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many difficulties in the way of an analysis that we

gladly resort to the clearer and conciser presentation


of Scherner's theories made by the philosopher


Volkelt: "From these mystical conglomerations, from
all these outbursts of splendour and radiance, there


indeed flashes and shines an ominous semblance of
meaning; but the path of the philosopher is not


illumined thereby." Such is the criticism of
Scherner's exposition by one of his own followers.


Scherner is not one of those writers for
whom the mind carries its undiminished faculties


into the dream-life. He even explains how, in our

dreams, the centrality and spontaneous energy of


the ego become enervated; how cognition, feeling,



will, and imagination are transformed by this

decentralization; how the remnant of these psychic


forces has not a truly intellectual character, but is

rather of the nature of a mechanism. But, on the
other hand, that activity of the psyche which may be



described as phantasy, freed from all rational

governance, and hence no longer strictly controlled,

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rises to absolute supremacy in our dreams. To be

sure, it borrows all its building-material from the


memory of the waking state, but with this material it


builds up structures which differ from those of the
waking state as day differs from night. In our


dreams it reveals itself as not only reproductive but
also productive. Its peculiarities give the dream-life


its singular character. It shows a preference for the
unlimited, the exaggerated, the prodigious; but by


its liberation from the inhibiting categories of
thought, it gains a greater flexibility and agility, and


indulges in pleasurable turns. It is excessively

sensitive to the delicate emotional stimuli of the


mind, to its stirring and disturbing affects, and it



rapidly recasts the inner life into an external, plastic

visibility. The dream-phantasy lacks the language of


concepts. What it wishes to say it must express in

visible form; and since in this case the concept does
not exert an inhibitory control, it depicts it in all the



fulness, power, and breadth of visible form. But

hereby its language, plain though it is, becomes

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cumbersome, awkward, and prolix. Plain speaking is

rendered especially difficult by the fact that it


dislikes expressing an object by its actual image, but


prefers to select an alien image, if only the latter is
able to express that particular aspect of the object


which it is anxious to represent. Such is the
symbolizing activity of the phantasy.... It is,


moreover, very significant that the dream-phantasy
reproduces objects not in detail, but only in outline,


and in the freest possible manner. Its paintings,
therefore, are like light and brilliant sketches. The


dream-phantasy, however, does not stop at the

mere representation of the object, but feels an


internal urge to implicate the dream-ego to some



extent with the object, and thus to give rise to

action. The visual dream, for example, depicts gold


coins lying in the street; the dreamer picks them up,

rejoices, and carries them away.
According to Scherner, the material upon



which the dream-phantasy exerts its artistic activity

consists preponderantly of the organic sensory

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stimuli which are so obscure during the day (cf. p.

151 above); hence it is that the over-fantastic


theory of Scherner, and perhaps too matter-of-fact


theories of Wundt and other physiologists, though
otherwise diametrically opposed to each other, are


in perfect agreement in their assumptions with
regard to dream-sources and dream-stimuli. But


whereas, according to the physiological theory, the
psychic reaction to the inner physical stimuli


becomes exhausted with the arousing of any of the
ideas appropriate to these stimuli (as these ideas


then, by way of association, call to their aid other

ideas, so that on reaching this stage the chain of


psychic processes appears to terminate), according



to Scherner, on the other hand, the physical stimuli

merely supply the psyche with material which it may


utilize in fulfilling its phantastic intentions. For

Scherner dream-formation begins where, according
to the views of other writers, it comes to an end.



What the dream-phantasy does with the

physical stimuli cannot, of course, be regarded as

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purposeful. The phantasy plays a tantalizing game

with them, and represents the organic source of the


stimuli of the dream in question by any sort of


plastic symbolism. Indeed, Scherner holds- though
here Volkelt and others differ from him- that the


dream-phantasy has a certain favourite symbol for
the organism as a whole: namely, the house.


Fortunately, however, for its representations, it does
not seem to limit itself to this material; it may also


employ a whole series of houses to designate a
single organ; for example, very long streets of


houses for the intestinal stimulus. In other dreams

particular parts of the house may actually represent


particular regions of the body, as in the headache-



dream, when the ceiling of the room (which the

dream sees covered with disgusting toad-like


spiders) represents the head.

Quite apart from the symbol of the house,
any other suitable object may be employed to



represent those parts of the body which excite the

dream. "Thus the breathing lungs find their symbol

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in the flaming stove with its windy roaring, the heart

in hollow chests and baskets, the bladder in round,


ball-shaped, or simply hollow objects. The man's


dreams, when due to the sexual stimulus, make the
dreamer find in the street the upper portion of a


clarinet, or the mouthpiece of a tobacco-pipe, or,
again, a piece of fur. The clarinet and tobacco-pipe


represent the approximate form of the male sexual
organ, while the fur represents the pubic hair. In the


sexual dreams of the female, the tightness of the
closed thighs may be symbolized by a narrow


courtyard surrounded by houses, and the vagina by

a very narrow, slippery and soft footpath, leading


through the courtyard, upon which the dreamer is



obliged to walk, in order perhaps to carry a letter to

a man" (Volkelt, p. 39). It is particularly noteworthy


that at the end of such a physically stimulated

dream the phantasy, as it were, unmasks itself by
representing the exciting organ or its function



unconcealed. Thus the "tooth-excited dream" usually

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ends with the dreamer taking a tooth out of his

mouth.


The dream-phantasy may, however, direct


its attention not merely to the form of the exciting
organ, but may even make the substance contained


therein the object of symbolization. Thus, for
example, the dream excited by the intestinal stimuli


may lead us through muddy streets, the dream due
to stimuli from the bladder to foaming water. Or the


stimulus as such, the nature of its excitation, and
the object which it covets, are represented


symbolically. Or, again, the dream-ego enters into a

concrete association with the symbolization of its


own state; as, for example, when in the case of



painful stimuli we struggle desperately with vicious

dogs or raging bulls, or when in a sexual dream the


dreamer sees herself pursued by a naked man.

Disregarding all the possible prolixity of elaboration,
a phantastic symbolizing activity remains as the



central force of every dream. Volkelt, in his fine and

enthusiastic essay, attempted to penetrate still

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further into the character of this phantasy, and to

assign to the psychic activity thus recognized its


position in a system of philosophical ideas, which,


however, remains altogether too difficult of
comprehension for anyone who is not prepared by


previous training for the intuitive comprehension of
philosophical modes of thought.


Scherner attributes no useful function to the
activity of the symbolizing phantasy in dreams. In


dreams the psyche plays with the stimuli which are
offered to it. One might conjecture that it plays in a


mischievous fashion. And we might be asked

whether our detailed consideration of Scherner's


dream-theory, the arbitrariness of which, and its



deviation from the rules of all forms of research are

only too obvious, can lead to any useful results. We


might fitly reply that to reject Scherner's theory

without previous examination would be imposing too
arrogant a veto. This theory is based on the



impressions produced by his dreams on a man who

paid close attention to them, and who would appear

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to be personally very well equipped for tracing

obscure psychic phenomena. Furthermore, it treats


of a subject which (though rich in its contents and


relations) has for thousands of years appeared
mysterious to humanity, and to the elucidation of


which science, strictly so called, has, as it confesses,
contributed nothing beyond attempting- in


uncompromising opposition to popular sentiment- to
deny its content and significance. Finally, let us


frankly admit that it seems as though we cannot
very well avoid the phantastical in our attempts to


explain dreams. We must remember also that there

is such a thing as a phantasy of ganglion cells; the


passage cited (p. 87) from a sober and exact



investigator like Binz, which describes how the dawn

of awakening floods the dormant cell-masses of the


cerebral cortex, is not a whit less fanciful and

improbable than Scherner's attempts at
interpretation. I hope to be able to demonstrate that



there is something real underlying these attempts,

though the phenomena which he describes have

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been only vaguely recognized, and do not possess

the character of universality that should entitle them


to be the basis of a theory of dreams. For the


present, Scherner's theory of dreams, in contrast to
the medical theory, may perhaps lead us to realize


between what extremes the explanation of dream-
life is still unsteadily vacillating.


H. The Relation between Dreams and
Mental Diseases


When we speak of the relation of dreams to
mental derangement, we may mean three different


things: (1) aetiological and clinical relations, as

when a dream represents or initiates a psychotic


condition, or occurs subsequently to such a



condition; (2) changes which the dream-life

undergoes in cases of mental disease; (3) inner


relations between dreams and psychoses, analogies

which point to an intimate relationship. These
manifold relations between the two series of



phenomena were in the early days of medical

science- and are once more at the present time- a

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favourite theme of medical writers, as we may learn

from the literature on the subject collated by Spitta,


Radestock, Maury, and Tissie. Recently Sante de


Sanctis has directed his attention to this
relationship.[54] For the purposes of our discussion


it will suffice merely to glance at this important
subject.


As to the clinical and aetiological relations
between dreams and the psychoses, I will report the


following observations as examples: Hohnbaum
asserts (see Krauss) that the first attack of insanity


is frequently connected with a terrifying anxiety-

dream, and that the predominating idea is related to


this dream. Sante de Sanctis adduces similar



observations in respect of paranoiacs, and declares

the dream to be, in some of them, "la vraie cause


determinante de la folie."[55] The psychosis may

come to life quite suddenly, simultaneously with the
dream that contains its effective and delusive



explanation, or it may develop slowly through

subsequent dreams that have still to struggle

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against doubt. In one of de Sanctis's cases an

intensively moving dream was accompanied by


slight hysterical attacks, which, in their turn, were


followed by an anxious melancholic state. Fere (cited
by Tissie) refers to a dream which was followed by


hysterical paralysis. Here the dream is presented as
the aetiology of mental derangement, although we


should be making a statement equally consistent
with the facts were we to say that the first


manifestation of the mental derangement occurred
in the dream-life, that the disorder first broke


through in the dream. In other instances, the

morbid symptoms are included in the dream-life, or


the psychosis remains confined to the dream-life.



Thus Thomayer calls our attention to anxiety-

dreams which must be conceived as the equivalent


of epileptic attacks. Allison has described cases of

nocturnal insanity (see Radestock), in which the
subjects are apparently perfectly well in the day-



time, while hallucinations, fits of frenzy, and the like

regularly make their appearance at night. De Sanctis

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and Tissie record similar observations (the

equivalent of a paranoic dream in an alcoholic,


voices accusing a wife of infidelity). Tissie records


many observations of recent date in which behaviour
of a pathological character (based on delusory


hypotheses, obsessive impulses) had their origin in
dreams. Guislain describes a case in which sleep was


replaced by an intermittent insanity.
We cannot doubt that one day the physician


will concern himself not only with the psychology,
but also with the psycho-pathology of dreams.


In cases of convalescence from insanity, it is

often especially obvious that while the functions may


be healthy by day the dream-life may still partake of



the psychosis. Gregory is said to have been the first

to call attention to such cases (see Krauss). Macario


(cited by Tissie) gives an account of a maniac who,

a week after his complete recovery, once more
experienced in dreams the flux of ideas and the



unbridled impulses of his disease.

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Concerning the changes which the dream-

life undergoes in chronic psychotics, little research


has been undertaken as yet. On the other hand,


early attention was given to the inner relationship
between dreams and mental disturbances, a


relationship which is demonstrated by the complete
agreement of the manifestations occurring in each.


According to Maury, Cabanis, in his Rapports du
Physique et du Moral, was the first to call attention


to this relationship; he was followed by Lelut, J.
Moreau, and more particularly the philosopher Maine


de Biran. The comparison between the two is of

course older still. Radestock begins the chapter in


which he deals with the subject by citing a number



of opinions which insist on the analogy between

insanity and dreaming. Kant says somewhere: "The


lunatic is a dreamer in the waking state." According

to Krauss, "Insanity is a dream in which the senses
are awake." Schopenhauer terms the dream a brief



insanity, and insanity a long dream. Hagen describes

delirium as a dream-life which is inducted not by

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sleep but by disease. Wundt, in his Physiologische

Psychologie, declares: "As a matter of fact we


ourselves may in dreams experience almost all the


manifestations which we observe in the asylums for
the insane."


The specific points of agreement in
consequence of which such a comparison commends


itself to our judgment are enumerated by Spitta,
who groups them (very much as Maury has done) as


follows: "(1) Suspension, or at least retardation of
self-consciousness, and consequently ignorance of


the condition as such, the impossibility of

astonishment, and a lack of moral consciousness.


(2) Modified perception of the sensory organs; that



is, perception is as a rule diminished in dreams, and

greatly enhanced in insanity. (3) Mutual combination


of ideas exclusively in accordance with the laws of

association and reproduction, hence automatic
series-formations: hence again a lack of proportion



in the relations between ideas (exaggerations,

phantasms); and the results of all this: (4) Changes

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in- for example, inversions of- the personality, and

sometimes of the idiosyncrasies of the character


(perversities)."


Radestock adds a few additional data
concerning the analogous nature of the material of


dreams and of mental derangement: "The greatest
number of hallucinations and illusions are found in


the sphere of the senses of sight and hearing and
general sensation. As in dreams, the fewest


elements are supplied by the senses of smell and
taste. The fever-patient, like the dreamer, is


assailed by reminiscences from the remote past;

what the waking and healthy man seems to have


forgotten is recollected in sleep and in disease." The



analogy between dreams and the psychoses receives

its full value only when, like a family resemblance, it


is extended to the subtler points of mimicry, and

even the individual peculiarities of facial expression.
"To him who is tortured by physical and



mental sufferings the dream accords what has been

denied him by reality, to wit, physical well-being,

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and happiness; so, too, the insane see radiant

images of happiness, eminence, and wealth. The


supposed possession of estates and the imaginary


fulfilment of wishes, the denial or destruction of
which have actually been a psychic cause of the


insanity, often form the main content of the
delirium. The woman who has lost a dearly beloved


child experiences in her delirium the joys of
maternity; the man who has suffered reverses of


fortune deems himself immensely wealthy; and the
jilted girl sees herself tenderly beloved."


(This passage from Radestock is an abstract

of a brilliant exposition of Griesinger's (p. 111),


which reveals, with the greatest clarity, wish-



fulfilment as a characteristic of the imagination

common to dreams and to the psychoses. My own


investigations have taught me that here is to be

found the key to a psychological theory of dreams
and of the psychoses.)



"Absurd combinations of ideas and weakness

of judgment are the main characteristics of the

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dream and of insanity." The over-estimation of one's

own mental capacity, which appears absurd to sober


judgment, is found alike in both, and the rapid flux


of imaginings in the dream corresponds to the flux
of ideas in the psychoses. Both are devoid of any


measure of time. The splitting of the personality in
dreams, which, for instance, distributes one's own


knowledge between two persons, one of whom, the
strange person, corrects one's own ego in the


dream, entirely corresponds with the well-known
splitting of the personality in hallucinatory paranoia;


the dreamer, too, hears his own thoughts expressed

by strange voices. Even the constant delusive ideas


find their analogy in the stereotyped and recurring



pathological dream (reve obsedant). After

recovering from delirium, patients not infrequently


declare that the whole period of their illness

appeared to them like an uncomfortable dream;
indeed, they inform us that sometimes during their



illness they have suspected that they were only

dreaming, just as often happens in the sleep-dream.

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In view of all this, it is not surprising that

Radestock should summarize his own opinion, and


that of many others, in the following words:


"Insanity, an abnormal morbid phenomenon, is to be
regarded as an enhancement of the periodically


recurring normal dream-state" (p. 228).
Krauss attempted to base the relationship


between the dream and insanity upon their aetiology
(or rather upon the sources of excitation), thus,


perhaps, making the relationship even more
intimate than was possible on the basis of the


analogous nature of the phenomena manifested.

According to him, the fundamental element common


to both is, as we have already learned, the



organically conditioned sensation, the sensation of

physical stimuli, the general sensation arising out of


contributions from all the organs (cf. Peisse, cited by

Maury, p. 52).
The undeniable agreement between dreams



and mental derangement, extending even to

characteristic details, constitutes one of the

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strongest confirmations of the medical theory of

dream-life, according to which the dream is


represented as a useless and disturbing process,


and as the expression of a diminished psychic
activity. One cannot expect, for the present, to


derive the final explanation of the dream from the
psychic derangements, since, as is well known, our


understanding of the origin of the latter is still highly
unsatisfactory. It is very probable, however, that a


modified conception of the dream must also
influence our views regarding the inner mechanism


of mental disorders, and hence we may say that we

are working towards the explanation of the


psychoses when we endeavour to elucidate the



mystery of dreams.


ADDENDUM 1909
I shall have to justify myself for not
extending my summary of the literature of dream-



problems to cover the period between the first

appearance of this book and the publication of the

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second edition. This justification may not seem very

satisfactory to the reader; none the less, to me it


was decisive. The motives which induced me to


summarize the treatment of dreams in the literature
of the subject have been exhausted by the foregoing


introduction; to have continued this would have cost
me a great deal of effort and would not have been


particularly useful or instructive. For the interval in
question- a period of nine years- has yielded nothing


new or valuable as regards the conception of
dreams, either in actual material or in novel points


of view. In most of the literature which has

appeared since the publication of my own work the


latter has not been mentioned or discussed; it has,



of course, received the least attention from the so-

called "research-workers on dreams," who have thus


afforded a brilliant example of the aversion to

learning anything new so characteristic of the
scientist. "Les savants ne sont pas curieux,"[56] said



the scoffer Anatole France. If there were such a

thing in science as the right of revenge, I in my turn

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should be justified in ignoring the literature which

has appeared since the publication of this book. The


few reviews which have appeared in the scientific


journals are so full of misconceptions and lack of
comprehension that my only possible answer to my


critics would be a request that they should read this
book over again- or perhaps merely that they should


read it!
In the works of those physicians who make


use of the psycho-analytic method of treatment a
great many dreams have been recorded and


interpreted in accordance with my directions. In so

far as these works go beyond the confirmation of my


own assertions, I have noted their results in the



context of my exposition. A supplementary

bibliography at the end of this volume comprises the


most important of these new publications. The

comprehensive work on the dream by Sante de
Sanctis, of which a German translation appeared



soon after its publication, was produced

simultaneously with my own, so that I could not

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review his results, nor could he comment upon

mine. I am sorry to have to express the opinion that


this laborious work is exceedingly poor in ideas, so


poor that one could never divine from it the
possibility of the problems which I have treated in


these pages.
I can think of only two publications which


touch on my own treatment of the dream-problems.
A young philosopher, H. Swoboda, who has ventured


to extend W. Fliess's discovery of biological
periodicity (in series of twenty-three and twenty-


eight days) to the psychic field, has produced an

imaginative essay,[57] in which, among other


things, he has used this key to solve the riddle of



dreams. Such a solution, however, would be an

inadequate estimate of the significance of dreams.


The material content of dreams would be explained

by the coincidence of all those memories which, on
the night of the dream, complete one of these



biological periods for the first or the nth time. A

personal communication of the author's led me to

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assume that he himself no longer took this theory

very seriously. But it seems that I was mistaken in


this conclusion: I shall record in another place some


observations made with reference to Swoboda's
thesis, which did not, however, yield convincing


results. It gave me far greater pleasure to find by
chance, in an unexpected quarter, a conception of


the dream which is in complete agreement with the
essence of my own. The relevant dates preclude the


possibility that this conception was influenced by
reading my book: I must therefore hail this as the


only demonstrable concurrence with the essentials

of my theory of dreams to be found in the literature


of the subject. The book which contains the passage



that I have in mind was published (in its second

edition) in 1910, by Lynkeus, under the title


Phantasien eines Realisten.

ADDENDUM 1914



The above apologia was written in 1909.

Since then, the state of affairs has certainly

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undergone a change; my contribution to the

"interpretation of dreams" is no longer ignored in


the literature of the subject. But the new situation


makes it even more impossible to continue the
foregoing summary. The Interpretation of Dreams


has evoked a whole series of new contentions and
problems, which have been expounded by the


authors in the most varied fashions. But I cannot
discuss these works until I have developed the


theories to which their authors have referred.
Whatever has appeared to me as valuable in this


recent literature I have accordingly reviewed in the

course of the following exposition.



Footnotes
23
Silberer has shown by excellent examples


how in the state of falling asleep even abstract

thoughts may be changed into visible plastic images,
which, of course, express them. (Jahrbuch, Bleuler-



Freud, vol. i, 1900.) I shall return to the discussion

of his findings later on.

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24
Haffner, like Delboeuf, has attempted to
explain the act of dreaming by the alteration which


an abnormally introduced condition must have upon


the otherwise correct functioning of the intact
psychic apparatus; but he describes this condition in


somewhat different terms. He states that the first
distinguishing mark of dreams is the abolition of


time and space, i.e., the emancipation of the
representation from the individual's position in the


spatial and temporal order. Associated with this is
the second fundamental character of dreams, the


mistaking of the hallucinations, imaginations, and

phantasy-combinations for objective perceptions.


"The sum-total of the higher psychic functions,



particularly the formation of concepts, judgments,

and conclusions on the one hand, and free self-


determination on the other hand, combine with the

sensory phantasy-images, and at all times have
these as a substratum. These activities too,



therefore, participate in the erratic nature of the

dream-representations. We say they participate, for

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our faculties of judgment and will are in themselves

unaltered during sleep. As far as their activity is


concerned, we are just as shrewd and just as free as


in the waking state. A man cannot violate the laws
of thought; that is, even in a dream he cannot judge


things to be identical which present themselves to
him as opposites. He can desire in a dream only that


which he regards as a good (sub ratione boni). But
in this application of the laws of thought and will the


human intellect is led astray in dreams by confusing
one notion with another. Thus it happens that in


dreams we formulate and commit the greatest of

contradictions, while, on the other hand, we display


the shrewdest judgment and arrive at the most



logical conclusions, and are able to make the most

virtuous and sacred resolutions. The lack of


orientation is the whole secret of our flights of

phantasy in dreams, and the lack of critical
reflection and agreement with other minds is the



main source of the reckless extravagances of our

judgments, hopes and wishes in dreams" (p. 18).

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25
Compare with this the element of
"Desinteret," in which Claparede (1905) finds the


mechanism of falling asleep.


26
There are no dreams which are absolutely
reasonable which do not contain some incoherence,


some absurdity.
27
The dream is psychic anarchy, emotional


and intellectual, the playing of functions, freed of
themselves and performing without control and


without end; in the dream, the mind is a spiritual
automaton.


28
There is no imaginable thing too absurd,
too involved, or too abnormal for us to dream about.


29
The production of those images which, in


the waking man, most often excite the will,

correspond, for the mind, to those which are, for the


motility, certain movements that offer St. Vitus'

dance and paralytic affections...
30
A whole series of degradations of the



faculty of thinking and reasoning.

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31
An action of the mind spontaneous and as
though automatic; (2) a defective and irregular


association of ideas.


32
Later on we shall be able to understand the
meaning of dreams like these which are full of words


with similar sounds or the same initial letters.
33
The dream is neither pure derangement


nor pure irrationality.
34
In sleep, excepting perception, all the


faculties of the mind intellect, imagination, memory,
will, morality- remain intact in their essence; only,


they are applied to imaginary and variable objects.

The dreamer is an actor who plays at will the mad


and the wise, executioner and victim, dwarf and



giant, devil and angel.

35
Hervey de St. Denys.
36


The Marquis Hervey attributes to the

intelligence during sleep all its freedom of action and
attention, and he seems to make sleep consist only



of the shutting of the senses, of their closing to the

outside world; except for his manner of seeing, the

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man asleep is hardly distinguishable from the man

who allows his mind to wander while he obstructs


his senses; the whole difference, then, between


ordinary thought and that of the sleeper, is that with
the latter the idea takes an objective and visible


shape, which resembles, to all appearances,
sensation determined by exterior objects; memory


takes on the appearance of present fact.
37
That there is a further and important


difference in that the mental faculties of the sleeping
man do not offer the equilibrium which they keep in


the waking state.

38
The image in a dream is a copy of an idea.


The main thing is the idea; the vision is only



accessory. This established, it is necessary to know

how to follow the progression of ideas, how to


analyse the texture of the dreams; incoherence then

is understandable, the most fantastic concepts
become simple and perfectly logical facts.



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39
Even the most bizarre dreams find a most
logical explanation when one knows how to analyse


them.


40
Cf. Haffner and Spitta.
41
That brilliant mystic, Du Prel, one of the


few writers for the omission of whose name in
earlier editions of this book I should like to


apologize, has said that, so far as the human mind
is concerned, it is not the waking state but dreams


which are the gateway to metaphysics (Philosophie
der Mystik, p. 59).


42
For the further literature of the subject,
and a critical discussion of these problems, the


reader is referred to Tobowolska's dissertation



(Paris, 1900).
43
Compare Havelock Ellis's criticism in The


World of Dreams, p. 268.

44
Grundzuge des Systems der Anthropologie.
Erlangen, 1850 (quoted by Spitta).



45
Das Traumleben und seine Deutung, 1868
(cited by Spitta, p. 192).

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46
It is not uninteresting to consider the
attitude of the Inquisition to this problem. In the


Tractatus de Officio sanctissimae Inquisitionis of


Thomas Carena (Lyons edit., 1659) one finds the
following passage: "Should anyone utter heresies in


his dreams, the inquisitors shall consider this a
reason for investigating his conduct in life, for that is


wont to return in sleep which occupies a man during
the day" (Dr. Ehniger, St. Urban, Switzerland).


47
Our tendencies speak and make us act,
without being restrained by our conscience, although


it sometimes warns us. I have my faults and vicious

tendencies; awake I try to fight against them, and


often enough I do not succumb to them. But in my



dreams I always succumb, or, rather, I act at their

direction, without fear or remorse.... Evidently, the


visions which unfold in my thoughts, and which

constitute the dream, are suggested by the stimuli
which I feel and which my absent will does not try to



repel.

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48
In a dream, a man is totally revealed to
himself in his naked and wretched state. As he


suspends the exercise of his will, he becomes the


toy of all the passions from which, when awake, our
conscience, horror, and fear defend us.


49
In a dream, it is above all the instinctive
man who is revealed.... Man returns, so to speak, to


the natural state when he dreams; but the less
acquired ideas have penetrated into his mind, the


more his "tendencies to disagreement" with them
keep their hold on him in his dreams.


50
If they are very much in love, they have
almost never dreamed of each other before the


marriage or during the honeymoon; and if they have



dreamed of love, it was to be unfaithful with

someone unimportant or distasteful.
51


So many taut lines.

52
A novelist, Anatole France, expresses
himself to a similar effect (Le Lys Rouge): "Ce que



nous voyons la nuit ce sont les restes malheureux

que nous avons neglige dans la veille. Le reve est

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souvent la revanche des choses qu'on meprise ou le

reproche des etres abandonnes." [What we see at


night are the unhappy relics that we neglected while


awake. The dream is often the revenge of things
scorned or the reproach of beings deserted.]


53
In short, the dream is the product of
wandering thought, without end or direction,


successively fixing on memories which have retained
sufficient intensity to put themselves in the way and


block the passage, establishing between themselves
a connection sometimes weak and loose, sometimes


stronger and closer, according to whether the actual

work of the brain is more or less suppressed by


sleep.


54
Among the more recent authors who have
occupied themselves with these relations are: Fere,


Ideler, Lasegue, Pichon, Regis Vespa, Giessler,

Kazodowsky, Pachantoni, and others.
55
The real determining cause of the



madness.
56
The learned are not inquisitive.

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57
H. Swoboda, Die Perioden des
Menschlichen Organismus, 1904.














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CHAPTER 2
THE METHOD OF DREAM INTERPRETATION


The Analysis of a Specimen Dream


The epigraph on the title-page of this
volume indicates the tradition to which I prefer to


ally myself in my conception of the dream. I am


proposing to show that dreams are capable of
interpretation; and any contributions to the solution


of the problems which have already been discussed
will emerge only as possible by-products in the
accomplishment of my special task. On the


hypothesis that dreams are susceptible of



interpretation, I at once find myself in disagreement

with the prevailing doctrine of dreams- in fact, with


all the theories of dreams, excepting only that of

Scherner, for to interpret a dream is to specify its


meaning, to replace it by something which takes its

position in the concatenation of our psychic activities
as a link of definite importance and value. But, as



we have seen, the scientific theories of the dream

leave no room for a problem of dream-

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interpretation; since, in the first place, according to

these theories, dreaming is not a psychic activity at


all, but a somatic process which makes itself known


to the psychic apparatus by means of symbols. Lay
opinion has always been opposed to these theories.


It asserts its privilege of proceeding illogically, and
although it admits that dreams are incomprehensible


and absurd, it cannot summon up the courage to
deny that dreams have any significance. Led by a


dim intuition, it seems rather to assume that dreams
have a meaning, albeit a hidden one; that they are


intended as a substitute for some other thought-

process, and that we have only to disclose this


substitute correctly in order to discover the hidden



meaning of the dream.

The unscientific world, therefore, has always


endeavoured to interpret dreams, and by applying

one or the other of two essentially different
methods. The first of these methods envisages the



dream-content as a whole, and seeks to replace it

by another content, which is intelligible and in

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certain respects analogous. This is symbolic dream-

interpretation; and of course it goes to pieces at the


very outset in the case of those dreams which are


not only unintelligible but confused. The construction
which the biblical Joseph placed upon the dream of


Pharaoh furnishes an example of this method. The
seven fat kine, after which came seven lean ones


that devoured the former, were a symbolic
substitute for seven years of famine in the land of


Egypt, which according to the prediction were to
consume all the surplus that seven fruitful years had


produced. Most of the artificial dreams contrived by

the poets[1] are intended for some such symbolic


interpretation, for they reproduce the thought



conceived by the poet in a guise not unlike the

disguise which we are wont to find in our dreams.


The idea that the dream concerns itself

chiefly with the future, whose form it surmises in
advance- a relic of the prophetic significance with



which dreams were once invested- now becomes the

motive for translating into the future the meaning of

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the dream which has been found by means of

symbolic interpretation.


A demonstration of the manner in which one


arrives at such a symbolic interpretation cannot, of
course, be given. Success remains a matter of


ingenious conjecture, of direct intuition, and for this
reason dream-interpretation has naturally been


elevated into an art which seems to depend upon
extraordinary gifts.[2] The second of the two


popular methods of dream- interpretation entirely
abandons such claims. It might be described as the


cipher method, since it treats the dream as a kind of

secret code in which every sign is translated into


another sign of known meaning, according to an



established key. For example, I have dreamt of a

letter, and also of a funeral or the like; I consult a


"dream-book," and I find that "letter" is to be

translated by "vexation" and "funeral" by
"engagement." It now remains to establish a



connection, which I am again to assume as

pertaining to the future, by means of the rigmarole

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which I have deciphered. An interesting variant of

this cipher procedure, a variant in which its


character of purely mechanical transference is to a


certain extent corrected, is presented in the work on
dream-interpretation by Artemidoros of Daldis.[3]


Here not only the dream-content, but also the
personality and social position of the dreamer are


taken into consideration, so that the same dream-
content has a significance for the rich man, the


married man, or the orator, which is different from
that which applies to the poor man, the bachelor, or,


let us say, the merchant. The essential point, then,

in this procedure is that the work of interpretation is


not applied to the entirety of the dream, but to each



portion of the dream-content severally, as though

the dream were a conglomerate in which each


fragment calls for special treatment. Incoherent and

confused dreams are certainly those that have been
responsible for the invention of the cipher



method.[4]

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The worthlessness of both these popular


methods of interpretation does not admit of
discussion. As regards the scientific treatment of the


subject, the symbolic method is limited in its
application, and is not susceptible of a general


exposition. In the cipher method everything depends
upon whether the key, the dream-book, is reliable,


and for that all guarantees are lacking. So that one
might be tempted to grant the contention of the


philosophers and psychiatrists, and to dismiss the

problem of dream-interpretation as altogether


fanciful.[5]


I have, however, come to think differently. I



have been forced to perceive that here, once more,

we have one of those not infrequent cases where an
ancient and stubbornly retained popular belief



seems to have come nearer to the truth of the

matter than the opinion of modern science. I must

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insist that the dream actually does possess a

meaning, and that a scientific method of dream-


interpretation is possible. I arrived at my knowledge


of this method in the following manner:
For years I have been occupied with the


resolution of certain psycho-pathological structures-
hysterical phobias, obsessional ideas, and the like-


with therapeutic intentions. I have been so occupied,
in fact, ever since I heard the significant statement


of Joseph Breuer, to the effect that in these
structures, regarded as morbid symptoms, solution


and treatment go hand in hand.[6] Where it has

been possible to trace a pathological idea back to


those elements in the psychic life of the patient to



which it owed its origin, this idea has crumbled

away, and the patient has been relieved of it. In


view of the failure of our other therapeutic efforts,

and in the face of the mysterious character of these
pathological conditions, it seemed to me tempting,



in spite of all the difficulties, to follow the method

initiated by Breuer until a complete elucidation of

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the subject had been achieved. I shall have occasion

elsewhere to give a detailed account of the form


which the technique of this procedure has finally


assumed, and of the results of my efforts. In the
course of these psycho-analytic studies, I happened


upon the question of dream-interpretation. My
patients, after I had pledged them to inform me of


all the ideas and thoughts which occurred to them in
connection with a given theme, related their


dreams, and thus taught me that a dream may be
interpolated in the psychic concatenation, which


may be followed backwards from a pathological idea

into the patient's memory. The next step was to


treat the dream itself as a symptom, and to apply to



it the method of interpretation which had been

worked out for such symptoms.


For this a certain psychic preparation on the

part of the patient is necessary. A twofold effort is
made, to stimulate his attentiveness in respect of his



psychic perceptions, and to eliminate the critical

spirit in which he is ordinarily in the habit of viewing

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such thoughts as come to the surface. For the

purpose of self-observation with concentrated


attention it is advantageous that the patient should


take up a restful position and close his eyes; he
must be explicitly instructed to renounce all criticism


of the thought-formations which he may perceive.
He must also be told that the success of the psycho-


analysis depends upon his noting and
communicating everything that passes through his


mind, and that he must not allow himself to
suppress one idea because it seems to him


unimportant or irrelevant to the subject, or another

because it seems nonsensical. He must preserve an


absolute impartiality in respect to his ideas; for if he



is unsuccessful in finding the desired solution of the

dream, the obsessional idea, or the like, it will be


because he permits himself to be critical of them.

I have noticed in the course of my psycho-
analytical work that the psychological state of a man



in an attitude of reflection is entirely different from

that of a man who is observing his psychic

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processes. In reflection there is a greater play of

psychic activity than in the most attentive self-


observation; this is shown even by the tense


attitude and the wrinkled brow of the man in a state
of reflection, as opposed to the mimic tranquillity of


the man observing himself. In both cases there must
be concentrated attention, but the reflective man


makes use of his critical faculties, with the result
that he rejects some of the thoughts which rise into


consciousness after he has become aware of them,
and abruptly interrupts others, so that he does not


follow the lines of thought which they would

otherwise open up for him; while in respect of yet


other thoughts he is able to behave in such a



manner that they do not become conscious at all-

that is to say, they are suppressed before they are


perceived. In self-observation, on the other hand, he

has but one task- that of suppressing criticism; if he
succeeds in doing this, an unlimited number of



thoughts enter his consciousness which would

otherwise have eluded his grasp. With the aid of the

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material thus obtained- material which is new to the

self-observer- it is possible to achieve the


interpretation of pathological ideas, and also that of


dream-formations. As will be seen, the point is to
induce a psychic state which is in some degree


analogous, as regards the distribution of psychic
energy (mobile attention), to the state of the mind


before falling asleep- and also, of course, to the
hypnotic state. On falling asleep the undesired ideas


emerge, owing to the slackening of a certain
arbitrary (and, of course, also critical) action, which


is allowed to influence the trend of our ideas; we are

accustomed to speak of fatigue as the reason of this


slackening; the emerging undesired ideas are



changed into visual and auditory images. In the

condition which it utilized for the analysis of dreams


and pathological ideas, this activity is purposely and

deliberately renounced, and the psychic energy thus
saved (or some part of it) is employed in attentively



tracking the undesired thoughts which now come to

the surface- thoughts which retain their identity as

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ideas (in which the condition differs from the state

of falling asleep). Undesired ideas are thus changed


into desired ones.


There are many people who do not seem to
find it easy to adopt the required attitude toward the


apparently "freely rising" ideas, and to renounce the
criticism which is otherwise applied to them. The


"undesired ideas" habitually evoke the most violent
resistance, which seeks to prevent them from


coming to the surface. But if we may credit our
great poet-philosopher Friedrich Schiller, the


essential condition of poetical creation includes a

very similar attitude. In a certain passage in his


correspondence with Korner (for the tracing of which



we are indebted to Otto Rank), Schiller replies in the

following words to a friend who complains of his lack


of creative power: "The reason for your complaint

lies, it seems to me, in the constraint which your
intellect imposes upon your imagination. Here I will



make an observation, and illustrate it by an allegory.

Apparently it is not good- and indeed it hinders the

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creative work of the mind- if the intellect examines

too closely the ideas already pouring in, as it were,


at the gates. Regarded in isolation, an idea may be


quite insignificant, and venturesome in the extreme,
but it may acquire importance from an idea which


follows it; perhaps, in a certain collocation with
other ideas, which may seem equally absurd, it may


be capable of furnishing a very serviceable link. The
intellect cannot judge all these ideas unless it can


retain them until it has considered them in
connection with these other ideas. In the case of a


creative mind, it seems to me, the intellect has

withdrawn its watchers from the gates, and the


ideas rush in pell-mell, and only then does it review



and inspect the multitude. You worthy critics, or

whatever you may call yourselves, are ashamed or


afraid of the momentary and passing madness which

is found in all real creators, the longer or shorter
duration of which distinguishes the thinking artist



from the dreamer. Hence your complaints of

unfruitfulness, for you reject too soon and

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discriminate too severely" (letter of December 1,

1788).


And yet, such a withdrawal of the watchers


from the gates of the intellect, as Schiller puts it,
such a translation into the condition of uncritical


self-observation, is by no means difficult.
Most of my patients accomplish it after my


first instructions. I myself can do so very
completely, if I assist the process by writing down


the ideas that flash through my mind. The quantum
of psychic energy by which the critical activity is


thus reduced, and by which the intensity of self-

observation may be increased, varies considerably


according to the subject-matter upon which the



attention is to be fixed.
The first step in the application of this


procedure teaches us that one cannot make the

dream as a whole the object of one's attention, but
only the individual components of its content. If I



ask a patient who is as yet unpractised: "What

occurs to you in connection with this dream?" he is

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unable, as a rule, to fix upon anything in his psychic

field of vision. I must first dissect the dream for him;


then, in connection with each fragment, he gives me


a number of ideas which may be described as the
thoughts behind this part of the dream. In this first


and important condition, then, the method of
dream-interpretation which I employ diverges from


the popular, historical and legendary method of
interpretation by symbolism and approaches more


nearly to the second or cipher method. Like this, it is
an interpretation in detail, not en masse; like this, it


conceives the dream, from the outset, as something

built up, as a conglomerate of psychic formations.


In the course of my psycho-analysis of



neurotics I have already subjected perhaps more

than a thousand dreams to interpretation, but I do


not wish to use this material now as an introduction

to the theory and technique of dream-interpretation.
For quite apart from the fact that I should lay myself



open to the objection that these are the dreams of

neuropaths, so that the conclusions drawn from

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them would not apply to the dreams of healthy

persons, there is another reason that impels me to


reject them. The theme to which these dreams point


is, of course, always the history of the malady that
is responsible for the neurosis. Hence every dream


would require a very long introduction, and an
investigation of the nature and aetiological


conditions of the psychoneuroses, matters which are
in themselves novel and exceedingly strange, and


which would therefore distract attention from the
dream- problem proper. My purpose is rather to


prepare the way, by the solution of the dream-

problem, for the solution of the more difficult


problems of the psychology of the neuroses. But if I



eliminate the dreams of neurotics, which constitute

my principal material, I cannot be too fastidious in


my treatment of the rest. Only those dreams are left

which have been incidentally related to me by
healthy persons of my acquaintance, or which I find



given as examples in the literature of dream-life.

Unfortunately, in all these dreams I am deprived of

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the analysis without which I cannot find the meaning

of the dream. My mode of procedure is, of course,


less easy than that of the popular cipher method,


which translates the given dream-content by
reference to an established key; I, on the contrary,


hold that the same dream-content may conceal a
different meaning in the case of different persons, or


in different connections. I must, therefore, resort to
my own dreams as a source of abundant and


convenient material, furnished by a person who is
more or less normal, and containing references to


many incidents of everyday life. I shall certainly be

confronted with doubts as to the trustworthiness of


these self- analyses and it will be said that



arbitrariness is by no means excluded in such

analyses. In my own judgment, conditions are more


likely to be favourable in self-observation than in the

observation of others; in any case, it is permissible
to investigate how much can be accomplished in the



matter of dream- interpretation by means of self-

analysis. There are other difficulties which must be

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overcome in my own inner self. One has a

comprehensible aversion to exposing so many


intimate details of one's own psychic life, and one


does not feel secure against the misinterpretations
of strangers. But one must be able to transcend


such considerations. "Tout psychologiste," writes
Delboeuf, "est oblige de faire l'aveu meme de ses


faiblesses s'il croit par la jeter du jour sur quelque
probleme obscur."[7] And I may assume for the


reader that his initial interest in the indiscretions
which I must commit will very soon give way to an


exclusive engrossment in the psychological problems

elucidated by them.'[8]


I shall therefore select one of my own



dreams for the purpose of elucidating my method of

interpretation. Every such dream necessitates a


preliminary statement; so that I must now beg the

reader to make my interests his own for a time, and
to become absorbed, with me, in the most trifling



details of my life; for an interest in the hidden

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significance of dreams imperatively demands just

such a transference.














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Preliminary Statement


In the summer of 1895 I had treated
psycho-analytically a young lady who was an


intimate friend of mine and of my family. It will be
understood that such complicated relations may


excite manifold feelings in the physician, and
especially the psychotherapist. The personal interest


of the physician is greater, but his authority less. If
he fails, his friendship with the patient's relatives is


in danger of being undermined. In this case,
however, the treatment ended in partial success;


the patient was cured of her hysterical anxiety, but



not of all her somatic symptoms. At that time I was

not yet quite sure of the criteria which denote the


final cure of an hysterical case, and I expected her

to accept a solution which did not seem acceptable


to her. In the midst of this disagreement, we

discontinued the treatment for the summer holidays.
One day a younger colleague, one of my most



intimate friends, who had visited the patient- Irma-

and her family in their country residence, called

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upon me. I asked him how Irma was, and received

the reply: "She is better, but not quite well." I


realize that these words of my friend Otto's, or the


tone of voice in which they were spoken, annoyed
me. I thought I heard a reproach in the words,


perhaps to the effect that I had promised the patient
too much, and- rightly or wrongly- I attributed


Otto's apparent taking sides against me to the
influence of the patient's relatives, who, I assumed,


had never approved of my treatment. This
disagreeable impression, however, did not become


clear to me, nor did I speak of it. That same evening

I wrote the clinical history of Irma's case, in order to


give it, as though to justify myself, to Dr. M, a



mutual friend, who was at that time the leading

personality in our circle. During the night (or rather


in the early morning) I had the following dream,

which I recorded immediately after waking.[9]

Dream of July 23-24, 1895



A great hall- a number of guests, whom we

are receiving- among them Irma, whom I

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immediately take aside, as though to answer her

letter, and to reproach her for not yet accepting the


"solution." I say to her: "If you still have pains, it is


really only your own fault."- She answers: "If you
only knew what pains I have now in the throat,


stomach, and abdomen- I am choked by them." I
am startled, and look at her. She looks pale and


puffy. I think that after all I must be overlooking
some organic affection. I take her to the window and


look into her throat. She offers some resistance to
this, like a woman who has a set of false teeth. I


think, surely, she doesn't need them.- The mouth

then opens wide, and I find a large white spot on the


right, and elsewhere I see extensive grayish-white



scabs adhering to curiously curled formations, which

are evidently shaped like the turbinal bones of the


nose.- I quickly call Dr. M, who repeats the

examination and confirms it.... Dr. M looks quite
unlike his usual self; he is very pale, he limps, and



his chin is clean-shaven.... Now my friend Otto, too,

is standing beside her, and my friend Leopold

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percusses her covered chest, and says "She has a

dullness below, on the left," and also calls attention


to an infiltrated portion of skin on the left shoulder


(which I can feel, in spite of the dress).... M says:
"There's no doubt that it's an infection, but it doesn't


matter; dysentery will follow and the poison will be
eliminated." ... We know, too, precisely how the


infection originated. My friend Otto, not long ago,
gave her, when she was feeling unwell, an injection


of a preparation of propyl... propyls... propionic
acid... trimethylamin (the formula of which I see


before me, printed in heavy type).... One doesn't

give such injections so rashly.... Probably, too, the


syringe was not clean.



This dream has an advantage over many

others. It is at once obvious to what events of the


preceding day it is related, and of what subject it

treats. The preliminary statement explains these
matters. The news of Irma's health which I had



received from Otto, and the clinical history, which I

was writing late into the night, had occupied my

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psychic activities even during sleep. Nevertheless,

no one who had read the preliminary report, and


had knowledge of the content of the dream, could


guess what the dream signified. Nor do I myself
know. I am puzzled by the morbid symptoms of


which Irma complains in the dream, for they are not
the symptoms for which I treated her. I smile at the


nonsensical idea of an injection of propionic acid,
and at Dr. M's attempt at consolation. Towards the


end the dream seems more obscure and quicker in
tempo than at the beginning. In order to learn the


significance of all these details I resolve to

undertake an exhaustive analysis.


Analysis


The hall- a number of guests, whom we are

receiving. We were living that summer at Bellevue,


an isolated house on one of the hills adjoining the

Kahlenberg. This house was originally built as a
place of entertainment, and therefore has unusually



lofty, hall-like rooms. The dream was dreamed in

Bellevue, a few days before my wife's birthday.

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During the day my wife had mentioned that she

expected several friends, and among them Irma, to


come to us as guests for her birthday. My dream,


then, anticipates this situation: It is my wife's
birthday, and we are receiving a number of people,


among them Irma, as guests in the large hall of
Bellevue.


I reproach Irma for not having accepted the
"solution." I say, "If you still have pains, it is really


your own fault." I might even have said this while
awake; I may have actually said it. At that time I


was of the opinion (recognized later to be incorrect)

that my task was limited to informing patients of the


hidden meaning of their symptoms. Whether they



then accepted or did not accept the solution upon

which success depended- for that I was not


responsible. I am grateful to this error, which,

fortunately, has now been overcome, since it made
life easier for me at a time when, with all my



unavoidable ignorance, I was expected to effect

successful cures. But I note that, in the speech

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which I make to Irma in the dream, I am above all

anxious that I shall not be blamed for the pains


which she still suffers. If it is Irma's own fault, it


cannot be mine. Should the purpose of the dream be
looked for in this quarter?


Irma's complaints- pains in the neck,
abdomen, and stomach; she is choked by them.


Pains in the stomach belonged to the symptom-
complex of my patient, but they were not very


prominent; she complained rather of qualms and a
feeling of nausea. Pains in the neck and abdomen


and constriction of the throat played hardly any part

in her case. I wonder why I have decided upon this


choice of symptoms in the dream; for the moment I



cannot discover the reason.

She looks pale and puffy. My patient had


always a rosy complexion. I suspect that here

another person is being substituted for her.
I am startled at the idea that I may have



overlooked some organic affection. This, as the

reader will readily believe, is a constant fear with

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the specialist who sees neurotics almost exclusively,

and who is accustomed to ascribe to hysteria so


many manifestations which other physicians treat as


organic. On the other hand, I am haunted by a faint
doubt- I do not know whence it comes- whether my


alarm is altogether honest. If Irma's pains are
indeed of organic origin, it is not my duty to cure


them. My treatment, of course, removes only
hysterical pains. It seems to me, in fact, that I wish


to find an error in the diagnosis; for then I could not
be reproached with failure to effect a cure.


I take her to the window in order to look into

her throat. She resists a little, like a woman who has


false teeth. I think to myself, she does not need



them. I had never had occasion to inspect Irma's

oral cavity. The incident in the dream reminds me of


an examination, made some time before, of a

governess who at first produced an impression of
youthful beauty, but who, upon opening her mouth,



took certain measures to conceal her denture. Other

memories of medical examinations, and of petty

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secrets revealed by them, to the embarrassment of

both physician and patient, associate themselves


with this case.- "She surely does not need them," is


perhaps in the first place a compliment to Irma; but
I suspect yet another meaning. In a careful analysis


one is able to feel whether or not the arriere-
pensees which are to be expected have all been


exhausted. The way in which Irma stands at the
window suddenly reminds me of another experience.


Irma has an intimate woman friend of whom I think
very highly. One evening, on paying her a visit, I


found her at the window in the position reproduced

in the dream, and her physician, the same Dr. M,


declared that she had a diphtheritic membrane. The



person of Dr. M and the membrane return, indeed,

in the course of the dream. Now it occurs to me that


during the past few months I have had every reason

to suppose that this lady too is hysterical. Yes, Irma
herself betrayed the fact to me. But what do I know



of her condition? Only the one thing, that like Irma

in the dream she suffers from hysterical choking.

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Thus, in the dream I have replaced my patient by

her friend. Now I remember that I have often played


with the supposition that this lady, too, might ask


me to relieve her of her symptoms. But even at the
time I thought it improbable, since she is extremely


reserved. She resists, as the dream shows. Another
explanation might be that she does not need it; in


fact, until now she has shown herself strong enough
to master her condition without outside help. Now


only a few features remain, which I can assign
neither to Irma nor to her friend; pale, puffy, false


teeth. The false teeth led me to the governess; I

now feel inclined to be satisfied with bad teeth. Here


another person, to whom these features may allude,



occurs to me. She is not my patient, and I do not

wish her to be my patient, for I have noticed that


she is not at her ease with me, and I do not consider

her a docile patient. She is generally pale, and once,
when she had not felt particularly well, she was



puffy.[10] I have thus compared my patient Irma

with two others, who would likewise resist

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treatment. What is the meaning of the fact that I

have exchanged her for her friend in the dream?


Perhaps that I wish to exchange her; either her


friend arouses in me stronger sympathies, or I have
a higher regard for her intelligence. For I consider


Irma foolish because she does not accept my
solution. The other woman would be more sensible,


and would thus be more likely to yield. The mouth
then opens readily; she would tell more than


Irma.[11]
What I see in the throat: a white spot and


scabby turbinal bones. The white spot recalls

diphtheria, and thus Irma's friend, but it also recalls


the grave illness of my eldest daughter two years



earlier, and all the anxiety of that unhappy time.

The scab on the turbinal bones reminds me of my


anxiety concerning my own health. At that time I

frequently used cocaine in order to suppress
distressing swellings in the nose, and I had heard a



few days previously that a lady patient who did

likewise had contracted an extensive necrosis of the

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nasal mucous membrane. In 1885 it was I who had

recommended the use of cocaine, and I had been


gravely reproached in consequence. A dear friend,


who had died before the date of this dream, had
hastened his end by the misuse of this remedy.


I quickly call Dr. M, who repeats the
examination. This would simply correspond to the


position which M occupied among us. But the word
quickly is striking enough to demand a special


examination. It reminds me of a sad medical
experience. By continually prescribing a drug


(sulphonal), which at that time was still considered

harmless, I was once responsible for a condition of


acute poisoning in the case of a woman patient, and



hastily turned for assistance to my older and more

experienced colleague. The fact that I really had this


case in mind is confirmed by a subsidiary

circumstance. The patient, who succumbed to the
toxic effects of the drug, bore the same name as my



eldest daughter. I had never thought of this until

now; but now it seems to me almost like a

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retribution of fate- as though the substitution of

persons had to be continued in another sense: this


Matilda for that Matilda; an eye for an eye, a tooth


for a tooth. It is as though I were seeking every
opportunity to reproach myself for a lack of medical


conscientiousness.
Dr. M is pale; his chin is shaven, and he


limps. Of this so much is correct, that his unhealthy
appearance often arouses the concern of his friends.


The other two characteristics must belong to another
person. An elder brother living abroad occurs to me,


for he, too, shaves his chin, and if I remember him

rightly, the M of the dream bears on the whole a


certain resemblance to him. And some days



previously the news arrived that he was limping on

account of an arthritic affection of the hip. There


must be some reason why I fuse the two persons

into one in my dream. I remember that, in fact, I
was on bad terms with both of them for similar



reasons. Both had rejected a certain proposal which

I had recently made them.

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My friend Otto is now standing next to the

patient, and my friend Leopold examines her and


calls attention to a dulness low down on the left


side. My friend Leopold also is a physician, and a
relative of Otto's. Since the two practice the same


specialty, fate has made them competitors, so that
they are constantly being compared with one


another. Both of them assisted me for years, while I
was still directing a public clinic for neurotic children.


There, scenes like that reproduced in my dream had
often taken place. While I would be discussing the


diagnosis of a case with Otto, Leopold would

examine the child anew and make an unexpected


contribution towards our decision. There was a



difference of character between the two men like

that between Inspector Brasig and his friend Karl.


Otto was remarkably prompt and alert; Leopold was

slow and thoughtful, but thorough. If I contrast Otto
and the cautious Leopold in the dream I do so,



apparently, in order to extol Leopold. The

comparison is like that made above between the

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disobedient patient Irma and her friend, who was

believed to be more sensible. I now become aware


of one of the tracks along which the association of


ideas in the dream proceeds: from the sick child to
the children's clinic. Concerning the dulness low on


the left side, I have the impression that it
corresponds with a certain case of which all the


details were similar, a case in which Leopold
impressed me by his thoroughness. I thought


vaguely, too, of something like a metastatic
affection, but it might also be a reference to the


patient whom I should have liked to have in Irma's

place. For this lady, as far as I can gather, exhibited


symptoms which imitated tuberculosis.



An infiltrated portion of skin on the left

shoulder. I know at once that this is my own


rheumatism of the shoulder, which I always feel if I

lie awake long at night. The very phrasing of the
dream sounds ambiguous: Something which I can



feel, as he does, in spite of the dress. "Feel on my

own body" is intended. Further, it occurs to me how

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unusual the phrase infiltrated portion of skin sounds.

We are accustomed to the phrase: "an infiltration of


the upper posterior left"; this would refer to the


lungs, and thus, once more, to tuberculosis.
In spite of the dress. This, to be sure, is only


an interpolation. At the clinic the children were, of
course, examined undressed; here we have some


contrast to the manner in which adult female
patients have to be examined. The story used to be


told of an eminent physician that he always
examined his patients through their clothes. The rest


is obscure to me; I have, frankly, no inclination to

follow the matter further.


Dr. M says: "It's an infection, but it doesn't



matter; dysentery will follow, and the poison will be

eliminated." This, at first, seems to me ridiculous;


nevertheless, like everything else, it must be

carefully analysed; more closely observed it seems
after all to have a sort of meaning. What I had found



in the patient was a local diphtheritis. I remember

the discussion about diphtheritis and diphtheria at

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the time of my daughter's illness. Diphtheria is the

general infection which proceeds from local


diphtheritis. Leopold demonstrates the existence of


such a general infection by the dulness, which also
suggests a metastatic focus. I believe, however, that


just this kind of metastasis does not occur in the
case of diphtheria. It reminds me rather of pyaemia.


It doesn't matter is a consolation. I believe it
fits in as follows: The last part of the dream has


yielded a content to the effect that the patient's
sufferings are the result of a serious organic


affection. I begin to suspect that by this I am only

trying to shift the blame from myself. Psychic


treatment cannot be held responsible for the



continued presence of a diphtheritic affection. Now,

indeed, I am distressed by the thought of having


invented such a serious illness for Irma, for the sole

purpose of exculpating myself. It seems so cruel.
Accordingly, I need the assurance that the outcome



will be benign, and it seems to me that I made a

good choice when I put the words that consoled me

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into the mouth of Dr. M. But here I am placing

myself in a position of superiority to the dream; a


fact which needs explanation.


But why is this consolation so nonsensical?
Dysentery. Some sort of far-fetched


theoretical notion that the toxins of disease might be
eliminated through the intestines. Am I thereby


trying to make fun of Dr. M's remarkable store of
far- fetched explanations, his habit of conceiving


curious pathological relations? Dysentery suggests
something else. A few months ago I had in my care


a young man who was suffering from remarkable

intestinal troubles; a case which had been treated


by other colleagues as one of "anaemia with



malnutrition." I realized that it was a case of

hysteria; I was unwilling to use my psycho-therapy


on him, and sent him off on a sea-voyage. Now a

few days previously I had received a despairing
letter from him; he wrote from Egypt, saying that he



had had a fresh attack, which the doctor had

declared to be dysentery. I suspect that the

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diagnosis is merely an error on the part of an

ignorant colleague, who is allowing himself to be


fooled by the hysteria; yet I cannot help reproaching


myself for putting the invalid in a position where he
might contract some organic affection of the bowels


in addition to his hysteria. Furthermore, dysentery
sounds not unlike diphtheria, a word which does not


occur in the dream.
Yes, it must be the case that with the


consoling prognosis, Dysentery will develop, etc., I
am making fun of Dr. M, for I recollect that years


ago he once jestingly told a very similar story of a

colleague. He had been called in to consult with him


in the case of a woman who was very seriously ill,



and he felt obliged to confront his colleague, who

seemed very hopeful, with the fact that he found


albumen in the patient's urine. His colleague,

however, did not allow this to worry him, but
answered calmly: "That does not matter, my dear



sir; the albumen will soon be excreted!" Thus I can

no longer doubt that this part of the dream

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expresses derision for those of my colleagues who

are ignorant of hysteria. And, as though in


confirmation, the thought enters my mind: "Does


Dr. M know that the appearances in Irma's friend,
his patient, which gave him reason to fear


tuberculosis, are likewise due to hysteria? Has he
recognized this hysteria, or has he allowed himself


to be fooled?"
But what can be my motive in treating this


friend so badly? That is simple enough: Dr. M agrees
with my solution as little as does Irma herself. Thus,


in this dream I have already revenged myself on two

persons: on Irma in the words, If you still have


pains, it is your own fault, and on Dr. M in the



wording of the nonsensical consolation which has

been put into his mouth.


We know precisely how the infection

originated. This precise knowledge in the dream is
remarkable. Only a moment before this we did not



yet know of the infection, since it was first

demonstrated by Leopold.

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My friend Otto gave her an injection not long

ago, when she was feeling unwell. Otto had actually


related during his short visit to Irma's family that he


had been called in to a neighbouring hotel in order
to give an injection to someone who had been


suddenly taken ill. Injections remind me once more
of the unfortunate friend who poisoned himself with


cocaine. I had recommended the remedy for internal
use only during the withdrawal of morphia; but he


immediately gave himself injections of cocaine.
With a preparation of propyl... propyls...


propionic acid. How on earth did this occur to me?

On the evening of the day after I had written the


clinical history and dreamed about the case, my wife



opened a bottle of liqueur labelled "Ananas,"[12]

which was a present from our friend Otto. He had,


as a matter of fact, a habit of making presents on

every possible occasion; I hope he will some day be
cured of this by a wife.[13] This liqueur smelt so



strongly of fusel oil that I refused to drink it. My wife

suggested: "We will give the bottle to the servants,"

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and I, more prudent, objected, with the

philanthropic remark: "They shan't be poisoned


either." The smell of fusel oil (amyl...) has now


apparently awakened my memory of the whole
series: propyl, methyl, etc., which furnished the


preparation of propyl mentioned in the dream. Here,
indeed, I have effected a substitution: I dreamt of


propyl after smelling amyl; but substitutions of this
kind are perhaps permissible, especially in organic


chemistry. -
Trimethylamin. In the dream I see the


chemical formula of this substance- which at all

events is evidence of a great effort on the part of my


memory- and the formula is even printed in heavy



type, as though to distinguish it from the context as

something of particular importance. And where does


trimethylamin, thus forced on my attention, lead

me? To a conversation with another friend, who for
years has been familiar with all my germinating



ideas, and I with his. At that time he had just

informed me of certain ideas concerning a sexual

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chemistry, and had mentioned, among others, that

he thought he had found in trimethylamin one of the


products of sexual metabolism. This substance thus


leads me to sexuality, the factor to which I attribute
the greatest significance in respect of the origin of


these nervous affections which I am trying to cure.
My patient Irma is a young widow; if I am required


to excuse my failure to cure her, I shall perhaps do
best to refer to this condition, which her admirers


would be glad to terminate. But in what a singular
fashion such a dream is fitted together! The friend


who in my dream becomes my patient in Irma's

place is likewise a young widow.


I surmise why it is that the formula of



trimethylamin is so insistent in the dream. So many

important things are centered about this one word:


trimethylamin is an allusion, not merely to the all-

important factor of sexuality, but also to a friend
whose sympathy I remember with satisfaction



whenever I feel isolated in my opinions. And this

friend, who plays such a large part in my life: will he

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not appear yet again in the concatenation of ideas

peculiar to this dream? Of course; he has a special


knowledge of the results of affections of the nose


and the sinuses, and has revealed to science several
highly remarkable relations between the turbinal


bones and the female sexual organs. (The three
curly formations in Irma's throat.) I got him to


examine Irma, in order to determine whether her
gastric pains were of nasal origin. But he himself


suffers from suppurative rhinitis, which gives me
concern, and to this perhaps there is an allusion in


pyaemia, which hovers before me in the metastasis

of the dream.


One doesn't give such injections so rashly.



Here the reproach of rashness is hurled directly at

my friend Otto. I believe I had some such thought in


the afternoon, when he seemed to indicate, by word

and look, that he had taken sides against me. It
was, perhaps: "How easily he is influenced; how



irresponsibly he pronounces judgment." Further, the

above sentence points once more to my deceased

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friend, who so irresponsibly resorted to cocaine

injections. As I have said, I had not intended that


injections of the drug should be taken. I note that in


reproaching Otto I once more touch upon the story
of the unfortunate Matilda, which was the pretext for


the same reproach against me. Here, obviously, I
am collecting examples of my conscientiousness,


and also of the reverse.
Probably too the syringe was not clean.


Another reproach directed at Otto, but originating
elsewhere. On the previous day I happened to meet


the son of an old lady of eighty-two, to whom I am

obliged to give two injections of morphia daily. At


present she is in the country, and I have heard that



she is suffering from phlebitis. I immediately

thought that this might be a case of infiltration


caused by a dirty syringe. It is my pride that in two

years I have not given her a single infiltration; I am
always careful, of course, to see that the syringe is



perfectly clean. For I am conscientious. From the

phlebitis I return to my wife, who once suffered from

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thrombosis during a period of pregnancy, and now

three related situations come to the surface in my


memory, involving my wife, Irma, and the dead


Matilda, whose identity has apparently justified my
putting these three persons in one another's places.


I have now completed the interpretation of
the dream.[14] In the course of this interpretation I


have taken great pains to avoid all those notions
which must have been suggested by a comparison of


the dream-content with the dream-thoughts hidden
behind this content. Meanwhile the meaning of the


dream has dawned upon me. I have noted an

intention which is realized through the dream, and


which must have been my motive in dreaming. The



dream fulfills several wishes, which were awakened

within me by the events of the previous evening


(Otto's news, and the writing of the clinical history).

For the result of the dream is that it is not I who am
to blame for the pain which Irma is still suffering,



but that Otto is to blame for it. Now Otto has

annoyed me by his remark about Irma's imperfect

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cure; the dream avenges me upon him, in that it

turns the reproach upon himself. The dream acquits


me of responsibility for Irma's condition, as it refers


this condition to other causes (which do, indeed,
furnish quite a number of explanations). The dream


represents a certain state of affairs, such as I might
wish to exist; the content of the dream is thus the


fulfilment of a wish; its motive is a wish.
This much is apparent at first sight. But


many other details of the dream become intelligible
when regarded from the standpoint of wish-


fulfilment. I take my revenge on Otto, not merely for

too readily taking sides against me. in that I accuse


him of careless medical treatment (the injection),



but I revenge myself also for the bad liqueur which

smells of fusel oil, and I find an expression in the


dream which unites both these reproaches: the

injection of a preparation of propyl. Still I am not
satisfied, but continue to avenge myself by



comparing him with his more reliable colleague.

Thereby I seem to say: "I like him better than you."

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But Otto is not the only person who must be made

to feel the weight of my anger. I take my revenge


on the disobedient patient, by exchanging her for a


more sensible and more docile one. Nor do I pass
over Dr. M's contradiction; for I express, in an


obvious allusion, my opinion of him: namely, that
his attitude in this case is that of an ignoramus


(Dysentery will develop, etc.). Indeed, it seems as
though I were appealing from him to someone


better informed (my friend, who told me about
trimethylamin), just as I have turned from Irma to


her friend, and from Otto to Leopold. It is as though

I were to say: Rid me of these three persons,


replace them by three others of my own choice, and



I shall be rid of the reproaches which I am not

willing to admit that I deserve! In my dream the


unreasonableness of these reproaches is

demonstrated for me in the most elaborate manner.
Irma's pains are not attributable to me, since she



herself is to blame for them, in that she refuses to

accept my solution. They do not concern me, for

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being as they are of an organic nature, they cannot

possibly be cured by psychic treatment. Irma's


sufferings are satisfactorily explained by her


widowhood (trimethylamin!); a state which I cannot
alter. Irma's illness has been caused by an


incautious injection administered by Otto, an
injection of an unsuitable drug, such as I should


never have administered. Irma's complaint is the
result of an injection made with an unclean syringe,


like the phlebitis of my old lady patient, whereas my
injections have never caused any ill effects. I am


aware that these explanations of Irma's illness,

which unite in acquitting me, do not agree with one


another; that they even exclude one another. The



whole plea- for this dream is nothing else- recalls

vividly the defence offered by a man who was


accused by his neighbour of having returned a kettle

in a damaged condition. In the first place, he had
returned the kettle undamaged; in the second place



it already had holes in it when he borrowed it; and

in the third place, he had never borrowed it at all. A

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complicated defence, but so much the better; if only

one of these three lines of defence is recognized as


valid, the man must be acquitted.


Still other themes play a part in the dream,
and their relation to my non-responsibility for Irma's


illness is not so apparent: my daughter's illness, and
that of a patient with the same name; the


harmfulness of cocaine; the affection of my patient,
who was traveling in Egypt; concern about the


health of my wife; my brother, and Dr. M; my own
physical troubles, and anxiety concerning my absent


friend, who is suffering from suppurative rhinitis. But

if I keep all these things in view, they combine into


a single train of thought, which might be labelled:



Concern for the health of myself and others;

professional conscientiousness. I recall a vaguely


disagreeable feeling when Otto gave me the news of

Irma's condition. Lastly, I am inclined, after the
event, to find an expression of this fleeting



sensation in the train of thoughts which forms part

of the dream. It is as though Otto had said to me:

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"You do not take your medical duties seriously

enough; you are not conscientious; you do not


perform what you promise." Thereupon this train of


thought placed itself at my service, in order that I
might give proof of my extreme conscientiousness,


of my intimate concern about the health of my
relatives, friends and patients. Curiously enough,


there are also some painful memories in this
material, which confirm the blame attached to Otto


rather than my own exculpation. The material is
apparently impartial, but the connection between


this broader material, on which the dream is based,

and the more limited theme from which emerges the


wish to be innocent of Irma's illness, is,



nevertheless, unmistakable.
I do not wish to assert that I have entirely


revealed the meaning of the dream, or that my

interpretation is flawless.
I could still spend much time upon it; I could



draw further explanations from it, and discuss

further problems which it seems to propound. I can

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even perceive the points from which further mental

associations might be traced; but such


considerations as are always involved in every


dream of one's own prevent me from interpreting it
farther. Those who are overready to condemn such


reserve should make the experiment of trying to be
more straightforward. For the present I am content


with the one fresh discovery which has just been
made: If the method of dream- interpretation here


indicated is followed, it will be found that dreams do
really possess a meaning, and are by no means the


expression of a disintegrated cerebral activity, as

the writers on the subject would have us believe.


When the work of interpretation has been completed



the dream can be recognized as a wish fulfilment.



Footnotes
[1] In a novel Gradiva, by the poet W.
Jensen, I chanced to discover several fictitious



dreams, which were perfectly correct in their

construction, and could be interpreted as though

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they had not been invented, but had been dreamt

by actual persons. The poet declared, upon my


inquiry, that he was unacquainted with my theory of


dreams. I have made use of this agreement between
my investigations and the creations of the poet as a


proof of the correctness of my method of dream-
analysis (Der Wahn und die Traume in W. Jenson's


Gradiva, vol. i of the Schriften zur angewandten
Seelenkunde, 1906, edited by myself, Ges.


Schriften, vol. ix).
[2] Aristotle expressed himself in this


connection by saying that the best interpreter of

dreams is he who can best grasp similarities. For


dream-pictures, like pictures in water, are disfigured



by the motion (of the water), so that he hits the

target best who is able to recognize the true picture


in the distorted one (Buchsenschutz, p. 65).

[3] Artemidoros of Daldis, born probably in
the beginning of the second century of our calendar,



has furnished us with the most complete and careful

elaboration of dream-interpretation as it existed in

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the Graeco-Roman world. As Gompertz has

emphasized, he ascribed great importance to the


consideration that dreams ought to be interpreted


on the basis of observation and experience, and he
drew a definite line between his own art and other


methods, which he considered fraudulent. The
principle of his art of interpretation is, according to


Gompertz, identical with that of magic: i.e., the
principle of association. The thing dreamed meant


what it recalled to the memory- to the memory, of
course, of the dream-interpreter! This fact- that the


dream may remind the interpreter of various things,

and every interpreter of different things- leads, of


course, to uncontrollable arbitrariness and



uncertainty. The technique which I am about to

describe differs from that of the ancients in one


essential point, namely, in that it imposes upon the

dreamer himself the work of interpretation. Instead
of taking into account whatever may occur to the



dream-interpreter, it considers only what occurs to

the dreamer in connection with the dream-element

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concerned. According to the recent records of the

missionary, Tfinkdjit (Anthropos, 1913), it would


seem that the modern dream- interpreters of the


Orient likewise attribute much importance to the co-
operation of the dreamer. Of the dream-interpreters


among the Mesopotamian Arabs this writer relates
as follows: "Pour interpreter exactement un songe


les oniromanciens les plus habiles s'informent de
ceux qui les consultent de toutes les circonstances


qu'ils regardent necessaires pour la bonne
explication.... En un mot, nos oniromanciens ne


laissent aucune circonstance leur echapper et ne

donnent l'interpretation desiree avant d'avoir


parfaitement saisi et recu toutes les interrogations



desirables." [To interpret a dream exactly, the most

practised interpreters of dreams learn from those


who consult them all circumstances which they

regard as necessary for a good explanation.... In a
word, our interpreters allow no circumstance to be



overlooked and do not give the desired

interpretation before perfectly taking and

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apprehending all desirable questions.] Among these

questions one always finds demands for precise


information in respect to near relatives (parents,


wife, children) as well as the following formula:
habistine in hoc nocte copulam conjugalem ante vel


post somnium [Did you this night have conjugal
copulation before or after the dream?] "L'idee


dominante dans l'interpretation des songes consiste
a expliquer le reve par son oppose." [The dominant


idea in the interpretation of dreams consists in
explaining the dream by its opposite.]


[4] Dr. Alfred Robitsek calls my attention to

the fact that Oriental dream-books, of which ours


are pitiful plagiarisms, commonly undertake the



interpretation of dream-elements in accordance with

the assonance and similarity of words. Since these


relationships must be lost by translation into our

language, the incomprehensibility of the equivalents
in our popular "dream-books" is hereby explained.



Information as to the extraordinary significance of

puns and the play upon words in the old Oriental

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cultures may be found in the writings of Hugo

Winckler. The finest example of a dream-


interpretation which has come down to us from


antiquity is based on a play upon words.
Artemidoros relates the following (p. 225): "But it


seems to me that Aristandros gave a most happy
interpretation to Alexander of Macedon. When the


latter held Tyros encompassed and in a state of
siege, and was angry and depressed over the great


waste of time, he dreamed that he saw a Satyr
dancing on his shield. It happened that Aristandros


was in the neighbourhood of Tyros, and in the escort

of the king, who was waging war on the Syrians. By


dividing the word Satyros into sa and turos, he



induced the king to become more aggressive in the

siege. And thus Alexander became master of the


city." (Sa Turos = Thine is Tyros.) The dream,

indeed, is so intimately connected with verbal
expression that Ferenczi justly remarks that every



tongue has its own dream- language. A dream is, as

a rule, not to be translated into other languages.

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[5] After the completion of my manuscript, a

paper by Stumpf came to my notice which agrees


with my work in attempting to prove that the dream


is full of meaning and capable of interpretation. But
the interpretation is undertaken by means of an


allegorizing symbolism, and there is no guarantee
that the procedure is generally applicable.


[6] Studien uber Hysterie, 1895. [Compare
page 26 above.]


[7] Every psychologist is obliged to admit
even his own weaknesses, if he thinks by that he


may throw light on a difficult problem.

[8] However, I will not omit to mention, in


qualification of the above statement, that I have



practically never reported a complete interpretation

of a dream of my own. And I was probably right not


to trust too far to the reader's discretion.

[9] This is the first dream which I subjected
to an exhaustive interpretation.



[10] The complaint of pains in the abdomen,

as yet unexplained, may also be referred to this

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third person. It is my own wife, of course, who is in

question; the abdominal pains remind me of one of


the occasions on which her shyness became evident


to me. I must admit that I do not treat Irma and my
wife very gallantly in this dream, but let it be said,


in my defence, that I am measuring both of them
against the ideal of the courageous and docile


female patient.
[11] I suspect that the interpretation of this


portion has not been carried far enough to follow
every hidden meaning. If I were to continue the


comparison of the three women, I should go far

afield. Every dream has at least one point at which it


is unfathomable: a central point, as it were,



connecting it with the unknown.

[12] "Ananas," moreover, has a remarkable


assonance with the family name of my patient Irma.

[13] In this the dream did not turn out to be
prophetic. But in another sense it proved correct, for



the "unsolved" stomach pains, for which I did not

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want to be blamed, were the forerunners of a

serious illness, due to gall-stones.


[14] Even if I have not, as might be


expected, accounted for everything that occurred to
me in connection with the work of interpretation.












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CHAPTER 3
THE DREAM AS WISH-FULFILMENT


When, after passing through a narrow defile,


one suddenly reaches a height beyond which the
ways part and a rich prospect lies outspread in


different directions, it is well to stop for a moment
and consider whither one shall turn next. We are in


somewhat the same position after we have
mastered this first interpretation of a dream. We


find ourselves standing in the light of a sudden
discovery. The dream is not comparable to the


irregular sounds of a musical instrument, which,

instead of being played by the hand of a musician, is


struck by some external force; the dream is not



meaningless, not absurd, does not presuppose that

one part of our store of ideas is dormant while


another part begins to awake. It is a perfectly valid

psychic phenomenon, actually a wish-fulfilment; it
may be enrolled in the continuity of the intelligible



psychic activities of the waking state; it is built up

by a highly complicated intellectual activity. But at

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the very moment when we are about to rejoice in

this discovery a host of problems besets us. If the


dream, as this theory defines it, represents a


fulfilled wish, what is the cause of the striking and
unfamiliar manner in which this fulfilment is


expressed? What transformation has occurred in our
dream-thoughts before the manifest dream, as we


remember it on waking, shapes itself out of them?
How has this transformation taken place? Whence


comes the material that is worked up into the
dream? What causes many of the peculiarities which


are to be observed in our dream-thoughts; for

example, how is it that they are able to contradict


one another? Is the dream capable of teaching us



something new concerning our internal psychic

processes and can its content correct opinions which


we have held during the day? I suggest that for the

present all these problems be laid aside, and that a
single path be pursued. We have found that the



dream represents a wish as fulfilled. Our next

purpose should be to ascertain whether this is a

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general characteristic of dreams, or whether it is

only the accidental content of the particular dream


(the dream about Irma's injection) with which we


have begun our analysis; for even if we conclude
that every dream has a meaning and psychic value,


we must nevertheless allow for the possibility that
this meaning may not be the same in every dream.


The first dream which we have considered was the
fulfilment of a wish; another may turn out to be the


realization of an apprehension; a third may have a
reflection as its content; a fourth may simply


reproduce a reminiscence. Are there, then dreams

other than wish-dreams; or are there none but wish-


dreams? -


It is easy to show that the wish-fulfilment in

dreams is often undisguised and easy to recognize,


so that one may wonder why the language of

dreams has not long since been understood. There
is, for example, a dream which I can evoke as often



as I please, experimentally, as it were. If, in the

evening, I eat anchovies, olives, or other strongly

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salted foods, I am thirsty at night, and therefore I

wake. The waking, however, is preceded by a


dream, which has always the same content, namely,


that I am drinking. I am drinking long draughts of
water; it tastes as delicious as only a cool drink can


taste when one's throat is parched; and then I
wake, and find that I have an actual desire to drink.


The cause of this dream is thirst, which I perceive
when I wake. From this sensation arises the wish to


drink, and the dream shows me this wish as fulfilled.
It thereby serves a function, the nature of which I


soon surmise. I sleep well, and am not accustomed

to being waked by a bodily need. If I succeed in


appeasing my thirst by means of the dream that I



am drinking, I need not wake up in order to satisfy

that thirst. It is thus a dream of convenience. The


dream takes the place of action, as elsewhere in life.

Unfortunately, the need of water to quench the
thirst cannot be satisfied by a dream, as can my



thirst for revenge upon Otto and Dr. M, but the

intention is the same. Not long ago I had the same

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dream in a somewhat modified form. On this

occasion I felt thirsty before going to bed, and


emptied the glass of water which stood on the little


chest beside my bed. Some hours later, during the
night, my thirst returned, with the consequent


discomfort. In order to obtain water, I should have
had to get up and fetch the glass which stood on my


wife's bed- table. I thus quite appropriately dreamt
that my wife was giving me a drink from a vase; this


vase was an Etruscan cinerary urn, which I had
brought home from Italy and had since given away.


But the water in it tasted so salt (apparently on

account of the ashes) that I was forced to wake. It


may be observed how conveniently the dream is



capable of arranging matters. Since the fulfilment of

a wish is its only purpose, it may be perfectly


egoistic. Love of comfort is really not compatible

with consideration for others. The introduction of the
cinerary urn is probably once again the fulfilment of



a wish; I regret that I no longer possess this vase;

it, like the glass of water at my wife's side, is

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inaccessible to me. The cinerary urn is appropriate

also in connection with the sensation of an


increasingly salty taste, which I know will compel


me to wake. [1] -
Such convenience-dreams came very


frequently to me in my youth. Accustomed as I had
always been to working until late at night, early


waking was always a matter of difficulty. I used then
to dream that I was out of bed and standing at the


wash-stand. After a while I could no longer shut out
the knowledge that I was not yet up; but in the


meantime I had continued to sleep. The same sort

of lethargy-dream was dreamed by a young


colleague of mine, who appears to share my



propensity for sleep. With him it assumed a

particularly amusing form. The landlady with whom


he was lodging in the neighbourhood of the hospital

had strict orders to wake him every morning at a
given hour, but she found it by no means easy to



carry out his orders. One morning sleep was

especially sweet to him. The woman called into his

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room: "Herr Pepi, get up; you've got to go to the

hospital." Whereupon the sleeper dreamt of a room


in the hospital, of a bed in which he was lying, and


of a chart pinned over his head, which read as
follows: "Pepi M, medical student, 22 years of age."


He told himself in the dream: "If I am already at the
hospital, I don't have to go there," turned over, and


slept on. He had thus frankly admitted to himself his
motive for dreaming.


Here is yet another dream of which the
stimulus was active during sleep: One of my women


patients, who had been obliged to undergo an

unsuccessful operation on the jaw, was instructed by


her physicians to wear by day and night a cooling



apparatus on the affected cheek; but she was in the

habit of throwing it off as soon as she had fallen


asleep. One day I was asked to reprove her for

doing so; she had again thrown the apparatus on
the floor. The patient defended herself as follows:



"This time I really couldn't help it; it was the result

of a dream which I had during the night. In the

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dream I was in a box at the opera, and was taking a

lively interest in the performance. But Herr Karl


Meyer was lying in the sanatorium and complaining


pitifully on account of pains in his jaw. I said to
myself, 'Since I haven't the pains, I don't need the


apparatus either'; that's why I threw it away." The
dream of this poor sufferer reminds me of an


expression which comes to our lips when we are in a
disagreeable situation: "Well, I can imagine more


amusing things!" The dream presents these "more
amusing things!" Herr Karl Meyer, to whom the


dreamer attributed her pains, was the most casual

acquaintance of whom she could think.


It is quite as simple a matter to discover the



wish-fulfilment in several other dreams which I have

collected from healthy persons. A friend who was


acquainted with my theory of dreams, and had

explained it to his wife, said to me one day: "My
wife asked me to tell you that she dreamt yesterday



that she was having her menses. You will know what
that means." Of course I know: if the young wife

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dreams that she is having her menses, the menses

have stopped. I can well imagine that she would


have liked to enjoy her freedom a little longer,


before the discomforts of maternity began. It was a
clever way of giving notice of her first pregnancy.


Another friend writes that his wife had dreamt not
long ago that she noticed milk-stains on the front of


her blouse. This also is an indication of pregnancy,
but not of the first one; the young mother hoped


she would have more nourishment for the second
child than she had for the first.


A young woman who for weeks had been cut

off from all society because she was nursing a child


who was suffering from an infectious disease



dreamt, after the child had recovered, of a company

of people in which Alphonse Daudet, Paul Bourget,


Marcel Prevost and others were present; they were

all very pleasant to her and amused her enormously.
In her dream these different authors had the



features which their portraits give them. M. Prevost,

with whose portrait she is not familiar, looked like

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the man who had disinfected the sickroom the day

before, the first outsider to enter it for a long time.


Obviously the dream is to be translated thus: "It is


about time now for something more entertaining
than this eternal nursing."


Perhaps this collection will suffice to prove
that frequently, and under the most complex


conditions, dreams may be noted which can be
understood only as wish-fulfilments, and which


present their content without concealment. In most
cases these are short and simple dreams, and they


stand in pleasant contrast to the confused and

overloaded dream-compositions which have almost


exclusively attracted the attention of the writers on



the subject. But it will repay us if we give some time

to the examination of these simple dreams. The


simplest dreams of all are, I suppose, to be

expected in the case of children whose psychic
activities are certainly less complicated than those of



adults. Child psychology, in my opinion, is destined

to render the same services to the psychology of

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adults as a study of the structure or development of

the lower animals renders to the investigation of the


structure of the higher orders of animals. Hitherto


but few deliberate efforts have been made to make
use of the psychology of the child for such a


purpose.
The dreams of little children are often simple


fulfilments of wishes, and for this reason are, as
compared with the dreams of adults, by no means


interesting. They present no problem to be solved,
but they are invaluable as affording proof that the


dream, in its inmost essence, is the fulfilment of a

wish. I have been able to collect several examples of


such dreams from the material furnished by my own



children.
For two dreams, one that of a daughter of


mine, at that time eight and a half years of age, and

the other that of a boy of five and a quarter, I am
indebted to an excursion to Hallstatt, in the summer



of 1806. I must first explain that we were living that

summer on a hill near Aussee, from which, when the

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weather was fine, we enjoyed a splendid view of the

Dachstein. With a telescope we could easily


distinguish the Simony hut. The children often tried


to see it through the telescope- I do not know with
what success. Before the excursion I had told the


children that Hallstatt lay at the foot of the
Dachstein. They looked forward to the outing with


the greatest delight. From Hallstatt we entered the
valley of Eschern, which enchanted the children with


its constantly changing scenery. One of them,
however, the boy of five, gradually became


discontented. As often as a mountain came into

view, he would ask: "Is that the Dachstein?"


whereupon I had to reply: "No, only a foot-hill."



After this question had been repeated several times

he fell quite silent, and did not wish to accompany


us up the steps leading to the waterfall. I thought he

was tired. But the next morning he came to me,
perfectly happy, and said: "Last night I dreamt that



we went to the Simony hut." I understood him now;

he had expected, when I spoke of the Dachstein,

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that on our excursion to Hallstatt he would climb the

mountain, and would see at close quarters the hut


which had been so often mentioned when the


telescope was used. When he learned that he was
expected to content himself with foot-hills and a


waterfall he was disappointed, and became
discontented. But the dream compensated him for


all this. I tried to learn some details of the dream;
they were scanty. "You go up steps for six hours,"


as he had been told.
On this excursion the girl of eight and a half


had likewise cherished wishes which had to be

satisfied by a dream. We had taken with us to


Hallstatt our neighbour's twelve-year-old boy; quite



a polished little gentleman, who, it seemed to me,

had already won the little woman's sympathies. Next


morning she related the following dream: "Just

think, I dreamt that Emil was one of the family, that
he said 'papa' and 'mamma' to you, and slept at our



house, in the big room, like one of the boys. Then

mamma came into the room and threw a handful of

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big bars of chocolate, wrapped in blue and green

paper, under our beds." The girl's brothers, who


evidently had not inherited an understanding of


dream-interpretation, declared, just as the writers
we have quoted would have done: "That dream is


nonsense." The girl defended at least one part of the
dream, and from the standpoint of the theory of the


neuroses it is interesting to learn which part it was
that she defended: "That Emil was one of the family


was nonsense, but that about the bars of chocolate
wasn't." It was just this latter part that was obscure


to me, until my wife furnished the explanation. On

the way home from the railway- station the children


had stopped in front of a slot-machine, and had



wanted exactly such bars of chocolate, wrapped in

paper with a metallic lustre, such as the machine, in


their experience, provided. But the mother thought,

and rightly so, that the day had brought them
enough wish-fulfilments, and therefore left this wish



to be satisfied in the dream. This little scene had

escaped me. That portion of the dream which had

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been condemned by my daughter I understood

without any difficulty. I myself had heard the well-


behaved little guest enjoining the children, as they


were walking ahead of us, to wait until "papa" or
"mamma" had come up. For the little girl the dream


turned this temporary relationship into a permanent
adoption. Her affection could not as yet conceive of


any other way of enjoying her friend's company
permanently than the adoption pictured in her


dream, which was suggested by her brothers. Why
the bars of chocolate were thrown under the bed


could not, of course, be explained without

questioning the child.


From a friend I have learned of a dream



very much like that of my little boy. It was dreamed

by a little girl of eight. Her father, accompanied by


several children, had started on a walk to Dornbach,

with the intention of visiting the Rohrer hut, but had
turned back, as it was growing late, promising the



children to take them some other time. On the way

back they passed a signpost which pointed to the

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Hameau. The children now asked him to take them

to the Hameau, but once more, and for the same


reason, they had to be content with the promise that


they should go there some other day. Next morning
the little girl went to her father and told him, with a


satisfied air: "Papa, I dreamed last night that you
were with us at the Rohrer hut, and on the


Hameau." Thus, in the dream her impatience had
anticipated the fulfilment of the promise made by


her father.
Another dream, with which the picturesque


beauty of the Aussee inspired my daughter, at that

time three and a quarter years of age, is equally


straightforward. The little girl had crossed the lake



for the first time, and the trip had passed too quickly
for her. She did not want to leave the boat at the


landing, and cried bitterly. The next morning she

told us: "Last night I was sailing on the lake." Let us
hope that the duration of this dream-voyage was



more satisfactory to her.

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My eldest boy, at that time eight years of

age, was already dreaming of the realization of his


fancies. He had ridden in a chariot with Achilles, with


Diomedes as charioteer. On the previous day he had
shown a lively interest in a book on the myths of


Greece which had been given to his elder sister.
If it can be admitted that the talking of


children in their sleep belongs to the sphere of
dreams, I can relate the following as one of the


earliest dreams in my collection: My youngest
daughter, at that time nineteen months old, vomited


one morning, and was therefore kept without food

all day. During the night she was heard to call


excitedly in her sleep: "Anna F(r)eud, St'awbewy,



wild st'awbewy, om'lette, pap!" She used her name

in this way in order to express the act of


appropriation; the menu presumably included

everything that would seem to her a desirable meal;
the fact that two varieties of strawberry appeared in



it was demonstration against the sanitary

regulations of the household, and was based on the

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circumstance, which she had by no means

overlooked, that the nurse had ascribed her


indisposition to an over-plentiful consumption of


strawberries; so in her dream she avenged herself
for this opinion which met with her disapproval.[2]


When we call childhood happy because it
does not yet know sexual desire, we must not forget


what a fruitful source of disappointment and
renunciation, and therefore of dream- stimulation,


the other great vital impulse may be for the child.[3]
Here is a second example. My nephew, twenty-two


months of age, had been instructed to congratulate

me on my birthday, and to give me a present of a


small basket of cherries, which at that time of the



year were scarce, being hardly in season. He

seemed to find the task a difficult one, for he


repeated again and again: "Cherries in it," and could

not be induced to let the little basket go out of his
hands. But he knew how to indemnify himself. He



had, until then, been in the habit of telling his

mother every morning that he had dreamt of the

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"white soldier," an officer of the guard in a white

cloak, whom he had once admired in the street. On


the day after the sacrifice on my birthday he woke


up joyfully with the announcement, which could
have referred only to a dream: "He [r] man eaten all


the cherries!"[4]
What animals dream of I do not know. A


proverb, for which I am indebted to one of my
pupils, professes to tell us, for it asks the question:


"What does the goose dream of?" and answers: "Of
maize."[5] The whole theory that the dream is the


fulfilment of a wish is contained in these two

sentences.[6]


We now perceive that we should have



reached our theory of the hidden meaning of dreams

by the shortest route had we merely consulted the


vernacular. Proverbial wisdom, it is true, often

speaks contemptuously enough of dreams- it
apparently seeks to justify the scientists when it



says that "dreams are bubbles"; but in colloquial

language the dream is predominantly the gracious

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fulfiller of wishes. "I should never have imagined

that in my wildest dreams," we exclaim in delight if


we find that the reality surpasses our expectations.


Footnotes


[1] The facts relating to dreams of thirst
were known also to Weygandt, who speaks of them


as follows: "It is just this sensation of thirst which is
registered most accurately of all; it always causes a


representation of quenching the thirst. The manner
in which the dream represents the act of quenching


the thirst is manifold, and is specified in accordance

with some recent recollection. A universal


phenomenon noticeable here is the fact that the



representation of quenching the thirst is

immediately followed by disappointment in the


inefficacy of the imagined refreshment." But he

overlooks the universal character of the reaction of
the dream to the stimulus. If other persons who are



troubled by thirst at night awake without dreaming

beforehand, this does not constitute an objection to

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my experiment, but characterizes them as persons

who sleep less soundly. Cf. Isaiah, 29. 8.


[2] The dream afterwards accomplished the


same purpose in the case of the child's
grandmother, who is older than the child by about


seventy years. After she had been forced to go
hungry for a day on account of the restlessness of


her floating kidney, she dreamed, being apparently
translated into the happy years of her girlhood, that


she had been asked out, invited to lunch and dinner,
and had at each meal been served with the most


delicious titbits.
[3] A more searching investigation into the


psychic life of the child teaches us, of course, that



sexual motives, in infantile forms, play a very

considerable part, which has been too long


overlooked, in the psychic activity of the child. This

permits us to doubt to some extent the happiness of
the child, as imagined later by adults. Cf. Three



Contributions to the Theory of Sex.

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[4] It should be mentioned that young

children often have more complex and obscure


dreams, while, on the other hand, adults, in certain


circumstances, often have dreams of a simple and
infantile character. How rich in unsuspected content


the dreams of children no more than four or five
years of age may be is shown by the examples in


my "Analysis of a Phobia in a five-year old Boy,"
Collected Papers, III, and Jung's "Experiences


Concerning the Psychic Life of the Child," translated
by Brill, American Journal of Psychology. April, 1910.


For analytically interpreted dreams of children, see

also von Hug-Hellmuth, Putnam, Raalte, Spielrein,


and Tausk; others by Banchieri, Busemann, Doglia,



and especially Wigam, who emphasizes the wish-

fulfilling tendency of such dreams. On the other


hand, it seems that dreams of an infantile type

reappear with especial frequency in adults who are
transferred into the midst of unfamiliar conditions.



Thus Otto Nordenskjold, in his book, Antarctic

(1904, vol. i, p. 336), writes as follows of the crew

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who spent the winter with him: "Very characteristic

of the trend of our inmost thoughts were our


dreams, which were never more vivid and more


numerous. Even those of our comrades with whom
dreaming was formerly exceptional had long stories


to tell in the morning, when we exchanged our
experiences in the world of phantasy. They all had


reference to that outside world which was now so far
removed from us, but they often fitted into our


immediate circumstances. An especially
characteristic dream was that in which one of our


comrades believed himself back at school, where the

task was assigned to him of skinning miniature


seals, which were manufactured especially for



purposes of instruction. Eating and drinking

constituted the pivot around which most of our


dreams revolved. One of us, who was especially

fond of going to big dinner-parties, was delighted if
he could report in the morning 'that he had had a



three-course dinner.' Another dreamed of tobacco,

whole mountains of tobacco; yet another dreamed

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of a ship approaching on the open sea under full

sail. Still another dream deserves to be mentioned:


The postman brought the post and gave a long


explanation of why it was so long delayed; he had
delivered it at the wrong address, and only with


great trouble was he able to get it back. To be sure,
we were often occupied in our sleep with still more


impossible things, but the lack of phantasy in almost
all the dreams which I myself dreamed, or heard


others relate, was quite striking. It would certainly
have been of great psychological interest if all these


dreams could have been recorded. But one can

readily understand how we longed for sleep. That


alone could afford us everything that we all most



ardently desired." I will continue by a quotation from

Du Prel (p. 231): "Mungo Park, nearly dying of thirst


on one of his African expeditions, dreamed

constantly of the well-watered valleys and meadows
of his home. Similarly Trenck, tortured by hunger in



the fortress of Magdeburg, saw himself surrounded

by copious meals. And George Back, a member of

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Franklin's first expedition, when he was on the point

of death by starvation, dreamed continually and


invariably of plenteous meals."


[5] A Hungarian proverb cited by Ferenczi
states more explicitly that "the pig dreams of


acorns, the goose of maize." A Jewish proverb asks:
"Of what does the hen dream?"- "Of millet"


(Sammlung jud. Sprichw. u. Redensarten., edit. by
Bernstein, 2nd ed., p. 116).


[6] I am far from wishing to assert that no
previous writer has ever thought of tracing a dream


to a wish. (Cf. the first passages of the next

chapter.) Those interested in the subject will find


that even in antiquity the physician Herophilos, who



lived under the First Ptolemy, distinguished between

three kinds of dreams: dreams sent by the gods;


natural dreams- those which come about whenever

the soul creates for itself an image of that which is
beneficial to it, and will come to pass; and mixed



dreams- those which originate spontaneously from

the juxtaposition of images, when we see that which

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we desire. From the examples collected by Scherner,

J. Starcke cites a dream which was described by the


author himself as a wish-fulfilment (p. 239).


Scherner says: "The phantasy immediately fulfills
the dreamer's wish, simply because this existed


vividly in the mind." This dream belongs to the
"emotional dreams." Akin to it are dreams due to


"masculine and feminine erotic longing," and to
"irritable moods." As will readily be seen, Scherner


does not ascribe to the wish any further significance
for the dream than to any other psychic condition of


the waking state; least of all does he insist on the

connection between the wish and the essential


nature of the dream.






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CHAPTER 4
DISTORTION IN DREAMS


If I now declare that wish-fulfilment is the


meaning of every dream, so that there cannot be
any dreams other than wish-dreams, I know


beforehand that I shall meet with the most emphatic
contradiction. My critics will object: "The fact that


there are dreams which are to be understood as
fulfilments of wishes is not new, but has long since


been recognized by such writers as Radestock,
Volkelt, Purkinje, Griesinger and others.[1] That


there can be no other dreams than those of wish-



fulfilments is yet one more unjustified

generalization, which, fortunately, can be easily


refuted. Dreams which present the most painful

content, and not the least trace of wish-fulfilment,


occur frequently enough. The pessimistic

philosopher, Eduard von Hartmann, is perhaps most
completely opposed to the theory of wish-fulfilment.



In his Philosophy of the Unconscious, Part II

(Stereotyped German edition, p. 344), he says: 'As

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regards the dream, with it all the troubles of waking

life pass over into the sleeping state; all save the


one thing which may in some degree reconcile the


cultured person with life- scientific and artistic
enjoyment....' But even less pessimistic observers


have emphasized the fact that in our dreams pain
and disgust are more frequent than pleasure


(Scholz, p. 33; Volkelt, p. 80, et al.). Two ladies,
Sarah Weed and Florence Hallam, have even worked


out, on the basis of their dreams, a numerical value
for the preponderance of distress and discomfort in


dreams. They find that 58 per cent of dreams are

disagreeable, and only 28.6 positively pleasant.


Besides those dreams that convey into our sleep the



many painful emotions of life, there are also

anxiety-dreams, in which this most terrible of all the


painful emotions torments us until we wake. Now it

is precisely by these anxiety dreams that children
are so often haunted (cf. Debacker on Pavor



nocturnus); and yet it was in children that you found

the wish-fulfilment dream in its most obvious form."

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The anxiety-dream does really seem to

preclude a generalization of the thesis deduced from


the examples given in the last chapter, that dreams


are wish-fulfilments, and even to condemn it as an
absurdity.


Nevertheless, it is not difficult to parry these
apparently invincible objections. It is merely


necessary to observe that our doctrine is not based
upon the estimates of the obvious dream- content,


but relates to the thought-content, which, in the
course of interpretation, is found to lie behind the


dream. Let us compare and contrast the manifest

and the latent dream-content. It is true that there


are dreams the manifest content of which is of the



most painful nature. But has anyone ever tried to

interpret these dreams- to discover their latent


thought-content? If not, the two objections to our

doctrine are no longer valid; for there is always the
possibility that even our painful and terrifying



dreams may, upon interpretation, prove to be wish

fulfilments.[2]

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In scientific research it is often

advantageous, if the solution of one problem


presents difficulties, to add to it a second problem;


just as it is easier to crack two nuts together instead
of separately. Thus, we are confronted not only with


the problem: How can painful and terrifying dreams
be the fulfilments of wishes? but we may add to this


a second problem which arises from the foregoing
discussion of the general problem of the dream:


Why do not the dreams that show an indifferent
content, and yet turn out to be wish-fulfilments,


reveal their meaning without disguise? Take the

exhaustively treated dream of Irma's injection: it is


by no means of a painful character, and it may be



recognized, upon interpretation, as a striking wish-

fulfilment. But why is an interpretation necessary at


all? Why does not the dream say directly what it

means? As a matter of fact, the dream of Irma's
injection does not at first produce the impression



that it represents a wish of the dreamer's as

fulfilled. The reader will not have received this

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impression, and even I myself was not aware of the

fact until I had undertaken the analysis. If we call


this peculiarity of dreams- namely, that they need


elucidation- the phenomenon of distortion in
dreams, a second question then arises: What is the


origin of this distortion in dreams?
If one's first thoughts on this subject were


consulted, several possible solutions might suggest
themselves: for example, that during sleep one is


incapable of finding an adequate expression for
one's dream-thoughts. The analysis of certain


dreams, however, compels us to offer another

explanation. I shall demonstrate this by means of a


second dream of my own, which again involves



numerous indiscretions, but which compensates for

this personal sacrifice by affording a thorough


elucidation of the problem.



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Preliminary Statement


In the spring of 1897 I learnt that two
professors of our university had proposed me for the


title of Professor Extraordinarius (assistant
professor). The news came as a surprise to me, and


pleased me considerably as an expression of
appreciation on the part of two eminent men which


could not be explained by personal interest. But I
told myself immediately that I must not expect


anything to come of their proposal. For some years
past the Ministry had disregarded such proposals,


and several colleagues of mine, who were my



seniors and at least my equals in desert, had been

waiting in vain all this time for the appointment. I


had no reason to suppose that I should fare any

better. I resolved, therefore, to resign myself to


disappointment. I am not, so far as I know,

ambitious, and I was following my profession with
gratifying success even without the recommendation



of a professorial title. Whether I considered the

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grapes to be sweet or sour did not matter, since

they undoubtedly hung too high for me.


One evening a friend of mine called to see


me; one of those colleagues whose fate I had
regarded as a warning. As he had long been a


candidate for promotion to the professorate (which
in our society makes the doctor a demigod to his


patients), and as he was less resigned than I, he
was accustomed from time to time to remind the


authorities of his claims in the hope of advancing his
interests. It was after one of these visits that he


called on me. He said that this time he had driven

the exalted gentleman into a corner, and had asked


him frankly whether considerations of religious



denomination were not really responsible for the

postponement of his appointment. The answer was:


His Excellency had to admit that in the present state

of public opinion he was not in a position, etc. "Now
at least I know where I stand," my friend concluded



his narrative, which told me nothing new, but which

was calculated to confirm me in my resignation. For

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the same denominational considerations would apply

to my own case.


On the morning after my friend's visit I had


the following dream, which was notable also on
account of its form. It consisted of two thoughts and


two images, so that a thought and an image
emerged alternately. But here I shall record only the


first half of the dream, since the second half has no
relation to the purpose for which I cite the dream.


I. My friend R is my uncle- I have a great
affection for him.


II. I see before me his face, somewhat

altered. It seems to be elongated; a yellow beard,


which surrounds it, is seen with peculiar



distinctness.
Then follow the other two portions of the


dream, again a thought and an image, which I omit.

The interpretation of this dream was arrived
at in the following manner:



When I recollected the dream in the course

of the morning, I laughed outright and said, "The

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dream is nonsense." But I could not get it out of my

mind, and I was pursued by it all day, until at last,


in the evening, I reproached myself in these words:


"If in the course of a dream-interpretation one of
your patients could find nothing better to say than


'That is nonsense,' you would reprove him, and you
would suspect that behind the dream there was


hidden some disagreeable affair, the exposure of
which he wanted to spare himself. Apply the same


thing to your own case; your opinion that the dream
is nonsense probably signifies merely an inner


resistance to its interpretation. Don't let yourself be

put off." I then proceeded with the interpretation.


R is my uncle. What can that mean? I had



only one uncle, my uncle Joseph.[3] His story, to be

sure, was a sad one. Once, more than thirty years


ago, hoping to make money, he allowed himself to

be involved in transactions of a kind which the law
punishes severely, and paid the penalty. My father,



whose hair turned grey with grief within a few days,

used always to say that uncle Joseph had never

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been a bad man, but, after all, he was a simpleton.

If, then, my friend R is my uncle Joseph, that is


equivalent to saying: "R is a simpleton." Hardly


credible, and very disagreeable! But there is the face
that I saw in the dream, with its elongated features


and its yellow beard. My uncle actually had such a
face- long, and framed in a handsome yellow beard.


My friend R was extremely swarthy, but when black-
haired people begin to grow grey they pay for the


glory of their youth. Their black beards undergo an
unpleasant change of colour, hair by hair; first they


turn a reddish brown, then a yellowish brown, and

then definitely grey. My friend R's beard is now in


this stage; so, for that matter, is my own, a fact



which I note with regret. The face that I see in my

dream is at once that of my friend R and that of my


uncle. It is like one of those composite photographs

of Galton's; in order to emphasize family
resemblances Galton had several faces



photographed on the same plate. No doubt is now

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possible; it is really my opinion that my friend R is a

simpleton- like my uncle Joseph.


I have still no idea for what purpose I have


worked out this relationship. It is certainly one to
which I must unreservedly object. Yet it is not very


profound, for my uncle was a criminal, and my
friend R is not, except in so far as he was once fined


for knocking down an apprentice with his bicycle.
Can I be thinking of this offence? That would make


the comparison ridiculous. Here I recollect another
conversation, which I had some days ago with


another colleague, N; as a matter of fact, on the

same subject. I met N in the street; he, too, has


been nominated for a professorship, and having



heard that I had been similarly honoured he

congratulated me. I refused his congratulations,


saying: "You are the last man to jest about the

matter, for you know from your own experience
what the nomination is worth." Thereupon he said,



though probably not in earnest; "You can't be sure

of that. There is a special objection in my case.

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Don't you know that a woman once brought a

criminal accusation against me? I need hardly


assure you that the matter was put right. It was a


mean attempt at blackmail, and it was all I could do
to save the plaintiff from punishment. But it may be


that the affair is remembered against me at the
Ministry. You, on the other hand, are above


reproach." Here, then, I have the criminal, and at
the same time the interpretation and tendency of


my dream. My uncle Joseph represents both of my
colleagues who have not been appointed to the


professorship- the one as a simpleton, the other as

a criminal. Now, too, I know for what purpose I need


this representation. If denominational considerations



are a determining factor in the postponement of my

two friends' appointment, then my own appointment


is likewise in jeopardy. But if I can refer the

rejection of my two friends to other causes, which
do not apply to my own case, my hopes are



unaffected. This is the procedure followed by my

dream: it makes the one friend R, a simpleton, and

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the other, N, a criminal. But since I am neither one

nor the other, there is nothing in common between


us. I have a right to enjoy my appointment to the


title of professor, and have avoided the distressing
application to my own case of the information which


the official gave to my friend R.
I must pursue the interpretation of this


dream still farther; for I have a feeling that it is not
yet satisfactorily elucidated. I still feel disquieted by


the ease with which I have degraded two respected
colleagues in order to clear my own way to the


professorship. My dissatisfaction with this procedure

has, of course, been mitigated since I have learned


to estimate the testimony of dreams at its true



value. I should contradict anyone who suggested

that I really considered R a simpleton, or that I did


not believe N's account of the blackmailing incident.

And of course I do not believe that Irma has been
made seriously ill by an injection of a preparation of



propyl administered by Otto. Here, as before, what

the dream expresses is only my wish that things

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might be so. The statement in which my wish is

realized sounds less absurd in the second dream


than in the first; it is here made with a skilful use of


actual points of support in establishing something
like a plausible slander, one of which one could say


that "there is something in it." For at that time my
friend R had to contend with the adverse vote of a


university professor of his own department, and my
friend N had himself, all unsuspectingly, provided


me with material for the calumny. Nevertheless, I
repeat, it still seems to me that the dream requires


further elucidation.
I remember now that the dream contained


yet another portion which has hitherto been ignored



by the interpretation. After it occurred to me that

my friend R was my uncle, I felt in the dream a


great affection for him. To whom is this feeling

directed? For my uncle Joseph, of course, I have
never had any feelings of affection. R has for many



years been a dearly loved friend, but if I were to go

to him and express my affection for him in terms

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approaching the degree of affection which I felt in

the dream, he would undoubtedly be surprised. My


affection, if it was for him, seems false and


exaggerated, as does my judgment of his
intellectual qualities, which I expressed by merging


his personality in that of my uncle; but exaggerated
in the opposite direction. Now, however, a new state


of affairs dawns upon me. The affection in the
dream does not belong to the latent content, to the


thoughts behind the dream; it stands in opposition
to this content; it is calculated to conceal the


knowledge conveyed by the interpretation. Probably

this is precisely its function. I remember with what


reluctance I undertook the interpretation, how long I



tried to postpone it, and how I declared the dream

to be sheer nonsense. I know from my psycho-


analytic practice how such a condemnation is to be

interpreted. It has no informative value, but merely
expresses an affect. If my little daughter does not



like an apple which is offered her, she asserts that

the apple is bitter, without even tasting it. If my

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patients behave thus, I know that we are dealing

with an idea which they are trying to repress. The


same thing applies to my dream. I do not want to


interpret it because there is something in the
interpretation to which I object. After the


interpretation of the dream is completed, I discover
what it was to which I objected; it was the assertion


that R is a simpleton. I can refer the affection which
I feel for R not to the latent dream-thoughts, but


rather to this unwillingness of mine. If my dream, as
compared with its latent content, is disguised at this


point, and actually misrepresents things by

producing their opposites, then the manifest


affection in the dream serves the purpose of the



misrepresentation: in other words, the distortion is

here shown to be intentional- it is a means of


disguise. My dream-thoughts of R are derogatory,

and so that I may not become aware of this the very
opposite of defamation- a tender affection for him-



enters into the dream.

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This discovery may prove to be generally

valid. As the examples in Chapter III have


demonstrated, there are, of course, dreams which


are undisguised wish-fulfilments. Wherever a wish-
fulfilment is unrecognizable and disguised there


must be present a tendency to defend oneself
against this wish, and in consequence of this


defence the wish is unable to express itself save in a
distorted form. I will try to find a parallel in social


life to this occurrence in the inner psychic life.
Where in social life can a similar misrepresentation


be found? Only where two persons are concerned,

one of whom possesses a certain power while the


other has to act with a certain consideration on



account of this power. The second person will then

distort his psychic actions: or, as we say, he will


mask himself. The politeness which I practise every

day is largely a disguise of this kind; if I interpret
my dreams for the benefit of my readers, I am



forced to make misrepresentations of this kind. The

poet even complains of the necessity of such

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misrepresentation: Das Beste, was du wissen

kannst, darfst du den Buben doch nicht sagen: "The


best that thou canst know thou mayst not tell to


boys."
The political writer who has unpleasant


truths to tell to those in power finds himself in a like
position. If he tells everything without reserve, the


Government will suppress them- retrospectively in
the case of a verbal expression of opinion,


preventively if they are to be published in the Press.
The writer stands in fear of the censorship; he


therefore moderates and disguises the expression of

his opinions. He finds himself compelled, in


accordance with the sensibilities of the censor,



either to refrain altogether from certain forms of

attack or to express himself in allusions instead of


by direct assertions; or he must conceal his

objectionable statement in an apparently innocent
disguise. He may, for instance, tell of a contretemps



between two Chinese mandarins, while he really has

in mind the officials of his own country. The stricter

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the domination of the censorship, the more

thorough becomes the disguise, and, often enough,


the more ingenious the means employed to put the


reader on the track of the actual meaning.
The detailed correspondence between the


phenomena of censorship and the phenomena of
dream-distortion justifies us in presupposing similar


conditions for both. We should then assume that in
every human being there exist, as the primary cause


of dream-formation, two psychic forces (tendencies
or systems), one of which forms the wish expressed


by the dream, while the other exercises a censorship

over this dream-wish, thereby enforcing on it a


distortion. The question is: What is the nature of the



authority of this second agency by virtue of which it

is able to exercise its censorship? If we remember


that the latent dream- thoughts are not conscious

before analysis, but that the manifest dream-content
emerging from them is



consciously remembered, it is not a far-

fetched assumption that admittance to the

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consciousness is the prerogative of the second

agency. Nothing can reach the consciousness from


the first system which has not previously passed the


second instance; and the second instance lets
nothing pass without exercising its rights, and


forcing such modifications as are pleasing to itself
upon the candidates for admission to consciousness.


Here we arrive at a very definite conception of the
essence of consciousness; for us the state of


becoming conscious is a special psychic act, different
from and independent of the process of becoming


fixed or represented, and consciousness appears to

us as a sensory organ which perceives a content


proceeding from another source. It may be shown



that psycho-pathology simply cannot dispense with

these fundamental assumptions. But we shall


reserve for another time a more exhaustive

examination of the subject.
If I bear in mind the notion of the two



psychic instances and their relation to the

consciousness, I find in the sphere of politics a

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perfectly appropriate analogy to the extraordinary

affection which I feel for my friend R, who is so


disparaged in the dream-interpretation. I refer to


the political life of a State in which the ruler, jealous
of his rights, and an active public opinion are in


mutual conflict. The people, protesting against the
actions of an unpopular official, demand his


dismissal. The autocrat, on the other hand, in order
to show his contempt for the popular will, may then


deliberately confer upon the official some
exceptional distinction which otherwise would not


have been conferred. Similarly, my second instance,

controlling the access to my consciousness,


distinguishes my friend R with a rush of



extraordinary affection, because the wish-

tendencies of the first system, in view of a particular


interest on which they are just then intent, would

like to disparage him as a simpleton.[4]
We may now perhaps begin to suspect that



dream-interpretation is capable of yielding

information concerning the structure of our psychic

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apparatus which we have hitherto vainly expected

from philosophy. We shall not, however, follow up


this trail, but shall return to our original problem as


soon as we have elucidated the problem of dream-
distortion. The question arose, how dreams with a


disagreeable content can be analysed as wish-
fulfillments. We see now that this is possible where


a dream- distortion has occurred, when the
disagreeable content serves only to disguise the


thing wished for. With regard to our assumptions
respecting the two psychic instances, we can now


also say that disagreeable dreams contain, as a

matter of fact, something which is disagreeable to


the second instance, but which at the same time



fulfills a wish of the first instance. They are wish-

dreams in so far as every dream emanates from the


first instance, while the second instance behaves

towards the dream only in a defensive, not in a
constructive manner.[5] Were we to limit ourselves



to a consideration of what the second instance

contributes to the dream we should never

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understand the dream, and all the problems which

the writers on the subject have discovered in the


dream would have to remain unsolved.


That the dream actually has a secret
meaning, which proves to be a wish-fulfillment,


must be proved afresh in every case by analysis. I
will therefore select a few dreams which have painful


contents, and endeavour to analyse them. Some of
them are dreams of hysterical subjects, which


therefore call for a long preliminary statement, and
in some passages an examination of the psychic


processes occurring in hysteria. This, though it will

complicate the presentation, is unavoidable.


When I treat a psychoneurotic patient



analytically, his dreams regularly, as I have said,

become a theme of our conversations. I must


therefore give him all the psychological explanations

with whose aid I myself have succeeded in
understanding his symptoms. And here I encounter



unsparing criticism, which is perhaps no less shrewd

than that which I have to expect from my

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colleagues. With perfect uniformity, my patients

contradict the doctrine that dreams are the


fulfillments of wishes. Here are several examples of


the sort of dream-material which is adduced in
refutation of my theory.


"You are always saying that a dream is a
wish fulfilled," begins an intelligent lady patient.


"Now I shall tell you a dream in which the content is
quite the opposite, in which a wish of mine is not


fulfilled. How do you reconcile that with your theory?
The dream was as follows: I want to give a supper,


but I have nothing available except some smoked

salmon. I think I will go shopping, but I remember


that it is Sunday afternoon, when all the shops are



closed. I then try to ring up a few caterers, but the

telephone is out of order. Accordingly I have to


renounce my desire to give a supper."

I reply, of course, that only the analysis can
decide the meaning of this dream, although I admit



that at first sight it seems sensible and coherent and

looks like the opposite of a wish- fulfilment. "But

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what occurrence gave rise to this dream?" I ask.

"You know that the stimulus of a dream always lies


among the experiences of the preceding day."


Analysis

The patient's husband, an honest and


capable meat salesman, had told her the day before


that he was growing too fat, and that he meant to
undergo treatment for obesity. He would rise early,


take physical exercise, keep to a strict diet, and
above all accept no more invitations to supper. She
proceeds jestingly to relate how her husband, at a


table d'hote, had made the acquaintance of an



artist, who insisted upon painting his portrait,

because he, the painter, had never seen such an


expressive head. But her husband had answered in

his downright fashion, that while he was much


obliged, he would rather not be painted; and he was

quite convinced that a bit of a pretty girl's posterior
would please the artist better than his whole



face.[6] She is very much in love with her husband,

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and teases him a good deal. She has asked him not
to give her any caviar. What can that mean?


Goethe: And if he has no backside, How can


the nobleman sit?
As a matter of fact, she had wanted for a


long time to eat a caviar sandwich every morning,
but had grudged the expense. Of course she could


get the caviar from her husband at once if she asked
for it. But she has, on the contrary, begged him not


to give her any caviar, so that she might tease him
about it a little longer.


(To me this explanation seems thin.

Unconfessed motives are wont to conceal


themselves behind just such unsatisfying



explanations. We are reminded of the subjects

hypnotized by Bernheim, who carried out a post-


hypnotic order, and who, on being questioned as to

their motives, instead of answering: "I do not know
why I did that." had to invent a reason that was



obviously inadequate. There is probably something

similar to this in the case of my patient's caviar. I

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see that in waking life she is compelled to invent an

unfulfilled wish. Her dream also shows her the non-


fulfillment of her wish. But why does she need an


unfulfilled wish?)
The ideas elicited so far are insufficient for


the interpretation of the dream. I press for more.
After a short pause, which corresponds to the


overcoming of a resistance, she reports that the day
before she had paid a visit to a friend of whom she


is really jealous because her husband is always
praising this lady so highly. Fortunately this friend is


very thin and lanky, and her husband likes full

figures. Now of what did this thin friend speak? Of


course, of her wish to become rather plumper. She



also asked my patient: "When are you going to

invite us again? You always have such good food."


Now the meaning of the dream is clear. I am

able to tell the patient: "It is just as though you had
thought at the moment of her asking you that: 'Of



course, I'm to invite you so that you can eat at my

house and get fat and become still more pleasing to

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my husband! I would rather give no more suppers!'

The dream then tells you that you cannot give a


supper, thereby fulfilling your wish not to contribute


anything to the rounding out of your friend's figure.
Your husband's resolution to accept no more


invitations to supper in order that he may grow thin
teaches you that one grows fat on food eaten at


other people's tables." Nothing is lacking now but
some sort of coincidence which will confirm the


solution. The smoked salmon in the dream has not
yet been traced.- "How did you come to think of


salmon in your dream?"- "Smoked salmon is my

friend's favourite dish," she replied. It happens that


I know the lady, and am able to affirm that she



grudges herself salmon just as my patient grudges

herself caviar.


This dream admits of yet another and more

exact interpretation- one which is actually
necessitated only by a subsidiary circumstance. The



two interpretations do not contradict one another,

but rather dovetail into one another, and furnish an

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excellent example of the usual ambiguity of dreams,

as of all other psycho-pathological formations. We


have heard that at the time of her dream of a denied


wish the patient was impelled to deny herself a real
wish (the wish to cat caviar sandwiches). Her friend,


too, had expressed a wish, namely, to get fatter,
and it would not surprise us if our patient had


dreamt that this wish of her friend's- the wish to
increase in weight- was not to be fulfilled. Instead of


this, however, she dreamt that one of her own
wishes was not fulfilled. The dream becomes capable


of a new interpretation if in the dream she does not

mean herself, but her friend, if she has put herself in


the place of her friend, or, as we may say, has



identified herself with her friend.

I think she has actually done this, and as a


sign of this identification she has created for herself

in real life an unfulfilled wish. But what is the
meaning of this hysterical identification? To



elucidate this a more exhaustive exposition is

necessary. Identification is a highly important

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motive in the mechanism of hysterical symptoms;

by this means patients are enabled to express in


their symptoms not merely their own experiences,


but the experiences of quite a number of other
persons; they can suffer, as it were, for a whole


mass of people, and fill all the parts of a drama with
their own personalities. It will here be objected that


this is the well-known hysterical imitation, the ability
of hysterical subjects to imitate all the symptoms


which impress them when they occur in others, as
though pity were aroused to the point of


reproduction. This, however, only indicates the path

which the psychic process follows in hysterical


imitation. But the path itself and the psychic act



which follows this path are two different matters.

The act itself is slightly more complicated than we


are prone to believe the imitation of the hysterical to

be; it corresponds to an unconscious end-process,
as an example will show. The physician who has, in



the same ward with other patients, a female patient

suffering from a particular kind of twitching, is not

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surprised if one morning he learns that this peculiar

hysterical affection has found imitators. He merely


tells himself: The others have seen her, and have


imitated her; this is psychic infection. Yes, but
psychic infection occurs somewhat in the following


manner: As a rule, patients know more about one
another than the physician knows about any one of


them, and they are concerned about one another
when the doctor's visit is over. One of them has an


attack to-day: at once it is known to the rest that a
letter from home, a recrudescence of lovesickness,


or the like, is the cause. Their sympathy is aroused,

and although it does not emerge into consciousness


they form the following conclusion: "If it is possible



to suffer such an attack from such a cause, I too

may suffer this sort of an attack, for I have the


same occasion for it." If this were a conclusion

capable of becoming conscious, it would perhaps
express itself in dread of suffering a like attack; but



it is formed in another psychic region, and

consequently ends in the realization of the dreaded

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symptoms. Thus identification is not mere imitation,

but an assimilation based upon the same aetiological


claim; it expresses a just like, and refers to some


common condition which has remained in the
unconscious.


In hysteria, identification is most frequently
employed to express a sexual community. The


hysterical woman identifies herself by her symptoms
most readily- though not exclusively- with persons


with whom she has had sexual relations, or who
have had sexual intercourse with the same persons


as herself. Language takes cognizance of this

tendency: two lovers are said to be "one." In


hysterical phantasy, as well as in dreams,



identification may ensue if one simply thinks of

sexual relations; they need not necessarily become


actual. The patient is merely following the rules of

the hysterical processes of thought when she
expresses her jealousy of her friend (which, for that



matter, she herself admits to be unjustified) by

putting herself in her friend's place in her dream,

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and identifying herself with her by fabricating a

symptom (the denied wish). One might further


elucidate the process by saying: In the dream she


puts herself in the place of her friend, because her
friend has taken her own place in relation to her


husband, and because she would like to take her
friend's place in her husband's esteem.[7] -


The contradiction of my theory of dreams on
the part of another female patient, the most


intelligent of all my dreamers, was solved in a
simpler fashion, though still in accordance with the


principle that the non-fulfilment of one wish signified

the fulfilment of another. I had one day explained to


her that a dream is a wish-fulfilment. On the



following day she related a dream to the effect that

she was travelling with her mother-in- law to the


place in which they were both to spend the summer.

Now I knew that she had violently protested against
spending the summer in the neighbourhood of her



mother-in-law. I also knew that she had fortunately

been able to avoid doing so, since she had recently

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succeeded in renting a house in a place quite remote

from that to which her mother-in-law was going.


And now the dream reversed this desired solution.


Was not this a flat contradiction of my theory of
wish-fulfilment? One had only to draw the inferences


from this dream in order to arrive at its
interpretation. According to this dream, I was


wrong; but it was her wish that I should be wrong,
and this wish the dream showed her as fulfilled. But


the wish that I should be wrong, which was fulfilled
in the theme of the country house, referred in reality


to another and more serious matter. At that time I

had inferred, from the material furnished by her


analysis, that something of significance in respect to



her illness must have occurred at a certain time in

her life. She had denied this, because it was not


present in her memory. We soon came to see that I

was right. Thus her wish that I should prove to be
wrong, which was transformed into the dream that



she was going into the country with her mother-in-

law, corresponded with the justifiable wish that

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those things which were then only suspected had

never occurred.


Without an analysis, and merely by means


of an assumption, I took the liberty of interpreting a
little incident in the life of a friend, who had been


my companion through eight classes at school. He
once heard a lecture of mine, delivered to a small


audience, on the novel idea that dreams are wish-
fulfilments. He went home, dreamt that he had lost


all his lawsuits- he was a lawyer- and then
complained to me about it. I took refuge in the


evasion: "One can't win all one's cases"; but I

thought to myself: "If, for eight years, I sat as


primus on the first bench, while he moved up and



down somewhere in the middle of the class, may he

not naturally have had the wish, ever since his


boyhood, that I too might for once make a fool of

myself?"
Yet another dream of a more gloomy



character was offered me by a female patient in

contradiction of my theory of the wish-dream. This

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patient, a young girl, began as follows: "You

remember that my sister has now only one boy,


Charles. She lost the elder one, Otto, while I was


still living with her. Otto was my favourite; it was I
who really brought him up. I like the other little


fellow, too, but, of course, not nearly as much as his
dead brother. Now I dreamt last night that I saw


Charles lying dead before me. He was lying in his
little coffin, his hands folded; there were candles all


about; and, in short, it was just as it was at the time
of little Otto's death, which gave me such a shock.


Now tell me, what does this mean? You know me-
am I really so bad as to wish that my sister should


lose the only child she has left? Or does the dream


mean that I wish that Charles had died rather than

Otto, whom I liked so much better?"


I assured her that this latter interpretation

was impossible. After some reflection, I was able to
give her the interpretation of the dream, which she



subsequently confirmed. I was able to do so because

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the whole previous history of the dreamer was

known to me.


Having become an orphan at an early age,


the girl had been brought up in the home of a much
older sister, and had met, among the friends and


visitors who frequented the house, a man who made
a lasting impression upon her affections. It looked


for a time as though these barely explicit relations
would end in marriage, but this happy culmination


was frustrated by the sister, whose motives were
never completely explained. After the rupture the


man whom my patient loved avoided the house; she

herself attained her independence some time after


the death of little Otto, to whom, meanwhile, her



affections had turned. But she did not succeed in

freeing herself from the dependence due to her


affection for her sister's friend. Her pride bade her

avoid him, but she found it impossible to transfer
her love to the other suitors who successively



presented themselves. Whenever the man she

loved, who was a member of the literary profession,

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announced a lecture anywhere, she was certain to

be found among the audience; and she seized every


other opportunity of seeing him unobserved. I


remembered that on the previous day she had told
me that the Professor was going to a certain


concert, and that she too was going, in order to
enjoy the sight of him. This was on the day before


the dream; and the concert was to be given on the
day on which she told me the dream. I could now


easily see the correct interpretation, and I asked her
whether she could think of any particular event


which had occurred after Otto's death. She replied

immediately: "Of course; the Professor returned


then, after a long absence, and I saw him once more



beside little Otto's coffin." It was just as I had

expected. I interpreted the dream as follows: "If


now the other boy were to die, the same thing

would happen again. You would spend the day with
your sister; the Professor would certainly come to



offer his condolences, and you would see him once

more under the same circumstances as before. The

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dream signifies nothing more than this wish of yours

to see him again- a wish against which you are


fighting inwardly. I know that you have the ticket for


today's concert in your bag. Your dream is a dream
of impatience; it has anticipated by several hours


the meeting which is to take place to-day."
In order to disguise her wish she had


obviously selected a situation in which wishes of the
sort are commonly suppressed- a situation so


sorrowful that love is not even thought of. And yet it
is entirely possible that even in the actual situation


beside the coffin of the elder, more dearly loved

boy, she had not been able to suppress her tender


affection for the visitor whom she had missed for so



long.
A different explanation was found in the case


of a similar dream of another patient, who in earlier

life had been distinguished for her quick wit and her
cheerful disposition, and who still displayed these



qualities, at all events in the free associations which

occurred to her during treatment. In the course of a

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longer dream, it seemed to this lady that she saw

her fifteen-year-old daughter lying dead before her


in a box. She was strongly inclined to use this


dream-image as an objection to the theory of wish-
fulfilment, although she herself suspected that the


detail of the box must lead to a different conception
of the dream.[8] For in the course of the analysis it


occurred to her that on the previous evening the
conversation of the people in whose company she


found herself had turned on the English word box,
and upon the numerous translations of it into


German such as Schachtel (box), Loge (box at the

theatre), Kasten (chest), Ohrfeige (box on the ear),


etc. From other components of the same dream it



was now possible to add the fact that the lady had
guessed at the relationship between the English


word "box" and the German Buchse, and had then

been haunted by the recollection that Buchse is used
in vulgar parlance to denote the female genitals. It



was therefore possible, treating her knowledge of

topographical anatomy with a certain indulgence, to

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assume that the child in the box signified a child in

the mother's womb. At this stage of the explanation


she no longer denied that the picture in the dream


actually corresponded with a wish of hers. Like so
many other young women, she was by no means


happy on finding that she was pregnant, and she
had confessed to me more than once the wish that


her child might die before its birth; in a fit of anger,
following a violent scene with her husband, she had


even struck her abdomen with her fists, in order to
injure the child within. The dead child was therefore,


really the fulfilment of a wish, but a wish which had

been put aside for fifteen years, and it is not


surprising that the fulfilment of the wish was no



longer recognized after so long an interval. For there

had been many changes in the meantime.


The group of dreams (having as content the

death of beloved relatives) to which belong the last
two mentioned will be considered again under the



head of "Typical Dreams." I shall then be able to

show by new examples that in spite of their

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undesirable content all these dreams must be

interpreted as wish- fulfilments. For the following


dream, which again was told me in order to deter


me from a hasty generalization of my theory, I am
indebted, not to a patient, but to an intelligent jurist


of my acquaintance. "I dream," my informant tells
me, "that I am walking in front of my house with a


lady on my arm. Here a closed carriage is waiting; a
man steps up to me, shows me his authorization as


a police officer, and requests me to follow him. I ask
only for time in which to arrange my affairs." The


jurist then asks me: "Can you possibly suppose that

it is my wish to be arrested?"- "Of course not," I


have to admit. "Do you happen to know upon what



charge you were arrested?"- "Yes; I believe for

infanticide."- "Infanticide? But you know that only a


mother can commit this crime upon her new-born

child?"- "That is true."[9] "And under what
circumstances did you dream this? What happened



on the evening before?"- "I would rather not tell

you- it is a delicate matter."- "But I need it,

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otherwise we must forgo the interpretation of the

dream."- "Well, then, I will tell you. I spent the


night, not at home, but in the house of a lady who


means a great deal to me. When we awoke in the
morning, something again passed between us. Then


I went to sleep again, and dreamt what I have told
you."- "The woman is married?"- "Yes."- "And you


do not wish her to conceive?"- "No; that might
betray us."- "Then you do not practice normal


coitus?"- "I take the precaution to withdraw before
ejaculation."- "Am I to assume that you took this


precaution several times during the night, and that

in the morning you were not quite sure whether you


had succeeded?"- "That might be so."- "Then your



dream is the fulfilment of a wish. By the dream you

are assured that you have not begotten a child, or,


what amounts to the same thing, that you have

killed the child. I can easily demonstrate the
connecting-links. Do you remember, a few days ago



we were talking about the troubles of matrimony,

and about the inconsistency of permitting coitus so

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long as no impregnation takes place, while at the

same time any preventive act committed after the


ovum and the semen meet and a foetus is formed is


punished as a crime? In this connection we recalled
the medieval controversy about the moment of time


at which the soul actually enters into the foetus,
since the concept of murder becomes admissible


only from that point onwards. Of course, too, you
know the gruesome poem by Lenau, which puts


infanticide and birth-control on the same plane."-
"Strangely enough, I happened, as though by


chance, to think of Lenau this morning."- "Another

echo of your dream. And now I shall show you yet


another incidental wish-fulfilment in your dream.



You walk up to your house with the lady on your

arm. So you take her home, instead of spending the


night at her house, as you did in reality. The fact

that the wish-fulfilment, which is the essence of the
dream, disguises itself in such an unpleasant form,



has perhaps more than one explanation. From my

essay on the aetiology of anxiety neurosis, you will

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see that I note coitus interruptus as one of the

factors responsible for the development of neurotic


fear. It would be consistent with this if, after


repeated coitus of this kind, you were left in an
uncomfortable frame of mind, which now becomes


an element of the composition of your dream. You
even make use of this uncomfortable state of mind


to conceal the wish-fulfilment. At the same time, the
mention of infanticide has not yet been explained.


Why does this crime, which is peculiar to females,
occur to you?"- "I will confess to you that I was


involved in such an affair years ago. I was

responsible for the fact that a girl tried to protect


herself from the consequences of a liaison with me



by procuring an abortion. I had nothing to do with

the carrying out of her plan, but for a long time I


was naturally worried in case the affair might be

discovered."- "I understand. This recollection
furnished a second reason why the supposition that



you had performed coitus interruptus clumsily must

have been painful to you."

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A young physician, who heard this dream

related in my lecture- room, must have felt that it


fitted him, for he hastened to imitate it by a dream


of his own, applying its mode of thinking to another
theme. On the previous day he had furnished a


statement of his income; a quite straightforward
statement, because he had little to state. He dreamt


that an acquaintance of his came from a meeting of
the tax commission and informed him that all the


other statements had passed unquestioned, but that
his own had aroused general suspicion, with the


result that he would be punished with a heavy fine.

This dream is a poorly disguised fulfilment of the


wish to be known as a physician with a large



income. It also calls to mind the story of the young

girl who was advised against accepting her suitor


because he was a man of quick temper, who would

assuredly beat her after their marriage. Her answer
was: "I wish he would strike me!" Her wish to be



married was so intense that she had taken into

consideration the discomforts predicted for this

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marriage; she had even raised them to the plane of

a wish.


If I group together the very frequent dreams


of this sort, which seem flatly to contradict my
theory, in that they embody the denial of a wish or


some occurrence obviously undesired, under the
head of counter-wish-dreams, I find that they may


all be referred to two principles, one of which has
not yet been mentioned, though it plays a large part


in waking as well as dream-life. One of the motives
inspiring these dreams is the wish that I should


appear in the wrong. These dreams occur regularly

in the course of treatment whenever the patient is in


a state of resistance; indeed, I can with a great



degree of certainty count on evoking such a dream

once I have explained to the patient my theory that


the dream is a wish-fulfilment.[10] Indeed, I have

reason to expect that many of my readers will have
such dreams, merely to fulfil the wish that I may



prove to be wrong. The last dream which I shall

recount from among those occurring in the course of

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treatment once more demonstrates this very thing.

A young girl who had struggled hard to continue my


treatment, against the will of her relatives and the


authorities whom they had consulted, dreamt the
following dream: At home she is forbidden to come


to me any more. She then reminds me of the
promise I made her to treat her for nothing if


necessary, and I tell her: "I can show no
consideration in money matters."


It is not at all easy in this case to
demonstrate the fulfilment of a wish, but in all cases


of this kind there is a second problem, the solution

of which helps also to solve the first. Where does


she get the words which she puts into my mouth? Of



course, I have never told her anything of the kind;

but one of her brothers, the one who has the


greatest influence over her, has been kind enough to

make this remark about me. It is then the purpose
of the dream to show that her brother is right; and



she does not try to justify this brother merely in the

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dream; it is her purpose in life and the motive of her

illness.


A dream which at first sight presents


peculiar difficulties for the theory of wish-fulfilment
was dreamed by a physician (Aug. Starcke) and


interpreted by him: "I have and see on the last
phalange of my left forefinger a primary syphilitic


affection."
One may perhaps be inclined to refrain from


analysing this dream, since it seems clear and
coherent, except for its unwished-for content.


However, if one takes the trouble to make an

analysis, one learns that primary affection reduces


itself to prima affectio (first love), and that the



repulsive sore, in the words of Starcke, proves to be

"the representative of wish-fulfilments charged with


intense emotion."[11]
The other motive for counter-wish-dreams is
so clear that there is a danger of overlooking it, as



happened in my own case for a long time. In the

sexual constitution of many persons there is a

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masochistic component, which has arisen through

the conversion of the aggressive, sadistic component


into its opposite. Such people are called ideal


masochists if they seek pleasure not in the bodily
pain which may be inflicted upon them, but in


humiliation and psychic chastisement. It is obvious
that such persons may have counter-wish-dreams


and disagreeable dreams, yet these are for them
nothing more than wish-fulfilments, which satisfy


their masochistic inclinations. Here is such a dream:
A young man, who in earlier youth greatly


tormented his elder brother, toward whom he was

homosexually inclined, but who has since undergone


a complete change of character, has the following



dream, which consists of three parts: (1) He is

"teased" by his brother. (2) Two adults are caressing


each other with homosexual intentions. (3) His

brother has sold the business the management of
which the young man had reserved for his own



future. From this last dream he awakens with the

most unpleasant feelings; and yet it is a masochistic

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wish-dream, which might be translated: It would

serve me right if my brother were to make that sale


against my interests. It would be my punishment for


all the torments he has suffered at my hands.
I hope that the examples given above will


suffice- until some further objection appears- to
make it seem credible that even dreams with a


painful content are to be analysed as wish-
fulfilments.[12] Nor should it be considered a mere


matter of chance that, in the course of
interpretation, one always happens upon subjects


about which one does not like to speak or think. The

disagreeable sensation which such dreams arouse is


of course precisely identical with the antipathy which



would, and usually does, restrain us from treating or

discussing such subjects- an antipathy which must


be overcome by all of us if we find ourselves obliged

to attack the problem of such dreams. But this
disagreeable feeling which recurs in our dreams



does not preclude the existence of a wish; everyone

has wishes which he would not like to confess to

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others, which he does not care to admit even to

himself. On the other hand, we feel justified in


connecting the unpleasant character of all these


dreams with the fact of dream-distortion, and in
concluding that these dreams are distorted, and that


their wish-fulfilment is disguised beyond recognition,
precisely because there is a strong revulsion


against- a will to repress- the subject-matter of the
dream, or the wish created by it. Dream-distortion,


then, proves in reality to be an act of censorship.
We shall have included everything which the


analysis of disagreeable dreams has brought to light

if we reword our formula thus: The dream is the


(disguised) fulfilment of a (suppressed, repressed)



wish.[13]
I will here anticipate by citing the


amplification and modification of this fundamental

formula propounded by Otto Rank: "On the basis of
and with the aid of repressed infantile-sexual



material, dreams regularly represent as fulfilled

current, and as a rule also erotic, wishes in a

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disguised and symbolic form" (Ein Traum, der sich

selbst deutet).


Nowhere have I said that I have accepted


this formula of Rank's. The shorter version contained
in the text seems to me sufficient. But the fact that I


merely mentioned Rank's modification was enough
to expose psycho-analysis to the oft-repeated


reproach that it asserts that all dreams have a
sexual content. If one understands this sentence as


it is intended to be understood, it only proves how
little conscientiousness our critics are wont to


display, and how ready our opponents are to

overlook statements if they do not accord with their


aggressive inclinations. Only a few pages back I



mentioned the manifold wish-fulfilments of children's

dreams (to make an excursion on land and or water,


to make up for an omitted meal, etc.). Elsewhere I

have mentioned dreams excited by thirst and the
desire to evacuate, and mere comfort- or



convenience-dreams. Even Rank does not make an

absolute assertion. He says "as a rule also erotic

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wishes," and this can be completely confirmed in the

case of most dreams of adults.


The matter has, however, a different aspect


if we employ the word sexual in the sense of Eros,
as the word is understood by psycho- analysts. But


the interesting problem of whether all dreams are
not produced by libidinal motives (in opposition to


destructive ones) has hardly been considered by our
opponents.


Now there still remain to be considered, as a
particular sub- order of dreams with painful content,


the anxiety-dreams, the inclusion of which among

the wish-dreams will be still less acceptable to the


uninitiated. But I can here deal very cursorily with



the problem of anxiety-dreams; what they have to

reveal is not a new aspect of the dream-problem;


here the problem is that of understanding neurotic

anxiety in general. The anxiety which we experience
in dreams is only apparently explained by the



dream- content. If we subject that content to

analysis, we become aware that the dream-anxiety

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is no more justified by the dream-content than the

anxiety in a phobia is justified by the idea to which


the phobia is attached. For example, it is true that it


is possible to fall out of a window, and that a certain
care should be exercised when one is at a window,


but it is not obvious why the anxiety in the
corresponding phobia is so great, and why it


torments its victims more than its cause would
warrant. The same explanation which applies to the


phobia applies also to the anxiety-dream. In either
case, the anxiety is only fastened on to the idea


which accompanies it, and is derived from another

source.


On account of this intimate relation of



dream-anxiety to neurotic anxiety, the discussion of

the former obliges me to refer to the latter. In a


little essay on Anxiety Neurosis,[14] written in 1895,

I maintain that neurotic anxiety has its origin in the
sexual life, and corresponds to a libido which has



been deflected from its object and has found no

employment. The accuracy of this formula has since

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then been demonstrated with ever-increasing

certainty. From it we may deduce the doctrine that


anxiety-dreams are dreams of sexual content, and


that the libido appertaining to this content has been
transformed into anxiety. Later on I shall have an


opportunity of confirming this assertion by the
analysis of several dreams of neurotics. In my


further attempts to arrive at a theory of dreams I
shall again have occasion to revert to the conditions


of anxiety-dreams and their compatibility with the
theory of wish-fulfilment.


Footnotes


[1] Already Plotinus, the neo-Platonist, said:



"When desire bestirs itself, then comes phantasy,

and presents to us, as it were, the object of desire"


(Du Prel, p. 276).

[2] It is quite incredible with what obstinacy
readers and critics have excluded this consideration



and disregarded the fundamental differentiation

between the manifest and the latent dream-

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content. Nothing in the literature of the subject

approaches so closely to my own conception of


dreams as a passage in J. Sully's essay, Dreams as


a Revelation (and it is not because I do not think it
valuable that I allude to it here for the first time):


"It would seem then, after all, that dreams are not
the utter nonsense they have been said to be by


such authorities as Chaucer, Shakespeare, and
Milton. The chaotic aggregations of our night-fancy


have a significance and communicate new
knowledge. Like some letter in cipher, the dream-


inscription when scrutinized closely loses its first

look of balderdash and takes on the aspect of a


serious, intelligible message. Or, to vary the figure



slightly, we may say that, like some palimpsest, the

dream discloses beneath its worthless surface-


characters traces of an old and precious

communication" (p. 364).
[3] It is astonishing to see how my memory



here restricts itself- in the waking state!- for the

purposes of analysis. I have known five of my uncles

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and I loved and honoured one of them. But at the

moment when I overcame my resistance to the


interpretation of the dream, I said to myself: "I have


only one uncle, the one who is intended in the
dream."


[4] Such hypocritical dreams are not rare,
either with me or with others. While I have been


working at a certain scientific problem, I have been
visited for several nights, at quite short intervals, by


a somewhat confusing dream which has as its
content a reconciliation with a friend dropped long


ago. After three or four attempts I finally succeeded

in grasping the meaning of this dream. It was in the


nature of an encouragment to give up the remnant



of consideration still surviving for the person in

question, to make myself quite free from him, but it


hypocritically disguised itself in its antithesis. I have

recorded a "hypocritical Oedipus dream" in which
the hostile feelings and death-wishes of the dream-



thoughts were replaced by manifest tenderness

("Typisches Beispiel eines verkappten

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Oedipustraumes." Zentralblatt fur Psychoanalyse,

Vol. I, No. I-II [1910]). Another class of hypocritical


dreams will be recorded in another place (see Chap


vi, "The Dream-Work").
[5] Later on we shall become acquainted


with cases in which, on the contrary, the dream
expresses a wish of this second instance. -


[6] To sit for the painter.
[7] I myself regret the inclusion of such


passages from the psycho- pathology of hysteria,
which, because of their fragmentary presentation,


and because they are torn out of their context,

cannot prove to be very illuminating. If these


passages are capable of throwing any light upon the



intimate relations between dream and the psycho-

neurosis, they have served the intention with which


I have included them.

[8] As in the dream of the deferred supper
and the smoked salmon. -



[9] It often happens that a dream is told

incompletely, and that a recollection of the omitted

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portions appears only in the course of the analysis.

These portions, when subsequently fitted in,


invariably furnish the key to the interpretation. Cf.


Chapter VII, on forgetting of dreams.
[10] Similar counter-wish-dreams have been


repeatedly reported to me within the last few years,
by those who attend my lectures, as their reaction


to their first encounter with the wish-theory of
dreams.


[11] Zentralblatt fur Psychoanalyse, Jahrg.
II, 1911-12.


[12] I will here observe that we have not yet

disposed of this theme; we shall discuss it again


later.


[13] A great contemporary poet, who, I am

told, will hear nothing of psycho-analysis and


dream-interpretation, has nevertheless derived from

his own experience an almost identical formula for
the nature of the dream: "Unauthorized emergence



of suppressed yearnings under false features and

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names" (C. Spitteler, "Meine fruhesten Erlebnisse,"

in Suddeutsche Monatshefte, October, 1913).


[14] See [previous reference] above.













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CHAPTER 5 (Part 1)
THE MATERIAL AND SOURCES OF DREAMS



Having realized, as a result of analysing the
dream of Irma's injection, that the dream was the


fulfilment of a wish, we were immediately interested
to ascertain whether we had thereby discovered a


general characteristic of dreams, and for the time
being we put aside every other scientific problem


which may have suggested itself in the course of the
interpretation. Now that we have reached the goal


on this one path, we may turn back and select a

new point of departure for exploring dream-


problems, even though we may for a time lose sight



of the theme of wish- fulfilment, which has still to be

further considered.


Now that we are able, by applying our

process of interpretation, to detect a latent dream-
content whose significance far surpasses that of the



manifest dream-content, we are naturally impelled

to return to the individual dream-problems, in order

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to see whether the riddles and contradictions which

seemed to elude us when we had only the manifest


content to work upon may not now be satisfactorily


solved.
The opinions of previous writers on the


relation of dreams to waking life, and the origin of
the material of dreams, have not been given here.


We may recall however three peculiarities of the
memory in dreams, which have been often noted,


but never explained:
1. That the dream clearly prefers the


impressions of the last few days (Robert, Strumpell,

Hildebrandt; also Weed-Hallam);


2. That it makes a selection in accordance



with principles other than those governing our

waking memory, in that it recalls not essential and


important, but subordinate and disregarded things;

3. That it has at its disposal the earliest
impressions of our childhood, and brings to light



details from this period of life, which, again, seem

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trivial to us, and which in waking life were believed

to have been long since forgotten.[1]


These peculiarities in the dream's choice of


material have, of course, been observed by previous
writers in the manifest dream- content.


A. Recent and Indifferent Impressions
in the Dream


If I now consult my own experience with


regard to the origin of the elements appearing in the
dream-content, I must in the first place express the
opinion that in every dream we may find some


reference to the experiences of the preceding day.



Whatever dream I turn to, whether my own or

someone else's, this experience is always confirmed.


Knowing this, I may perhaps begin the work of

interpretation by looking for the experience of the


preceding day which has stimulated the dream; in

many cases this is indeed the quickest way. With the
two dreams which I subjected to a close analysis in



the last chapter (the dreams of Irma's injection, and

of the uncle with the yellow beard) the reference to

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the preceding day is so evident that it needs no

further elucidation. But in order to show how


constantly this reference may be demonstrated, I


shall examine a portion of my own dream- chronicle,
I shall relate only so much of the dreams as is


necessary for the detection of the dream-source in
question.


1. I pay a call at a house to which I gain
admittance only with difficulty, etc., and meanwhile


I am keeping a woman waiting for me.
Source: A conversation during the evening


with a female relative to the effect that she would

have to wait for a remittance for which she had


asked, until... etc.



2. I have written a monograph on a species

(uncertain) of plant.


Source: In the morning I had seen in a

bookseller's window a monograph on the genus
Cyclamen.



3. I see two women in the street, mother

and daughter, the latter being a patient.

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Source: A female patient who is under

treatment had told me in the evening what


difficulties her mother puts in the way of her


continuing the treatment.
4. At S and R's bookshop I subscribe to a


periodical which costs 20 florins annually.
Source: During the day my wife has


reminded me that I still owe her 20 florins of her
weekly allowance.


5. I receive a communication from the Social
Democratic Committee, in which I am addressed as


a member.
Source: I have received simultaneous


communications from the Liberal Committee on



Elections and from the president of the

Humanitarian Society, of which latter I am actually a


member.
6. A man on a steep rock rising from the
sea, in the manner of Bocklin.



Source: Dreyfus on Devil's Island; also news

from my relatives in England, etc.

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The question might be raised, whether a

dream invariably refers to the events of the


preceding day only, or whether the reference may


be extended to include impressions from a longer
period of time in the immediate past. This question


is probably not of the first importance, but I am
inclined to decide in favour of the exclusive priority


of the day before the dream (the dream-day).
Whenever I thought I had found a case where an


impression two or three days old was the source of
the dream, I was able to convince myself after


careful investigation that this impression had been

remembered the day before; that is, that a


demonstrable reproduction on the day before had



been interpolated between the day of the event and

the time of the dream; and further, I was able to


point to the recent occasion which might have given

rise to the recollection of the older impression. On
the other hand, I was unable to convince myself that



a regular interval of biological significance (H.

Swoboda gives the first interval of this kind as

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eighteen hours) elapses between the dream-exciting

daytime impression and its recurrence in the dream.


I believe, therefore, that for every dream a


dream-stimulus may be found among these
experiences "on which one has not yet slept."


Havelock Ellis, who has likewise given
attention to this problem, states that he has not


been able to find any such periodicity of
reproduction in his dreams, although he has looked


for it. He relates a dream in which he found himself
in Spain; he wanted to travel to a place called


Daraus, Varaus, or Zaraus. On awaking he was

unable to recall any such place-names, and thought


no more of the matter. A few months later he



actually found the name Zaraus; it was that of a

railway-station between San Sebastian and Bilbao,


through which he had passed in the train eight

months (250 days) before the date of the dream.
Thus the impressions of the immediate past



(with the exception of the day before the night of

the dream) stand in the same relation to the dream-

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content as those of periods indefinitely remote. The

dream may select its material from any period of


life, provided only that a chain of thought leads back


from the experiences of the day of the dream (the
recent impressions) of that earlier period.


But why this preference for recent
impressions? We shall arrive at some conjectures on


this point if we subject one of the dreams already
mentioned to a more precise analysis. I select the


Dream of the Botanical Monograph
I have written a monograph on a certain


plant. The book lies before me; I am just turning

over a folded coloured plate. A dried specimen of the


plant, as though from a herbarium, is bound up with



every copy.
Analysis


In the morning I saw in a bookseller's

window a volume entitled The Genus Cyclamen,
apparently a monograph on this plant.



The cyclamen is my wife's favorite flower. I

reproach myself for remembering so seldom to bring

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her flowers, as she would like me to do. In

connection with the theme of giving her flowers, I


am reminded of a story which I recently told some


friends of mine in proof of my assertion that we
often forget in obedience to a purpose of the


unconscious, and that forgetfulness always enables
us to form a deduction about the secret disposition


of the forgetful person. A young woman who has
been accustomed to receive a bouquet of flowers


from her husband on her birthday misses this token
of affection on one of her birthdays, and bursts into


tears. The husband comes in, and cannot

understand why she is crying until she tells him:


"Today is my birthday." He claps his hand to his



forehead, and exclaims: "Oh, forgive me, I had

completely forgotten it!" and proposes to go out


immediately in order to get her flowers. But she

refuses to be consoled, for she sees in her husband's
forgetfulness a proof that she no longer plays the



same part in his thoughts as she formerly did. This

Frau L met my wife two days ago, told her that she

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was feeling well, and asked after me. Some years

ago she was a patient of mine.


Supplementary facts: I did once actually


write something like a monograph on a plant,
namely, an essay on the coca plant, which attracted


the attention of K. Koller to the anaesthetic
properties of cocaine. I had hinted that the alkaloid


might be employed as an anaesthetic, but I was not
thorough enough to pursue the matter farther. It


occurs to me, too, that on the morning of the day
following the dream (for the interpretation of which I


did not find time until the evening) I had thought of

cocaine in a kind of day-dream. If I were ever


afflicted with glaucoma, I would go to Berlin, and



there undergo an operation, incognito, in the house

of my Berlin friend, at the hands of a surgeon whom


he would recommend. The surgeon, who would not

know the name of his patient, would boast, as usual,
how easy these operations had become since the



introduction of cocaine; and I should not betray the

fact that I myself had a share in this discovery. With

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this phantasy were connected thoughts of how

awkward it really is for a physician to claim the


professional services of a colleague. I should be able


to pay the Berlin eye specialist, who did not know
me, like anyone else. Only after recalling this day-


dream do I realize that there is concealed behind it
the memory of a definite event. Shortly after Koller's


discovery, my father contracted glaucoma; he was
operated on by my friend Dr. Koenigstein, the eye


specialist. Dr. Koller was in charge of the cocaine
anaesthetization, and he made the remark that on


this occasion all the three persons who had been

responsible for the introduction of cocaine had been


brought together.


My thoughts now pass on to the time when I

was last reminded of the history of cocaine. This was


a few days earlier, when I received a Festschrift, a

publication in which grateful pupils had
commemorated the jubilee of their teacher and



laboratory director. Among the titles to fame of

persons connected with the laboratory I found a

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note to the effect that the discovery of the

anaesthetic properties of cocaine had been due to K.


Koller. Now I suddenly become aware that the


dream is connected with an experience of the
previous evening. I had just accompanied Dr.


Koenigstein to his home, and had entered into a
discussion of a subject which excites me greatly


whenever it is mentioned. While I was talking with
him in the entrance-hall Professor Gartner and his


young wife came up. I could not refrain from
congratulating them both upon their blooming


appearance. Now Professor Gartner is one of the

authors of the Festschrift of which I have just


spoken, and he may well have reminded me of it.



And Frau L, of whose birthday disappointment I

spoke a little way back, had been mentioned,


though of course in another connection, in my

conversation with Dr. Koenigstein.
I shall now try to elucidate the other



determinants of the dream- content. A dried

specimen of the plant accompanies the monograph,

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as though it were a herbarium. And herbarium

reminds me of the Gymnasium. The director of our


Gymnasium once called the pupils of the upper


classes together, in order that they might examine
and clean the Gymnasium herbarium. Small insects


had been found- book-worms. The director seemed
to have little confidence in my ability to assist, for


he entrusted me with only a few of the pages. I
know to this day that there were crucifers on them.


My interest in botany was never very great. At my
preliminary examination in botany I was required to


identify a crucifer, and failed to recognize it; had not

my theoretical knowledge come to my aid, I should


have fared badly indeed. Crucifers suggest



composites. The artichoke is really a composite, and

in actual fact one which I might call my favourite


flower. My wife, more thoughtful than I, often brings

this favourite flower of mine home from the market.
I see the monograph which I have written



lying before me. Here again there is an association.

My friend wrote to me yesterday from Berlin: "I am

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thinking a great deal about your dream-book. I see

it lying before me, completed, and I turn the pages."


How I envied him this power of vision! If only I could


see it lying before me, already completed!
The folded coloured plate. When I was a


medical student I suffered a sort of craze for
studying monographs exclusively. In spite of my


limited means, I subscribed to a number of the
medical periodicals, whose coloured plates afforded


me much delight. I was rather proud of this
inclination to thoroughness. When I subsequently


began to publish books myself, I had to draw the

plates for my own treatises, and I remember one of


them turned out so badly that a well-meaning



colleague ridiculed me for it. With this is associated,

I do not exactly know how, a very early memory of


my childhood. My father, by the way of a jest, once

gave my elder sister and myself a book containing
coloured plates (the book was a narrative of a



journey through Persia) in order that we might

destroy it. From an educational point of view this

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was hardly to be commended. I was at the time five

years old, and my sister less than three, and the


picture of us two children blissfully tearing the book


to pieces (I should add, like an artichoke, leaf by
leaf), is almost the only one from this period of my


life which has remained vivid in my memory. When I
afterwards became a student, I developed a


conspicuous fondness for collecting and possessing
books (an analogy to the inclination for studying


from monographs, a hobby alluded to in my dream-
thoughts, in connection with cyclamen and


artichoke). I became a book-worm (cf. herbarium).

Ever since I have been engaged in introspection I


have always traced this earliest passion of my life to



this impression of my childhood: or rather, I have

recognized in this childish scene a screen or


concealing memory for my subsequent

bibliophilia.[2] And of course I learned at an early
age that our passions often become our misfortunes.



When I was seventeen, I ran up a very considerable

account at the bookseller's, with no means with

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which to settle it, and my father would hardly accept

it as an excuse that my passion was at least a


respectable one. But the mention of this experience


of my youth brings me back to my conversation with
my friend Dr. Koenigstein on the evening preceding


the dream; for one of the themes of this
conversation was the same old reproach- that I am


much too absorbed in my hobbies.
For reasons which are not relevant here I


shall not continue the interpretation of this dream,
but will merely indicate the path which leads to it. In


the course of the interpretation I was reminded of

my conversation with Dr. Koenigstein, and, indeed,


of more than one portion of it. When I consider the



subjects touched upon in this conversation, the

meaning of the dream immediately becomes clear to


me. All the trains of thought which have been

started- my own inclinations, and those of my wife,
the cocaine, the awkwardness of securing medical



treatment from one's own colleagues, my preference

for monographical studies, and my neglect of certain

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subjects, such as botany- all these are continued in

and lead up to one branch or another of this widely-


ramified conversation. The dream once more


assumes the character of a justification, of a plea for
my rights (like the dream of Irma's injection, the


first to be analysed); it even continues the theme
which that dream introduced, and discusses it in


association with the new subject-matter which has
been added in the interval between the two dreams.


Even the dream's apparently indifferent form of
expression at once acquires a meaning. Now it


means: "I am indeed the man who has written that

valuable and successful treatise (on cocaine)," just


as previously I declared in self-justification: "I am



after all a thorough and industrious student"; and in

both instances I find the meaning: "I can allow


myself this." But I may dispense with the further

interpretation of the dream, because my only
purpose in recording it was to examine the relation



of the dream-content to the experience of the

previous day which arouses it. As long as I know

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only the manifest content of this dream, only one

relation to any impression of the day is obvious; but


after I have completed the interpretation, a second


source of the dream becomes apparent in another
experience of the same day. The first of these


impressions to which the dream refers is an
indifferent one, a subordinate circumstance. I see a


book in a shop window whose title holds me for a
moment, but whose contents would hardly interest


me. The second experience was of great psychic
value; I talked earnestly with my friend, the eye


specialist, for about an hour; I made allusions in this

conversation which must have ruffled the feelings of


both of us, and which in me awakened memories in



connection with which I was aware of a great variety

of inner stimuli. Further, this conversation was


broken off unfinished, because some acquaintances

joined us. What, now, is the relation of these two
impressions of the day to one another, and to the



dream which followed during the night?

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In the manifest dream-content I find merely

an allusion to the indifferent impression, and I am


thus able to reaffirm that the dream prefers to take


up into its content experiences of a non- essential
character. In the dream-interpretation, on the


contrary, everything converges upon the important
and justifiably disturbing event. If I judge the sense


of the dream in the only correct way, according to
the latent content which is brought to light in the


analysis, I find that I have unwittingly lighted upon a
new and important discovery. I see that the puzzling


theory that the dream deals only with the worthless

odds and ends of the day's experiences has no


justification; I am also compelled to contradict the



assertion that the psychic life of the waking state is

not continued in the dream, and that hence, the


dream wastes our psychic energy on trivial material.

The very opposite is true; what has claimed our
attention during the day dominates our dream-



thoughts also, and we take pains to dream only in

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connection with such matters as have given us food

for thought during the day.


Perhaps the most immediate explanation of


the fact that I dream of the indifferent impression of
the day, while the impression which has with good


reason excited me causes me to dream, is that here
again we are dealing with the phenomenon of


dream- distortion, which we have referred to as a
psychic force playing the part of a censorship. The


recollection of the monograph on the genus
cyclamen is utilized as though it were an allusion to


the conversation with my friend, just as the mention

of my patient's friend in the dream of the deferred


supper is represented by the allusion smoked



salmon. The only question is: by what intermediate

links can the impression of the monograph come to


assume the relation of allusion to the conversation

with the eye specialist, since such a relation is not at
first perceptible? In the example of the deferred



supper, the relation is evident at the outset; smoked

salmon, as the favourite dish of the patient's friend,

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belongs to the circle of ideas which the friend's

personality would naturally evoke in the mind of the


dreamer. In our new example we are dealing with


two entirely separate impressions, which at first
glance seem to have nothing in common, except


indeed that they occur on the same day. The
monograph attracts my attention in the morning: in


the evening I take part in the conversation. The
answer furnished by the analysis is as follows: Such


relations between the two impressions as do not
exist from the first are established subsequently


between the idea-content of the one impression and

the idea-content of the other. I have already picked


out the intermediate links emphasized in the course



of writing the analysis. Only under some outside

influence, perhaps the recollection of the flowers


missed by Frau L, would the idea of the monograph

on the cyclamen have attached itself to the idea that
the cyclamen is my wife's favourite flower. I do not



believe that these inconspicuous thoughts would

have sufficed to evoke a dream.

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There needs no ghost, my lord, come from

the grave


To tell us this,


as we read in Hamlet. But behold! in the
analysis I am reminded that the name of the man


who interrupted our conversation was Gartner


(gardener), and that I thought his wife looked
blooming; indeed, now I even remember that one of


my female patients, who bears the pretty name of
Flora, was for a time the main subject of our

conversation. It must have happened that by means
of these intermediate links from the sphere of


botanical ideas the association was effected between

the two events of the day, the indifferent one and


the stimulating one. Other relations were then

established, that of cocaine for example, which can


with perfect appropriateness form a link between the

person of Dr. Koenigstein and the botanical
monograph which I have written, and thus secure



the fusion of the two circles of ideas, so that now a

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portion of the first experience may be used as an

allusion to the second.


I am prepared to find this explanation


attacked as either arbitrary or artificial. What would
have happened if Professor Gartner and his


blooming wife had not appeared, and if the patient
who was under discussion had been called, not


Flora, but Anna? And yet the answer is not hard to
find. If these thought- relations had not been


available, others would probably have been selected.
It is easy to establish relations of this sort, as the


jocular questions and conundrums with which we

amuse ourselves suffice to show. The range of wit is


unlimited. To go a step farther: if no sufficiently



fertile associations between the two impressions of

the day could have been established, the dream


would simply have followed a different course;

another of the indifferent impressions of the day,
such as come to us in multitudes and are forgotten,



would have taken the place of the monograph in the

dream, would have formed an association with the

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content of the conversation, and would have

represented this in the dream. Since it was the


impression of the monograph and no other that was


fated to perform this function, this impression was
probably that most suitable for the purpose. One


need not, like Lessing's Hanschen Schlau, be
astonished that "only the rich people of the world


possess the most money."
Still the psychological process by which,


according to our exposition, the indifferent
experience substitutes itself for the psychologically


important one seems to us odd and open to

question. In a later chapter we shall undertake the


task of making the peculiarities of this seemingly



incorrect operation more intelligible. Here we are

concerned only with the result of this process, which


we were compelled to accept by constantly recurring

experiences in the analysis of dreams. In this
process it is as though, in the course of the



intermediate steps, a displacement occurs- let us

say, of the psychic accent- until ideas of feeble

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potential, by taking over the charge from ideas

which have a stronger initial potential, reach a


degree of intensity which enables them to force their


way into consciousness. Such displacements do not
in the least surprise us when it is a question of the


transference of affective magnitudes or of motor
activities. That the lonely spinster transfers her


affection to animals, that the bachelor becomes a
passionate collector, that the soldier defends a scrap


of coloured cloth- his flag- with his life-blood, that in
a love-affair a clasp of the hands a moment longer


than usual evokes a sensation of bliss, or that in

Othello a lost handkerchief causes an outburst of


rage- all these are examples of psychic



displacements which to us seem incontestable. But

if, by the same means, and in accordance with the


same fundamental principles, a decision is made as

to what is to reach our consciousness and what is to
be withheld from it- that is to say, what we are to



think- this gives us the impression of morbidity, and

if it occurs in waking life we call it an error of

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thought. We may here anticipate the result of a

discussion which will be undertaken later, namely,


that the psychic process which we have recognized


in dream-displacement proves to be not a morbidly
deranged process, but one merely differing from the


normal, one of a more primary nature.
Thus we interpret the fact that the dream-


content takes up remnants of trivial experiences as
a manifestation of dream- distortion (by


displacement), and we thereupon remember that we
have recognized this dream-distortion as the work of


a censorship operating between the two psychic

instances. We may therefore expect that dream-


analysis will constantly show us the real and



psychically significant source of the dream in the

events of the day, the memory of which has


transferred its accentuation to some indifferent

memory. This conception is in complete opposition
to Robert's theory, which consequently has no



further value for us. The fact which Robert was

trying to explain simply does not exist; its

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assumption is based on a misunderstanding, on a

failure to substitute the real meaning of the dream


for its apparent meaning. A further objection to


Robert's doctrine is as follows: If the task of the
dream were really to rid our memory, by means of a


special psychic activity, of the slag of the day's
recollections, our sleep would perforce be more


troubled, engaged in more strenuous work, than we
can suppose it to be, judging by our waking


thoughts. For the number of the indifferent
impressions of the day against which we should


have to protect our memory is obviously

immeasurably large; the whole night would not be


long enough to dispose of them all. It is far more



probable that the forgetting of the indifferent

impressions takes place without any active


interference on the part of our psychic powers.

Still, something cautions us against taking
leave of Robert's theory without further



consideration. We have left unexplained the fact that

one of the indifferent impressions of the day-

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indeed, even of the previous day- constantly makes

a contribution to the dream-content. The relations


between this impression and the real source of the


dream in the unconscious do not always exist from
the outset; as we have seen, they are established


subsequently, while the dream is actually at work,
as though to serve the purpose of the intended


displacement. Something, therefore, must
necessitate the opening up of connections in the


direction of the recent but indifferent impression;
this impression must possess some quality that


gives it a special fitness. Otherwise it would be just

as easy for the dream- thoughts to shift their


accentuation to some inessential component of their



own sphere of ideas.

Experiences such as the following show us


the way to an explanation: If the day has brought us

two or more experiences which are worthy to evoke
a dream, the dream will blend the allusion of both



into a single whole: it obeys a compulsion to make

them into a single whole. For example: One summer

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afternoon I entered a railway carriage in which I

found two acquaintances of mine who were unknown


to one another. One of them was an influential


colleague, the other a member of a distinguished
family which I had been attending in my professional


capacity. I introduced the two gentlemen to each
other; but during the long journey they conversed


with each other through me, so that I had to discuss
this or that topic now with one, now with the other.


I asked my colleague to recommend a mutual
acquaintance who had just begun to practise as a


physician. He replied that he was convinced of the

young man's ability, but that his undistinguished


appearance would make it difficult for him to obtain



patients in the upper ranks of society. To this I

rejoined: "That is precisely why he needs


recommendation." A little later, turning to my other

fellow-traveller, I inquired after the health of his
aunt- the mother of one of my patients- who was at



this time prostrated by a serious illness. On the

night following this journey I dreamt that the young

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friend whom I had asked one of my companions to

recommend was in a fashionable drawing-room, and


with all the bearing of a man of the world was


making- before a distinguished company, in which I
recognized all the rich and aristocratic persons of my


acquaintance- a funeral oration over the old lady
(who in my dream had already died) who was the


aunt of my second fellow- traveller. (I confess
frankly that I had not been on good terms with this


lady.) Thus my dream had once more found the
connection between the two impressions of the day,


and by means of the two had constructed a unified

situation.


In view of many similar experiences, I am



persuaded to advance the proposition that a dream

works under a kind of compulsion which forces it to


combine into a unified whole all the sources of

dream-stimulation which are offered to it.[3] In a
subsequent chapter (on the function of dreams) we



shall consider this impulse of combination as part of

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the process of condensation, another primary

psychic process.


I shall now consider the question whether


the dream-exciting source to which our analysis
leads us must always be a recent (and significant)


event, or whether a subjective experience- that is to
say, the recollection of a psychologically significant


event, a train of thought- may assume the role of a
dream- stimulus. The very definite answer, derived


from numerous analyses, is as follows: The stimulus
of the dream may be a subjective transaction, which


has been made recent, as it were, by the mental

activity of the day.


And this is perhaps the best time to



summarize in schematic form the different

conditions under which the dream-sources are


operative.
The source of a dream may be:
(a) A recent and psychologically significant



event which is directly represented in the dream.[4]

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(b) Several recent and significant events,

which are combined by the dream in a single


whole.[5]


(c) One or more recent and significant
events, which are represented in the dream-content


by allusion to a contemporary but indifferent
event.[6]


(d) A subjectively significant experience
(recollection, train of thought), which is constantly


represented in the dream by allusion to a recent but
indifferent impression.[7]


As may be seen, in dream-interpretation the

condition is always fulfilled that one component of


the dream-content repeats a recent impression of



the day of the dream. The component which is

destined to be represented in the dream may either


belong to the same circle of ideas as the dream-

stimulus itself (as an essential or even an inessential
element of the same); or it may originate in the



neighbourhood of an indifferent impression, which

has been brought by more or less abundant

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associations into relation with the sphere of the

dream-stimulus. The apparent multiplicity of these


conditions results merely from the alternative, that a


displacement has or has not occurred, and it may
here be noted that this alternative enables us to


explain the contrasts of the dream quite as readily
as the medical theory of the dream explains the


series of states from the partial to the complete
waking of the brain cells.


In considering this series of sources we note
further that the psychologically significant but not


recent element (a train of thought, a recollection)

may be replaced for the purposes of dream-


formation by a recent but psychologically indifferent



element, provided the two following conditions are

fulfilled: (1) the dream-content preserves a


connection with things recently experienced; (2) the

dream-stimulus is still a psychologically significant
event. In one single case (a) both these conditions



are fulfilled by the same impression. If we now

consider that these same indifferent impressions,

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which are utilized for the dream as long as they are

recent, lose this qualification as soon as they are a


day (or at most several days) older, we are obliged


to assume that the very freshness of an impression
gives it a certain psychological value for dream-


formation, somewhat equivalent to the value of
emotionally accentuated memories or trains of


thought. Later on, in the light of certain
Psychological considerations, we shall be able to


divine the explanation of this importance of recent
impressions in dream formation.[8]


Incidentally our attention is here called to

the fact that at night, and unnoticed by our


consciousness, important changes may occur in the



material comprised by our ideas and memories. The

injunction that before making a final decision in any


matter one should sleep on it for a night is obviously

fully justified. But at this point we find that we have
passed from the psychology of dreaming to the



psychology of sleep, a step which there will often be

occasion to take.

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At this point there arises an objection which

threatens to invalidate the conclusions at which we


have just arrived. If indifferent impressions can find


their way into the dream only so long as they are of
recent origin, how does it happen that in the dream-


content we find elements also from earlier periods of
our lives, which, at the time when they were still


recent, possessed, as Strumpell puts it, no psychic
value, and which, therefore, ought to have been


forgotten long ago; elements, that is, which are
neither fresh nor psychologically significant?


This objection can be disposed of completely

if we have recourse to the results of the


psychoanalysis of neurotics. The solution is as



follows: The process of shifting and rearrangement

which replaces material of psychic significance by


material which is indifferent (whether one is

dreaming or thinking) has already taken place in
these earlier periods of life, and has since become



fixed in the memory. Those elements which were

originally indifferent are in fact no longer so, since

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they have acquired the value of psychologically

significant material. That which has actually


remained indifferent can never be reproduced in the


dream.
From the foregoing exposition the reader


may rightly conclude that I assert that there are no
indifferent dream-stimuli, and therefore no guileless


dreams. This I absolutely and unconditionally believe
to be the case, apart from the dreams of children,


and perhaps the brief dream-reactions to nocturnal
sensations. Apart from these exceptions, whatever


one dreams is either plainly recognizable as being

psychically significant, or it is distorted and can be


judged correctly only after complete interpretation,



when it proves, after all, to be of psychic

significance. The dream never concerns itself with


trifles; we do not allow sleep to be disturbed by

trivialities.[9] Dreams which are apparently guileless
turn out to be the reverse of innocent, if one takes



the trouble to interpret them; if I may be permitted

the expression, they ail show "the mark of the

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beast." Since this is another point on which I may

expect contradiction, and since I am glad of an


opportunity to show dream-distortion at work, I


shall here subject to analysis a number of guileless
dreams from my collection.


I.
An intelligent and refined young woman,


who in real life is distinctly reserved, one of those
people of whom one says that "still waters run


deep," relates the following dream: "I dreamt that I
arrived at the market too late, and could get nothing


from either the butcher or the greengrocer woman."

Surely a guileless dream, but as it has not the


appearance of a real dream I induce her to relate it



in detail. Her report then runs as follows: She goes

to the market with her cook, who carries the basket.


The butcher tells her, after she has asked him for
something: "That is no longer to be obtained," and
waits to give her something else, with the remark:



"That is good, too." She refuses, and goes to the

greengrocer woman. The latter tries to sell her a

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peculiar vegetable, which is bound up in bundles,

and is black in colour. She says: "I don't know that,


I won't take it."


The connection of the dream with the
preceding day is simple enough. She had really gone


to the market too late, and had been unable to buy
anything. The meatshop was already closed, comes


into one's mind as a description of the experience.
But wait, is not that a very vulgar phrase which- or


rather, the opposite of which- denotes a certain
neglect with regard to man's clothing? The dreamer


has not used these words; she has perhaps avoided

them: but let us look for the interpretation of the


details contained in the dream.



When in a dream something has the

character of a spoken utterance- that is, when it is


said or heard, not merely thought, and the

distinction can usually be made with certainty- then
it originates in the utterances of waking life, which



have, of course, been treated as raw material,

dismembered, and slightly altered, and above all

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removed from their context.[10] In the work of

interpretation we may take such utterances as our


starting- point. Where, then, does the butcher's


statement, That is no longer to be obtained, come
from? From myself; I had explained to her some


days previously "that the oldest experiences of
childhood are no longer to be obtained as such, but


will be replaced in the analysis by transferences and
dreams." Thus, I am the butcher, and she refuses to


accept these transferences to the present of old
ways of thinking and feeling. Where does her dream


utterance, I don't know that, I won't take it, come

from? For the purposes of the analysis this has to be


dissected. I don't know that she herself had said to



her cook, with whom she had a dispute on the

previous day, but she had then added: Behave


yourself decently. Here a displacement is palpable;

of the two sentences which she spoke to her cook,
she included the insignificant one in her dream; but



the suppressed sentence, Behave yourself decently!

alone fits in with the rest of the dream-content. One

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might use the words to a man who was making

indecent overtures, and had neglected "to close his


meat-shop." That we have really hit upon the trail of


the interpretation is proved by its agreement with
the allusions made by the incident with the


greengrocer woman. A vegetable which is sold tied
up in bundles (a longish vegetable, as she


subsequently adds), and is also black: what can this
be but a dream-combination of asparagus and black


radish? I need not interpret asparagus to the
initiated; and the other vegetable, too (think of the


exclamation: "Blacky, save yourself!"), seems to me

to point to the sexual theme at which we guessed in


the beginning, when we wanted to replace the story



of the dream by "the meat-shop is closed." We are

not here concerned with the full meaning of the


dream; so much is certain, that it is full of meaning

and by no means guileless.[11]
II.



Another guileless dream of the same patient,

which in some respects is a pendant to the above.

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Her husband asks her: "Oughtn't we to have the

piano tuned?" She replies: "It's not worth while, the


hammers would have to be rebuffed as well." Again


we have the reproduction of an actual event of the
preceding day. Her husband had asked her such a


question, and she had answered it in such words.
But what is the meaning of her dreaming it? She


says of the piano that it is a disgusting old box
which has a bad tone; it belonged to her husband


before they were married,[12] etc., but the key to
the true solution lies in the phrase: It isn't worth


while. This has its origin in a call paid yesterday to a

woman friend. She was asked to take off her coat,


but declined, saying: "Thanks, it isn't worth while, I



must go in a moment." At this point I recall that

yesterday, during the analysis, she suddenly took


hold of her coat, of which a button had come

undone. It was as though she meant to say: "Please
don't look in, it isn't worth while." Thus box becomes



chest, and the interpretation of the dream leads to

the years when she was growing out of her

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childhood, when she began to be dissatisfied with

her figure. It leads us back, indeed, to earlier


periods, if we take into consideration the disgusting


and the bad tone, and remember how often in
allusions and in dreams the two small hemispheres


of the female body take the place- as a substitute
and an antithesis- of the large ones.


III.
I will interrupt the analysis of this dreamer


in order to insert a short, innocent dream which was
dreamed by a young man. He dreamt that he was


putting on his winter overcoat again; this was

terrible. The occasion for this dream is apparently


the sudden advent of cold weather. On more careful



examination we note that the two brief fragments of

the dream do not fit together very well, for what


could be terrible about wearing a thick or heavy coat

in cold weather? Unfortunately for the innocency of
this dream, the first association, under analysis,



yields the recollection that yesterday a lady had

confidentially confessed to him that her last child

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owed its existence to the splitting of a condom. He

now reconstructs his thoughts in accordance with


this suggestion: A thin condom is dangerous, a thick


one is bad. The condom is a "pullover" (Ueberzieher
= literally pullover), for it is pulled over something:


and Uebersieher is the German term for a light
overcoat. An experience like that related by the lady


would indeed be terrible for an unmarried man.
We will now return to our other innocent


dreamer.
IV.


She puts a candle into a candlestick; but the

candle is broken, so that it does not stand up. The


girls at school say she is clumsy; but she replies that



it is not her fault.

Here, too, there is an actual occasion for the


dream; the day before she had actually put a candle

into a candlestick; but this one was not broken. An
obvious symbolism has here been employed. The



candle is an object which excites the female

genitals; its being broken, so that it does not stand

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upright, signifies impotence on the man's part (it is

not her fault). But does this young woman, carefully


brought up, and a stranger to all obscenity, know of


such an application of the candle? By chance she is
able to tell how she came by this information. While


paddling a canoe on the Rhine, a boat passed her
which contained some students, who were singing


rapturously, or rather yelling: "When the Queen of
Sweden, behind closed shutters, with the candles of


Apollo..."
She does not hear or else understand the


last word. Her husband was asked to give her the

required explanation. These verses are then


replaced in the dream-content by the innocent



recollection of a task which she once performed

clumsily at her boarding- school, because of the


closed shutters. The connection between the theme

of masturbation and that of impotence is clear
enough. Apollo in the latent dream-content connects



this dream with an earlier one in which the virgin

Pallas figured. All this is obviously not innocent.

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V.
Lest it may seem too easy a matter to draw


conclusions from dreams concerning the dreamer's


real circumstances, I add another dream originating
with the same person, which once more appears


innocent. "I dreamt of doing something," she
relates, "which I actually did during the day, that is


to say, I filled a little trunk so full of books that I
had difficulty in closing it. My dream was just like


the actual occurrence." Here the dreamer herself
emphasizes the correspondence between the dream


and the reality. All such criticisms of the dream, and

comments on the dream, although they have found


a place in the waking thoughts, properly belong to



the latent dream-content, as further examples will

confirm. We are told, then, that what the dream


relates has actually occurred during the day. It

would take us too far afield to show how we arrive
at the idea of making use of the English language to



help us in the interpretation of this dream. Suffice it

to say that it is again a question of a little box (cf.

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chap. IV, the dream of the dead child in the box)

which has been filled so full that nothing can go into


it.


In all these "innocent" dreams the sexual
factor as the motive of the censorship is very


prominent. But this is a subject of primary
significance, which we must consider later.


B. Infantile Experiences as the Source
of Dreams


As the third of the peculiarities of the
dream-content, we have adduced the fact, in


agreement with all other writers on the subject



(excepting Robert), that impressions from our

childhood may appear in dreams, which do not seem


to be at the disposal of the waking memory. It is, of

course, difficult to decide how seldom or how


frequently this occurs, because after waking the

origin of the respective elements of the dream is not
recognized. The proof that we are dealing with



impressions of our childhood must thus be adduced

objectively, and only in rare instances do the

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conditions favour such proof. The story is told by A.

Maury, as being particularly conclusive, of a man


who decides to visit his birthplace after an absence


of twenty years. On the night before his departure
he dreams that he is in a totally unfamiliar locality,


and that he there meets a strange man with whom
he holds a conversation. Subsequently, upon his


return home, he is able to convince himself that this
strange locality really exists in the vicinity of his


home, and the strange man in the dream turns out
to be a friend of his dead father's, who is living in


the town. This is, of course, a conclusive proof that

in his childhood he had seen both the man and the


locality. The dream, moreover, is to be interpreted



as a dream of impatience, like the dream of the girl

who carries in her pocket the ticket for a concert,


the dream of the child whose father had promised

him an excursion to the Hameau (ch. III), and so
forth. The motives which reproduce just these



impressions of childhood for the dreamer cannot, of

course, be discovered without analysis.

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One of my colleagues, who attended my

lectures, and who boasted that his dreams were


very rarely subject to distortion, told me that he had


sometime previously seen, in a dream, his former
tutor in bed with his nurse, who had remained in the


household until his eleventh year. The actual
location of this scene was realized even in the


dream. As he was greatly interested, he related the
dream to his elder brother, who laughingly


confirmed its reality. The brother said that he
remembered the affair very distinctly, for he was six


years old at the time. The lovers were in the habit of

making him, the elder boy, drunk with beer


whenever circumstances were favourable to their



nocturnal intercourse. The younger child, our

dreamer, at that time three years of age, slept in


the same room as the nurse, but was not regarded

as an obstacle.
In yet another case it may be definitely



established, without the aid of dream-interpretation,

that the dream contains elements from childhood-

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namely, if the dream is a so-called perennial dream,

one which, being first dreamt in childhood, recurs


again and again in adult years. I may add a few


examples of this sort to those already known,
although I have no personal knowledge of perennial


dreams. A physician, in his thirties, tells me that a
yellow lion, concerning which he is able to give the


precisest information, has often appeared in his
dream-life, from his earliest childhood up to the


present day. This lion, known to him from his
dreams, was one day discovered in natura, as a


longforgotten china animal. The young man then

learned from his mother that the lion had been his


favourite toy in early childhood, a fact which he



himself could no longer remember.

If we now turn from the manifest dream-


content to the dreamthoughts which are revealed

only on analysis, the experiences of childhood may
be found to recur even in dreams whose content



would not have led us to suspect anything of the

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sort. I owe a particularly delightful and instructive

example of such a dream


to my esteemed colleague of the "yellow


lion." After reading Nansen's account of his polar
expedition, he dreamt that he was giving the


intrepid explorer electrical treatment on an ice-floe
for the sciatica of which the latter complained!


During the analysis of this dream he remembered an
incident of his childhood, without which the dream


would be wholly unintelligible. When he was three or
four years of age he was one day listening


attentively to the conversation of his elders; they

were talking of exploration, and he presently asked


his father whether exploration was a bad illness. He



had apparently confounded Reisen (journey, trips)

with Reissen (gripes, tearing pains), and the derision


of his brothers and sisters prevented his ever

forgetting the humiliating experience.
We have a precisely similar case when, in



the analysis of the dream of the monograph on the

genus cyclamen, I stumble upon a memory, retained

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from childhood, to the effect that when I was five

years old my father allowed me to destroy a book


embellished with coloured plates. It will perhaps be


doubted whether this recollection really entered into
the composition of the dream content, and it may be


suggested that the connection was established
subsequently by the analysis. But the abundance


and intricacy of the associative connections vouch
for the truth of my explanation: cyclamen- favourite


flower- favourite dish- artichoke; to pick to pieces
like an artichoke, leaf by leaf (a phrase which at that


time one heard daily, a propos of the dividing up of

the Chinese empire); herbarium- bookworm, whose


favourite food is books. I can further assure the



reader that the ultimate meaning of the dream,

which I have not given here, is most intimately


connected with the content of the scene of childish

destruction.
In another series of dreams we learn from



analysis that the very wish which has given rise to

the dream, and whose fulfilment the dream proves

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to be, has itself originated in childhood, so that one

is astonished to find that the child with all his


impulses survives in the dream.


I shall now continue the interpretation of a
dream which has already proved instructive: I refer


to the dream in which my friend R is my uncle. We
have carried its interpretation far enough for the


wish-motive- the wish to be appointed professor- to
assert itself palpably; and we have explained the


affection felt for my friend R in the dream as the
outcome of opposition to, and defiance of, the two


colleagues who appear in the dreamthoughts. Thee

dream was my own; I may, therefore, continue the


analysis by stating that I did not feel quite satisfied



with the solution arrived at. I knew that my opinion

of these colleagues. who were so badly treated in


my dream-thoughts, would have been expressed in

very different language in my waking life; the
intensity of the wish that I might not share their fate



as regards the appointment seemed to me too slight

fully to account for the discrepancy between my

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dream- opinion and my waking opinion. If the desire

to be addressed by another title were really so


intense, it would be proof of a morbid ambition,


which I do not think I cherish, and which I believe I
was far from entertaining. I do not know how others


who think they know me would judge me; perhaps I
really was ambitious; but if I was, my ambition has


long since been transferred to objects other than the
rank and title of Professor extraordinarius.


Whence, then, the ambition which the
dream has ascribed to me? Here I am reminded of a


story which I heard often in my childhood, that at

my birth an old peasant woman had prophesied to


my happy mother (whose first-born I was) that she



had brought a great man into the world. Such

prophecies must be made very


frequently; there are so many happy and

expectant mothers, and so many old peasant
women, and other old women who, since their



mundane powers have deserted them, turn their

eyes toward the future; and the prophetess is not

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likely to suffer for her prophecies. Is it possible that

my thirst for greatness has originated from this


source? But here I recollect an impression from the


later years of my childhood, which might serve even
better as an explanation. One evening, at a


restaurant on the Prater, where my parents were
accustomed to take me when I was eleven or twelve


years of age, we noticed a man who was going from
table to table and, for a small sum, improvising


verses upon any subject that was given him. I was
sent to bring the poet to our table, and he showed


his gratitude. Before asking for a subject he threw

off a few rhymes about myself, and told us that if he


could trust his inspiration I should probably one day



become a minister. I can still distinctly remember

the impression produced by this second prophecy. It


was in the days of the "bourgeois Ministry"; my

father had recently brought home the portraits of
the bourgeois university graduates, Herbst, Giskra,



Unger, Berger and others, and we illuminated the

house in their honour. There were even Jews among

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them; so that every diligent Jewish schoolboy

carried a ministerial portfolio in his satchel. The


impression of that time must be responsible for the


fact that until shortly before I went to the university
I wanted to study jurisprudence, and changed my


mind only at the last moment. A medical man has
no chance of becoming a minister. And now for my


dream: It is only now that I begin to see that it
translates me from the sombre present to the


hopeful days of the bourgeois Ministry, and
completely fulfils what was then my youthful


ambition. In treating my two estimable and learned

colleagues, merely because they are Jews, so badly,


one as though he were a simpleton and the other as



though he were a criminal, I am acting as though I

were the Minister; I have put myself in his place.


What a revenge I take upon his Excellency! He

refuses to appoint me Professor extraordinarius, and
so in my dream I put myself in his place.



In another case I note the fact that although

the wish that excites the dream is a contemporary

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wish it is nevertheless greatly reinforced by

memories of childhood. I refer to a series of dreams


which are based on the longing to go to Rome. For a


long time to come I shall probably have to satisfy
this longing by means of dreams, since, at the


season of the year when I should be able to travel,
Rome is to be avoided for reasons of health.[13]


Thus I once dreamt that I saw the Tiber and the
bridge of Sant' Angelo from the window of a railway


carriage; presently the train started, and I realized
that I had never entered the city at all. The view


that appeared in the dream was modelled after a

well-known engraving which I had casually noticed


the day before in the drawing-room of one of my



patients. In another dream someone took me up a

hill and showed me Rome half shrouded in mist, and


so distant that I was astonished at the distinctness

of the view. The content of this dream is too rich to
be fully reported here. The motive, "to see the



promised land afar," is here easily recognizable. The

city which I thus saw in the mist is Lubeck; the

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original of the hill is the Gleichenberg. In a third

dream I am at last in Rome. To my disappointment


the scenery is anything but urban: it consists of a


little stream of black water, on one side of which are
black rocks, while on the other are meadows with


large white flowers. I notice a certain Herr Zucker
(with whom I am superficially acquainted), and


resolve to ask him to show me the way into the city.
It is obvious that I am trying in vain to see in my


dream a city which I have never seen in my waking
life. If I resolve the landscape into its elements, the


white flowers point to Ravenna, which is known to

me, and which once, for a time, replaced Rome as


the capital of Italy. In the marshes around Ravenna



we had found the most beautiful water-lilies in the

midst of black pools of water; the dream makes


them grow in the meadows, like the narcissi of our

own Aussee, because we found it so troublesome to
cull them from the water. The black rock so close to



the water vividly recalls the valley of the Tepl at

Karlsbad. Karlsbad now enables me to account for

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the peculiar circumstance that I ask Herr Zucker to

show me the way. In the material of which the


dream is woven I am able to recognize two of those


amusing Jewish anecdotes which conceal such
profound and, at times, such bitter worldly wisdom,


and which we are so fond of quoting in our letters
and conversation. One is the story of the


constitution; it tells how a poor Jew sneaks into the
Karlsbad express without a ticket; how he is


detected, and is treated more and more harshly by
the conductor at each succeeding call for tickets;


and how, when a friend whom he meets at one of

the stations during his miserable journey asks him


where he is going, he answers: "To Karlsbad- if my



constitution holds out." Associated in memory with

this is another story about a Jew who is ignorant of


French, and who has express instructions to ask in

Paris for the Rue Richelieu. Paris was for many years
the goal of my own longing, and I regarded the



satisfaction with which I first set foot on the

pavements of Paris as a warrant that I should attain

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to the fulfilment of other wishes also. Moreover,

asking the way is a direct allusion to Rome, for, as


we know, "all roads lead to Rome." And further, the


name Zucker (sugar) again points to Karlsbad,
whither we send persons afflicted with the


constitutional disease, diabetes (Zuckerkrankheit,
sugardisease.) The occasion for this dream was the


proposal of my Berlin friend that we should meet in
Prague at Easter. A further association with sugar


and diabetes might be found in the matters which I
had to discuss with him. -


A fourth dream, occurring shortly after the

last-mentioned, brings me back to Rome. I see a


street corner before me, and am astonished that so



many German placards should be posted there. On

the previous day, when writing to my friend, I had


told him, with truly prophetic vision, that Prague

would probably not be a comfortable place for
German travellers. The dream, therefore, expressed



simultaneously the wish to meet him in Rome

instead of in the Bohemian capital, and the desire,

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which probably originated during my student days,

that the German language might be accorded more


tolerance in Prague. As a matter of fact, I must have


understood the Czech language in the first years of
my childhood, for I was born in a small village in


Moravia, amidst a Slay population. A Czech nursery
rhyme, which I heard in my seventeenth year,


became, without effort on my part, so imprinted
upon my memory that I can repeat it to this day,


although I have no idea of its meaning. Thus in
these dreams also there is no lack of manifold


relations to the impressions of my early childhood.

During my last Italian journey, which took


me past Lake Trasimenus, I at length discovered,



after I had seen the Tiber, and had reluctantly

turned back some fifty miles from Rome, what a


reinforcement my longing for the Eternal City had

received from the impressions of my childhood. I
had just conceived a plan of travelling to Naples via



Rome the following year when this sentence, which I

must have read in one of our German classics,

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occurred to me:[14] "It is a question which of the

two paced to and fro in his room the more


impatiently after he had conceived the plan of going


to Rome- Assistant Headmaster Winckelmann or the
great General Hannibal." I myself had walked in


Hannibal's footsteps; like him I was destined never
to see Rome, and he too had gone to Campania


when all were expecting him in Rome. Hannibal,
with whom I had achieved this point of similarity,


had been my favourite hero during my years at the
Gymnasium; like so many boys of my age, I


bestowed my sympathies in the Punic war not on the

Romans, but on the Carthaginians. Moreover, when


I finally came to realize the consequences of



belonging to an alien race, and was forced by the

anti-Semitic feeling among my classmates to take a


definite stand, the figure of the Semitic commander

assumed still greater proportions in my imagination.
Hannibal and Rome symbolized, in my youthful



eyes, the struggle between the tenacity of the Jews

and the organization of the Catholic Church. The

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significance for our emotional life which the anti-

Semitic movement has since assumed helped to fix


the thoughts and impressions of those earlier days.


Thus the desire to go to Rome has in my dream- life
become the mask and symbol for a number of


warmly cherished wishes, for whose realization one
had to work with the tenacity and single-mindedness


of the Punic general, though their fulfilment at times
seemed as remote as Hannibal's life-long wish to


enter Rome. -
And now, for the first time, I happened upon


the youthful experience which even to-day still

expresses its power in all these emotions and


dreams. I might have been ten or twelve years old



when my father began to take me with him on his

walks, and in his conversation to reveal his views on


the things of this world. Thus it was that he once

told me the following incident, in order to show me
that I had been born into happier times than he:



"When I was a young man, I was walking one

Saturday along the street in the village where you

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were born; I was well-dressed, with a new fur cap

on my head. Up comes a Christian, who knocks my


cap into the mud, and shouts, 'Jew, get off the


pavement!'"- "And what did you do?"- "I went into
the street and picked up the cap," he calmly replied.


That did not seem heroic on the part of the big,
strong man who was leading me, a little fellow, by


the hand. I contrasted this situation, which did not
please me, with another, more in harmony with my


sentiments- the scene in which Hannibal's father,
Hamilcar Barcas, made his son swear before the


household altar to take vengeance on the

Romans.[15] Ever since then Hannibal has had a


place in my phantasies. -


I think I can trace my enthusiasm for the

Carthaginian general still further back into my


childhood, so that it is probably only an instance of

an already established emotional relation being
transferred to a new vehicle. One of the first books



which fell into my childish hands after I learned to

read was Thiers' Consulate and Empire. I remember

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that I pasted on the flat backs of my wooden

soldiers little labels bearing the names of the


Imperial marshals, and that at that time Massena


(as a Jew, Menasse) was already my avowed
favourite.[16] This preference is doubtless also to be


explained by the fact of my having been born, a
hundred years later, on the same date. Napoleon


himself is associated with Hannibal through the
crossing of the Alps. And perhaps the development


of this martial ideal may be traced yet farther back,
to the first three years of my childhood, to wishes


which my alternately friendly and hostile relations

with a boy a year older than myself must have


evoked in the weaker of the two playmates. -



The deeper we go into the analysis of

dreams, the more often are we put on the track of


childish experiences which play the part of dream-

sources in the latent dream-content.
We have learned that dreams very rarely



reproduce memories in such a manner as to

constitute, unchanged and unabridged, the sole

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manifest dream-content. Nevertheless, a few

authentic examples which show such reproduction


have been recorded, and I can add a few new ones,


which once more refer to scenes of childhood. In the
case of one of my patients a dream once gave a


barely distorted reproduction of a sexual incident,
which was immediately recognized as an accurate


recollection. The memory of it had never been
completely lost in the waking life, but it had been


greatly obscured, and it was revivified by the
previous work of analysis. The dreamer had at the


age of twelve visited a bedridden schoolmate, who

had exposed himself, probably only by a chance


movement in bed. At the sight of the boy's genitals



he was seized by a kind of compulsion, exposed

himself, and took hold of the member of the other


boy who, however, looked at him in surprise and

indignation, whereupon he became embarrassed and
let it go. A dream repeated this scene twenty-three



years later, with all the details of the accompanying

emotions, changing it, however, in this respect, that

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the dreamer played the passive instead of the active

role, while the person of the schoolmate was


replaced by a contemporary.


As a rule, of course, a scene from childhood
is represented in the manifest dream-content only


by an allusion, and must be disentangled from the
dream by interpretation. The citation of examples of


this kind cannot be very convincing, because any
guarantee that they are really experiences of


childhood is lacking; if they belong to an earlier
period of life, they are no longer recognized by our


memory. The conclusion that such childish

experiences recur at all in dreams is justified in


psychoanalytic work by a great number of factors,



which in their combined results appear to be

sufficiently reliable. But when, for the purposes of


dream-interpretation, such references to childish

experiences are torn out of their context, they may
not perhaps seem very impressive, especially where



I do not even give all the material upon which the

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interpretation is based. However, I shall not let this

deter me from giving a few examples. -


I.


With one of my female patients all dreams
have the character of hurry; she is hurrying so as to


be in time, so as not to miss her train, and so on. In
one dream she has to visit a girl friend; her mother


had told her to ride and not walk; she runs,
however, and keeps on calling. The material that


emerged in the analysis allowed one to recognize a
memory of childish romping, and, especially for one


dream, went back to the popular childish game of

rapidly repeating the words of a sentence as though


it was all one word. All these harmless jokes with



little friends were remembered because they

replaced other less harmless ones.[17] -


II.
The following dream was dreamed by
another female patient: She is in a large room in



which there are all sorts of machines; it is rather like

what she would imagine an orthopaedic institute to

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be. She hears that I am pressed for time, and that

she must undergo treatment along with five others.


But she resists, and is unwilling to lie down on the


bed- or whatever it is- which is intended for her.
She stands in a corner, and waits for me to say "It is


not true." The others, meanwhile, laugh at her,
saying it is all foolishness on her part. At the same


time, it is as though she were called upon to make a
number of little squares.


The first part of the content of this dream is
an allusion to the treatment and to the transference


to myself. The second contains an allusion to a

scene of childhood; the two portions are connected


by the mention of the bed. The orthopaedic institute



is an allusion to one of my talks, in which I

compared the treatment, with regard to its duration


and its nature. to an orthopaedic treatment. At the

beginning of the treatment I had to tell her that for
the present I had little time to give her, but that



later on I would devote a whole hour to her daily.

This aroused in her the old sensitiveness, which is a

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leading characteristic of children who are destined to

become hysterical. Their desire for love is insatiable.


My patient was the youngest of six brothers and


sisters (hence, with five others), and as such her
father's favourite, but in spite of this she seems to


have felt that her beloved father devoted far too
little time and attention to her. Her waiting for me to


say It is not trite was derived as follows: A little
tailor's apprentice had brought her a dress, and she


had given him the money for it. Then she asked her
husband whether she would have to pay the money


again if the boy were to lose it. To tease her, her

husband answered "Yes" (the teasing in the dream),


and she asked again and again, and waited for him


to say "It is not true." The thought of the latent

dream- content may now be construed as follows:


Will she have to pay me double the amount when I

devote twice as much time to her?- a thought which
is stingy or filthy (the uncleanliness of childhood is



often replaced in dreams by greed for money; the

word filthy here supplies the bridge). If all the

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passage referring to her waiting until I say It is not

true is intended in the dream as a circumlocution for


the word dirty, the standingin-the-corner and not


lying-down-on-the-bed are in keeping with this
word, as component parts of a scene of her


childhood in which she had soiled her bed, in
punishment for which she was put into the corner,


with a warning that papa would not love her any
more, whereupon her brothers and sisters laughed


at her, etc. The little squares refer to her young
niece, who showed her the arithmetical trick of


writing figures in nine squares (I think) in such a

way that on being added together in any direction


they make fifteen. -



III.
Here is a man's dream: He sees two boys


tussling with each other; they are cooper's boys, as

he concludes from the tools which are lying about;
one of the boys has thrown the other down; the



prostrate boy is wearing ear-rings with blue stones.

He runs towards the assailant with lifted cane, in

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order to chastise him. The boy takes refuge behind a

woman, as though she were his mother, who is


standing against a wooden fence. She is the wife of


a day-labourer, and she turns her back to the man
who is dreaming. Finally she turns about and stares


at him with a horrible look, so that he runs away in
terror; the red flesh of the lower lid seems to stand


out from her eyes.
This dream has made abundant use of trivial


occurrences from the previous day, in the course of
which he actually saw two boys in the street, one of


whom threw the other down. When he walked up to

them in order to settle the quarrel, both of them


took to their heels. Cooper's boys- this is explained



only by a
subsequent dream, in the analysis of which


he used the proverbial expression: "To knock the

bottom out of the barrel." Ear-rings with blue
stones, according to his observation, are worn



chiefly by prostitutes. This suggests a familiar

doggerel rhyme about two boys: "The other boy was

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called Marie": that is, he was a girl. The woman

standing by the fence: after the scene with the two


boys he went for a walk along the bank of the


Danube and, taking advantage of being alone,
urinated against a wooden fence. A little farther on a


respectably dressed, elderly lady smiled at him very
pleasantly and wanted to hand him her card with her


address.
Since, in the dream, the woman stood as he


had stood while urinating, there is an allusion to a
woman urinating, and this explains the horrible look


and the prominence of the red flesh, which can only

refer to the genitals gaping in a squatting posture;


seen in childhood, they had appeared in later



recollection as proud flesh, as a wound. The dream

unites two occasions upon which, as a little boy, the


dreamer was enabled to see the genitals of little

girls, once by throwing the little girl down, and once
while the child was urinating; and, as is shown by



another association, he had retained in his memory

the punishment administered or threatened by his

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father on account of these manifestations of sexual

curiosity. -


IV.


A great mass of childish memories, which
have been hastily combined into a phantasy, may be


found behind the following dream of an elderly lady:
She goes out in a hurry to do some shopping. On


the Graben she sinks to her knees as though she
had broken down. A number of people collect around


her, especially cabdrivers, but no one helps her to
get up. She makes many vain attempts; finally she


must have succeeded, for she is put into a cab which

is to take her home. A large, heavily laden basket


(something like a market- basket) is thrown after



her through the window.

This is the woman who is always harassed in


her dreams; just as she used to be harassed when a

child. The first situation of the dream is apparently
taken from the sight of a fallen horse; just as broken



down points to horse-racing. In her youth she was a

rider; still earlier she was probably also a horse.

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With the idea of falling down is connected her first

childish reminiscence of the seventeen-year-old son


of the hall porter, who had an epileptic seizure in the


street and was brought home in a cab. Of this, of
course, she had only heard, but the idea of epileptic


fits, of falling down, acquired a great influence over
her phantasies, and later on influenced the form of


her own hysterical attacks. When a person of the
female sex dreams of falling, this almost always has


a sexual significance; she becomes a fallen woman,
and, for the purpose of the dream under


consideration, this interpretation is probably the

least doubtful, for she falls in the Graben, the street


in Vienna which is known as the concourse of



prostitutes. The market-basket admits of more than

one interpretation; in the sense of refusal (German,


Korb = basket = snub, refusal) it reminds her of the

many snubs which she at first administered to her
suitors and which, she thinks, she herself received



later. This agrees with the detail: no one will help

her up, which she herself interprets as being

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disdained. Further, the market-basket recalls

phantasies which have already appeared in the


course of analysis, in which she imagines that she


has married far beneath her station and now goes to
the market as a market-woman. Lastly, the market-


basket might be interpreted as the mark of a
servant. This suggests further memories of her


childhood- of a cook who was discharged because
she stole; she, too, sank to her knees and begged


for mercy. The dreamer was at that time twelve
years of age. Then emerges a recollection of a


chamber-maid, who was dismissed because she had

an affair with the coachman of the household, who,


incidentally, married her afterwards. This



recollection, therefore, gives us a clue to the cab-

drivers in the dream (who, in opposition to the


reality, do not stand by the fallen woman). But there

still remains to be explained the throwing of the
basket; in particular, why it is thrown through the



window? This reminds her of the forwarding of

luggage by rail, to the custom of Fensterln[18] in

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the country, and to trivial impressions of a summer

resort, of a gentleman who threw some blue plums


into the window of a lady's room, and of her little


sister, who was frightened because an idiot who was
passing looked in at the window. And now, from


behind all this emerges an obscure recollection from
her tenth year of a nurse in the country to whom


one of the men-servants made love (and whose
conduct the child may have noticed), and who was


sent packing, thrown out, together with her lover (in
the dream we have the expression: thrown into); an


incident which we have been approaching by several

other paths. The luggage or box of a servant is


disparagingly described in Vienna as "seven plums."



"Pack up your seven plums and get out!" -

My collection, of course, contains a plethora


of such patients' dreams, the analysis of which leads

back to impressions of childhood, often dating back
to the first three years of life, which are



remembered obscurely, or not at all. But it is a

questionable proceeding to draw conclusions from

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these and apply them to dreams in general, for they

are mostly dreams of neurotic, and especially


hysterical, persons; and the part played in these


dreams by childish scenes might be conditioned by
the nature of the neurosis, and not by the nature of


dreams in general. In the interpretation of my own
dreams, however, which is assuredly not undertaken


on account of grave symptoms of illness, it happens
just as frequently that in the latent dreamcontent I


am unexpectedly confronted with a scene of my
childhood, and that a whole series of my dreams will


suddenly converge upon the paths proceeding from

a single childish experience. I have already given


examples of this, and I shall give yet more in



different connections. Perhaps I cannot close this

chapter more fittingly than by citing several dreams


of my own, in which recent events and long-

forgotten experiences of my childhood appear
together as dream-sources.



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I.
After I have been travelling, and have gone


to bed hungry and tired, the prime necessities of life


begin to assert their claims in sleep, and I dream as
follows: I go into a kitchen in order to ask for some


pudding. There three women are standing, one of
whom is the hostess; she is rolling something in her


hands, as though she were making dumplings. She
replies that I must wait until she has finished (not


distinctly as a speech). I become impatient, and go
away affronted. I want to put on an overcoat; but


the first I try on is too long. I take it off, and am

somewhat astonished to find that it is trimmed with


fur. A second coat has a long strip of cloth with a



Turkish design sewn into it. A stranger with a long

face and a short, pointed beard comes up and


prevents me from putting it on, declaring

that it belongs to him. I now show him that it is
covered all over with Turkish embroideries. He asks:



"How do the Turkish (drawings, strips of cloth...)

concern you?" But we soon become quite friendly.

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In the analysis of this dream I remember,

quite unexpectedly, the first novel which I ever read,


or rather, which I began to read from the end of the


first volume, when I was perhaps thirteen years of
age. I have never learned the name of the novel, or


that of its author, but the end remains vividly in my
memory. The hero becomes insane, and continually


calls out the names of the three women who have
brought the greatest happiness and the greatest


misfortune into his life. Pelagie is one of these
names. I still do not know what to make of this


recollection during the analysis. Together with the

three women there now emerge the three Parcae,


who spin the fates of men, and I know that one of



the three women, the hostess in the dream, is the

mother who gives life, and who, moreover, as in my


own case, gives the child its first nourishment. Love

and hunger meet at the mother's breast. A young
man- so runs an anecdote- who became a great



admirer of womanly beauty, once observed, when

the conversation turned upon the handsome wet-

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nurse who had suckled him as a child, that he was

sorry that he had not taken better advantage of his


opportunities. I am in the habit of using the


anecdote to elucidate the factor of retrospective
tendencies in the mechanism of the psychoneuroses.


One of the Parcae, then, is rubbing the palms of her
hands together, as though she were making


dumplings. A strange occupation for one of the
Fates, and urgently in need of explanation! This


explanation is furnished by another and earlier
memory of my childhood. When I was six years old,


and receiving my first lessons from my mother, I

was expected to believe that we are made of dust,


and must, therefore, return to dust. But this did not



please me, and I questioned the doctrine.

Thereupon my mother rubbed the palms of her


hands together-just as in making dumplings, except

that there was no dough between them- and showed
me the blackish scales of epidermis which were thus



rubbed off, as a proof that it is of dust that we are

made. Great was my astonishment at this

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demonstration ad oculos, and I acquiesced in the

idea which I was later to hear expressed in the


words: "Thou owest nature a death."[19] Thus the


women to whom I go in the kitchen, as I so often
did in my childhood when I was hungry and my


mother, sitting by the fire, admonished me to wait
until lunch was ready, are really the Parcae. And


now for the dumplings! At least one of my teachers
at the University- the very one to whom I am


indebted for my histological knowledge (epidermis)-
would be reminded by the name Knodl (Knodl


means dumpling), of a person whom he had to

prosecute for plagiarizing his writings. Committing a


plagiarism, taking anything one can lay hands on,



even though it belongs to another, obviously leads

to the second part of the dream, in which I am


treated like the overcoat thief who for some time

plied his trade in the lecture halls. I have written the
word plagiarism- without definite intention- because



it occurred to me, and now I see that it must belong

to the latent dream-content and that it will serve as

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a bridge between the different parts of the manifest

dream-content. The chain of associations- Pelagie-


plagiarism- plagiostomi[20] (sharks)- fish-bladder-


connects the old novel with the affair of Knodl and
the overcoats (German: Uberzieher = pullover,


overcoat or condom), which obviously refer to an
appliance appertaining to the technique of sex. This,


it is true, is a very forced and irrational connection,
but it is nevertheless one which I could not have


established in waking life if it had not already been
established by the dream-work. Indeed, as though


nothing were sacred to this impulse to enforce

associations, the beloved name, Brucke (bridge of


words, see above), now serves to remind me of the



very institute in which I spent my happiest hours as

a student, wanting for nothing. "So will you at the


breasts of Wisdom every day more pleasure find"),

in the most complete contrast to the desires which
plague me (German: plagen) while I dream. And



finally, there emerges the recollection of another

dear teacher, whose name once more sounds like

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something edible (Fleischl- Fleisch = meat- like

Knodl = dumplings), and of a pathetic scene in


which the scales of epidermis play a part (mother-


hostess), and mental derangement (the novel), and
a remedy from the Latin pharmacopeia (Kuche =


kitchen) which numbs the sensation of hunger,
namely, cocaine.


In this manner I could follow the intricate
trains of thought still farther, and could fully


elucidate that part of the dream which is lacking in
the analysis; but I must refrain, because the


personal sacrifice which this would involve is too

great. I shall take up only one of the threads, which


will serve to lead us directly to one of the dream-



thoughts that lie at the bottom of the medley. The

stranger with the long face and pointed beard, who


wants to prevent me from putting on the overcoat,

has the features of a tradesman of Spalato, of whom
my wife bought a great deal of Turkish cloth. His



name was Popovic, a suspicious name, which even

gave the humorist Stettenheim a pretext for a

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suggestive remark: "He told me his name, and

blushingly shook my hand."[21] For the rest, I find


the same misuse of names as above in the case of


Pelagie, Knodl, Brucke, Fleischl. No one will deny
that such playing with names is a childish trick; if I


indulge in it the practice amounts to an act of
retribution, for my own name has often enough been


the subject of such feeble attempts at wit. Goethe
once remarked how sensitive a man is in respect to


his name, which he feels that he fills even as he fills
his skin; Herder having written the following lines on


his name:
Der du von Gottern abstammst, von Gothen


oder vom Kote.



So seid ihr Gotterbilder auch zu Staub. -

[Thou who art born of the gods, of the


Goths, or of the mud. Thus are thy godlike images

even dust.] -
I realize that this digression on the misuse



of names was intended merely to justify this

complaint. But here let us stop.... The purchase at

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Spalato reminds me of another purchase at Cattaro,

where I was too cautious, and missed the


opportunity of making an excellent bargain. (Missing


an opportunity at the breast of the wet- nurse; see
above.) One of the dream-thoughts occasioned by


the sensation of hunger really amounts to this: We
should let nothing escape; we should take what we


can get, even if we do a little wrong; we should
never let an opportunity go by; life is so short, and


death inevitable. Because this is meant even
sexually, and because desire is unwilling to check


itself before the thought of doing wrong, this

philosophy of carpe diem has reason to fear the


censorship, and must conceal itself behind a dream.



And so all sorts of counter-thoughts find expression,

with recollections of the time when spiritual


nourishment alone was sufficient for the dreamer,

with hindrances of every kind and even threats of
disgusting sexual punishments. -



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II.
A second dream requires a longer


preliminary statement:


I had driven to the Western Station in order
to start on a holiday trip to the Aussee, but I went


on to the platform in time for the Ischl train, which
leaves earlier. There I saw Count Thun, who was


again going to see the Emperor at Ischl. In spite of
the rain he arrived in an open carriage, came


straight through the entrance- gate for the local
trains, and with a curt gesture and not a word of


explanation he waved back the gatekeeper, who did

not know him and wanted to take his ticket. After he


had left in the Ischl train, I was asked to leave the



platform and return to the waiting- room; but after

some difficulty I obtained permission to remain. I


passed the time noting how many people bribed the

officials to secure a compartment; I fully intended to
make a complaint- that is, to demand the same



privilege. Meanwhile I sang something to myself,

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which I afterwards recognized as the aria from The

Marriage of Figaro: -


If my lord Count would tread a measure,


tread a measure, Let him but say his pleasure,
And I will play the tune. -


(Possibly another person would not have
recognized the tune.) The whole evening I was in a


high-spirited, pugnacious mood; I chaffed the waiter
and the cab-driver, I hope without hurting their


feelings; and now all kinds of bold and revolutionary
thoughts came into my mind, such as would fit


themselves to the words of Figaro, and to memories

of Beaumarchais' comedy, of which I had seen a


performance at the Comedie Francaise. The speech



about the great men who have taken the trouble to

be born; the seigneurial right which Count Almaviva


wishes to exercise with regard to Susanne; the jokes

which our malicious Opposition journalists make on
the name of Count Thun (German, thun = do),



calling him Graf Nichtsthun, Count-Do-Nothing. I

really do not envy him; he now has a difficult

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audience with the Emperor before him, and it is I

who am the real Count-Do-Nothing, for I am going


off for a holiday. I make all sorts of amusing plans


for the vacation. Now a gentleman arrives whom I
know as a Government representative at the


medical examinations, and who has won the
flattering nickname of "the Governmental bed-


fellow" (literally, by-sleeper) by his activities in this
capacity. By insisting on his official status he


secured half a first-class compartment, and I heard
one guard say to another: "Where are we going to


put the gentleman with the first-class half-

compartment?" A pretty sort of favouritism! I am


paying for a whole first-class compartment. I did



actually get a whole compartment to myself, but not

in a through carriage, so there was no lavatory at


my disposal during the night. My complaints to the

guard were fruitless; I revenged myself by
suggesting that at least a hole be made in the floor



of this compartment, to serve the possible needs of

passengers. At a quarter to three in the morning I

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wake, with an urgent desire to urinate, from the

following dream:


A crowd, a students' meeting.... A certain


Count (Thun or Taaffe) is making a speech. Being
asked to say something about the Germans, he


declares, with a contemptuous gesture, that their
favourite flower is coltsfoot, and he then puts into


his buttonhole something like a torn leaf, really the
crumpled skeleton of a leaf. I jump up, and I jump


up,[22] but I am surprised at my implied attitude.
Then, more indistinctly: It seems as though this


were the vestibule (Aula); the exits are thronged,

and one must escape. I make my way through a


suite of handsomely appointed rooms, evidently



ministerial apartments, with furniture of a colour

between brown and violet, and at last I come to a


corridor in which a housekeeper, a fat, elderly

woman, is seated. I try to avoid speaking to her, but
she apparently thinks I have a right to pass this



way, because she asks whether she shall accompany

me with the lamp. I indicate with a gesture, or tell

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her, that she is to remain standing on the stairs, and

it seems to me that I am very clever, for after all I


am evading detection. Now I am downstairs, and I


find a narrow, steeply rising path, which I follow. -
Again indistinctly: It is as though my second


task were to get away from the city, just as my first
was to get out of the building. I am riding in a one-


horse cab, and I tell the driver to take me to a
railway station. "I can't drive with you on the railway


line itself," I say, when he reproaches me as though
I had tired him out. Here it seems as though I had


already made a journey in his cab which is usually

made by rail. The stations are crowded; I am


wondering whether to go to Krems or to Znaim, but



I reflect that the Court will be there, and I decide in

favour of Graz or some such place. Now I am seated


in the railway carriage, which is rather like a tram,

and I have in my buttonhole a peculiar long braided
thing, on which are violet-brown violets of stiff



material, which makes a great impression on people.

Here the scene breaks off.

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I am once more in front of the railway

station, but I am in the company of an elderly


gentleman. I think out a scheme for remaining


unrecognized, but I see this plan already being
carried out. Thinking and experiencing are here, as


it were, the same thing. He pretends to be blind, at
least in one eye, and I hold before him a male glass


urinal (which we have to buy in the city, or have
bought). I am thus a sick-nurse, and have to give


him the urinal because he is blind. If the conductor
sees us in this position, he must pass us by without


drawing attention to us. At the same time the

position of the elderly man, and his urinating organ,


is plastically perceived. Then I wake with a desire to



urinate.
The whole dream seems a sort of phantasy,


which takes the dreamer back to the year of

revolution, 1848, the memory of which had been
revived by the jubilee of 1898, as well as by a little



excursion to Wachau, on which I visited

Emmersdorf, the refuge of the student leader

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Fischof,[23] to whom several features of the

manifest dream- content might refer. The


association of ideas then leads me to England, to the


house of my brother, who used in jest to twit his
wife with the title of Tennyson's poem Fifty Years


Ago, whereupon the children were used to correct
him: Fifteen Years Ago. This phantasy, however,


which attaches itself to the thoughts evoked by the
sight of Count Thun, is, like the facade of an Italian


church, without organic connection with the
structure behind it, but unlike such a facade it is full


of gaps, and confused, and in many places portions

of the interior break through. The first situation of


the dream is made up of a number of scenes, into



which I am able to dissect it. The arrogant attitude

of the Count in the dream is copied from a scene at


my school which occurred in my fifteenth year. We

had hatched a conspiracy against an unpopular and
ignorant teacher; the leading spirit in this conspiracy



was a schoolmate who since that time seems to

have taken Henry VIII of England as his model. It

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fell to me to carry out the coup d'etat, and a

discussion of the importance of the Danube


(German, Donau) to Austria (Wachau!) was the


occasion of an open revolt. One of our fellow-
conspirators was our only aristocratic schoolmate-


he was called "the giraffe" on account of his
conspicuous height- and while he was being


reprimanded by the tyrant of the school, the
professor of the German language, he stood just as


the Count stood in the dream. The explanation of
the favourite flower, and the putting into a button-


hole of something that must have been a flower

(which recalls the orchids which I had given that day


to a friend, and also a rose of Jericho) prominently



recalls the incident in Shakespeare's historical play

which opens the civil wars of the Red and the White


Roses; the mention of Henry VIII has paved the way

to this reminiscence. Now it is not very far from
roses to red and white carnations. (Meanwhile two



little rhymes, the one German, the other Spanish,

insinuate themselves into the analysis: Rosen,

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Tulpen, Nelken, alle Blumen welken,[24] and

Isabelita, no llores, que se marchitan las flores.[25]


The Spanish line occurs in Figaro.) Here in Vienna


white carnations have become the badge of the
Anti-Semites, red ones of the Social Democrats.


Behind this is the recollection of an anti-Semitic
challenge during a railway journey in beautiful


Saxony (Anglo Saxon). The third scene contributing
to the formation of the first situation in the dream


dates from my early student days. There was a
debate in a German students' club about the relation


of philosophy to the general sciences. Being a green

youth, full of materialistic doctrines, I thrust myself


forward in order to defend an extremely one-sided



position. Thereupon a sagacious older fellow-

student, who has since then shown his capacity for


leading men and organizing the masses, and who,

moreover, bears a name belonging to the animal
kingdom, rose and gave us a thorough dressing-



down; he too, he said, had herded swine in his

youth, and had then returned repentant to his

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father's house. I jumped up (as in the dream),

became piggishly rude, and retorted that since I


knew he had herded swine, I was not surprised at


the tone of his discourse. (In the dream I am
surprised at my German Nationalistic feelings.)


There was a great commotion, and an almost
general demand that I should retract my words, but


I stood my ground. The insulted student was too
sensible to take the advice which was offered him,


that he should send me a challenge, and let the
matter drop. -


The remaining elements of this scene of the

dream are of more remote origin. What does it


mean that the Count should make a scornful



reference to coltsfoot? Here I must question my

train of associations. Coltsfoot (German: Huflattich),


Lattice (lettuce), Salathund (the dog that grudges

others what he cannot eat himself). Here plenty of
opprobrious epithets may be discerned: Gir-affe



(German: Affe = monkey, ape), pig, sow, dog; I

might even arrive, by way of the name, at donkey,

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and thereby pour contempt upon an academic

professor. Furthermore, I translate coltsfoot


(Huflattich)- I do not know whether I do so


correctly- by pisse-en-lit. I get this idea from Zola's
Germinal, in which some children are told to bring


some dandelion salad with them. The dog- chien-
has a name sounding not unlike the verb for the


major function (chier, as pisser stands for the minor
one). Now we shall soon have the indecent in all its


three physical categories, for in the same Germinal,
which deals with the future revolution, there is a


description of a very peculiar contest, which relates

to the production of the gaseous excretions known


as flatus.[26] And now I cannot but observe how the



way to this flatus has been prepared a long while

since, beginning with the flowers, and proceeding to


the Spanish rhyme of Isabelita, to Ferdinand and

Isabella, and, by way of Henry VIII, to English
history at the time of the Armada, after the



victorious termination of which the English struck a

medal with the inscription: Flavit et dissipati sunt,

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for the storm had scattered the Spanish fleet. [27] I

had thought of using this phrase, half jestingly, as


the title of a chapter on "Therapy," if I should ever


succeed in giving a detailed account of my
conception and treatment of hysteria. -


I cannot give so detailed an interpretation of
the second scene of the dream, out of sheer regard


for the censorship. For at this point I put myself in
the place of a certain eminent gentleman of the


revolutionary period, who had an adventure with an
eagle (German: Adler) and who is said to have


suffered from incontinence of the bowels,

incontinentia and, etc.; and here I believe that I


should not be justified in passing the censorship,



even though it was an aulic councillor (aula,

consiliarizis aulicus) who told me the greater part of


this history. The suite of rooms in the dream is

suggested by his Excellency's private saloon
carriage, into which I was able to glance; but it



means, as it so often does in dreams, a woman.[28]

The personality of the housekeeper is an ungrateful

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allusion to a witty old lady, which ill repays her for

the good times and the many good stories which I


have enjoyed in her house. The incident of the lamp


goes back to Grillparzer, who notes a charming
experience of a similar nature, of which he


afterwards made use in Hero and Leander (the
waves of the sea and of love- the Armada and the


storm). -
I must forego a detailed analysis of the two


remaining portions of the dream; I shall single out
only those elements which lead me back to the two


scenes of my childhood for the sake of which alone I

have selected the dream. The reader will rightly


assume that it is sexual material which necessitates



the suppression; but he may not be content with

this explanation. There are many things of which


one makes no secret to oneself, but which must be

treated as secrets in addressing others, and here we
are concerned not with the reasons which induce me



to conceal the solution, but with the motive of the

inner censorship which conceals the real content of

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the dream even from myself. Concerning this, I will

confess that the analysis reveals these three


portions of the dream as impertinent boasting, the


exuberance of an absurd megalomania, long ago
suppressed in my waking life, which, however, dares


to show itself, with individual ramifications, even in
the manifest dream- content (it seems to me that I


am a cunning fellow), making the high-spirited
mood of the evening before the dream perfectly


intelligible.
Boasting of every kind, indeed thus, the


mention of Graz points to the phrase: "What price

Graz?" which one is wont to use when one feels


unusually wealthy. Readers who recall Master



Rabelais's inimitable description of the life and deeds

of Gargantua and his son Pantagruel will be able to


enroll even the suggested content of the first portion

of the dream among the boasts to which I have
alluded. But the following belongs to the two scenes



of childhood of which I have spoken: I had bought a

new trunk for this journey, the colour of which, a

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brownish violet, appears in the dream several times

(violet-brown violets of a stiff cloth, on an object


which is known as a girl-catcher- the furniture in the


ministerial chambers). Children, we know, believe
that one attracts people's attention with anything


new. Now I have been told of the following incident
of my childhood; my recollection of the occurrence


itself has been replaced by my recollection of the
story. I am told that at the age of two I still used


occasionally to wet my bed, and that when I was
reproved for doing so I consoled my father by


promising to buy him a beautiful new red bed in N

(the nearest large town). Hence, the interpolation in


the dream, that we had bought the urinal in the city



or had to buy it; one must keep one's promises.

(One should note, moreover, the association of the


male urinal and the woman's trunk, box.) All the

megalomania of the child is contained in this
promise. The significance of dreams of urinary



difficulties in the case of children has already been

considered in the interpretation of an earlier dream

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(cf. the dream in chapter V., A.). The psycho-

analysis of neurotics has taught us to recognize the


intimate connection between wetting the bed and


the character trait of ambition.
Then, when I was seven or eight years of


age another domestic incident occurred which I
remember very well. One evening, before going to


bed, I had disregarded the dictates of discretion,
and had satisfied my needs in my parents' bedroom,


and in their presence. Reprimanding me for this
delinquency, my father remarked: "That boy will


never amount to anything." This must have been a

terrible affront to my ambition, for allusions to this


scene recur again and again in my dreams, and are



constantly coupled with enumerations of my

accomplishments and successes, as though I wanted


to say: "You see, I have amounted to something

after all." This childish scene furnishes the elements
for the last image of the dream, in which the roles



are interchanged, of course for the purpose of

revenge. The elderly man obviously my father, for

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the blindness in one eye signifies his one-sided

glaucoma,[29] is now urinating before me as I once


urinated before him. By means of the glaucoma I


remind my father of cocaine, which stood him in
good stead during his operation, as though I had


thereby fulfilled my promise. Besides, I make sport
of him; since he is blind, I must hold the glass in


front of him, and I delight in allusions to my
knowledge of the theory of hysteria, of which I am


proud.[30]
If the two childish scenes of urination are,


according to my theory, closely associated with the

desire for greatness, their resuscitation on the


journey to the Aussee was further favoured by the



accidental circumstance that my compartment had

no lavatory, and that I must be prepared to


postpone relief during the journey, as actually

happened in the morning when I woke with the
sensation of a bodily need. I suppose one might be



inclined to credit this sensation with being the actual

stimulus of the dream; I should, however, prefer a

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different explanation, namely, that the dream-

thoughts first gave rise to the desire to urinate. It is


quite unusual for me to be disturbed in sleep by any


physical need, least of all at the time when I woke
on this occasion- a quarter to four in the morning. I


would forestall a further objection by remarking that
I have hardly ever felt a desire to urinate after


waking early on other journeys made under more
comfortable circumstances. However, I can leave


this point undecided without weakening my
argument.


Further, since experience in dream-analysis

has drawn my attention to the fact that even from


dreams the interpretation of which seems at first



sight complete, because the dream-sources and the

wish- stimuli are easily demonstrable, important


trains of thought proceed which reach back into the

earliest years of childhood, I had to ask myself
whether this characteristic does not even constitute



an essential condition of dreaming. If it were

permissible to generalize this notion, I should say

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that every dream is connected through its manifest

content with recent experiences, while through its


latent content it is connected with the most remote


experiences; and I can actually show in the analysis
of hysteria that these remote experiences have in a


very real sense remained recent right up to the
present. But I still find it very difficult to prove this


conjecture; I shall have to return to the probable
role in dream-formation of the earliest experiences


of our childhood in another connection (chapter VII).
Of the three peculiarities of the dream-


memory considered above, one- the preference for

the unimportant in the dream-content- has been


satisfactorily explained by tracing it back to dream



distortion. We have succeeded in establishing the

existence of the other two peculiarities- the


preferential selection of recent and also of infantile

material- but we have found it impossible to derive
them from the motives of the dream. Let us keep in



mind these two characteristics, which we still have

to explain or evaluate; a place will have to be found

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for them elsewhere, either in the discussion of the

psychology of the sleeping state, or in the


consideration of the structure of the psychic


apparatus- which we shall undertake later after we
have seen that by means of dream-interpretation we


are able to glance as through an inspection- hole
into the interior of this apparatus.


But here and now I will emphasize another
result of the last few dream-analyses. The dream


often appears to have several meanings; not only
may several wish-fulfilments be combined in it, as


our examples show, but one meaning or one wish-

fulfilment may conceal another. until in the lowest


stratum one comes upon the fulfilment of a wish



from the earliest period of childhood; and here again

it may be questioned whether the word often at the


beginning of this sentence may not more correctly

be replaced by constantly.[31]



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Footnotes
[1] It is evident that Robert's idea- that the


dream is intended to rid our memory of the useless


impressions which it has received during the day- is
no longer tenable if indifferent memories of our


childhood appear in our dreams with some degree of
frequency. We should be obliged to conclude that


our dreams generally perform their prescribed task
very inadequately.


[2] Cf. The Psycho-pathology of Everyday
Life.


[3] The tendency of the dream at work to

blend everything present of interest into a single


transaction has already been noticed by several



authors, for instance, by Delage and Delboeuf.

[4] The dream of Irma's injection; the


dream of the friend who is my uncle.

[5] The dream of the funeral oration
delivered by the young physician.



[6] The dream of the botanical monograph.

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[7] The dreams of my patients during

analysis are mostly of this kind.


[8] Cf. Chap. VII on "transference."


[9] Havelock Ellis, a kindly critic of The
Interpretation of Dreams, writes in The World of


Dreams (p. 169): "From this point on, not many of
us will be able to follow F." But Mr. Ellis has not


undertaken any analyses of dreams, and will not
believe how unjustifiable it is to judge them by the


manifest dream-content. -
[10] Cf. what is said of speech in dreams in


the chapter on "The Dream-Work." Only one of the

writers on the subject- Delboeuf- seems to have


recognized the origin of the speeches heard in



dreams; he compares them with cliches.

[11] For the curious, I may remark that


behind the dream there is hidden a phantasy of

indecent, sexually provoking conduct on my part,
and of repulsion on the part of the lady. If this



interpretation should seem preposterous, I would

remind the reader of the numerous cases in which

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physicians have been made the object of such

charges by hysterical women, with whom the same


phantasy has not appeared in a distorted form as a


dream, but has become undisguisedly conscious and
delusional. With this dream the patient began her


psycho-analytical treatment. It was only later that I
learned that with this dream she repeated the initial


trauma in which her neurosis originated, and since
then I have noticed the same behaviour in other


persons who in their childhood were victims of
sexual attacks, and now, as it were, wish in their


dreams for them to be repeated.

[12] A substitution by the opposite, as will


be clear after analysis.



[13] I long ago learned that the fulfilment of

such wishes only called for a little courage, and I


then became a zealous pilgrim to Rome. -

[14] The writer in whose works I found this
passage was probably Jean Paul Richter. -



[15] In the first edition of this book I gave

here the name "Hasdrubal," an amazing error, which

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I explained in my Psycho pathology of Everyday Life.

-


[16] The Jewish descent of the Marshal is


somewhat doubtful. -
[17] In the original this paragraph contains


many plays on the word Hetz (hurry, chase, scurry,
game, etc.).- TR. -


[18] Fensterln is the custom, now falling into
disuse, found in rural districts of the German


Schwarzwald, of lovers who woo their sweethearts
at their bedroom windows, to which they ascend by


means of a ladder, enjoying such intimacy that the

relation practically amounts to a trial marriage. The


reputation of the young woman never suffers on



account of Fensterln, unless she becomes intimate

with too many suitors.- TR. -


[19] Both the affects pertaining to these

childish scenes- astonishment and resignation to the
inevitable- appeared in a dream of slightly earlier



date, which first reminded me of this incident of my

childhood.

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[20] I do not bring in the plagiostomi

arbitrarily; they recall a painful incident of disgrace


before the same teacher.


[21] Popo = "backside," in German nursery
language. -


[22] This repetition has crept into the text of
the dream, apparently through absent-mindedness,


and I have left it because analysis shows that it has
a meaning. -


[23] This is an error and not a slip, for I
learned later that the Emmersdorf in Wachau is not


identical with the refuge of the revolutionist Fischof,

a place of the same name.


[24] Roses, tulips, and carnations, flowers



all will wither.

[25] Do not cry, little Isabella because your


flowers have faded.

[26] Not in Germinal, but in La Terre- a
mistake of which I became aware only in the



analysis. Here I would call attention to the identity

of letters in Huflattich and Flatus.

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[27] An unsolicited biographer, Dr. F.

Wittels, reproaches me for having omitted the name


of Jehovah from the above motto. The English medal


contains the name of the Deity, in Hebrew letters,
on the background of a cloud, and placed in such a


manner that one may equally well regard it as part
of the picture or as part of the inscription.


[28] Frauenzimmer, German, Zimmer-room,
is appended to Frauen-woman, in order to imply a


slight contempt.- TR. -
[29] Another interpretation: He is one-eyed


like Odin, the father of the gods- Odin's consolation.

The consolation in the childish scene: I will buy him


a new bed.


[30] Here is some more material for

interpretation: Holding the urine-glass recalls the


story of a peasant (illiterate) at the optician's, who

tried on now one pair of spectacles, now another,
but was still unable to read.- (Peasant-catcher- girl-



catcher in the preceding portion of the dream.)- The

peasants' treatment of the feeble-minded father in

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Zola's La Terre.- The tragic atonement, that in his

last days my father soiled his bed like a child;


hence, I am his nurse in the dream.- "Thinking and


experiencing are here, as it were, identical"; this
recalls a highly revolutionary closet drama by Oscar


Panizza, in which God, the Father, is ignominiously
treated as a palsied greybeard. With Him will and


deed are one, and in the book he has to be
restrained by His archangel, a sort of Ganymede,


from scolding and swearing, because His curses
would immediately be fulfilled.- Making plans is a


reproach against my father, dating from a later

period in the development of the critical faculty,


much as the whole rebellious content of the dream,



which commits lese majeste and scorns authority,

may be traced to a revolt against my father. The


sovereign is called the father of his country

(Landesvater), and the father is the first and oldest,
and for the child the only authority, from whose



absolutism the other social authorities have evolved

in the course of the history of human civilization (in

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so far as mother-right does not necessitate a

qualification of this doctrine).- The words which


occurred to me in the dream, "thinking and


experiencing are the same thing," refer to the
explanation of hysterical symptoms with which the


male urinal (glass) is also associated.- I need not
explain the principle of Gschnas to a Viennese; it


consists in constructing objects of rare and costly
appearance out of trivial, and preferably comical and


worthless material- for example, making suits of
armour out of kitchen utensils, wisps of straw and


Salzstangeln (long rolls), as our artists are fond of

doing at their jolly parties. I had learned that


hysterical subjects do the same thing; besides what



really happens to them, they unconsciously conceive

for themselves horrible or extravagantly fantastic


incidents, which they build up out of the most

harmless and commonplace material of actual
experience. The symptoms attach themselves



primarily to these phantasies, not to the memory of

real events, whether serious or trivial. This

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explanation had helped me to overcome many

difficulties, and afforded me much pleasure. I was


able to allude to it by means of the dream-element


"male urine-glass," because I had been told that at
the last Gschnas evening a poison-chalice of Lucretia


Borgia's had been exhibited, the chief constituent of
which had consisted of a glass urinal for men, such


as is used in hospitals.
[31] The stratification of the meanings of


dreams is one of the most delicate but also one of
the most fruitful problems of dream interpretation.


Whoever forgets the possibility of such stratification

is likely to go astray and to make untenable


assertions concerning the nature of dreams. But



hitherto this subject has been only too imperfectly

investigated. So far, a fairly orderly stratification of


symbols in dreams due to urinary stimulus has been

subjected to a thorough evaluation only by Otto
Rank.



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CHAPTER 5 (Part 2)
THE MATERIAL AND SOURCES OF DREAMS


C. The Somatic Sources of Dreams


If we attempt to interest a cultured layman
in the problems of dreams, and if, with this end in


view, we ask him what he believes to be the source


of dreams, we shall generally find that he feels quite
sure he knows at least this part of the solution. He


thinks immediately of the influence exercised on the
formation of dreams by a disturbed or impeded

digestion ("Dreams come from the stomach"), an
accidental position of the body, a trifling occurrence


during sleep. He does not seem to suspect that even

after all these factors have been duly considered


something still remains to be explained.

In the introductory chapter we examined at


length the opinion of scientific writers on the role of

somatic stimuli in the formation of dreams, so that
here we need only recall the results of this inquiry.



We have seen that three kinds of somatic stimuli will

be distinguished: the objective sensory stimuli which

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proceed from external objects, the inner states of

excitation of the sensory organs, having only a


subjective reality, and the bodily stimuli arising


within the body; and we have also noticed that the
writers on dreams are inclined to thrust into the


background any psychic sources of dreams which
may operate simultaneously with the somatic


stimuli, or to exclude them altogether. In testing the
claims made on behalf of these somatic stimuli we


have learned that the significance of the objective
excitation of the sensory organs- whether accidental


stimuli operating during sleep, or such as cannot be

excluded from the dormant relation of these dream-


images and ideas to the internal bodily stimuli and



confirmed by experiment; that the part played by

the subjective sensory stimuli appears to be


demonstrated by the recurrence of hypnagogic

sensory images in dreams; and that, although the
broadly accepted relation of these dream-images



and ideas to the internal bodily stimuli cannot be

exhaustively demonstrated, it is at all events

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confirmed by the well-known influence which an

excited state of the digestive, urinary and sexual


organs exercises upon the content of our dreams.


Nerve stimulus and bodily stimulus would
thus be the anatomical sources of dreams; that is,


according to many writers, the sole and exclusive
sources of dreams.


But we have already considered a number of
doubtful points, which seem to question not so much


the correctness of the somatic theory as its
adequacy.


However confident the representatives of

this theory may be of its factual basis- especially in


respect of the accidental and external nerve stimuli,



which may without difficulty be recognized in the

dream-content- nevertheless they have all come


near to admitting that the rich content of ideas

found in dreams cannot be derived from the external
nerve-stimuli alone. In this connection Miss Mary



Whiton Calkins tested her own dreams, and those of

a second person, for a period of six weeks, and

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found that the element of external sensory

perception was demonstrable in only 13.2 per cent


and 6.7 percent of these dreams respectively. Only


two dreams in the whole collection could be referred
to organic sensations. These statistics confirm what


a cursory survey of our own experience would
already, have led us to suspect.


A distinction has often been made between
nerve-stimulus dreams which have already been


thoroughly investigated, and other forms of dreams.
Spitta, for example, divided dreams into


nervestimulus dreams and association-dreams. But

it was obvious that this solution remained


unsatisfactory unless the link between the somatic



sources of dreams and their ideational content could

be indicated.


In addition to the first objection, that of the

insufficient frequency of the external sources of
stimulus, a second objection presents itself, namely,



the inadequacy of the explanations of dreams

afforded by this category of dream-sources. There

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are two things which the representatives of this

theory have failed to explain: firstly, why the true


nature of the external stimulus is not recognized in


the dream, but is constantly mistaken for something
else; and secondly, why the result of the reaction of


the perceiving mind to this misconceived stimulus
should be so indeterminate and variable. We have


seen that Strumpell, in answer to these questions,
asserts that the mind, since it turns away from the


outer world during sleep, is not in a position to give
the correct interpretation of the objective sensory


stimulus, but is forced to construct illusions on the

basis of the indefinite stimulation arriving from


many directions. In his own words (Die Natur und



Entstehung der Traume, p. 108).

"When by an external or internal nerve-


stimulus during sleep a feeling, or a complex of

feelings, or any sort of psychic process arises in the
mind, and is perceived by the mind, this process



calls up from the mind perceptual images belonging

to the sphere of the waking experiences, that is to

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say, earlier perceptions, either unembellished, or

with the psychic values appertaining to them. It


collects about itself, as it were, a greater or lesser


number of such images, from which the impression
resulting from the nerve-stimulus receives its


psychic value. In this connection it is commonly
said, as in ordinary language we say of the waking


procedure, that the mind interprets in sleep the
impressions of nervous stimuli. The result of this


interpretation is the socalled nerve-stimulus dream-
that is, a dream the components of which are


conditioned by the fact that a nerve-stimulus

produces its psychical effect in the life of the mind in


accordance with the laws of reproduction."



In all essential points identical with this

doctrine is Wundt's statement that the concepts of


dreams proceed, at all events for the most part,

from sensory stimuli, and especially from the stimuli
of general sensation, and are therefore mostly



phantastic illusions- probably only to a small extent

pure memoryconceptions raised to the condition of

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hallucinations. To illustrate the relation between

dream-content and dream-stimuli which follows from


this theory, Strumpell makes use of an excellent


simile. It is "as though ten fingers of a person
ignorant of music were to stray over the keyboard of


an instrument." The implication is that the dream is
not a psychic phenomenon, originating from psychic


motives, but the result of a physiological stimulus,
which expresses itself in psychic symptomatology


because the apparatus affected by the stimulus is
not capable of any other mode of expression. Upon


a similar assumption is based the explanation of

obsessions which Meynert attempted in his famous


simile of the dial on which individual figures are



most deeply embossed.

Popular though this theory of the somatic


dream-stimuli has become, and seductive though it

may seem, it is none the less easy to detect its weak
point. Every somatic dream-stimulus which provokes



the psychic apparatus in sleep to interpretation by

the formation of illusions may evoke an incalculable

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number of such attempts at interpretation. It may

consequently be represented in the dream- content


by an extraordinary number of different


concepts.[32] But the theory of Strumpell and
Wundt cannot point to any sort of motive which


controls the relation between the external stimulus
and the dream-concept chosen to interpret it, and


therefore it cannot explain the "peculiar choice"
which the stimuli "often enough make in the course


of their productive activity" (Lipps, Grundtatsachen
des Seelen-lebens, p. 170). Other objections may be


raised against the fundamental assumption behind

the theory of illusions- the assumption that during


sleep the mind is not in a condition to recognize the



real nature of the objective sensory stimuli. The old

physiologist Burdach shows us that the mind is quite


capable even during sleep of a correct interpretation

of the sensory impressions which reach it, and of
reacting in accordance with this correct



interpretation, inasmuch as he demonstrates that

certain sensory impressions which seem important

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to the individual may be excepted from the general

neglect of the sleeping mind (as in the example of


nurse and child), and that one is more surely


awakened by one's own name than by an indifferent
auditory impression; all of which presupposes, of


course, that the mind discriminates between
sensations, even in sleep. Burdach infers from these


observations that we must not assume that the
mind is incapable of interpreting sensory stimuli in


the sleeping state, but rather that it is not
sufficiently interested in them. The arguments which


Burdach employed in 1830 reappear unchanged in

the works of Lipps (in the year 1883), where they


are employed for the purpose of attacking the



theory of somatic stimuli. According to these

arguments the mind seems to be like the sleeper in


the anecdote, who, on being asked, "Are you

asleep?" answers "No," and on being again
addressed with the words: "Then lend me ten



florins," takes refuge in the excuse: "I am asleep."

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The inadequacy of the theory of somatic

dream-stimuli may be further demonstrated in


another way. Observation shows that external


stimuli do not oblige me to dream, even though
these stimuli appear in the dream-content as soon


as I begin to dream- supposing that I do dream. In
response to a touch or pressure stimulus


experienced while I am asleep, a variety of reactions
are at my disposal. I may overlook it, and find on


waking that my leg has become uncovered, or that I
have been lying on an arm; indeed, pathology offers


me a host of examples of powerfully exciting

sensory and motor stimuli of different kinds which


remain ineffective during sleep. I may perceive the



sensation during sleep, and through my sleep, as it

were, as constantly happens in the case of pain


stimuli, but without weaving the pain into the

texture of a dream. And thirdly, I may wake up in
response to the stimulus, simply in order to avoid it.



Still another, fourth, reaction is possible: namely,

that the nervestimulus may cause me to dream; but

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the other possible reactions occur quite as

frequently as the reaction of dream-formation. This,


however, would not be the case if the incentive to


dreaming did not lie outside the somatic dream-
sources.


Appreciating the importance of the above-
mentioned lacunae in the explanation of dreams by


somatic stimuli, other writers- Scherner, for
example, and, following him, the philosopher


Volkelt- endeavoured to determine more precisely
the nature of the psychic activities which cause the


many-coloured images of our dreams to proceed

from the somatic stimuli, and in so doing they


approached the problem of the essential nature of



dreams as a problem of psychology, and regarded

dreaming as a psychic activity. Scherner not only


gave a poetical, vivid and glowing description of the

psychic peculiarities which unfold themselves in the
course of dream-formation, but he also believed that



he had hit upon the principle of the method the

mind employs in dealing with the stimuli which are

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offered to it. The dream, according to Scherner, in

the free activity of the phantasy, which has been


released from the shackles imposed upon it during


the day, strives to represent symbolically the nature
of the organ from which the stimulus proceeds. Thus


there exists a sort of dream-book, a guide to the
interpretation of dreams, by means of which bodily


sensations, the conditions of the organs, and states
of stimulation, may be inferred from the dream-


images. "Thus the image of a cat expressed extreme
ill-temper; the image of pale, smooth pastry the


nudity of the body. The human body as a whole is

pictured by the phantasy of the dream as a house,


and the individual organs of the body as parts of the



house. In toothache-dreams a vaulted vestibule

corresponds to the mouth, and a staircase to the


descent from the pharynx to the oesophagus; in the

headache-dream a ceiling covered with disgusting
toad-like spiders is chosen to denote the upper part



of the head." "Many different symbols are employed

by our dreams for the same organ: thus the

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breathing lung finds its symbol in a roaring stove,

filled with flames, the heart in empty boxes and


baskets, and the bladder in round, bag-shaped or


merely hollow objects. It is of particular significance
that at the close of the dream the stimulating organ


or its function is often represented without disguise
and usually on the dreamer's own body. Thus the


toothache-dream commonly ends by the dreamer
drawing a tooth out of his mouth." It cannot be said


that this theory of dream-interpretation has found
much favour with other writers. It seems, above all,


extravagant; and so Scherner's readers have

hesitated to give it even the small amount of credit


to which it is, in my opinion, entitled. As will be



seen, it tends to a revival of dream-interpretation by

means of symbolism, a method employed by the


ancients; only the province from which the

interpretation is to be derived is restricted to the
human body. The lack of a scientifically



comprehensible technique of interpretation must

seriously limit the applicability of Scherner's theory.

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Arbitrariness in the interpretation of dreams would

appear to be by no means excluded, especially since


in this case also a stimulus may be expressed in the


dream-content by several representative symbols;
thus even Scherner's follower Volkelt was unable to


confirm the representation of the body as a house.
Another objection is that here again the dream-


activity is regarded as a useless and aimless activity
of the mind, since, according to this theory, the


mind is content with merely forming phantasies
around the stimulus with which it is dealing, without


even remotely attempting to abolish the stimulus.

Scherner's theory of the symbolization of


bodily stimuli by the dream is seriously damaged by



yet another objection. These bodily stimuli are

present at all times, and it is generally assumed that


the mind is more accessible to them during sleep

than in the waking state. It is therefore impossible
to understand why the mind does not dream



continuously all night long, and why it does not

dream every night about all the organs. If one

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attempts to evade this objection by positing the

condition that special excitations must proceed from


the eye, the ear, the teeth, the bowels, etc., in order


to arouse the dream-activity, one is confronted with
the difficulty of proving that this increase of


stimulation is objective; and proof is possible only in
a very few cases. If the dream of flying is a


symbolization of the upward and downward motion
of the pulmonary lobes, either this dream, as has


already been remarked by Strumpell, should be
dreamt much oftener, or it should be possible to


show that respiration is more active during this

dream. Yet a third alternative is possible- and it is


the most probable of all- namely, that now and



again special motives are operative to direct the

attention to the visceral sensations which are


constantly present. But this would take us far

beyond the scope of Scherner's theory.
The value of Scherner's and Volkelt's



disquisitions resides in their calling our attention to a

number of characteristics of the dream-content

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which are in need of explanation, and which seem to

promise fresh discoveries. It is quite true that


symbolizations of the bodily organs and functions do


occur in dreams: for example, that water in a dream
often signifies a desire to urinate, that the male


genital organ may be represented by an upright
staff, or a pillar, etc. With dreams which exhibit a


very animated field of vision and brilliant colours, in
contrast to the dimness of other dreams, the


interpretation that they are "dreams due to visual
stimulation" can hardly be dismissed, nor can we


dispute the participation of illusion-formation in

dreams which contain noise and a medley of voices.


A dream like that of Scherner's, that two rows of fair



handsome boys stood facing one another on a

bridge, attacking one another, and then resuming


their positions, until finally the dreamer himself sat

down on a bridge and drew a long tooth from his
jaw; or a similar dream of Volkelt's, in which two



rows of drawers played a part, and which again

ended in the extraction of a tooth; dream-

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formations of this kind, of which both writers relate

a great number, forbid our dismissing Scherner's


theory as an idle invention without seeking the


kernel of truth which may be contained in it. We are
therefore confronted with the task of finding a


different explanation of the supposed symbolization
of the alleged dental stimulus.


Throughout our consideration of the theory
of the somatic sources of dreams, I have refrained


from urging the argument which arises from our
analyses of dreams. If, by a procedure which has


not been followed by other writers in their

investigation of dreams, we can prove that the


dream possesses intrinsic value as psychic action,



that a wish supplies the motive of its formation, and

that the experiences of the previous day furnish the


most obvious material of its content, any other

theory of dreams which neglects such an important
method of investigation- and accordingly makes the



dream appear a useless and enigmatical psychic

reaction to somatic stimuli- may be dismissed

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without special criticism. For in this case there would

have to be- and this is highly improbable- two


entirely different kinds of dreams, of which only one


kind has come under our observation, while the
other kind alone has been observed by the earlier


investigators. It only remains now to find a place in
our theory of dreams for the facts on which the


current doctrine of somatic dream-stimuli is based.
We have already taken the first step in this


direction in advancing the thesis that the dream-
work is under a compulsion to elaborate into a


unified whole all the dream-stimuli which are

simultaneously present (chapter V., A, above). We


have seen that when two or more experiences



capable of making an impression on the mind have

been left over from the previous day, the wishes


that result from them are united into one dream;

similarly, that the impressions possessing psychic
value and the indifferent experiences of the previous



day unite in the dream-material, provided that

connecting ideas between the two can be

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established. Thus the dream appears to be a

reaction to everything which is simultaneously


present as actual in the sleeping mind. As far as we


have hitherto analysed the dreammaterial, we have
discovered it to be a collection of psychic remnants


and memory-traces, which we were obliged to credit
(on account of the preference shown for recent and


for infantile material) with a character of
psychological actuality, though the nature of this


actuality was not at the time determinable. We shall
now have little difficulty in predicting what will


happen when to these actualities of the memory

fresh material in the form of sensations is added


during sleep. These stimuli, again, are of importance



to the dream because they are actual; they are

united with the other psychic actualities to provide


the material for dream-formation. To express it in

other words, the stimuli which occur during sleep
are elaborated into a wish-fulfilment, of which the



other components are the psychic remnants of daily

experience with which we are already familiar. This

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combination, however, is not inevitable; we have

seen that more than one kind of behaviour toward


the physical stimuli received during sleep is possible.


Where this combination is effected, a conceptual
material for the dream-content has been found


which will represent both kinds of dream-sources,
the somatic as well as the psychic.


The nature of the dream is not altered when
somatic material is added to the psychic dream-


sources; it still remains a wish fulfilment, no matter
how its expression is determined by the actual


material available.
I should like to find room here for a number


of peculiarities which are able to modify the



significance of external stimuli for the dream. I

imagine that a co-operation of individual,


physiological and accidental factors, which depend

on the circumstances of the moment, determines
how one will behave in individual cases of more



intensive objective stimulation during sleep; habitual

or accidental profundity of sleep, in conjunction with

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the intensity of the stimulus, will in one case make it

possible so to suppress the stimulus that it will not


disturb the sleeper, while in another case it will force


the sleeper to wake, or will assist the attempt to
subdue the stimulus by weaving it into the texture of


the dream. In accordance with the multiplicity of
these constellations, external objective stimuli will


be expressed more rarely or more frequently in the
case of one person than in that of another. In my


own case. since I am an excellent sleeper, and
obstinately refuse to allow myself to be disturbed


during sleep on any pretext whatever, this intrusion

of external causes of excitation into my dreams is


very rare, whereas psychic motives apparently



cause me to dream very easily. Indeed, I have

noted only a single dream in which an objective,


painful source of stimulation is demonstrable, and it

will be highly instructive to see what effect the
external stimulus had in this particular dream.



I am riding a gray horse, at first timidly and

awkwardly, as though I were merely carried along.

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Then I meet a colleague, P, also on horseback, and

dressed in rough frieze; he is sitting erect in the


saddle; he calls my attention to something (probably


to the fact that I have a very bad seat). Now I begin
to feel more and more at ease on the back of my


highly intelligent horse; I sit more comfortably, and
I find that I am quite at home up here. My saddle is


a sort of pad, which completely fills the space
between the neck and the rump of the horse. I ride


between two vans, and just manage to clear them.
After riding up the street for some distance, I turn


round and wish to dismount, at first in front of a

little open chapel which is built facing on to the


street. Then I do really dismount in front of a chapel



which stands near the first one; the hotel is in the

same street; I might let the horse go there by itself,


but I prefer to lead it thither. It seems as though I

should be ashamed to arrive there on horseback. In
front of the hotel there stands a page-boy, who



shows me a note of mine which has been found, and

ridicules me on account of it. On the note is written,

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doubly underlined, "Eat nothing," and then a second

sentence (indistinct): something like "Do not work";


at the same time a hazy idea that I am in a strange


city, in which I do not work.
It will not at once be apparent that this


dream originated under the influence, or rather
under the compulsion, of a painstimulus. The day


before, however, I had suffered from boils, which
made every movement a torture, and at last a boil


had grown to the size of an apple at the root of the
scrotum, and had caused me the most intolerable


pains at every step; a feverish lassitude, lack of

appetite, and the hard work which I had


nevertheless done during the day, had conspired



with the pain to upset me. I was not altogether in a

condition to discharge my duties as a physician, but


in view of the nature and the location of the malady,

it was possible to imagine something else for which I
was most of all unfit, namely riding. Now it is this



very activity of riding into which I am plunged by

the dream; it is the most energetic denial of the pain

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which imagination could conceive. As a matter of

fact, I cannot ride; I do not dream of doing so; I


never sat on a horse but once- and then without a


saddle- and I did not like it. But in this dream I ride
as though I had no boil on the perineum; or rather, I


ride, just because I want to have none. To judge
from the description, my saddle is the poultice which


has enabled me to fall asleep. Probably, being thus
comforted, I did not feel anything of my pain during


the first few hours of my sleep. Then the painful
sensations made themselves felt, and tried to wake


me; whereupon the dream came and said to me,

soothingly: "Go on sleeping, you are not going to


wake! You have no boil, for you are riding on



horseback, and with a boil just there no one could

ride!" And the dream was successful; the pain was


stifled, and I went on sleeping.

But the dream was not satisfied with
"suggesting away" the boil by tenaciously holding



fast to an idea incompatible with the malady (thus

behaving like the hallucinatory insanity of a mother

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who has lost her child, or of a merchant who has

lost his fortune). In addition, the details of the


sensation denied and of the image used to suppress


it serve the dream also as a means to connect other
material actually present in the mind with the


situation in the dream, and to give this material
representation. I am riding on a gray horse- the


colour of the horse exactly corresponds with the
pepper-and-salt suit in which I last saw my


colleague P in the country. I have been warned that
highly seasoned food is the cause of boils, and in


any case it is preferable as an aetiological

explanation to sugar, which might be thought of in


connection with furunculosis. My friend P likes to



ride the high horse with me ever since he took my

place in the treatment of a female patient, in whose


case I had performed great feats (Kuntstucke: in the

dream I sit the horse at first sideways, like a trick-
rider, Kunstreiter), but who really, like the horse in



the story of the Sunday equestrian, led me wherever

she wished. Thus the horse comes to be a symbolic

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representation of a lady patient (in the dream it is

highly intelligent). I feel quite at home refers to the


position which I occupied in the patient's household


until I was replaced by my colleague P. "I thought
you were safe in the saddle up there," one of my


few wellwishers among the eminent physicians of
the city recently said to me, with reference to the


same household. And it was a feat to practise
psychotherapy for eight to ten hours a day, while


suffering such pain, but I know that I cannot
continue my peculiarly strenuous work for any


length of time without perfect physical health, and

the dream is full of dismal allusions to the situation


which would result if my illness continued (the note,



such as neurasthenics carry and show to their

doctors): Do not work, do not eat. On further


interpretation I see that the dream activity has

succeeded in finding its way from the wish-situation
of riding to some very early childish quarrels which



must have occurred between myself and a nephew,

who is a year older than I, and is now living in

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England. It has also taken up elements from my

journeys in Italy: the street in the dream is built up


out of impressions of Verona and Siena. A still


deeper interpretation leads to sexual dream-
thoughts, and I recall what the dream allusions to


that beautiful country were supposed to mean in the
dream of a female patient who had never been to


Italy (to Italy, German: gen Italien = Genitalien =
genitals); at the same time there are references to


the house in which I preceded my friend P as
physician, and to the place where the boil is located.


In another dream, I was similarly successful

in warding off a threatened disturbance of my sleep;


this time the threat came from a sensory stimulus.



It was only chance, however, that enabled me to

discover the connection between the dream and the


accidental dream- stimulus, and in this way to

understand the dream. One midsummer morning in
a Tyrolese mountain resort I woke with the



knowledge that I had dreamed: The Pope is dead. I

was not able to interpret this short, non-visual

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dream. I could remember only one possible basis of

the dream, namely, that shortly before this the


newspapers had reported that His Holiness was


slightly indisposed. But in the course of the morning
my wife asked me: "Did you hear the dreadful tolling


of the church bells this morning?" I had no idea that
I had heard it, but now I understood my dream. It


was the reaction of my need for sleep to the noise
by which the pious Tyroleans were trying to wake


me. I avenged myself on them by the conclusion
which formed the content of my dream, and


continued to sleep, without any further interest in

the tolling of the bells.


Among the dreams mentioned in the



previous chapters there are several which might

serve as examples of the elaboration of so called


nerve-stimuli. The dream of drinking in long

draughts is such an example; here the somatic
stimulus seems to be the sole source of the dream,



and the wish arising from the sensation- thirst- the

only motive for dreaming. We find much the same

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thing in other simple dreams, where the somatic

stimulus is able of itself to generate a wish. The


dream of the sick woman who throws the cooling


apparatus from her cheek at night is an instance of
an unusual manner of reacting to a pain-stimulus


with a wish fulfilment; it seems as though the
patient had temporarily succeeded in making herself


analgesic, and accompanied this by ascribing her
pains to a stranger.


My dream of the three Parcae is obviously a
hunger-dream, but it has contrived to shift the need


for food right back to the child's longing for its

mother's breast, and to use a harmless desire as a


mask for a more serious one that cannot venture to



express itself so openly. In the dream of Count Thun

we were able to see by what paths an accidental


physical need was brought into relation with the

strongest, but also the most rigorously repressed
impulses of the psychic life. And when, as in the



case reported by Garnier, the First Consul

incorporates the sound of an exploding infernal

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machine into a dream of battle before it causes him

to wake, the true purpose for which alone psychic


activity concerns itself with sensations during sleep


is revealed with unusual clarity. A young lawyer,
who is full of his first great bankruptcy case, and


falls asleep in the afternoon, behaves just as the
great Napoleon did. He dreams of a certain G. Reich


in Hussiatyn, whose acquaintance he has made in
connection with the bankruptcy case, but Hussiatyn


(German: husten, to cough) forces itself upon his
attention still further; he is obliged to wake, only to


hear his wife- who is suffering from bronchial

catarrh- violently coughing.


Let us compare the dream of Napoleon I-



who, incidentally, was an excellent sleeper- with

that of the sleepy student, who was awakened by


his landlady with the reminder that he had to go to

the hospital, and who thereupon dreamt himself into
a bed in the hospital, and then slept on, the



underlying reasoning being as follows: If I am

already in the hospital, I needn't get up to go there.

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This is obviously a convenience-dream; the sleeper

frankly admits to himself his motive in dreaming;


but he thereby reveals one of the secrets of


dreaming in general. In a certain sense, all dreams
are convenience-dreams; they serve the purpose of


continuing to sleep instead of waking. The dream is
the guardian of sleep, not its disturber. In another


place we shall have occasion to justify this
conception in respect to the psychic factors that


make for waking; but we can already demonstrate
its applicability to the objective external stimuli.


Either the mind does not concern itself at all with

the causes of sensations during sleep, if it is able to


carry this attitude through as against the intensity of



the stimuli, and their significance, of which it is well

aware; or it employs the dream to deny these


stimuli; or, thirdly, if it is obliged to recognize the

stimuli, it seeks that interpretation of them which
will represent the actual sensation as a component



of a desired situation which is compatible with sleep.

The actual sensation is woven into the dream in

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order to deprive it of its reality. Napoleon is

permitted to go on sleeping; it is only a dream-


memory of the thunder of the guns at Arcole which


is trying to disturb him.[33] -
The wish to sleep, to which the conscious


ego has adjusted itself, and which (together with the
dream-censorship and the "secondary elaboration"


to be mentioned later) represents the ego's
contribution to the dream, must thus always be


taken into account as a motive of dream-formation,
and every successful dream is a fulfilment of this


wish. The relation of this general, constantly

present, and unvarying sleep-wish to the other


wishes of which now one and now another is fulfilled



by the dreamcontent, will be the subject of later

consideration. In the wish to sleep we have


discovered a motive capable of supplying the

deficiency in the theory of Strumpell and Wundt, and
of explaining the perversity and capriciousness of



the interpretation of the external stimulus. The

correct interpretation, of which the sleeping mind is

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perfectly capable, would involve active interest, and

would require the sleeper to wake; hence, of those


interpretations which are possible at all, only such


are admitted as are acceptable to the dictatorial
censorship of the sleep-wish. The logic of dream


situations would run, for example: "It is the
nightingale, and not the lark." For if it is the lark,


love's night is at an end. From among the
interpretations of the stimulus which are thus


admissible, that one is selected which can secure the
best connection with the wish- impulses that are


lying in wait in the mind. Thus everything is

definitely determined, and nothing is left to caprice.


The misinterpretation is not an illusion, but- if you



will- an excuse. Here again, as in substitution by

displacement in the service of the dream-censorship,


we have an act of deflection of the normal psychic

procedure.
If the external nerve-stimuli and the inner



bodily stimuli are sufficiently intense to compel

psychic attention, they represent- that is, if they

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result in dreaming at all, and not in waking- a fixed

point for dream-formation, a nucleus in the dream-


material, for which an appropriate wish-fulfilment is


sought, just as (see above) mediating ideas between
two psychical dream-stimuli are sought. To this


extent it is true of a number of dreams that the
somatic element dictates the dream-content. In this


extreme case even a wish that is not actually
present may be aroused for the purpose of dream-


formation. But the dream cannot do otherwise than
represent a wish in some situation as fulfilled; it is,


as it were, confronted with the task of discovering

what wish can be represented as fulfilled by the


given sensation. Even if this given material is of a



painful or disagreeable character, yet it is not

unserviceable for the purposes of dream-formation.


The psychic life has at its disposal even wishes

whose fulfilment evokes displeasure, which seems a
contradiction, but becomes perfectly intelligible if we



take into account the presence of two sorts of

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psychic instance and the censorship that subsists

between them.


In the psychic life there exist, as we have


seen, repressed wishes, which belong to the first
system, and to whose fulfilment the second system


is opposed. We do not mean this in a historic sense-
that such wishes have once existed and have


subsequently been destroyed. The doctrine of
repression, which we need in the study of


psychoneuroses, asserts that such repressed wishes
still exist, but simultaneously with an inhibition


which weighs them down. Language has hit upon

the truth when it speaks of the suppression (sub-


pression, or pushing under) of such impulses. The



psychic mechanism which enables such suppressed

wishes to force their way to realization is retained in


being and in working order. But if it happens that

such a suppressed wish is fulfilled, the vanquished
inhibition of the second system (which is capable of



consciousness) is then expressed as discomfort.

And, in order to conclude this argument: If

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sensations of a disagreeable character which

originate from somatic sources are present during


sleep, this constellation is utilized by the


dreamactivity to procure the fulfilment- with more or
less maintenance of the censorship- of an otherwise


suppressed wish.
This state of affairs makes possible a certain


number of anxiety dreams, while others of these
dream-formations which are unfavourable to the


wish-theory exhibit a different mechanism. For the
anxiety in dreams may of course be of a


psychoneurotic character, originating in psycho-

sexual excitation, in which case, the anxiety


corresponds to repressed libido. Then this anxiety,



like the whole anxiety-dream, has the significance of

a neurotic symptom, and we stand at the dividing-


line where the wish- fulfilling tendency of dreams is

frustrated. But in other anxiety- dreams the feeling
of anxiety comes from somatic sources (as in the



case of persons suffering from pulmonary or cardiac

trouble, with occasional difficulty in breathing), and

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then it is used to help such strongly suppressed

wishes to attain fulfilment in a dream, the dreaming


of which from psychic motives would have resulted


in the same release of anxiety. It is not difficult to
reconcile these two apparently contradictory cases.


When two psychic formations, an affective
inclination and a conceptual content, are intimately


connected, either one being actually present will
evoke the other, even in a dream; now the anxiety


of somatic origin evokes the suppressed conceptual
content, now it is the released conceptual content,


accompanied by sexual excitement, which causes

the release of anxiety. In the one case, it may be


said that a somatically determined affect is



psychically interpreted; in the other case, all is of

psychic origin, but the content which has been


suppressed is easily replaced by a somatic

interpretation which fits the anxiety. The difficulties
which lie in the way of understanding all this have



little to do with dreams; they are due to the fact

that in discussing these points we are touching upon

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the problems of the development of anxiety and of

repression.


The general aggregate of bodily sensation


must undoubtedly be included among the dominant
dream-stimuli of internal bodily origin. Not that it is


capable of supplying the dream-content; but it
forces the dream-thoughts to make a choice from


the material destined to serve the purpose of
representation in the dream- content, inasmuch as it


brings within easy reach that part of the material
which is adapted to its own character, and holds the


rest at a distance. Moreover, this general feeling,

which survives from the preceding day, is of course


connected with the psychic residues that are



significant for the dream. Moreover, this feeling

itself may be either maintained or overcome in the


dream, so that it may, if it is painful, veer round into

its opposite.
If the somatic sources of excitation during



sleep- that is, the sensations of sleep- are not of

unusual intensity, the part which they play in

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dream-formation is, in my judgment, similar to that

of those impressions of the day which are still


recent, but of no great significance. I mean that


they are utilized for the dream formation if they are
of such a kind that they can be united with the


conceptual content of the psychic dream-source, but
not otherwise. They are treated as a cheap ever-


ready material, which can be used whenever it is
needed, and not as valuable material which itself


prescribes the manner in which it must be utilized. I
might suggest the analogy of a connoisseur giving


an artist a rare stone, a piece of onyx, for example,

in order that it may be fashioned into a work of art.


Here the size of the stone, its colour, and its



markings help to decide what head or what scene

shall be represented; while if he is dealing with a


uniform and abundant material such as marble or

sandstone, the artist is guided only by the idea
which takes shape in his mind. Only in this way, it



seems to me, can we explain the fact that the

dreamcontent furnished by physical stimuli of

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somatic origin which are not unusually accentuated

does not make its appearance in all dreams and


every night.[34] -


Perhaps an example which takes us back to
the interpretation of dreams will best illustrate my


meaning. One day I was trying to understand the
significance of the sensation of being inhibited, of


not being able to move from the spot, of not being
able to get something done, etc., which occurs so


frequently in dreams, and is so closely allied to
anxiety. That night I had the following dream: I am


very incompletely dressed, and I go from a flat on

the ground- floor up a flight of stairs to an upper


story. In doing this I jump up three stairs at a time,



and I am glad to find that I can mount the stairs so

quickly. Suddenly I notice that a servant-maid is


coming down the stairs- that is, towards me. I am

ashamed, and try to hurry away, and now comes
this feeling of being inhibited; I am glued to the



stairs, and cannot move from the spot.

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Analysis: The situation of the dream is taken

from an every-day reality. In a house in Vienna I


have two apartments, which are connected only by


the main staircase. My consultation-rooms and my
study are on the raised ground-floor, and my living-


rooms are on the first floor. Late at night, when I
have finished my work downstairs, I go upstairs to


my bedroom. On the evening before the dream I
had actually gone this short distance with my


garments in disarray- that is, I had taken off my
collar, tie and cuffs; but in the dream this had


changed into a more advanced, but, as usual,

indefinite degree of undress. It is a habit of mine to


run up two or three steps at a time; moreover, there



was a wish-fulfilment recognized even in the dream,

for the ease with which I run upstairs reassures me


as to the condition of my heart. Further, the manner

in which I run upstairs is an effective contrast to the
sensation of being inhibited, which occurs in the



second half of the dream. It shows me- what needed

no proof- that dreams have no difficulty in

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representing motor actions fully and completely

carried out; think, for example, of flying in dreams!


But the stairs up which I go are not those of


my own house; at first I do not recognize them;
only the person coming towards me informs me of


their whereabouts. This woman is the maid of an old
lady whom I visit twice daily in order to give her


hypodermic injections; the stairs, too, are precisely
similar to those which I have to climb twice a day in


this old lady's house.
How do these stairs and this woman get into


my dream? The shame of not being fully dressed is

undoubtedly of a sexual character; the servant of


whom I dream is older than I, surly, and by no



means attractive. These questions remind me of the

following incident: When I pay my morning visit at


this house I am usually seized with a desire to clear

my throat; the sputum falls on the stairs. There is
no spittoon on either of the two floors, and I



consider that the stairs should be kept clean not at

my expense, but rather by the provision of a

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spittoon. The housekeeper, another elderly,

curmudgeonly person, but, as I willingly admit, a


woman of cleanly instincts, takes a different view of


the matter. She lies in wait for me, to see whether I
shall take the liberty referred to, and, if she sees


that I do, I can distinctly hear her growl. For days
thereafter, when we meet she refuses to greet me


with the customary signs of respect. On the day
before the dream the housekeeper's attitude was


reinforced by that of the maid. I had just furnished
my usual hurried visit to the patient when the


servant confronted me in the ante-room, observing:

"You might as well have wiped your shoes today,


doctor, before you came into the room. The red



carpet is all dirty again from your feet." This is the

only justification for the appearance of the stairs and


the maid in my dream.

Between my leaping upstairs and my spitting
on the stairs there is an intimate connection.



Pharyngitis and cardiac troubles are both supposed

to be punishments for the vice of smoking, on

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account of which vice my own housekeeper does not

credit me with excessive tidiness, so that my


reputation suffers in both the houses which my


dream fuses into one.
I must postpone the further interpretation of


this dream until I can indicate the origin of the
typical dream of being incompletely clothed. In the


meantime, as a provisional deduction from the
dream just related, I note that the dream-sensation


of inhibited movement is always aroused at a point
where a certain connection requires it. A peculiar


condition of my motor system during sleep cannot

be responsible for this dream-content, since a


moment earlier I found myself, as though in



confirmation of this fact, skipping lightly up the

stairs.


D. Typical Dreams -

Generally speaking, we are not in a position

to interpret another person's dream if he is unwilling



to furnish us with the unconscious thoughts which lie

behind the dream-content, and for this reason the

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practical applicability of our method of dream-

interpretation is often seriously restricted.[35] But


there are dreams which exhibit a complete contrast


to the individual's customary liberty to endow his
dream-world with a special individuality, thereby


making it inaccessible to an alien understanding:
there are a number of dreams which almost every


one has dreamed in the same manner, and of which
we are accustomed to assume that they have the


same significance in the case of every dreamer. A
peculiar interest attaches to these typical dreams,


because, no matter who dreams them, they

presumably all derive from the same sources, so


that they would seem to be particularly fitted to



provide us with information as to the sources of

dreams.


With quite special expectations, therefore,

we shall proceed to test our technique of dream-
interpretation on these typical dreams, and only with



extreme reluctance shall we admit that precisely in

respect of this material our method is not fully

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verified. In the interpretation of typical dreams we

as a rule fail to obtain those associations from the


dreamer which in other cases have led us to


comprehension of the dream, or else these
associations are confused and inadequate, so that


they do not help us to solve our problem.
Why this is the case, and how we can


remedy this defect in our technique, are points
which will be discussed in a later chapter. The


reader will then understand why I can deal with only
a few of the group of typical dreams in this chapter,


and why I have postponed the discussion of the

others.


(a) THE EMBARRASSMENT-DREAM OF



NAKEDNESS

In a dream in which one is naked or scantily



clad in the presence of strangers, it sometimes

happens that one is not in the least ashamed of
one's condition. But the dream of nakedness



demands our attention only when shame and

embarrassment are felt in it, when one wishes to

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escape or to hide, and when one feels the strange

inhibition of being unable to stir from the spot, and


of being utterly powerless to alter the painful


situation. It is only in this connection that the dream
is typical; otherwise the nucleus of its content may


be involved in all sorts of other connections, or may
be replaced by individual amplifications. The


essential point is that one has a painful feeling of
shame, and is anxious to hide one's nakedness,


usually by means of locomotion, but is absolutely
unable to do so. I believe that the great majority of


my readers will at some time have found themselves

in this situation in a dream.


The nature and manner of the exposure is



usually rather vague. The dreamer will say, perhaps,

"I was in my chemise," but this is rarely a clear


image; in most cases the lack of clothing is so

indeterminate that it is described in narrating the
dream by an alternative: "I was in my chemise or



my petticoat." As a rule the deficiency in clothing is

not serious enough to justify the feeling of shame

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attached to it. For a man who has served in the

army, nakedness is often replaced by a manner of


dressing that is contrary to regulations. "I was in the


street without my sabre, and I saw some officers
approaching," or "I had no collar," or "I was wearing


checked civilian trousers," etc.
The persons before whom one is ashamed


are almost always strangers, whose faces remain
indeterminate. It never happens, in the typical


dream, that one is reproved or even noticed on
account of the lack of clothing which causes one


such embarrassment. On the contrary, the people in

the dream appear to be quite indifferent; or, as I


was able to note in one particularly vivid dream,



they have stiff and solemn expressions. This gives

us food for thought.


The dreamer's embarrassment and the

spectator's indifference constitute a contradition
such as often occurs in dreams. It would be more in



keeping with the dreamer's feelings if the strangers

were to look at him in astonishment, or were to

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laugh at him, or be outraged. I think, however, that

this obnoxious feature has been displaced by wish-


fulfilment, while the embarrassment is for some


reason retained, so that the two components are not
in agreement. We have an interesting proof that the


dream which is partially distorted by wish-fulfilment
has not been properly understood; for it has been


made the basis of a fairy-tale familiar to us all in
Andersen's version of The Emperor's New Clothes,


and it has more recently received poetical treatment
by Fulda in The Talisman. In Andersen's fairy-tale


we are told of two impostors who weave a costly

garment for the Emperor, which shall, however, be


visible only to the good and true. The Emperor goes



forth clad to this invisible garment, and since the

imaginary fabric serves as a sort of touchstone, the


people are frightened into behaving as though they

did not notice the Emperor's nakedness.
But this is really the situation in our dream.



It is not very venturesome to assume that the

unintelligible dream-content has provided an

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incentive to invent a state of undress which gives

meaning to the situation present in the memory.


This situation is thereby robbed of its original


meaning, and made to serve alien ends. But we
shall see that such a misunderstanding of the


dream- content often occurs through the conscious
activity of a second psychic system, and is to be


recognized as a factor of the final form of the
dream; and further, that in the development of


obsessions and phobias similar misunderstandings-
still, of course, within the same psychic personality-


play a decisive part. It is even possible to specify

whence the material for the fresh interpretation of


the dream is taken. The impostor is the dream, the



Emperor is the dreamer himself, and the moralizing

tendency betrays a hazy knowledge of the fact that


there is a question, in the latent dream-content, of

forbidden wishes, victims of repression. The
connection in which such dreams appear during my



analysis of neurotics proves beyond a doubt that a

memory of the dreamer's earliest childhood lies at

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the foundation of the dream. Only in our childhood

was there a time when we were seen by our


relatives, as well as by strange nurses, servants and


visitors, in a state of insufficient clothing, and at that
time we were not ashamed of our nakedness.[36] In


the case of many rather older children it may be
observed that being undressed has an exciting effect


upon them, instead of making them feel ashamed.
They laugh, leap about, slap or thump their own


bodies; the mother, or whoever is present, scolds
them, saying: "Fie, that is shameful- you mustn't do


that!" Children often show a desire to display

themselves; it is hardly possible to pass through a


village in country districts without meeting a two-or



three-year-old child who lifts up his or her blouse or

frock before the traveller, possibly in his honour.


One of my patients has retained in his conscious

memory a scene from his eighth year, in which,
after undressing for bed, he wanted to dance into



his little sister's room in his shirt, but was prevented

by the servant. In the history of the childhood of

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neurotics, exposure before children of the opposite

sex plays a prominent part; in paranoia, the


delusion of being observed while dressing and


undressing may be directly traced to these
experiences; and among those who have remained


perverse, there is a class in whom the childish
impulse is accentuated into a symptom: the class of


exhibitionists.
This age of childhood, in which the sense of


shame is unknown, seems a paradise when we look
back upon it later, and paradise itself is nothing but


the mass-phantasy of the childhood of the

individual. This is why in paradise men are naked


and unashamed, until the moment arrives when



shame and fear awaken; expulsion follows, and

sexual life and cultural development begin. Into this


paradise dreams can take us back every night; we

have already ventured the conjecture that the
impressions of our earliest childhood (from the



prehistoric period until about the end of the third

year) crave reproduction for their own sake, perhaps

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without further reference to their content, so that

their repetition is a wish-fulfilment. Dreams of


nakedness, then, are exhibition-dreams.[37]


The nucleus of an exhibition-dream is
furnished by one's own person, which is seen not as


that of a child, but as it exists in the present, and by
the idea of scanty clothing which emerges


indistinctly, owing to the superimposition of so many
later situations of being partially clothed, or out of


consideration for the censorship; to these elements
are added the persons in whose presence one is


ashamed. I know of no example in which the actual

spectators of these infantile exhibitions reappear in


a dream; for a dream is hardly ever a simple



recollection. Strangely enough, those persons who

are the objects of our sexual interest in childhood


are omitted from all reproductions, in dreams, in

hysteria or in obsessional neurosis; paranoia alone
restores the spectators, and is fanatically convinced



of their presence, although they remain unseen. The

substitute for these persons offered by the dream,

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the number of strangers who take no notice of the

spectacle offered them, is precisely the counter-


wish to that single intimately-known person for


whom the exposure was intended. "A number of
strangers," moreover, often occur in dreams in all


sorts of other connections; as a counter-wish they
always signify a secret.[38] It will be seen that even


that restitution of the old state of affairs that occurs
in paranoia complies with this counter-tendency.


One is no longer alone; one is quite positively being
watched; but the spectators are a number of


strange, curiously indeterminate people.

Furthermore, repression finds a place in the


exhibition-dream. For the disagreeable sensation of



the dream is, of course, the reaction on the part of

the second psychic instance to the fact that the


exhibitionistic scene which has been condemned by

the censorship has nevertheless succeeded in
presenting itself. The only way to avoid this



sensation would be to refrain from reviving the

scene.

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In a later chapter we shall deal once again

with the feeling of inhibition. In our dreams it


represents to perfection a conflict of the will, a


denial. According to our unconscious purpose, the
exhibition is to proceed; according to the demands


of the censorship, it is to come to an end.
The relation of our typical dreams to fairy-


tales and other fiction and poetry is neither sporadic
nor accidental. Sometimes the penetrating insight of


the poet has analytically recognized the process of
transformation of which the poet is otherwise the


instrument, and has followed it up in the reverse

direction; that is to say, has traced a poem to a


dream. A friend has called my attention to the



following passage in G. Keller's Der Grune Heinrich:

"I do not wish, dear Lee, that you should ever come


to realize from experience the exquisite and piquant

truth in the situation of Odysseus, when he appears,
naked and covered with mud, before Nausicaa and



her playmates! Would you like to know what it

means? Let us for a moment consider the incident

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closely. If you are ever parted from your home, and

from all that is dear to you, and wander about in a


strange country; if you have seen much and


experienced much; if you have cares and sorrows,
and are, perhaps, utterly wretched and forlorn, you


will some night inevitably dream that you are
approaching your home; you will see it shining and


glittering in the loveliest colours; lovely and gracious
figures will come to meet you; and then you will


suddenly discover that you are ragged, naked, and
covered with dust. An indescribable feeling of shame


and fear overcomes you; you try to cover yourself,

to hide, and you wake up bathed in sweat. As long


as humanity exists, this will be the dream of the



care-laden, tempest-tossed man, and thus Homer

has drawn this situation from the profoundest


depths of the eternal nature of humanity."

What are the profoundest depths of the
eternal nature of humanity, which the poet



commonly hopes to awaken in his listeners, but

these stirrings of the psychic life which are rooted in

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that age of childhood, which subsequently becomes

prehistoric? Childish wishes, now suppressed and


forbidden, break into the dream behind the


unobjectionable and permissibly conscious wishes of
the homeless man, and it is for this reason that the


dream which is objectified in the legend of Nausicaa
regularly develops into an anxiety-dream.


My own dream of hurrying upstairs, which
presently changed into being glued to the stairs, is


likewise an exhibition-dream, for it reveals the
essential ingredients of such a dream. It must


therefore be possible to trace it back to experiences

in my childhood, and the knowledge of these should


enable us to conclude how far the servant's



behaviour to me (i.e., her reproach that I had soiled

the carpet) helped her to secure the position which


she occupies in the dream. Now I am actually able

to furnish the desired explanation. One learns in a
psycho- analysis to interpret temporal proximity by



material connection; two ideas which are apparently

without connection, but which occur in immediate

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succession, belong to a unity which has to be

deciphered; just as an a and a b, when written in


succession, must be pronounced as one syllable, ab.


It is just the same with the interrelations of dreams.
The dream of the stairs has been taken from a


series of dreams with whose other members I am
familiar, having interpreted them. A dream included


in this series must belong to the same context. Now,
the other dreams of the series are based on the


memory of a nurse to whom I was entrusted for a
season, from the time when I was still at the breast


to the age of two and a half, and of whom a hazy

recollection has remained in my consciousness.


According to information which I recently obtained



from my mother, she was old and ugly, but very

intelligent and thorough; according to the inferences


which I am justified in drawing from my dreams, she

did not always treat me quite kindly, but spoke
harshly to me when I showed insufficient



understanding of the necessity for cleanliness.

Inasmuch as the maid endeavoured to continue my

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education in this respect, she is entitled to be

treated, in my dream, as an incarnation of the


prehistoric old woman. It is to be assumed, of


course, that the child was fond of his teacher in spite
of her harsh behaviour.[39]


(b) DREAMS OF THE DEATH OF
BELOVED PERSONS


Another series of dreams which may be


called typical are those whose content is that a
beloved relative, a parent, brother, sister, child, or
the like, has died. We must at once distinguish two


classes of such dreams: those in which the dreamer



remains unmoved, and those in which he feels

profoundly grieved by the death of the beloved


person, even expressing this grief by shedding tears

in his sleep.


We may ignore the dreams of the first

group; they have no claim to be reckoned as typical.
If they are analysed, it is found that they signify



something that is not contained in them, that they

are intended to mask another wish of some kind.

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This is the case in the dream of the aunt who sees

the only son of her sister lying on a bier (chapter


IV). The dream does not mean that she desires the


death of her little nephew; as we have learned, it
merely conceals the wish to see a certain beloved


person again after a long separation- the same
person whom she had seen after as long an interval


at the funeral of another nephew. This wish, which is
the real content of the dream, gives no cause for


sorrow, and for that reason no sorrow is felt in the
dream. We see here that the feeling contained in the


dream does not belong to the manifest, but to the

latent dream-content, and that the affective content


has remained free from the distortion which has



befallen the conceptual content.

It is otherwise with those dreams in which


the death of a beloved relative is imagined, and in

which a painful affect is felt. These signify, as their
content tells us, the wish that the person in question



might die; and since I may here expect that the

feelings of all my readers and of all who have had

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such dreams will lead them to reject my

explanation, I must endeavour to rest my proof on


the broadest possible basis.


We have already cited a dream from which
we could see that the wishes represented as fulfilled


in dreams are not always current wishes. They may
also be bygone, discarded, buried and repressed


wishes, which we must nevertheless credit with a
sort of continued existence, merely on account of


their reappearance in a dream. They are not dead,
like persons who have died, in the sense that we


know death, but are rather like the shades in the

Odyssey which awaken to a certain degree of life so


soon as they have drunk blood. The dream of the



dead child in the box (chapter IV) contained a wish

that had been present fifteen years earlier, and


which had at that time been frankly admitted as

real. Further- and this, perhaps, is not unimportant
from the standpoint of the theory of dreams- a



recollection from the dreamer's earliest childhood

was at the root of this wish also. When the dreamer

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was a little child- but exactly when cannot be

definitely determined- she heard that her mother,


during the pregnancy of which she was the outcome,


had fallen into a profound emotional depression, and
had passionately wished for the death of the child in


her womb. Having herself grown up and become
pregnant, she was only following the example of her


mother.
If anyone dreams that his father or mother,


his brother or sister, has died, and his dream
expresses grief, I should never adduce this as proof


that he wishes any of them dead now. The theory of

dreams does not go as far as to require this; it is


satisfied with concluding that the dreamer has



wished them dead at some time or other during his

childhood. I fear, however, that this limitation will


not go far to appease my critics; probably they will

just as energetically deny the possibility that they
ever had such thoughts, as they protest that they do



not harbour them now. I must, therefore,

reconstruct a portion of the submerged infantile

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psychology on the basis of the evidence of the

present.[40]


Let us first of all consider the relation of


children to their brothers and sisters. I do not know
why we presuppose that it must be a loving one,


since examples of enmity among adult brothers and
sisters are frequent in everyone's experience, and


since we are so often able to verify the fact that this
estrangement originated during childhood, or has


always existed. Moreover, many adults who today
are devoted to their brothers and sisters, and


support them in adversity, lived with them in almost

continuous enmity during their childhood. The elder


child ill- treated the younger, slandered him, and



robbed him of his toys; the younger was consumed

with helpless fury against the elder, envied and


feared him, or his earliest impulse toward liberty

and his first revolt against injustice were directed
against his oppressor. The parents say that the



children do not agree, and cannot find the reason for

it. It is not difficult to see that the character even of

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a well-behaved child is not the character we should

wish to find in an adult. A child is absolutely


egoistical; he feels his wants acutely, and strives


remorselessly to satisfy them, especially against his
competitors, other children, and first of all against


his brothers and sisters. And yet we do not on that
account call a child wicked- we call him naughty; he


is not responsible for his misdeeds, either in our own
judgment or in the eyes of the law. And this is as it


should be; for we may expect that within the very
period of life which we reckon as childhood, altruistic


impulses and morality will awake in the little egoist,

and that, in the words of Meynert, a secondary ego


will overlay and inhibit the primary ego. Morality, of



course, does not develop simultaneously in all its

departments, and furthermore, the duration of the


amoral period of childhood differs in different

individuals. Where this morality fails to develop we
are prone to speak of degeneration; but here the



case is obviously one of arrested development.

Where the primary character is already overlaid by

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the later development it may be at least partially

uncovered again by an attack of hysteria. The


correspondence between the so-called hysterical


character and that of a naughty child is positively
striking. The obsessional neurosis, on the other


hand, corresponds to a super-morality, which
develops as a strong reinforcement against the


primary character that is threatening to revive.
Many persons, then, who now love their


brothers and sisters, and who would feel bereaved
by their death, harbour in their unconscious hostile


wishes, survivals from an earlier period, wishes

which are able to realize themselves in dreams. It is,


however, quite especially interesting to observe the



behaviour of little children up to their third and

fourth year towards their younger brothers or


sisters. So far the child has been the only one; now
he is informed that the stork has brought a new
baby. The child inspects the new arrival, and



expresses his opinion with decision: "The stork had

better take it back again!"[41]

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I seriously declare it as my opinion that a

child is able to estimate the disadvantages which he


has to expect on account of a new-comer. A


connection of mine, who now gets on very well with
a sister, who is four years her junior, responded to


the news of this sister's arrival with the reservation:
"But I shan't give her my red cap, anyhow." If the


child should come to realize only at a later stage
that its happiness may be prejudiced by a younger


brother or sister, its enmity will be aroused at this
period. I know of a case where a girl, not three


years of age, tried to strangle an infant in its cradle,

because she suspected that its continued presence


boded her no good. Children at this time of life are



capable of a jealousy that is perfectly evident and

extremely intense. Again, perhaps the little brother


or sister really soon disappears, and the child once

more draws to himself the whole affection of the
household; then a new child is sent by the stork; is



it not natural that the favourite should conceive the

wish that the new rival may meet the same fate as

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the earlier one, in order that he may be as happy as

he was before the birth of the first child, and during


the interval after his death?[42] Of course, this


attitude of the child towards the younger brother or
sister is, under normal circumstances, a mere


function of the difference of age. After a certain
interval the maternal instincts of the older girl will


be awakened towards the helpless new-born infant.
Feelings of hostility towards brothers and


sisters must occur far more frequently in children
than is observed by their obtuse elders.[43]


In the case of my own children, who

followed one another rapidly, I missed the


opportunity of making such observations, I am now



retrieving it, thanks to my little nephew, whose

undisputed domination was disturbed after fifteen


months by the arrival of a feminine rival. I hear, it is

true, that the young man behaves very chivalrously
toward his little sister, that he kisses her hand and



strokes her; but in spite of this I have convinced

myself that even before the completion of his second

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year he is using his new command of language to

criticize this person, who, to him, after all, seems


superfluous. Whenever the conversation turns upon


her he chimes in, and cries angrily: "Too (l)ittle, too
(l)ittle!" During the last few months, since the child


has outgrown this disparagement, owing to her
splendid development, he has found another reason


for his insistence that she does not deserve so much
attention. He reminds us, on every suitable pretext:


"She hasn't any teeth."[44] We all of us recollect the
case of the eldest daughter of another sister of


mine. The child, who was then six years of age,

spent a full half-hour in going from one aunt to


another with the question: "Lucie can't understand



that yet, can she?" Lucie was her rival- two and a
half years younger.


I have never failed to come across this

dream of the death of brothers or sisters, denoting
an intense hostility, e.g., I have met it in all my



female patients. I have met with only one exception,

which could easily be interpreted into a confirmation

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of the rule. Once, in the course of a sitting, when I

was explaining this state of affairs to a female


patient, since it seemed to have some bearing on


the symptoms under consideration that day, she
answered, to my astonishment, that she had never


had such dreams. But another dream occurred to
her, which presumably had nothing to do with the


case- a dream which she had first dreamed at the
age of four, when she was the youngest child, and


had since then dreamed repeatedly. "A number of
children, all her brothers and sisters with her boy


and girl cousins, were romping about in a meadow.

Suddenly they all grew wings, flew up, and were


gone." She had no idea of the significance of this



dream; but we can hardly fail to recognize it as a

dream of the death of all the brothers and sisters, in


its original form, and but little influenced by the

censorship. I will venture to add the following
analysis of it: on the death of one out of this large



number of children- in this case the children of two

brothers were brought up together as brothers and

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sisters- would not our dreamer, at that time not yet

four years of age, have asked some wise, grown-up


person: "What becomes of children when they are


dead?" The answer would probably have been:
"They grow wings and become angels." After this


explanation. all the brothers and sisters and cousins
in the dream now have wings, like angels and- this


is the important point- they fly away. Our little
angel-maker is left alone: just think, the only one


out of such a crowd! That the children romp about a
meadow, from which they fly away, points almost


certainly to butterflies- it is as though the child had

been influenced by the same association of ideas


which led the ancients to imagine Psyche, the soul,



with the wings of a butterfly.

Perhaps some readers will now object that


the inimical impulses of children toward their

brothers and sisters may perhaps be admitted, but
how does the childish character arrive at such



heights of wickedness as to desire the death of a

rival or a stronger playmate, as though all misdeeds

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could be atoned for only by death? Those who speak

in this fashion forget that the child's idea of being


dead has little but the word in common with our


own. The child knows nothing of the horrors of
decay, of shivering in the cold grave, of the terror of


the infinite Nothing, the thought of which the adult,
as all the myths of the hereafter testify, finds so


intolerable. The fear of death is alien to the child;
and so he plays with the horrid word, and threatens


another child: "If you do that again, you will die,
just like Francis died"; at which the poor mother


shudders, unable perhaps to forget that the greater

proportion of mortals do not survive beyond the


years of childhood. Even at the age of eight, a child



returning from a visit to a natural history museum

may say to her mother: "Mamma, I do love you so;


if you ever die, I am going to have you stuffed and

set you up here in the room, so that I can always,
always see you!" So different from our own is the



childish conception of being dead.[45]

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Being dead means, for the child, who has

been spared the sight of the suffering that precedes


death, much the same as being gone, and ceasing to


annoy the survivors. The child does not distinguish
the means by which this absence is brought about,


whether by distance, or estrangement, or death.[46]
If, during the child's prehistoric years, a nurse has


been dismissed, and if his mother dies a little while
later, the two experiences, as we discover by


analysis, form links of a chain in his memory. The
fact that the child does not very intensely miss those


who are absent has been realized, to her sorrow, by

many a mother, when she has returned home from


an absence of several weeks, and has been told,



upon inquiry: "The children have not asked for their

mother once." But if she really departs to "that


undiscovered country from whose bourne no

traveller returns," the children seem at first to have
forgotten her, and only subsequently do they begin



to remember their dead mother.

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While, therefore, the child has its motives

for desiring the absence of another child, it is lacking


in all those restraints which would prevent it from


clothing this wish in the form of a death-wish; and
the psychic reaction to dreams of a death-wish


proves that, in spite of all the differences of content,
the wish in the case of the child is after all identical


with the corresponding wish in an adult.
If, then, the death-wish of a child in respect


of his brothers and sisters is explained by his
childish egoism, which makes him regard his


brothers and sisters as rivals, how are we to account

for the same wish in respect of his parents, who


bestow their love on him, and satisfy his needs, and



whose preservation he ought to desire for these very

egoistical reasons?


Towards a solution of this difficulty we may

be guided by our knowledge that the very great
majority of dreams of the death of a parent refer to



the parent of the same sex as the dreamer, so that

a man generally dreams of the death of his father,

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and a woman of the death of her mother. I do not

claim that this happens constantly; but that it


happens in a great majority of cases is so evident


that it requires explanation by some factor of
general significance.[47] Broadly speaking, it is as


though a sexual preference made itself felt at an
early age, as though the boy regarded his father,


and the girl her mother, as a rival in love- by whose
removal he or she could but profit.


Before rejecting this idea as monstrous, let
the reader again consider the actual relations


between parents and children. We must distinguish

between the traditional standard of conduct, the


filial piety expected in this relation, and what daily



observation shows us to be the fact. More than one

occasion for enmity lies hidden amidst the relations


of parents and children; conditions are present in

the greatest abundance under which wishes which
cannot pass the censorship are bound to arise. Let



us first consider the relation between father and

son. In my opinion the sanctity with which we have

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endorsed the injunctions of the Decalogue dulls our

perception of the reality. Perhaps we hardly dare


permit ourselves to perceive that the greater part of


humanity neglects to obey the fifth commandment.
In the lowest as well as in the highest strata of


human society, filial piety towards parents is wont to
recede before other interests. The obscure legends


which have been handed down to us from the
primeval ages of human society in mythology and


folklore give a deplorable idea of the despotic power
of the father, and the ruthlessness with which it was


exercised. Kronos devours his children, as the wild

boar devours the litter of the sow; Zeus emasculates


his father[48] and takes his place as ruler. The more



tyrannically the father ruled in the ancient family,

the more surely must the son, as his appointed


successor, have assumed the position of an enemy,

and the greater must have been his impatience to
attain to supremacy through the death of his father.



Even in our own middle-class families the father

commonly fosters the growth of the germ of hatred

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which is naturally inherent in the paternal relation,

by refusing to allow the son to be a free agent or by


denying him the means of becoming so. A physician


often has occasion to remark that a son's grief at
the loss of his father cannot quench his gratification


that he has at last obtained his freedom. Fathers, as
a rule, cling desperately to as much of the sadly


antiquated potestas patris familias[49] as still
survives in our modern society, and the poet who,


like Ibsen, puts the immemorial strife between
father and son in the foreground of his drama is sure


of his effect. The causes of conflict between mother

and daughter arise when the daughter grows up and


finds herself watched by her mother when she longs



for real sexual freedom, while the mother is

reminded by the budding beauty of her daughter


that for her the time has come to renounce sexual

claims.
All these circumstances are obvious to



everyone, but they do not help us to explain dreams

of the death of their parents in persons for whom

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filial piety has long since come to be unquestionable.

We are, however, prepared by the foregoing


discussion to look for the origin of a death-wish in


the earliest years of childhood.
In the case of psychoneurotics, analysis


confirms this conjecture beyond all doubt. For
analysis tells us that the sexual wishes of the child-


in so far as they deserve this designation in their
nascent state- awaken at a very early age, and that


the earliest affection of the girl-child is lavished on
the father, while the earliest infantile desires of the


boy are directed upon the mother. For the boy the
father, and for the girl the mother, becomes an


obnoxious rival, and we have already shown, in the



case of brothers and sisters, how readily in children

this feeling leads to the death-wish. As a general


rule, sexual selection soon makes its appearance in

the parents; it is a natural tendency for the father to
spoil his little daughters, and for the mother to take



the part of the sons, while both, so long as the

glamour of sex does not prejudice their judgment,

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are strict in training the children. The child is

perfectly conscious of this partiality, and offers


resistance to the parent who opposes it. To find love


in an adult is for the child not merely the satisfaction
of a special need; it means also that the child's will


is indulged in all other respects. Thus the child is
obeying its own sexual instinct, and at the same


time reinforcing the stimulus proceeding from the
parents, when its choice between the parents


corresponds with their own.
The signs of these infantile tendencies are


for the most part over-looked; and yet some of

them may be observed even after the early years of


childhood. An eight-year-old girl of my



acquaintance, whenever her mother is called away

from the table, takes advantage of her absence to


proclaim herself her successor. "Now I shall be

Mamma; Karl, do you want some more vegetables?
Have some more, do," etc. A particularly clever and



lively little girl, not yet four years of age, in whom

this trait of child psychology is unusually

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transparent, says frankly: "Now mummy can go

away; then daddy must marry me, and I will be his


wife." Nor does this wish by any means exclude the


possibility that the child may most tenderly love its
mother. If the little boy is allowed to sleep at his


mother's side whenever his father goes on a
journey, and if after his father's return he has to go


back to the nursery, to a person whom he likes far
less, the wish may readily arise that his father might


always be absent, so that he might keep his place
beside his dear, beautiful mamma; and the father's


death is obviously a means for the attainment of this

wish; for the child's experience has taught him that


dead folks, like grandpapa, for example, are always



absent; they never come back.

While such observations of young children


readily accommodate themselves to the

interpretation suggested, they do not, it is true,
carry the complete conviction which is forced upon a



physician by the psycho-analysis of adult neurotics.

The dreams of neurotic patients are communicated

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with preliminaries of such a nature that their

interpretation as wish-dreams becomes inevitable.


One day I find a lady depressed and weeping. She


says: "I do not want to see my relatives any more;
they must shudder at me." Thereupon, almost


without any transition, she tells me that she has
remembered a dream, whose significance, of course,


she does not understand. She dreamed it when she
was four years old, and it was this: A fox or a lynx is


walking about the roof; then something falls down,
or she falls down, and after that, her mother is


carried out of the house- dead; whereat the dreamer

weeps bitterly. I have no sooner informed her that


this dream must signify a childish wish to see her



mother dead, and that it is because of this dream

that she thinks that her relatives must shudder at


her, than she furnishes material in explanation of

the dream. "Lynx-eye" is an opprobrious epithet
which a street boy once bestowed on her when she



was a very small child; and when she was three

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years old a brick or tile fell on her mother's head, so

that she bled profusely.


I once had occasion to make a thorough


study of a young girl who was passing through
various psychic states. In the state of frenzied


confusion with which her illness began, the patient
manifested a quite peculiar aversion for her mother;


she struck her and abused her whenever she
approached the bed, while at the same period she


was affectionate and submissive to a much older
sister. Then there followed a lucid but rather


apathetic condition, with badly disturbed sleep. It

was in this phase that I began to treat her and to


analyse her dreams. An enormous number of these



dealt, in a more or less veiled fashion, with the

death of the girl's mother; now she was present at


the funeral of an old woman, now she saw herself

and her sister sitting at a table, dressed in
mourning; the meaning of the dreams could not be



doubted. During her progressive improvement

hysterical phobias made their appearance, the most

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distressing of which was the fear that something had

happened to her mother. Wherever she might be at


the time, she had then to hurry home in order to


convince herself that her mother was still alive. Now
this case, considered in conjunction with the rest of


my experience. was very instructive; it showed, in
polyglot translations, as it were, the different ways


in which the psychic apparatus reacts to the same
exciting idea. In the state of confusion, which I


regard as an overthrow of the second psychic
instance by the first instance, at other times


suppressed, the unconscious enmity towards the

mother gained the upper hand, and found physical


expression; then, when the patient became calmer,



the insurrection was suppressed, and the domination

of the censorship restored, and this enmity had


access only to the realms of dreams, in which it

realized the wish that the mother might die; and,
after the normal condition had been still further



strengthened, it created the excessive concern for

the mother as a hysterical counter-reaction and

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defensive phenomenon. In the light of these

considerations, it is no longer inexplicable why


hysterical girls are so often extravagantly attached


to their mothers.
On another occasion I had an opportunity of


obtaining a profound insight into the unconscious
psychic life of a young man for whom an obsessional


neurosis made life almost unendurable, so that he
could not go into the streets, because he was


tormented by the fear that he would kill everyone he
met. He spent his days in contriving evidence of an


alibi in case he should be accused of any murder

that might have been committed in the city. It goes


without saying that this man was as moral as he



was highly cultured. The analysis- which, by the

way, led to a cure- revealed, as the basis of this


distressing obsession, murderous impulses in

respect of his rather overstrict father- impulses
which, to his astonishment, had consciously



expressed themselves when he was seven years old,

but which, of course, had originated in a much

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earlier period of his childhood. After the painful

illness and death of his father, when the young man


was in his thirty-first year, the obsessive reproach


made its appearance, which transferred itself to
strangers in the form of this phobia. Anyone capable


of wishing to push his own father from a mountain-
top into an abyss cannot be trusted to spare the


lives of persons less closely related to him; he
therefore does well to lock himself into his room.


According to my already extensive
experience, parents play a leading part in the


infantile psychology of all persons who subsequently

become psychoneurotics. Falling in love with one


parent and hating the other forms part of the



permanent stock of the psychic impulses which arise

in early childhood, and are of such importance as


the material of the subsequent neurosis. But I do

not believe that psychoneurotics are to be sharply
distinguished in this respect from other persons who



remain normal- that is, I do not believe that they

are capable of creating something absolutely new

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and peculiar to themselves. It is far more probable-

and this is confirmed by incidental observations of


normal children- that in their amorous or hostile


attitude toward their parents, psychoneurotics do no
more than reveal to us, by magnification, something


that occurs less markedly and intensively in the
minds of the majority of children. Antiquity has


furnished us with legendary matter which
corroborates this belief, and the profound and


universal validity of the old legends is explicable
only by an equally universal validity of the above-


mentioned hypothesis of infantile psychology.

I am referring to the legend of King Oedipus


and the Oedipus Rex of Sophocles. Oedipus, the son



of Laius, king of Thebes, and Jocasta, is exposed as

a suckling, because an oracle had informed the


father that his son, who was still unborn, would be

his murderer. He is rescued, and grows up as a
king's son at a foreign court, until, being uncertain



of his origin, he, too, consults the oracle, and is

warned to avoid his native place, for he is destined

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to become the murderer of his father and the

husband of his mother. On the road leading away


from his supposed home he meets King Laius, and in


a sudden quarrel strikes him dead. He comes to
Thebes, where he solves the riddle of the Sphinx,


who is barring the way to the city, whereupon he is
elected king by the grateful Thebans, and is


rewarded with the hand of Jocasta. He reigns for
many years in peace and honour, and begets two


sons and two daughters upon his unknown mother,
until at last a plague breaks out- which causes the


Thebians to consult the oracle anew. Here

Sophocles' tragedy begins. The messengers bring


the reply that the plague will stop as soon as the



murderer of Laius is driven from the country. But

where is he?


Where shall be found,

Faint, and hard to be known, the trace of the
ancient guilt?



The action of the play consists simply in the

disclosure, approached step by step and artistically

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delayed (and comparable to the work of a psycho-

analysis) that Oedipus himself is the murderer of


Laius, and that he is the son of the murdered man


and Jocasta. Shocked by the abominable crime
which he has unwittingly committed, Oedipus blinds


himself, and departs from his native city. The
prophecy of the oracle has been fulfilled.


The Oedipus Rex is a tragedy of fate; its
tragic effect depends on the conflict between the all-


powerful will of the gods and the vain efforts of
human beings threatened with disaster; resignation


to the divine will, and the perception of one's own

impotence is the lesson which the deeply moved


spectator is supposed to learn from the tragedy.



Modern authors have therefore sought to achieve a

similar tragic effect by expressing the same conflict


in stories of their own invention. But the playgoers

have looked on unmoved at the unavailing efforts of
guiltless men to avert the fulfilment of curse or



oracle; the modern tragedies of destiny have failed

of their effect.

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If the Oedipus Rex is capable of moving a

modern reader or playgoer no less powerfully than it


moved the contemporary Greeks, the only possible


explanation is that the effect of the Greek tragedy
does not depend upon the conflict between fate and


human will, but upon the peculiar nature of the
material by which this conflict is revealed. There


must be a voice within us which is prepared to
acknowledge the compelling power of fate in the


Oedipus, while we are able to condemn the
situations occurring in Die Ahnfrau or other


tragedies of fate as arbitrary inventions. And there

actually is a motive in the story of King Oedipus


which explains the verdict of this inner voice. His



fate moves us only because it might have been our

own, because the oracle laid upon us before our


birth the very curse which rested upon him. It may

be that we were all destined to direct our first sexual
impulses toward our mothers, and our first impulses



of hatred and violence toward our fathers; our

dreams convince us that we were. King Oedipus,

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who slew his father Laius and wedded his mother

Jocasta, is nothing more or less than a wish-


fulfilment- the fulfilment of the wish of our


childhood. But we, more fortunate than he, in so far
as we have not become psychoneurotics, have since


our childhood succeeded in withdrawing our sexual
impulses from our mothers, and in forgetting our


jealousy of our fathers. We recoil from the person
for whom this primitive wish of our childhood has


been fulfilled with all the force of the repression
which these wishes have undergone in our minds


since childhood. As the poet brings the guilt of

Oedipus to light by his investigation, he forces us to


become aware of our own inner selves, in which the



same impulses are still extant, even though they are

suppressed. The antithesis with which the chorus


departs:

...Behold, this is Oedipus,

Who unravelled the great riddle, and was first in



power,
Whose fortune all the townsmen praised and

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envied;
See in what dread adversity he sank!


-this admonition touches us and our own


pride, we who, since the years of our childhood,
have grown so wise and so powerful in our own


estimation. Like Oedipus, we live in ignorance of the
desires that offend morality, the desires that nature


has forced upon us and after their unveiling we may
well prefer to avert our gaze from the scenes of our


childhood.[50]
In the very text of Sophocles' tragedy there


is an unmistakable reference to the fact that the



Oedipus legend had its source in dream-material of

immemorial antiquity, the content of which was the


painful disturbance of the child's relations to its

parents caused by the first impulses of sexuality.


Jocasta comforts Oedipus- who is not yet

enlightened, but is troubled by the recollection of
the oracle- by an allusion to a dream which is often



dreamed, though it cannot, in her opinion, mean

anything: -

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For many a man hath seen himself in

dreams His mother's mate, but he who gives no


heed To suchlike matters bears the easier life. -


The dream of having sexual intercourse with
one's mother was as common then as it is today


with many people, who tell it with indignation and
astonishment. As may well be imagined, it is the key


to the tragedy and the complement to the dream of
the death of the father. The Oedipus fable is the


reaction of phantasy to these two typical dreams,
and just as such a dream, when occurring to an


adult, is experienced with feelings of aversion, so

the content of the fable must include terror and self-


chastisement. The form which it subsequently



assumed was the result of an uncomprehending

secondary elaboration of the material, which sought


to make it serve a theological intention.[51] The

attempt to reconcile divine omnipotence with human
responsibility must, of course, fail with this material



as with any other.

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Another of the great poetic tragedies,

Shakespeare's Hamlet, is rooted in the same soil as


Oedipus Rex. But the whole difference in the psychic


life of the two widely separated periods of
civilization, and the progress, during the course of


time, of repression in the emotional life of humanity,
is manifested in the differing treatment of the same


material. In Oedipus Rex the basic wish-phantasy of
the child is brought to light and realized as it is in


dreams; in Hamlet it remains repressed, and we
learn of its existence- as we discover the relevant


facts in a neurosis- only through the inhibitory

effects which proceed from it. In the more modern


drama, the curious fact that it is possible to remain



in complete uncertainty as to the character of the

hero has proved to be quite consistent with the


over-powering effect of the tragedy. The play is

based upon Hamlet's hesitation in accomplishing the
task of revenge assigned to him; the text does not



give the cause or the motive of this hesitation, nor

have the manifold attempts at interpretation

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succeeded in doing so. According to the still

prevailing conception, a conception for which Goethe


was first responsible. Hamlet represents the type of


man whose active energy is paralyzed by excessive
intellectual activity: "Sicklied o'er with the pale cast


of thought." According to another conception. the
poet has endeavoured to portray a morbid,


irresolute character, on the verge of neurasthenia.
The plot of the drama, however, shows us that


Hamlet is by no means intended to appear as a
character wholly incapable of action. On two


separate occasions we see him assert himself: once

in a sudden outburst of rage, when he stabs the


eavesdropper behind the arras, and on the other



occasion when he deliberately, and even craftily,

with the complete unscrupulousness of a prince of


the Renaissance, sends the two courtiers to the

death which was intended for himself. What is it,
then, that inhibits him in accomplishing the task



which his father's ghost has laid upon him? Here the
explanation offers itself that it is the peculiar nature

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of this task. Hamlet is able to do anything but take

vengeance upon the man who did away with his


father and has taken his father's place with his


mother- the man who shows him in realization the
repressed desires of his own childhood. The loathing


which should have driven him to revenge is thus
replaced by self-reproach, by conscientious scruples,


which tell him that he himself is no better than the
murderer whom he is required to punish. I have


here translated into consciousness what had to
remain unconscious in the mind of the hero; if


anyone wishes to call Hamlet an hysterical subject I

cannot but admit that this is the deduction to be


drawn from my interpretation. The sexual aversion



which Hamlet expresses in conversation with

Ophelia is perfectly consistent with this deduction-


the same sexual aversion which during the next few

years was increasingly to take possession of the
poet's soul, until it found its supreme utterance in



Timon of Athens. It can, of course, be only the

poet's own psychology with which we are confronted

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in Hamlet; and in a work on Shakespeare by Georg

Brandes (1896) I find the statement that the drama


was composed immediately after the death of


Shakespeare's father (1601)- that is to say, when he
was still mourning his loss, and during a revival, as


we may fairly assume, of his own childish feelings in
respect of his father. It is known, too, that


Shakespeare's son, who died in childhood, bore the
name of Hamnet (identical with Hamlet). Just as


Hamlet treats of the relation of the son to his
parents, so Macbeth, which was written about the


same period, is based upon the theme of

childlessness. Just as all neurotic symptoms, like


dreams themselves, are capable of hyper-



interpretation, and even require such hyper-

interpretation before they become perfectly


intelligible, so every genuine poetical creation must

have proceeded from more than one motive, more
than one impulse in the mind of the poet, and must



admit of more than one interpretation. I have here

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attempted to interpret only the deepest stratum of

impulses in the mind of the creative poet.[52]


With regard to typical dreams of the death


of relatives, I must add a few words upon their
significance from the point of view of the theory of


dreams in general. These dreams show us the
occurrence of a very unusual state of things; they


show us that the dream-thought created by the
repressed wish completely escapes the censorship,


and is transferred to the dream without alteration.
Special conditions must obtain in order to make this


possible. The following two factors favour the

production of these dreams: first, this is the last


wish that we could credit ourselves with harbouring;



we believe such a wish "would never occur to us

even in a dream"; the dream-censorship is therefore


unprepared for this monstrosity, just as the laws of

Solon did not foresee the necessity of establishing a
penalty for patricide. Secondly, the repressed and



unsuspected wish is, in this special case, frequently

met half-way by a residue from the day's

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experience, in the form of some concern for the life

of the beloved person. This anxiety cannot enter into


the dream otherwise than by taking advantage of


the corresponding wish; but the wish is able to mask
itself behind the concern which has been aroused


during the day. If one is inclined to think that all this
is really a very much simpler process, and to


imagine that one merely continues during the night,
and in one's dream, what was begun during the day,


one removes the dreams of the death of those dear
to us out of all connection with the general


explanation of dreams, and a problem that may very

well be solved remains a problem needlessly.


It is instructive to trace the relation of these



dreams to anxiety-dreams. In dreams of the death

of those dear to us the repressed wish has found a


way of avoiding the censorship- and the distortion

for which the censorship is responsible. An invariable
concomitant phenomenon then, is that painful



emotions are felt in the dream. Similarly, an

anxiety-dream occurs only when the censorship is

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entirely or partially overpowered, and on the other

hand, the overpowering of the censorship is


facilitated when the actual sensation of anxiety is


already present from somatic sources. It thus
becomes obvious for what purpose the censorship


performs its office and practises dream-distortion; it
does so in order to prevent the development of


anxiety or other forms of painful affect.
I have spoken in the foregoing sections of


the egoism of the child's psyche, and I now
emphasize this peculiarity in order to suggest a


connection, for dreams too have retained this

characteristic. All dreams are absolutely egoistical;


in every dream the beloved ego appears, even



though in a disguised form. The wishes that are

realized in dreams are invariably the wishes of this


ego; it is only a deceptive appearance if interest in

another person is believed to have evoked a dream.
I will now analyse a few examples which appear to



contradict this assertion. -

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I.


A boy not yet four years of age relates the
following dream: He saw a large garnished dish, on


which was a large joint of roast meat; and the joint
was suddenly- not carved- but eaten up. He did not


see the person who ate it.[53]
Who can he be, this strange person, of


whose luxurious repast the little fellow dreams? The
experience of the day must supply the answer. For


some days past the boy, in accordance with the
doctor's orders, had been living on a milk diet; but


on the evening of the dream-day he had been



naughty, and, as a punishment, had been deprived

of his supper. He had already undergone one such


hunger-cure, and had borne his deprivation bravely.

He knew that he would get nothing, but he did not


even allude to the fact that he was hungry. Training

was beginning to produce its effect; this is
demonstrated even by the dream, which reveals the



beginnings of dream-distortion. There is no doubt

that he himself is the person whose desires are

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directed toward this abundant meal, and a meal of

roast meat at that. But since he knows that this is


forbidden him, he does not dare, as hungry children


do in dreams (cf. my little Anna's dream about
strawberries, chapter III), to sit down to the meal


himself. The person remains anonymous.

II.


One night I

 dream that I see on a
bookseller's counter a new volume of one of those
collectors' series, which I am in the habit of buying
(monographs on artistic subjects, history, famous


artistic centres, etc.). The new collection is entitled



"Famous Orators" (or Orations), and the first

number bears the name of Dr. Lecher.


On analysis it seems to me improbable that

the fame of Dr. Lecher, the long-winded speaker of


the German Opposition, should occupy my thoughts

while I am dreaming. The fact is that a few days ago
I undertook the psychological treatment of some



new patients, and am now forced to talk for ten to

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twelve hours a day. Thus I myself am a long-winded

speaker.


III.


On another occasion I dream that a
university lecturer of my acquaintance says to me:


"My son, the myopic." Then follows a dialogue of


brief observations and replies. A third portion of the
dream follows, in which I and my sons appear, and


so far as the latent dream-content is concerned, the
father, the son, and Professor M, are merely lay
figures, representing myself and my eldest son.


Later on I shall examine this dream again, on



account of another peculiarity.

IV.


The following dream gives an example of

really base, egoistical feelings, which conceal


themselves behind an affectionate concern:

My friend Otto looks ill; his face is brown



and his eyes protrude.

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Otto is my family physician, to whom I owe

a debt greater than I can ever hope to repay, since


he has watched for years over the health of my


children, has treated them successfully when they
have been ill, and, moreover, has given them


presents whenever he could find any excuse for
doing so. He paid us a visit on the day of the dream,


and my wife noticed that he looked tired and
exhausted. At night I dream of him, and my dream


attributes to him certain of the symptoms of
Basedow's disease. If you were to disregard my


rules for dream-interpretation you would understand

this dream to mean that I am concerned about the


health of my friend, and that this concern is realized



in the dream. It would thus constitute a

contradiction not only of the assertion that a dream


is a wish-fulfilment, but also of the assertion that it

is accessible only to egoistical impulses. But will
those who thus interpret my dream explain why I



should fear that Otto has Basedow's disease, for

which diagnosis his appearance does not afford the

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slightest justification? My analysis, on the other

hand, furnishes the following material, deriving from


an incident which had occurred six years earlier. We


were driving- a small party of us, including Professor
R- in the dark through the forest of N, which lies at


a distance of some hours from where we were
staying in the country. The driver, who was not


quite sober, overthrew us and the carriage down a
bank, and it was only by good fortune that we all


escaped unhurt. But we were forced to spend the
night at the nearest inn, where the news of our


mishap aroused great sympathy. A certain

gentleman, who showed unmistakable symptoms of


morbus Basedowii- the brownish colour of the skin



of the face and the protruding eyes, but no goitre-

placed himself entirely at our disposal, and asked


what he could do for us. Professor R answered in his

decisive way, "Nothing, except lend me a
nightshirt." Whereupon our generous friend replied:



"I am sorry, but I cannot do that," and left us.

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In continuing the analysis, it occurs to me

that Basedow is the name not only of a physician


but also of a famous pedagogue. (Now that I am


wide awake, I do not feel quite sure of this fact.) My
friend Otto is the person whom I have asked to take


charge of the physical education of my children-
especially during the age of puberty (hence the


nightshirt) in case anything should happen to me.
By seeing Otto in my dream with the morbid


symptoms of our above-mentioned generous helper,
I clearly mean to say: "If anything happens to me,


he will do just as little for my children as Baron L did

for us, in spite of his amiable offers." The egoistical


flavour of this dream should now be obvious



enough.[54] -
In justice to this lady with her national pride


it may, however, be remarked that the dogma: "the

dream is wholly egoistic" must not be
misunderstood. For inasmuch as everything that



occurs in preconscious inking may appear in dreams

(in the content as well as the latent dream-

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thoughts) the altruistic feelings may possibly occur.

Similarly, affectionate or amorous feelings for


another person, if they exist in the unconscious,


may occur in dreams. The truth of the assertion is
therefore restricted to the fact that among the


unconscious stimuli of dreams one very often finds
egoistical tendencies which seem to have been


overcome in the waking state.
But where is the wish-fulfilment to be found


in this? Not in the vengeance wreaked on my friend
Otto (who seems to be fated to be badly treated in


my dreams), but in the following circumstance:

Inasmuch as in my dream I represented Otto as


Baron L, I likewise identified myself with another



person, namely, with Professor R; for I have asked

something of Otto, just as R asked something of


Baron L at the time of the incident I have described.

And this is the point. For Professor R has gone his
way independently, outside academic circles, just as



I myself have done, and has only in his later years

received the title which he had earned before. Once

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more, then, I want to be a professor! The very

phrase in his later years is a wish-fulfilment, for it


means that I shall live long enough to steer my boys


through the age of puberty myself.
Of other typical dreams, in which one flies


with a feeling of ease or falls in terror, I know
nothing from my own experience, and whatever I


have to say about them I owe to my
psychoanalyses. From the information thus obtained


one must conclude that these dreams also reproduce
impressions made in childhood- that is, that they


refer to the games involving rapid motion which

have such an extraordinary attraction for children.


Where is the uncle who has never made a child fly



by running with it across the room with outstretched

arms, or has never played at falling with it by


rocking it on his knee and then suddenly

straightening his leg, or by lifting it above his head
and suddenly pretending to withdraw his supporting



hand? At such moments children shout with joy, and

insatiably demand a repetition of the performance,

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especially if a little fright and dizziness are involved

in the game; in after years they repeat their


sensations in dreams. but in dreams they omit the


hands that held them, so that now they are free to
float or fall. We know that all small children have a


fondness for such games as rocking and see-sawing;
and if they see gymnastic performances at the circus


their recollection of such games is refreshed.[55] In
some boys a hysterical attack will consist simply in


the reproduction of such performances, which they
accomplish with great dexterity. Not infrequently


sexual sensations are excited by these games of

movement, which are quite neutral in


themselves.[56] To express the matter in a few



words: the exciting games of childhood are repeated

in dreams of flying, falling, reeling and the like, but


the voluptuous feelings are now transformed into

anxiety. But, as every mother knows, the excited
play of children often enough culminates in



quarrelling and tears.

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I have therefore good reason for rejecting

the explanation that it is the state of our dermal


sensations during sleep, the sensation of the


movements of the lungs, etc., that evokes dreams
of flying and falling. I see that these very sensations


have been reproduced from the memory to which
the dream refers- and that they are, therefore,


dream-content and not dream-sources.
I do not for a moment deny, however, that I


am unable to furnish a full explanation of this series
of typical dreams. Precisely here my material leaves


me in the lurch. I must adhere to the general

opinion that all the dermal and kinetic sensations of


these typical dreams are awakened as soon as any



psychic motive of whatever kind has need of them,

and that they are neglected when there is no such


need of them. The relation to infantile experiences

seems to be confirmed by the indications which I
have obtained from the analyses of psychoneurotics.



But I am unable to say what other meanings might,

in the course of the dreamer's life, have become

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attached to the memory of these sensations-

different, perhaps, in each individual, despite the


typical appearance of these dreams- and I should


very much like to be in a position to fill this gap with
careful analyses of good examples. To those who


wonder why I complain of a lack of material, despite
the frequency of these dreams of flying, falling,


tooth-drawing, etc., I must explain that I myself
have never experienced any such dreams since I


have turned my attention to the subject of dream-
interpretation. The dreams of neurotics which are at


my disposal, however, are not all capable of

interpretation, and very often it is impossible to


penetrate to the farthest point of their hidden



intention; a certain psychic force which participated

in the building up of the neurosis, and which again


becomes active during its dissolution, opposes

interpretation of the final problem.

(c) The Examination-Dream



Everyone who has received his certificate of

matriculation after passing his final examination at

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school complains of the persistence with which he is

plagued by anxiety-dreams in which he has failed, or


must go through his course again, etc. For the


holder of a university degree this typical dream is
replaced by another, which represents that he has


not taken his doctor's degree, to which he vainly
objects, while still asleep, that he has already been


practising for years, or is already a university
lecturer or the senior partner of a firm of lawyers,


and so on. These are the ineradicable memories of
the punishments we suffered as children for


misdeeds which we had committed- memories which

were revived in us on the dies irae, dies illa[57] of


the gruelling examination at the two critical



junctures in our careers as students. The

examination-anxiety of neurotics is likewise


intensified by this childish fear. When our student

days are over, it is no longer our parents or teachers
who see to our punishment; the inexorable chain of



cause and effect of later life has taken over our

further education. Now we dream of our

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matriculation, or the examination for the doctor's

degree- and who has not been faint-hearted on such


occasions?- whenever we fear that we may be


punished by some unpleasant result because we
have done something carelessly or wrongly, because


we have not been as thorough as we might have
been- in short, whenever we feel the burden of


responsibility.
For a further explanation of examination-


dreams I have to thank a remark made by a
colleague who had studied this subject, who once


stated, in the course of a scientific discussion, that

in his experience the examination-dream occurred


only to persons who had passed the examination,



never to those who had flunked. We have had

increasing confirmation of the fact that the anxiety-


dream of examination occurs when the dreamer is

anticipating a responsible task on the following day,
with the possibility of disgrace; recourse will then be



had to an occasion in the past on which a great

anxiety proved to have been without real

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justification, having, indeed, been refuted by the

outcome. Such a dream would be a very striking


example of the way in which the dream-content is


misunderstood by the waking instance. The
exclamation which is regarded as a protest against


the dream: "But I am already a doctor," etc., would
in reality be the consolation offered by the dream,


and should, therefore, be worded as follows: "Do not
be afraid of the morrow; think of the anxiety which


you felt before your matriculation; yet nothing
happened to justify it, for now you are a doctor,"


etc. But the anxiety which we attribute to the dream

really has its origin in the residues of the dream-


day.


The tests of this interpretation which I have

been able to make in my own case, and in that of


others, although by no means exhaustive, were

entirely in its favour.[58] For example, I failed in my
examination for the doctor's degree in medical



jurisprudence; never once has the matter worried

me in my dreams, while I have often enough been

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examined in botany, zoology, and chemistry, and I

sat for the examinations in these subjects with well-


justified anxiety, but escaped disaster, through the


clemency of fate, or of the examiner. In my dreams
of school examinations, I am always examined in


history, a subject in which I passed brilliantly at the
time, but only, I must admit, because my good-


natured professor- my one-eyed benefactor in
another dream- did not overlook the fact that on the


examination-paper which I returned to him I had
crossed out with my fingernail the second of three


questions, as a hint that he should not insist on it.

One of my patients, who withdrew before the


matriculation examination. only to pass it later, but



failed in the officer's examination, so that he did not

become an officer, tells me that he often dreams of


the former examination, but never of the latter.

W. Stekel, who was the first to interpret the
matriculation dream, maintains that this dream



invariably refers to sexual experiences and sexual

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maturity. This has frequently been confirmed in my

experience.



Footnotes
[32] I would advise everyone to read the


exact and detailed records (collected in two
volumes) of the dreams experimentally produced by


Mourly Vold in order to convince himself how little
the conditions of the experiments help to explain the


content of the individual dream, and how little such
experiments help us towards an understanding of


the problems of dreams.

[33] The two sources from which I know of


this dream do not entirely agree as to its content. -



[34] Rank has shown, in a number of

studies, that certain awakening dreams provoked by


organic stimuli (dreams of urination and ejaculation)

are especially calculated to demonstrate the conflict
between the need for sleep and the demands of the



organic need, as well as the influence of the latter

on the dreamcontent. -

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[35] The statement that our method of

dream-interpretation is inapplicable when we have


not at our disposal the dreamer's association-


material must be qualified. In one case our work of
interpretation is independent of these associations:


namely, when the dreamer make use of symbolic
elements in his dream. We then employ what is,


strictly speaking, a second auxiliary method of
dream-interpretation. (See below).


[36] The child appears in the fairy-tale also,
for there a little child suddenly cries out: "But he


hasn't anything on at all!" -

[37] Ferenczi has recorded a number of


interesting dreams of nakedness in women which



were without difficulty traced to the infantile delight

in exhibitionism, but which differ in many features


from the typical dream of nakedness discussed

above. -
[38] For obvious reasons the presence of the



whole family in the dream has the same

significance.

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[39] A supplementary interpretation of this

dream: To spit (spucken) on the stairs, since spuken


(to haunt) is the occupation of spirits (cf. English,


"spook"), led me by a free translation to espirit
d'escalier. "Stairwit" means unreadiness at repartee,


(Schlagfertigkeit = literally: "readiness to hit out")
with which I really have to reproach myself. But was


the nurse deficient in Schlagfertigkeit?
[40] Cf. also "Analysis of a Phobia in a Five-


year-old Boy," Collected Papers, III; and "On the
Sexual Theories of Children," Ibid., II.


[41] Hans, whose phobia was the subject of

the analysis in the above- mentioned publication,


cried out at the age of three and a half, while



feverish, shortly after the birth of a sister: "But I

don't want to have a little sister." In his neurosis,


eighteen months later, he frankly confessed the wish

that his mother should drop the child into the bath
while bathing it, in order that it might die. With all



this, Hans was a good-natured, affectionate child,

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who soon became fond of his sister, and took her

under his special protection.


[42] Such cases of death in the experience


of children may soon be forgotten in the family, but
psycho-analytical investigation shows that they are


very significant for a later neurosis.
[43] Since the above was written, a great


many observations relating to the originally hostile
attitude of children toward their brothers and


sisters, and toward one of their parents, have been
recorded in the literature of psycho-analysis. One


writer, Spitteler, gives the following peculiarly

sincere and ingenious description of this typical


childish attitude as he experienced it in his earliest



childhood: "Moreover, there was now a second

Adolf. A little creature whom they declared was my


brother, but I could not understand what he could

be for, or why they should pretend he was a being
like myself. I was sufficient unto myself: what did I



want with a brother? And he was not only useless,

he was also even troublesome. When I plagued my

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grandmother, he too wanted to plague her; when I

was wheeled about in the baby- carriage he sat


opposite me, and took up half the room, so that we


could not help kicking one another."
[44] The three-and-a-half-year-old Hans


embodied his devastating criticism of his little sister
in these identical words (loc. cit.). He assumed that


she was unable to speak on account of her lack of
teeth.


[45] To my astonishment, I was told that a
highly intelligent boy of ten, after the sudden death


of his father, said: "I understand that father is dead,

but I can't see why he does not come home to


supper." Further material relating to this subject will



be found in the section "Kinderseele," edited by Frau

Dr. von HugHellmuth, in Imago Vol. i-v, 1912-18.


[46] The observation of a father trained in

psycho-analysis was able to detect the very moment
when his very intelligent little daughter, age four,



realized the difference between being away and

being dead. The child was being troublesome at

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table, and noted that one of the waitresses in the

pension was looking at her with an expression of


annoyance. "Josephine ought to be dead," she


thereupon remarked to her father. "But why dead?"
asked the father, soothingly. "Wouldn't it be enough


if she went away?" "No," replied the child, "then she
would come back again." To the uncurbed self-love


(narcissism) of the child, every inconvenience
constitutes the crime of lese majeste, and, as in the


Draconian code, the child's feelings prescribe for all
such crimes the one invariable punishment.


[47] The situation is frequently disguised by

the intervention of a tendency to punishment,


which, in the form of a moral reaction, threatens the



loss of the beloved parent.

[48] At least in some of the mythological


accounts. According to others, emasculation was

inflicted only by Kronos on his father Uranos.
With regard to the mythological significance



of this motive, cf. Otto Rank's Der Mythus von der

Geburt des Helden, in No. v of Schriften zur angew.

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Seelen-kunde (1909), and Das Inzestmotiv in

Dichtung und Sage (1912), chap. ix, 2.


[49] Authority of the father.


[50] None of the discoveries of psycho-
analytical research has evoked such embittered


contradiction, such furious opposition, and also such
entertaining acrobatics of criticism, as this indication


of the incestuous impulses of childhood which
survive in the unconscious. An attempt has even


been made recently, in defiance of all experience, to
assign only a symbolic significance to incest.


Ferenczi has given an ingenious reinterpretation of

the Oedipus myth, based on a passage in one of


Schopenhauer's letters, in Imago, i, (1912). The



Oedipus complex, which was first alluded to here in

The Interpretation of Dreams, has through further


study of the subject, acquired an unexpected

significance for the understanding of human history
and the evolution of religion and morality. See Toten



and Taboo. -

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[51] Cf. the dream-material of exhibitionism,

earlier in this chapter.


[52] These indications in the direction of an


analytical understanding of Hamlet were
subsequently developed by Dr. Ernest Jones, who


defended the above conception against others which
have been put forward in the literature of the


subject (The Problem of Hamlet and the Oedipus
Complex, [1911]). The relation of the material of


Hamlet to the myth of the birth of the hero has been
demonstrated by O. Rank. Further attempts at an


analysis of Macbeth will be found in my essay on

"Some Character Types Met with in Psycho-Analytic


Work," Collected Papers, IV., in L. Jeckel's



"Shakespeare's Macbeth," in Imago, V. (1918) and

in "The Oedipus Complex as an Explanation of


Hamlet's Mystery: a Study in Motive" (American

Journal of Psycology [1910], vol. xxi).
[53] Even the large, over-abundant,



immoderate and exaggerated things occurring in

dreams may be a childish characteristic. A child

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wants nothing more intensely than to grow big, and

to eat as much of everything as grown-ups do; a


child is hard to satisfy; he knows no such word as


enough and insatiably demands the repetition of
whatever has pleased him or tasted good to him. He


learns to practise moderation, to be modest and
resigned, only through training. As we know, the


neurotic also is inclined to immoderation and excess.
[54] While Dr. Ernest Jones was delivering a


lecture before an American scientific society, and
was speaking of egoism in dreams, a learned lady


took exception to this unscientific generalization.

She thought the lecturer was entitled to pronounce


such a verdict only on the dreams of Austrians, but



had no right to include the dreams of Americans. As

for herself, she was sure that all her dreams were


strictly altruistic.
[55] Psycho-analytic investigation has
enabled us to conclude that in the predilection



shown by children for gymnastic performances, and

in the repetition of these in hysterical attacks, there

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is, besides the pleasure felt in the organ, yet

another factor at work (often unconscious): namely,


a memory-picture of sexual intercourse observed in


human beings or animals.
[56] A young colleague, who is entirely free


from nervousness, tells me, in this connection: "I
know from my own experience that while swinging,


and at the moment at which the downward
movement was at its maximum, I used to have a


curious feeling in my genitals, which, although it was
not really pleasing to me, I must describe as a


voluptuous feeling." I have often heard from

patients that the first erections with voluptuous


sensations which they can remember to have had in



boyhood occurred while they were climbing. It is

established with complete certainty by psycho-


analysis that the first sexual sensations often have

their origin in the scufflings and wrestlings of
childhood.



[57] Day of wrath.

[58] See also chapter VI., A.

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CHAPTER 6 (Part 1)
THE DREAM-WORK


All other previous attempts to solve the


problems of dreams have concerned themselves
directly with the manifest dream-content as it is


retained in the memory. They have sought to obtain
an interpretation of the dream from this content, or,


if they dispensed with an interpretation, to base
their conclusions concerning the dream on the


evidence provided by this content. We, however, are
confronted by a different set of data; for us a new


psychic material interposes itself between the



dream-content and the results of our investigations:

the latent dream-content, or dream-thoughts, which


are obtained only by our method. We develop the

solution of the dream from this latent content, and


not from the manifest dream-content. We are thus

confronted with a new problem, an entirely novel
task- that of examining and tracing the relations



between the latent dream-thoughts and the

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manifest dream-content, and the processes by which

the latter has grown out of the former.


The dream-thoughts and the dream-content


present themselves as two descriptions of the same
content in two different languages; or, to put it


more clearly, the dream-content appears to us as a
translation of the dream-thoughts into another mode


of expression, whose symbols and laws of
composition we must learn by comparing the origin


with the translation. The dream-thoughts we can
understand without further trouble the moment we


have ascertained them. The dream-content is, as it

were, presented in hieroglyphics, whose symbols


must be translated, one by one, into the language of



the dream-thoughts. It would of course, be incorrect

to attempt to read these symbols in accordance with


their values as pictures, instead of in accordance

with their meaning as symbols. For instance, I have
before me a picture- puzzle (rebus)- a house, upon



whose roof there is a boat; then a single letter; then

a running figure, whose head has been omitted, and

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so on. As a critic I might be tempted to judge this

composition and its elements to be nonsensical. A


boat is out of place on the roof of a house, and a


headless man cannot run; the man, too, is larger
than the house, and if the whole thing is meant to


represent a landscape the single letters have no
right in it, since they do not occur in nature. A


correct judgment of the picture-puzzle is possible
only if I make no such objections to the whole and


its parts, and if, on the contrary, I take the trouble
to replace each image by a syllable or word which it


may represent by virtue of some allusion or relation.

The words thus put together are no longer


meaningless, but might constitute the most beautiful



and pregnant aphorism. Now a dream is such a

picture-puzzle, and our predecessors in the art of


dream- interpretation have made the mistake of

judging the rebus as an artistic composition. As
such, of course, it appears nonsensical and



worthless.

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A. Condensation


The first thing that becomes clear to the
investigator when he compares the dream-content


with the dream-thoughts is that a tremendous work
of condensation has been accomplished. The dream


is meagre, paltry and laconic in comparison with the
range and copiousness of the dream-thoughts. The


dream, when written down fills half a page; the
analysis, which contains the dream- thoughts,


requires six, eight, twelve times as much space. The
ratio varies with different dreams; but in my


experience it is always of the same order. As a rule,



the extent of the compression which has been

accomplished is under-estimated, owing to the fact


that the dream-thoughts which have been brought

to light are believed to be the whole of the material,


whereas a continuation of the work of interpretation

would reveal still further thoughts hidden in the
dream. We have already found it necessary to



remark that one can never be really sure that one

has interpreted a dream completely; even if the

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solution seems satisfying and flawless, it is always

possible that yet another meaning has been


manifested by the same dream. Thus the degree of


condensation is- strictly speaking- indeterminable.
Exception may be taken- and at first sight the


objection seems perfectly plausible- to the assertion
that the disproportion between dream- content and


dream-thoughts justifies the conclusion that a
considerable condensation of psychic material occurs


in the formation of dreams. For we often have the
feeling that we have been dreaming a great deal all


night, and have then forgotten most of what we

have dreamed. The dream which we remember on


waking would thus appear to be merely a remnant



of the dream- work, which would surely equal the

dream-thoughts in range if only we could remember


it completely. To a certain extent this is undoubtedly

true; there is no getting away from the fact that a
dream is most accurately reproduced if we try to



remember it immediately after waking, and that the

recollection of it becomes more and more defective

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as the day goes on. On the other hand, it has to be

recognized that the impression that we have


dreamed a good deal more than we are able to


reproduce is very often based on an illusion, the
origin of which we shall explain later on. Moreover,


the assumption of a condensation in the dream-work
is not affected by the possibility of forgetting a part


of dreams, for it may be demonstrated by the
multitude of ideas pertaining to those individual


parts of the dream which do remain in the memory.
If a large part of the dream has really escaped the


memory, we are probably deprived of access to a

new series of dream-thoughts. We have no


justification for expecting that those portions of the



dream which have been lost should likewise have

referred only to those thoughts which we know from


the analysis of the portions which have been

preserved. [1]
In view of the very great number of ideas



which analysis elicits for each individual element of

the dream-content, the principal doubt in the minds

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of many readers will be whether it is permissible to

count everything that subsequently occurs to the


mind during analysis as forming part of the dream-


thoughts- in other words, to assume that all these
thoughts have been active in the sleeping state, and


have taken part in the formation of the dream. Is it
not more probable that new combinations of


thoughts are developed in the course of analysis,
which did not participate in the formation of the


dream? To this objection I can give only a
conditional reply. It is true, of course, that separate


combinations of thoughts make their first

appearance during the analysis; but one can


convince oneself every time this happens that such



new combinations have been established only

between thoughts which have already been


connected in other ways in the dream-thoughts; the

new combinations are, so to speak, corollaries,
short-circuits, which are made possible by the



existence of other, more fundamental modes of

connection. In respect of the great majority of the

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groups of thoughts revealed by analysis, we are

obliged to admit that they have already been active


in the formation of the dream, for if we work


through a succession of such thoughts, which at first
sight seem to have played no part in the formation


of the dream, we suddenly come upon a thought
which occurs in the dream-content, and is


indispensable to its interpretation, but which is
nevertheless inaccessible except through this chain


of thoughts. The reader may here turn to the dream
of the botanical monograph, which is obviously the


result of an astonishing degree of condensation,

even though I have not given the complete analysis.


But how, then, are we to imagine the



psychic condition of the sleeper which precedes

dreaming? Do all the dream-thoughts exist side by


side, or do they pursue one another, or are there

several simultaneous trains of thought, proceeding
from different centres, which subsequently meet? I



do not think it is necessary at this point to form a

plastic conception of the psychic condition at the

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time of dream-formation. But let us not forget that

we are concerned with unconscious thinking, and


that the process may easily be different from that


which we observe in ourselves in deliberate
contemplation accompanied by consciousness.


The fact, however, is irrefutable that dream-
formation is based on a process of condensation.


How, then, is this condensation effected?
Now, if we consider that of the dream-


thoughts ascertained only the most restricted
number are represented in the dream by means of


one of their conceptual elements, we might conclude

that the condensation is accomplished by means of


omission, inasmuch as the dream is not a faithful



translation or projection, point by point, of the

dream-thoughts, but a very incomplete and


defective reproduction of them. This view, as we

shall soon perceive, is a very inadequate one. But
for the present let us take it as a point of departure,



and ask ourselves: If only a few of the elements of

the dream-thoughts make their way into the dream-

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content, what are the conditions that determine

their selection?


In order to solve this problem, let us turn


our attention to those elements of the dream-
content which must have fulfilled the conditions for


which we are looking. The most suitable material for
this investigation will be a dream to whose formation


a particularly intense condensation has contributed.
I select the dream, cited in chapter V., of the


botanical monograph.

I.


Dream-content: I have written a monograph



upon a certain (indeterminate) species of plant. The

book lies before me. I am just turning over a folded


coloured plate. A dried specimen of the plant is

bound up in this copy, as in a herbarium.


The most prominent element of this dream

is the botanical monograph. This is derived from the
impressions of the dream-day; I had actually seen a



monograph on the genus Cyclamen in a bookseller's

window. The mention of this genus is lacking in the

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dream-content; only the monograph and its relation

to botany have remained. The botanical monograph


immediately reveals its relation to the work on


cocaine which I once wrote; from cocaine the train
of thought proceeds on the one hand to a


Festschrift, and on the other to my friend, the
oculist, Dr. Koenigstein, who was partly responsible


for the introduction of cocaine as a local anaesthetic.
Moreover, Dr. Koenigstein is connected with the


recollection of an interrupted conversation I had had
with him on the previous evening, and with all sorts


of ideas relating to the remuneration of medical and

surgical services among colleagues. This


conversation, then, is the actual dream-stimulus;



the monograph on cyclamen is also a real incident,

but one of an indifferent nature; as I now see, the


botanical monograph of the dream proves to be a

common mean between the two experiences of the
day, taken over unchanged from an indifferent



impression, and bound with the psychically

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significant experience by means of the most copious

associations.


Not only the combined idea of the botanical


monograph, however, but also each of its separate
elements, botanical and monograph, penetrates


farther and farther, by manifold associations, into
the confused tangle of the dream-thoughts. To


botanical belong the recollections of the person of
Professor Gartner (German: Gartner = gardener), of


his blooming wife, of my patient, whose name is
Flora, and of a lady concerning whom I told the


story of the forgotten flowers. Gartner, again, leads

me to the laboratory and the conversation with


Koenigstein; and the allusion to the two female



patients belongs to the same conversation. From the

lady with the flowers a train of thoughts branches off


to the favourite flowers of my wife, whose other

branch leads to the title of the hastily seen
monograph. Further, botanical recalls an episode at



the Gymnasium, and a university examination; and

a fresh subject- that of my hobbies- which was

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broached in the above-mentioned conversation, is

linked up, by means of what is humorously called


my favourite flower, the artichoke, with the train of


thoughts proceeding from the forgotten flowers;
behind artichoke there lies, on the one hand, a


recollection of Italy, and on the other a reminiscence
of a scene of my childhood, in which I first formed


an acquaintance- which has since then grown so
intimate- with books. Botanical, then, is a veritable


nucleus, and, for the dream, the meeting-point of
many trains of thought; which, I can testify, had all


really been brought into connection by the

conversation referred to. Here we find ourselves in a


thought-factory, in which, as in The Weaver's



Masterpiece:
The little shuttles to and fro


Fly, and the threads unnoted flow;

One throw links up a thousand threads.
Monograph in the dream, again, touches two



themes: the one-sided nature of my studies, and the

costliness of my hobbies.

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The impression derived from this first

investigation is that the elements botanical and


monograph were taken up into the dream- content


because they were able to offer the most numerous
points of contact with the greatest number of


dream-thoughts, and thus represented nodal points
at which a great number of the dream- thoughts


met together, and because they were of manifold
significance in respect of the meaning of the dream.


The fact upon which this explanation is based may
be expressed in another form: Every element of the


dream-content proves to be over- determined- that

is, it appears several times over in the dream-


thoughts.


We shall learn more if we examine the other

components of the dream in respect of their


occurrence in the dream-thoughts. The coloured

plate refers (cf. the analysis in chapter V.) to a new
subject, the criticism passed upon my work by



colleagues, and also to a subject already

represented in the dream- my hobbies- and, further,

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to a memory of my childhood, in which I pull to

pieces a book with coloured plates; the dried


specimen of the plant relates to my experience with


the herbarium at the Gymnasium, and gives this
memory particular emphasis. Thus I perceive the


nature of the relation between the dream-content
and dream-thoughts: Not only are the elements of


the dream determined several times over by the
dream-thoughts, but the individual dream-thoughts


are represented in the dream by several elements.
Starting from an element of the dream, the path of


the association leads to a number of dream-

thoughts; and from a single dream-thought to


several elements of the dream. In the process of



dream-formation, therefore, it is not the case that a

single dream-thought, or a group of dream-


thoughts, supplies the dream-content with an

abbreviation of itself as its representative, and that
the next dream-thought supplies another



abbreviation as its representative (much as

representatives are elected from among the

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population); but rather that the whole mass of the

dream-thoughts is subjected to a certain


elaboration, in the course of which those elements


that receive the strongest and completest support
stand out in relief; so that the process might


perhaps be likened to election by the scrutin du
liste. Whatever dream I may subject to such a


dissection, I always find the same fundamental
principle confirmed- that the dream-elements have


been formed out of the whole mass of the dream-
thoughts, and that every one of them appears, in


relation to the dream- thoughts, to have a multiple

determination.


It is certainly not superfluous to



demonstrate this relation of the dream-content to

the dream-thoughts by means of a further example,


which is distinguished by a particularly artful

intertwining of reciprocal relations. The dream is
that of a patient whom I am treating for



claustrophobia (fear of enclosed spaces). It will soon

become evident why I feel myself called upon to

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entitle this exceptionally clever piece of dream-

activity:


II. "A Beautiful Dream"


The dreamer is driving with a great number
of companions in X- street, where there is a modest


hostelry (which is not the case). A theatrical


performance is being given in one of the rooms of
the inn. He is first spectator, then actor. Finally the


company is told to change their clothes, in order to
return to the city. Some of the company are shown
into rooms on the ground floor, others to rooms on


the first floor. Then a dispute arises. The people



upstairs are annoyed because those downstairs have

not yet finished changing, so that they cannot come


down. His brother is upstairs; he is downstairs; and

he is angry with his brother because they are so


hurried. (This part obscure.) Besides, it was already

decided, upon their arrival, who was to go upstairs
and who down. Then he goes alone up the hill



towards the city, and he walks so heavily, and with

such difficulty, that he cannot move from the spot.

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An elderly gentleman joins him and talks angrily of

the King of Italy. Finally, towards the top of the hill,


he is able to walk much more easily.


The difficulty experienced in climbing the hill
was so distinct that for some time after waking he


was in doubt whether the experience was a dream
or the reality.


Judged by the manifest content, this dream
can hardly be eulogized. Contrary to the rules, I


shall begin the interpretation with that portion to
which the dreamer referred as being the most


distinct.
The difficulty dreamed of, and probably


experienced during the dream- difficulty in climbing,



accompanied by dyspnoea- was one of the

symptoms which the patient had actually exhibited


some years before, and which, in conjunction with

other symptoms, was at the time attributed to
tuberculosis (probably hysterically simulated). From



our study of exhibition-dreams we are already

acquainted with this sensation of being inhibited in

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motion, peculiar to dreams, and here again we find

it utilized as material always available for the


purposes of any other kind of representation. The


part of the dream-content which represents climbing
as difficult at first, and easier at the top of the hill,


made me think, while it was being related, of the
well- known masterly introduction to Daudet's


Sappho. Here a young man carries the woman he
loves upstairs; she is at first as light as a feather,


but the higher he climbs the more she weighs; and
this scene is symbolic of the process of their


relation, in describing which Daudet seeks to

admonish young men not to lavish an earnest


affection upon girls of humble origin and dubious



antecedents.[2] Although I knew that my patient

had recently had a love-affair with an actress, and


had broken it off, I hardly expected to find that the

interpretation which had occurred to me was
correct. The situation in Sappho is actually the



reverse of that in the dream; for in the dream

climbing was difficult at the first and easy later on;

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in the novel the symbolism is pertinent only if what

was at first easily carried finally proves to be a


heavy burden. To my astonishment, the patient


remarked that the interpretation fitted in very well
with the plot of a play which he had seen the


previous evening. The play was called Rund um
Wien (Round about Vienna), and treated of the


career of a girl who was at first respectable, but who
subsequently lapsed into the demimonde, and


formed relations with highly-placed lovers, thereby
climbing, but finally she went downhill faster and


faster. This play reminded him of another, entitled

Von Stufe zu Stufe (From Step to Step), the poster


advertising which had depicted a flight of stairs. -



To continue the interpretation: The actress

with whom he had had his most recent and


complicated affair had lived in X-street. There is no

inn in this street. However, while he was spending
part of the summer in Vienna for the sake of this



lady, he had lodged (German: abgestiegen =

stopped, literally stepped off) at a small hotel in the

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neighbourhood. When he was leaving the hotel, he

said to the cab-driver: "I am glad at all events that I


didn't get any vermin here!" (Incidentally, the dread


of vermin is one of his phobias.) Whereupon the
cab-driver answered: "How could anybody stop


there! That isn't a hotel at all, it's really nothing but
a pub!"


The pub immediately reminded him of a
quotation:


Of a wonderful host I was lately a guest.

But the host in the poem by Uhland is an



apple-tree. Now a second quotation continues the



train of thought:

FAUST (dancing with the young witch).



A lovely dream once came to me;

I then beheld an apple-tree,


And there two fairest apples shone:

They lured me so, I climbed thereon.



THE FAIR ONE

Apples have been desired by you,

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Since first in Paradise they grew;

And I am moved with joy to know


That such within my garden grow.[3]


There is not the slightest doubt what is
meant by the apple-tree and the apples. A beautiful


bosom stood high among the charms by which the
actress had bewitched our dreamer.


Judging from the context of the analysis, we
had every reason to assume that the dream referred


to an impression of the dreamer's childhood. If this
is correct, it must have referred to the wet- nurse of


the dreamer, who is now a man of nearly thirty



years of age. The bosom of the nurse is in reality an

inn for the child. The nurse, as well as Daudet's


Sappho, appears as an allusion to his recently

abandoned mistress.


The (elder) brother of the patient also

appears in the dream- content; he is upstairs, while
the dreamer himself is downstairs. This again is an



inversion, for the brother, as I happen to know, has

lost his social position, while my patient has retained

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his. In relating the dream-content, the dreamer

avoided saying that his brother was upstairs and


that he himself was downstairs. This would have


been to obvious an expression, for in Austria we say
that a man is on the ground floor when he has lost


his fortune and social position, just as we say that
he has come down. Now the fact that at this point in


the dream something is represented as inverted
must have a meaning; and the inversion must apply


to some other relation between the dream-thoughts
and the dream- content. There is an indication which


suggests how this inversion is to be understood. It

obviously applies to the end of the dream, where the


circumstances of climbing are the reverse of those



described in Sappho. Now it is evident what

inversion is meant: In Sappho the man carries the


woman who stands in a sexual relation to him; in

the dream-thoughts, conversely, there is a reference
to a woman carrying a man: and, as this could occur



only in childhood, the reference is once more to the

nurse who carries the heavy child. Thus the final

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portion of the dream succeeds in representing

Sappho and the nurse in the same allusion.


Just as the name Sappho has not been


selected by the poet without reference to a Lesbian
practise, so the portions of the dream in which


people are busy upstairs and downstairs, above and
beneath, point to fancies of a sexual content with


which the dreamer is occupied, and which, as
suppressed cravings, are not unconnected with his


neurosis. Dream-interpretation itself does not show
that these are fancies and not memories of actual


happenings; it only furnishes us with a set of

thoughts and leaves it to us to determine their


actual value. In this case real and imagined



happenings appear at first as of equal value- and

not only here, but also in the creation of more


important psychic structures than dreams. A large

company, as we already know, signifies a secret.
The brother is none other than a representative,



drawn into the scenes of childhood by fancying

backwards, of all of the subsequent for women's

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favours. Through the medium of an experience

indifferent in itself, the episode of the gentleman


who talks angrily of the King of Italy refers to the


intrusion of people of low rank into aristocratic
society. It is as though the warning which Daudet


gives to young men were to be supplemented by a
similar warning applicable to a suckling child.[4]


In the two dreams here cited I have shown
by italics where one of the elements of the dream


recurs in the dream-thoughts, in order to make the
multiple relations of the former more obvious. Since,


however, the analysis of these dreams has not been

carried to completion, it will probably be worth while


to consider a dream with a full analysis, in order to



demonstrate the manifold determination of the

dream-content. For this purpose I shall select the


dream of Irma's injection (see chapter II). From this

example we shall readily see that the condensation-
work in the dream-formation has made use of more



means than one.

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The chief person in the dream-content is my

patient Irma, who is seen with the features which


belong to her waking life, and who therefore, in the


first instance, represents herself. But her attitude,
as I examine her at the window, is taken from a


recollection of another person, of the lady for whom
I should like to exchange my patient, as is shown by


the dream-thoughts. Inasmuch as Irma has a
diphtheritic membrane, which recalls my anxiety


about my eldest daughter, she comes to represent
this child of mine, behind whom, connected with her


by the identity of their names, is concealed the

person of the patient who died from the effects of


poison. In the further course of the dream the



Significance of Irma's personality changes (without

the alteration of her image as it is seen in the


dream): she becomes one of the children whom we

examine in the public dispensaries for children's
diseases, where my friends display the differences in



their mental capacities. The transition was obviously

effected by the idea of my little daughter. Owing to

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her unwillingness to open her mouth, the same Irma

constitutes an allusion to another lady who was


examined by me, and, also in the same connection,


to my wife. Further, in the morbid changes which I
discover in her throat I have summarized allusions


to quite a number of other persons.
All these people whom I encounter as I


follow up the associations suggested by Irma do not
appear personally in the dream; they are concealed


behind the dream-person Irma, who is thus
developed into a collective image, which, as might


be expected, has contradictory features. Irma comes

to represent these other persons, who are discarded


in the work of condensation, inasmuch as I allow



anything to happen to her which reminds me of

these persons, trait by trait.


For the purposes of dream-condensation I

may construct a composite person in yet another
fashion, by combining the actual features of two or



more persons in a single dream-image. It is in this

fashion that the Dr. M of my dream was

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constructed; he bears the name of Dr. M, and he

speaks and acts as Dr. M does, but his bodily


characteristics and his malady belong to another


person, my eldest brother; a single feature,
paleness, is doubly determined, owing to the fact


that it is common to both persons. Dr. R, in my
dream about my uncle, is a similar composite


person. But here the dream-image is constructed in
yet another fashion. I have not united features


peculiar to the one person with the features of the
other, thereby abridging by certain features the


memory-picture of each; but I have adopted the

method employed by Galton in producing family


portraits; namely, I have superimposed the two



images, so that the common features stand out in

stronger relief, while those which do not coincide


neutralize one another and become indistinct. In the

dream of my uncle the fair beard stands out in relief,
as an emphasized feature, from a physiognomy



which belongs to two persons, and which is

consequently blurred; further, in its reference to

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growing grey the beard contains an allusion to my

father and to myself.


The construction of collective and composite


persons is one of the principal methods of dream-
condensation. We shall presently have occasion to


deal with this in another connection.
The notion of dysentry in the dream of


Irma's injection has likewise a multiple
determination; on the one hand, because of its


paraphasic assonance with diphtheria. and on the
other because of its reference to the patient whom I


sent to the East, and whose hysteria had been

wrongly diagnosed.


The mention of propyls in the dream proves



again to be an interesting case of condensation. Not

propyls but amyls were included in the dream-


thoughts. One might think that here a simple

displacement had occured in the course of dream-
formation. This is in fact the case, but the



displacement serves the purposes of the

condensation, as is shown from the following

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supplementary analysis: If I dwell for a moment

upon the word propylen (German) its assonance


with the word propylaeum suggests itself to me. But


a propylaeum is to be found not only in Athens, but
also in Munich. In the latter city, a year before my


dream, I had visited a friend who was seriously ill,
and the reference to him in trimethylamin, which


follows closely upon propyls, is unmistakable.
I pass over the striking circumstance that


here, as elsewhere in the analysis of dreams,
associations of the most widely differing values are


employed for making thought-connections as though

they were equivalent, and I yield to the temptation


to regard the procedure by which amyls in the



dream-thoughts are replaced in the dream-content

by propyls as a sort of plastic process.


On the one hand, here is the group of ideas

relating to my friend Otto, who does not understand
me, thinks I am in the wrong, and gives me the



liqueur that smells of amyls; on the other hand,

there is the group of ideas- connected with the first

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by contrast- relating to my Berlin friend who does

understand me, who would always think that I was


right, and to whom I am indebted for so much


valuable information concerning the chemistry of
sexual processes.


What elements in the Otto group are to
attract my particular attention are determined by


the recent circumstances which are responsible for
the dream; amyls belong to the element so


distinguished, which are predestined to find their
way into the dream-content. The large group of


ideas centering upon William is actually stimulated

by the contrast between William and Otto, and those


elements in it are emphasized which are in tune with



those already stirred up in the Otto group. In the

whole of this dream I am continually recoiling from


somebody who excites my displeasure towards

another person with whom I can at will confront the
first; trait by trait I appeal to the friend as against



the enemy. Thus amyls in the Otto group awakes

recollections in the other group, also belonging to

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the region of chemistry; trimethylamin, which

receives support from several quarters, finds its way


into the dream-content. Amyls, too, might have got


into the dream-content unchanged, but it yields to
the influence of the William group, inasmuch as out


of the whole range of recollections covered by this
name an element is sought out which is able to


furnish a double determination for amyls. Propyls is
closely associated with amyls; from the William


group comes Munich with its propylaeum. Both
groups are united in propyls- propylaeum. As though


by a compromise, this intermediate element then

makes its way into the dream-content. Here a


common mean which permits of a multiple



determination has been created. It thus becomes

palpable that a multiple determination must


facilitate penetration into the dream-content. For the

purpose of this mean-formation a displacement of
the attention has been unhesitatingly effected from



what is really intended to something adjacent to it in

the associations.

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The study of the dream of Irma's injection

has now enabled us to obtain some insight into the


process of condensation which occurs in the


formation of dreams. We perceive, as peculiarities of
the condensing process, a selection of those


elements which occur several times over in the
dream-content, the formation of new unities


(composite persons, mixed images), and the
production of common means. The purpose which is


served by condensation, and the means by which it
is brought about, will be investigated when we come


to study in all their bearings the psychic processes

at work in the formation of dreams. Let us for the


present be content with establishing the fact of



dream-condensation as a relation between the

dream-thoughts and the dream-content which


deserves attention.
The condensation-work of dreams becomes
most palpable when it takes words and means as its



objects. Generally speaking, words are often treated

in dreams as things, and therefore undergo the

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same combinations as the ideas of things. The

results of such dreams are comical and bizarre


word-formations.


1. A colleague sent an essay of his, in which
he had, in my opinion, overestimated the value of a


recent physiological discovery, and had expressed
himself, moreover, in extravagant terms. On the


following night I dreamed a sentence which
obviously referred to this essay: "That is a truly


norekdal style." The solution of this word-formation
at first gave me some difficulty; it was


unquestionably formed as a parody of the

superlatives colossal, pyramidal; but it was not easy


to say where it came from. At last the monster fell



apart into the two names Nora and Ekdal, from two
well-known plays by Ibsen. I had previously read a


newspaper article on Ibsen by the writer whose

latest work I was now criticizing in my dream.
2. One of my female patients dreams that a



man with a fair beard and a peculiar glittering eye is

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pointing to a sign-board attached to a tree which

reads: uclamparia- wet.[5]


Analysis.- The man was rather authoritative-


looking, and his peculiar glittering eye at once
recalled the church of San Paolo, near Rome, where


she had seen the mosaic portraits of the Popes. One
of the early Popes had a golden eye (this is really an


optical illusion, to which the guides usually call
attention). Further associations showed that the


general physiognomy of the man corresponded with
her own clergyman (pope), and the shape of the fair


beard recalled her doctor (myself), while the stature

of the man in the dream recalled her father. All


these persons stand in the same relation to her;



they are all guiding and directing the course of her

life. On further questioning, the golden eye recalled


gold- money- the rather expensive psycho-analytic

treatment, which gives her a great deal of concern.
Gold, moreover, recalls the gold cure for alcoholism-



Herr D, whom she would have married, if it had not

been for his clinging to the disgusting alcohol habit-

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she does not object to anyone's taking an occasional

drink; she herself sometimes drinks beer and


liqueurs. This again brings her back to her visit to


San Paolo (fuori la mura) and its surroundings. She
remembers that in the neighbouring monastery of


the Tre Fontane she drank a liqueur made of
eucalyptus by the Trappist monks of the monastery.


She then relates how the monks transformed this
malarial and swampy region into a dry and


wholesome neighbourhood by planting numbers of
eucalyptus trees. The word uclamparia then resolves


itself into eucalyptus and malaria, and the word wet

refers to the former swampy nature of the locality.


Wet also suggests dry. Dry is actually the name of



the man whom she would have married but for his
over-indulgence in alcohol. The peculiar name of Dry


is of Germanic origin (drei = three) and hence,

alludes to the monastery of the Three (drei)
Fountains. In talking of Mr. Dry's habit she used the



strong expression: "He could drink a fountain." Mr.

Dry jocosely refers to his habit by saying: "You know

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I must drink because I am always dry" (referring to

his name). The eucalyptus refers also to her


neurosis, which was at first diagnosed as malaria.


She went to Italy because her attacks of anxiety,
which were accompanied by marked rigors and


shivering, were thought to be of malarial origin. She
bought some eucalyptus oil from the monks, and


she maintains that it has done her much good.
The condensation uclamparia- wet is,


therefore, the point of junction for the dream as well
as for the neurosis.


3. In a rather long and confused dream of

my own, the apparent nucleus of which is a sea-


voyage, it occurs to me that the next port is



Hearsing, and next after that Fliess. The latter is the

name of my friend in B, to which city I have often


journeyed. But Hearsing is put together from the

names of the places in the neighbourhood of Vienna,
which so frequently end in "ing": Hietzing, Liesing,



Moedling (the old Medelitz, meae deliciae, my joy;

that is, my own name, the German for joy being

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Freude), and the English hearsay, which points to

calumny, and establishes the relation to the


indifferent dream-stimulus of the day- a poem in


Fliegende Blatter about a slanderous dwarf, Sagter
Hatergesagt (Saidhe Hashesaid). By the combination


of the final syllable ing with the name Fliess,
Vlissingen is obtained, which is a real port through


which my brother passes when he comes to visit us
from England. But the English for Vlissingen is


Flushing, which signifies blushing, and recalls
patients suffering from erythrophobia (fear of


blushing), whom I sometimes treat, and also a

recent publication of Bechterew's, relating to this


neurosis, the reading of which angered me.[6]



4. Upon another occasion I had a dream

which consisted of two separate parts. The first was


the vividly remembered word Autodidasker: the

second was a faithful reproduction in the dream-
content of a short and harmless fancy which had



been developed a few days earlier, and which was to

the effect that I must tell Professor N, when I next

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saw him: "The patient about whose condition I last

consulted you is really suffering from a neurosis,


just as you suspected." So not only must the newly-


coined Autodidasker satisfy the requirement that it
should contain or represent a compressed meaning,


but this meaning must have a valid connection with
my resolve- repeated from waking life- to give


Professor N due credit for his diagnosis.
Now Autodidasker is easily separated into


author (German, Autor), autodidact, and Lasker,
with whom is associated the name Lasalle. The first


of these words leads to the occasion of the dream-

which this time is significant. I had brought home to


my wife several volumes by a well-known author



who is a friend of my brother's, and who, as I have

learned, comes from the same neighbourhood as


myself (J. J. David). One evening she told me how

profoundly impressed she had been by the pathetic
sadness of a story in one of David's novels (a story



of wasted talents), and our conversation turned

upon the signs of talent which we perceive in our

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own children. Under the influence of what she had

just read, my wife expressed some concern about


our children, and I comforted her with the remark


that precisely such dangers as she feared can be
averted by training. During the night my thoughts


proceeded farther, took up my wife's concern for the
children, and interwove with it all sorts of other


things. Something which the novelist had said to my
brother on the subject of marriage showed my


thoughts a by-path which might lead to
representation in the dream. This path led to


Breslau; a lady who was a very good friend of ours

had married and gone to live there. I found in


Breslau Lasker and Lasalle, two examples to justify



the fear lest our boys should be ruined by women,

examples which enabled me to represent


simultaneously two ways of influencing a man to his

undoing.[7] The Cherchez la femme, by which these
thoughts may be summarized, leads me, if taken in



another sense, to my brother, who is still married

and whose name is Alexander. Now I see that Alex,

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as we abbreviate the name, sounds almost like an

inversion of Lasker, and that this fact must have


contributed to send my thoughts on a detour by way


of Breslau.
But the playing with names and syllables in


which I am here engaged has yet another meaning.
It represents the wish that my brother may enjoy a


happy family life, and this in the following manner:
In the novel of artistic life, L'OEuvre, which, by


virtue of its content, must have been in association
with my dream- thoughts, the author, as is well-


known, has incidentally given a description of his

own person and his own domestic happiness, and


appears under the name of Sandoz. In the



metamorphosis of his name he probably went to

work as follows: Zola, when inverted (as children


are fond of inverting names) gives Aloz. But this was

still too undisguised; he therefore replaced the
syllable Al, which stands at the beginning of the



name Alexander, by the third syllable of the same

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name, sand, and thus arrived at Sandoz. My

autodidasker originated in a similar fashion.


My phantasy- that I am telling Professor N


that the patient whom we have both seen is
suffering from a neurosis- found its way into the


dream in the following manner: Shortly before the
close of my working year, I had a patient in whose


case my powers of diagnosis failed me. A serious
organic trouble- possibly some alterative


degeneration of the spinal cord- was to be assumed,
but could not be conclusively demonstrated. It would


have been tempting to diagnose the trouble as a

neurosis, and this would have put an end to all my


difficulties, but for the fact that the sexual



anamnesis, failing which I am unwilling to admit a

neurosis, was so energetically denied by the patient.


In my embarrassment I called to my assistance the

physician whom I respect most of all men (as others
do also), and to whose authority I surrender most



completely. He listened to my doubts, told me he

thought them justified, and then said: "Keep on

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observing the man, it is probably a neurosis." Since

I know that he does not share my opinions


concerning the aetiology of the neuroses, I refrained


from contradicting him, but I did not conceal my
scepticism. A few days later I informed the patient


that I did not know what to do with him, and
advised him to go to someone else. Thereupon, to


my great astonishment, he began to beg my pardon
for having lied to me: he had felt so ashamed; and


now he revealed to me just that piece of sexual
aetiology which I had expected, and which I found


necessary for assuming the existence of a neurosis.

This was a relief to me, but at the same time a


humiliation; for I had to admit that my consultant,



who was not disconcerted by the absence of

anamnesis, had judged the case more correctly. I


made up my mind to tell him, when next I saw him,

that he had been right and I had been wrong.
This is just what I do in the dream. But what



sort of a wish is fulfilled if I acknowledge that I am

mistaken? This is precisely my wish; I wish to be

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mistaken as regards my fears- that is to say, I wish

that my wife, whose fears I have appropriated in my


dream-thoughts, may prove to be mistaken. The


subject to which the fact of being right or wrong is
related in the dream is not far removed from that


which is really of interest to the dream- thoughts.
We have the same pair of alternatives, of either


organic or functional impairment caused by a
woman, or actually by the sexual life- either tabetic


paralysis or a neurosis- with which latter the nature
of Lasalle's undoing is indirectly connected.


In this well-constructed (and on careful

analysis quite transparent) dream, Professor N


appears not merely on account of this analogy, and



my wish to be proved mistaken, or the associated

references to Breslau and to the family of our


married friend who lives there, but also on account

of the following little dialogue which followed our
consultation: After he had acquitted himself of his



professional duties by making the above- mentioned

suggestion, Dr. N proceeded to discuss personal

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matters. "How many children have you now?"-

"Six."- A thoughtful and respectful gesture.- "Girls,


boys?"- "Three of each. They are my pride and my


riches."- "Well, you must be careful; there is no
difficulty about the girls, but the boys are a difficulty


later on as regards their upbringing." I replied that
until now they had been very tractable; obviously


this prognosis of my boys' future pleased me as little
as his diagnosis of my patient, whom he believed to


be suffering only from a neurosis. These two
impressions, then, are connected by their continuity,


by their being successively received; and when I

incorporate the story of the neurosis into the dream,


I substitute it for the conversation on the subject of



upbringing, which is even more closely connected

with the dream-thoughts, since it touches so closely


upon the anxiety subsequently expressed by my

wife. Thus, even my fear that N may prove to be
right in his remarks on the difficulties to be met with



in bringing up boys is admitted into the dream-

content, inasmuch as it is concealed behind the

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representation of my wish that I may be wrong to

harbour such apprehensions. The same phantasy


serves without alteration to represent both the


conflicting alternatives.
Examination-dreams present the same


difficulties to interpretation that I have already
described as characteristic of most typical dreams.


The associative material which the dreamer supplies
only rarely suffices for interpretation. A deeper


understanding of such dreams has to be
accumulated from a considerable number of


examples. Not long ago I arrived at a conviction that

reassurances like "But you already are a doctor,"


and so on, not only convey a consolation but imply a



reproach as well. This would have run: "You are

already so old, so far advanced in life, and yet you


still commit such follies, are guilty of such childish

behaviour." This mixture of self- criticism and
consolation would correspond with the examination-



dreams. After this it is no longer surprising that the

reproaches in the last analysed examples concerning

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follies and childish behaviour should relate to

repetitions of reprehensible sexual acts.


The verbal transformations in dreams are


very similar to those which are known to occur in
paranoia, and which are observed also in hysteria


and obsessions. The linguistic tricks of children, who
at a certain age actually treat words as objects, and


even invent new languages and artificial syntaxes,
are a common source of such occurrences both in


dreams and in the psychoneuroses.
The analysis of nonsensical word-formations


in dreams is particularly well suited to demonstrate

the degree of condensation effected in the dream-


work. From the small number of the selected



examples here considered it must not be concluded

that such material is seldom observed or is at all


exceptional. It is, on the contrary, very frequent,

but, owing to the dependence of dream
interpretation on psychoanalytic treatment, very few



examples are noted down and reported, and most of

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the analyses which are reported are comprehensible

only to the specialist in neuropathology.


When a spoken utterance, expressly


distinguished as such from a thought, occurs in a
dream, it is an invariable rule that the dream-speech


has originated from a remembered speech in the
dream- material. The wording of the speech has


either been preserved in its entirety or has been
slightly altered in expression. frequently the dream-


speech is pieced together from different recollections
of spoken remarks; the wording has remained the


same, but the sense has perhaps become

ambiguous, or differs from the wording. Not


infrequently the dream-speech serves merely as an



allusion to an incident in connection with which the

remembered speech was made.[8]


B. The Work of Displacement

Another and probably no less significant

relation must have already forced itself upon our



attention while we were collecting examples of

dream-condensation. We may have noticed that

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these elements which obtrude themselves in the

dream-content as its essential components do not


by any means play this same part in the dream-


thoughts. As a corollary to this, the converse of this
statement is also true. That which is obviously the


essential content of the dream-thoughts need not be
represented at all in the dream. The dream is, as it


were, centred elsewhere; its content is arranged
about elements which do not constitute the central


point of the dream-thoughts. Thus, for example, in
the dream of the botanical monograph the central


point of the dream- content is evidently the element

botanical; in the dream- thoughts, we are concerned


with the complications and conflicts resulting from



services rendered between colleagues which place

them under mutual obligations; later on with the


reproach that I am in the habit of sacrificing too

much time to my hobbies; and the element botanical
finds no place in this nucleus of the dream-



thoughts, unless it is loosely connected with it by

antithesis, for botany was never among my favourite

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subjects. In the Sappho- dream of my patient,

ascending and descending, being upstairs and down,


is made the central point; the dream, however, is


concerned with the danger of sexual relations with
persons of low degree; so that only one of the


elements of the dream-thoughts seems to have
found its way into the dream-content, and this is


unduly expanded. Again, in the dream of my uncle,
the fair beard, which seems to be its central point,


appears to have no rational connection with the
desire for greatness which we have recognized as


the nucleus of the dream-thoughts. Such dreams

very naturally give us an impression of a


displacement. In complete contrast to these



examples, the dream of Irma's injection shows that

individual elements may claim the same place in


dream-formation as that which they occupy in the

dream-thoughts. The recognition of this new and
utterly inconstant relation between the dream-



thoughts and the dream-content will probably

astonish us at first. If we find, in a psychic process

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of normal life, that one idea has been selected from

among a number of others, and has acquired a


particular emphasis in our consciousness, we are


wont to regard this as proof that a peculiar psychic
value (a certain degree of interest) attaches to the


victorious idea. We now discover that this value of
the individual element in the dream- thoughts is not


retained in dream-formation, or is not taken into
account. For there is no doubt which of the elements


of the dream- thoughts are of the highest value; our
judgment informs us immediately. In dream-


formation the essential elements, those that are

emphasized by intensive interest, may be treated as


though they were subordinate, while they are



replaced in the dream by other elements, which

were certainly subordinate in the dream-thoughts. It


seems at first as though the psychic intensity[9] of

individual ideas were of no account in their selection
for dream-formation, but only their greater or lesser



multiplicity of determination. One might be inclined

to think that what gets into the dream is not what is

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important in the dream-thoughts, but what is

contained in them several times over; but our


understanding of dream-formation is not much


advanced by this assumption; to begin with, we
cannot believe that the two motives of multiple


determination and intrinsic value can influence the
selection of the dream otherwise than in the same


direction. Those ideas in the dream-thoughts which
are most important are probably also those which


recur most frequently, since the individual dream-
thoughts radiate from them as centres. And yet the


dream may reject these intensely emphasized and

extensively reinforced elements, and may take up


into its content other elements which are only



extensively reinforced.
This difficulty may be solved if we follow up


yet another impression received during the

investigation of the over- determination of the
dream-content. Many readers of this investigation



may already have decided, in their own minds, that

the discovery of the multiple determination of the

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dream-elements is of no great importance, because

it is inevitable. Since in analysis we proceed from


the dream-elements, and register all the ideas which


associate themselves with these elements, is it any
wonder that these elements should recur with


peculiar frequency in the thought-material obtained
in this manner? While I cannot admit the validity of


this objection, I am now going to say something that
sounds rather like it: Among the thoughts which


analysis brings to light are many which are far
removed from the nucleus of the dream, and which


stand out like artificial interpolations made for a

definite purpose. Their purpose may readily be


detected; they establish a connection, often a forced



and far-fetched connection, between the dream-

content and the dream-thoughts, and in many


cases, if these elements were weeded out of the

analysis, the components of the dream-content
would not only not be over-determined, but they



would not be sufficiently determined. We are thus

led to the conclusion that multiple determination,

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decisive as regards the selection made by the

dream, is perhaps not always a primary factor in


dream- formation, but is often a secondary product


of a psychic force which is as yet unknown to us.
Nevertheless, it must be of importance for the


entrance of the individual elements into the dream,
for we may observe that, in cases where multiple


determination does not proceed easily from the
dream-material, it is brought about with a certain


effort.
It now becomes very probable that a psychic


force expresses itself in the dream-work which, on

the one hand, strips the elements of the high


psychic value of their intensity and, on the other



hand, by means of over-determination, creates new

significant values from elements of slight value,


which new values then make their way into the

dream-content. Now if this is the method of
procedure, there has occurred in the process of



dream-formation a transference and displacement of

the psychic intensities of the individual elements,

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from which results the textual difference between

the dream-content and the thought- content. The


process which we here assume to be operative is


actually the most essential part of the dream-work;
it may fitly be called dream-displacement. Dream-


displacement and dream- condensation are the two
craftsmen to whom we may chiefly ascribe the


structure of the dream.
I think it will be easy to recognize the


psychic force which expresses itself in dream-
displacement. The result of this displacement is that


the dream-content no longer has any likeness to the

nucleus of the dream-thoughts, and the dream


reproduces only a distorted form of the dream-wish



in the unconscious. But we are already acquainted

with dream-distortion; we have traced it back to the


censorship which one psychic instance in the psychic

life exercises over another. Dream-displacement is
one of the chief means of achieving this distortion.



Is fecit, cui profuit.[10] We must assume that

dream-displacement is brought about by the

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influence of this censorship, the endopsychic

defence.[11]


"Concerning a man who possesses the


remarkable faculty of never dreaming nonsense...."
"Your marvellous faculty of dreaming as if


you were awake is based upon your virtues, upon
your goodness, your justice, and your love of truth;


it is the moral clarity of your nature which makes
everything about you intelligible to me."


"But if I really give thought to the matter,"
was the reply, "I almost believe that all men are


made as I am, and that no one ever dreams

nonsense! A dream which one remembers so


distinctly that one can relate it afterwards, and



which, therefore, is no dream of delirium, always

has a meaning; why, it cannot be otherwise! For


that which is in contradiction to itself can never be

combined into a whole. The fact that time and space
are often thoroughly shaken up, detracts not at all



from the real content of the dream, because both

are without any significance whatever for its

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essential content. We often do the same thing in

waking life; think of fairy-tales, of so many bold and


pregnant creations of fantasy, of which only a foolish


person would say: 'That is nonsense! For it isn't
possible.'"


"If only it were always possible to interpret
dreams correctly, as you have just done with mine!"


said the friend.
"That is certainly not an easy task, but with


a little attention it must always be possible to the
dreamer. You ask why it is generally impossible? In


your case there seems to be something veiled in

your dreams, something unchaste in a special and


exalted fashion, a certain secrecy in your nature,



which it is difficult to fathom; and that is why your

dreams so often seem to be without meaning, or


even nonsensical. But in the profoundest sense, this

is by no means the case; indeed it cannot be, for a
man is always the same person, whether he wakes



or dreams."

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The manner in which the factors of

displacement, condensation and over-determination


interact with one another in dream-formation- which


is the ruling factor and which the subordinate one-
all this will be reserved as a subject for later


investigation. In the meantime, we may state, is a
second condition which the elements that find their


way into the dream must satisfy, that they must be
withdrawn from the resistance of the censorship. But


henceforth, in the interpretation of dreams, we shall
reckon with dream-displacement as an


unquestionable fact.


C. The Means of Representation in

Dreams


Besides the two factors of condensation and

displacement in dreams, which we have found to be


at work in the transformation of the latent dream-

material into the manifest dream-content, we shall,
in the course of this investigation, come upon two



further conditions which exercise an unquestionable

influence over the selection of the material that

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eventually appears in the dream. But first, even at

the risk of seeming to interrupt our progress, I shall


take a preliminary glance at the processes by which


the interpretation of dreams is accomplished. I do
not deny that the best way of explaining them, and


of convincing the critic of their reliability, would be
to take a single dream as an example, to detail its


interpretation, as I did (in Chapter II) in the case of
the dream of Irma's injection, but then to assemble


the dream-thoughts which I had discovered, and
from them to reconstruct the formation of the


dream- that is to say, to supplement dream-analysis

by dream-synthesis. I have done this with several


specimens for my own instruction; but I cannot



undertake to do it here, as I am prevented by a

number of considerations (relating to the psychic


material necessary for such a demonstration) such

as any right-thinking person would approve. In the
analysis of dreams these considerations present less



difficulty, for an analysis may be incomplete and still

retain its value, even if it leads only a little way into

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the structure of the dream. I do not see how a

synthesis, to be convincing, could be anything short


of complete. I could give a complete synthesis only


of the dreams of such persons as are unknown to
the reading public. Since, however, neurotic patients


are the only persons who furnish me with the means
of making such a synthesis, this part of the


description of dreams must be postponed until I can
carry the psychological explanation of the neuroses


far enough to demonstrate their relation to our
subject.[12] This will be done elsewhere.


From my attempts to construct dreams

synthetically from their dream-thoughts, I know that


the material which is yielded by interpretation varies



in value. Part of it consists of the essential dream-

thoughts, which would completely replace the dream


and would in themselves be a sufficient substitute

for it, were there no dream-censorship. To the other
part, one is wont to ascribe slight importance, nor



does one set any value on the assertion that all

these thoughts have participated in the formation of

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the dream; on the contrary, they may include

notions which are associated with experiences that


have occurred subsequently to the dream, between


the dream and the interpretation. This part
comprises not only all the connecting- paths which


have led from the manifest to the latent dream-
content, but also the intermediate and


approximating associations by means of which one
has arrived at a knowledge of these connecting-


paths during the work of interpretation.
At this point we are interested exclusively in


the essential dream-thoughts. These commonly

reveal themselves as a complex of thoughts and


memories of the most intricate possible



construction, with all the characteristics of the

thought- processes known to us in waking life. Not


infrequently they are trains of thought which

proceed from more than one centre, but which are
not without points of contact; and almost invariably



we find, along with a train of thought, its

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contradictory counterpart, connected with it by the

association of contrast.


The individual parts of this complicated


structure naturally stand in the most manifold logical
relations to one another. They constitute foreground


and background, digressions, illustrations,
conditions, lines of argument and objections. When


the whole mass of these dream-thoughts is
subjected to the pressure of the dream- work,


during which the fragments are turned about,
broken up and compacted, somewhat like drifting


ice, the question arises: What becomes of the logical

ties which had hitherto provided the framework of


the structure? What representation do if, because,



as though, although, either- or and all the other

conjunctions, without which we cannot understand a


phrase or a sentence, receive in our dreams?

To begin with, we must answer that the
dream has at its disposal no means of representing



these logical relations between the dream-thoughts.

In most cases it disregards all these conjunctions,

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and undertakes the elaboration only of the material

content of the dream-thoughts. It is left to the


interpretation of the dream to restore the coherence


which the dream-work has destroyed.
If dreams lack the ability to express these


relations, the psychic material of which they are
wrought must be responsible for this defect. As a


matter of fact, the representative arts- painting and
sculpture- are similarly restricted, as compared with


poetry, which is able to employ speech; and here
again the reason for this limitation lies in the


material by the elaboration of which the two plastic

arts endeavour to express something. Before the art


of painting arrived at an understanding of the laws



of expression by which it is bound, it attempted to

make up for this deficiency. In old paintings little


labels hung out of the mouths of the persons

represented, giving in writing the speech which the
artist despaired of expressing in the picture.



Here, perhaps an objection will be raised,

challenging the assertion that our dreams dispense

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with the representation of logical relations. There

are dreams in which the most complicated


intellectual operations take place; arguments for and


against are adduced, jokes and comparisons are
made, just as in our waking thoughts. But here


again appearances are deceptive; if the
interpretation of such dreams is continued it will be


found that all these things are dream-material, not
the representation of intellectual activity in the


dream. The content of the dream- thoughts is
reproduced by the apparent thinking in our dreams,


but not the relations of the dream-thoughts to one

another, in the determination of which relations


thinking consists. I shall give some examples of this.



But the fact which is most easily established is that

all speeches which occur in dreams, and which are


expressly designated as such, are unchanged or only

slightly modified replicas of speeches which occur
likewise among the memories in the dream-



material. Often the speech is only an allusion to an

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event contained in the dream-thoughts; the

meaning of the dream is quite different.


However, I shall not dispute the fact that


even critical thought- activity, which does not simply
repeat material from the dream- thoughts, plays a


part in dream-formation. I shall have to explain the
influence of this factor at the close of this discussion.


It will then become clear that this thought activity is
evoked not by the dream-thoughts, but by the


dream itself, after it is, in a certain sense, already
completed.


Provisionally, then, it is agreed that the

logical relations between the dream-thoughts do not


obtain any particular representation in the dream.



For instance, where there is a contradiction in the

dream, this is either a contradiction directed against


the dream itself or a contradiction contained in one

of the dream-thoughts; a contradiction in the dream
corresponds with a contradiction between the



dream-thoughts only in the most indirect and

intermediate fashion.

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But just as the art of painting finally

succeeded in depicting, in the persons represented,


at least the intentions behind their words-


tenderness, menace, admonition, and the like- by
other means than by floating labels, so also the


dream has found it possible to render an account of
certain of the logical relations between its dream-


thoughts by an appropriate modification of the
peculiar method of dream-representation. It will be


found by experience that different dreams go to
different lengths in this respect; while one dream


will entirely disregard the logical structure of its

material, another attempts to indicate it as


completely as possible. In so doing, the dream



departs more or less widely from the text which it

has to elaborate; and its attitude is equally variable


in respect to the temporal articulation of the dream-

thoughts, if such has been established in the
unconscious (as, for example, in the dream of Irma's



injection).

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But what are the means by which the

dream-work is enabled to indicate those relations in


the dream-material which are difficult to represent?


I shall attempt to enumerate these, one by one.
In the first place, the dream renders an


account of the connection which is undeniably
present between all the portions of the dream-


thoughts by combining this material into a unity as a
situation or a proceeding. It reproduces logical


connections in the form of simultaneity; in this case
it behaves rather like the painter who groups


together all the philosophers or poets in a picture of

the School of Athens, or Parnassus. They never were


assembled in any hall or on any mountain-top,



although to the reflective mind they do constitute a

community.


The dream carries out in detail this mode of

representation. Whenever it shows two elements
close together, it vouches for a particularly intimate



connection between their corresponding

representatives in the dream-thoughts. It is as in

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our method of writing: to signifies that the two

letters are to be pronounced as one syllable; while t


with o following a blank space indicates that t is the


last letter of one word and o the first letter of
another. Consequently, dream-combinations are not


made up of arbitrary, completely incongruous
elements of the dream-material, but of elements


that are pretty intimately related in the dream-
thoughts also.


For representing causal relations our dreams
employ two methods, which are essentially reducible


to one. The method of representation more

frequently employed- in cases, for example, where


the dream-thoughts are to the effect: "Because this



was thus and thus, this and that must happen"-

consists in making the subordinate clause a


prefatory dream and joining the principal clause on

to it in the form of the main dream. If my
interpretation is correct, the sequence may likewise



be reversed. The principal clause always

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corresponds to that part of the dream which is

elaborated in the greatest detail.


An excellent example of such a


representation of causality was once provided by a
female patient, whose dream I shall subsequently


give in full. The dream consisted of a short prologue,
and of a very circumstantial and very definitely


centred dream-composition. I might entitle it
"Flowery language." The preliminary dream is as


follows: She goes to the two maids in the kitchen
and scolds them for taking so long to prepare "a


little bite of food." She also sees a very large

number of heavy kitchen utensils in the kitchen


turned upside down in order to drain, even heaped



up in stacks. The two maids go to fetch water, and

have, as it were, to climb into a river, which reaches


up to the house or into the courtyard.

Then follows the main dream, which begins
as follows: She is climbing down from a height over



a curiously shaped trellis, and she is glad that her

dress doesn't get caught anywhere, etc. Now the

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preliminary dream refers to the house of the lady's

parents. The words which are spoken in the kitchen


are words which she has probably often heard


spoken by her mother. The piles of clumsy pots and
pans are taken from an unpretentious hardware


shop located in the same house. The second part of
this dream contains an allusion to the dreamer's


father, who was always pestering the maids, and
who during a flood- for the house stood close to the


bank of the river- contracted a fatal illness. The
thought which is concealed behind the preliminary


dream is something like this: "Because I was born in

this house, in such sordid and unpleasant


surroundings..." The main dream takes up the same



thought, and presents it in a form that has been

altered by a wish-fulfilment: "I am of exalted


origin." Properly then: "Because I am of such

humble origin, the course of my life has been so and
so."



As far as I can see, the division of a dream

into two unequal portions does not always signify a

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causal relation between the thoughts of the two

portions. It often seems as though in the two


dreams the same material were presented from


different points of view; this is certainly the case
when a series of dreams, dreamed the same night,


end in a seminal emission, the somatic need
enforcing a more and more definite expression. Or


the two dreams have proceeded from two separate
centres in the dream-material, and they overlap one


another in the content, so that the subject which in
one dream constitutes the centre cooperates in the


other as an allusion, and vice versa. But in a certain

number of dreams the division into short preliminary


dreams and long subsequent dreams actually



signifies a causal relation between the two portions.

The other method of representing the causal relation


is employed with less comprehensive material, and

consists in the transformation of an image in the
dream into another image, whether it be of a person



or a thing. Only where this transformation is actually

seen occurring in the dream shall we seriously insist

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on the causal relation; not where we simply note

that one thing has taken the place of another. I said


that both methods of representing the causal


relation are really reducible to the same method; in
both cases causation is represented by succession,


sometimes by the succession of dreams, sometimes
by the immediate transformation of one image into


another. In the great majority of cases, of course,
the causal relation is not represented at all, but is


effaced amidst the succession of elements that is
unavoidable even in the dream-process.


Dreams are quite incapable of expressing

the alternative either- or; it is their custom to take


both members of this alternative into the same



context, as though they had an equal right to be

there. A classic example of this is contained in the


dream of Irma's injection. Its latent thoughts

obviously mean: I am not responsible for the
persistence of Irma's pains; the responsibility rests



either with her resistance to accepting the solution

or with the fact that she is living under unfavourable

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sexual conditions, which I am unable to change, or

her pains are not hysterical at all, but organic. The


dream, however, carries out all these possibilities,


which are almost mutually exclusive, and is quite
ready to add a fourth solution derived from the


dream-wish. After interpreting the dream, I then
inserted the either- or in its context in the dream-


thoughts.
But when in narrating a dream the narrator


is inclined to employ the alternative either- or: "It
was either a garden or a living- room," etc., there is


not really an alternative in the dream- thoughts, but

an and- a simple addition. When we use either- or


we are as a rule describing a quality of vagueness in



some element of the dream, but a vagueness which

may still be cleared up. The rule to be applied in this


case is as follows: The individual members of the

alternative are to be treated as equal and connected
by an and. For instance, after waiting long and



vainly for the address of a friend who is travelling in

Italy, I dream that I receive a telegram which gives

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me the address. On the telegraph form I see printed

in blue letters: the first word is blurred- perhaps via


or villa; the second is distinctly Sezerno, or even


(Casa). The second word, which reminds me of
Italian names, and of our discussions on etymology,


also expresses my annoyance in respect of the fact
that my friend has kept his address a secret from


me; but each of the possible first three words may
be recognized on analysis as an independent and


equally justifiable starting-point in the concatenation
of ideas.


During the night before the funeral of my

father I dreamed of a printed placard, a card or


poster rather like the notices in the waiting-rooms of



railway stations which announce that smoking is

prohibited. The sign reads either:


You are requested to shut the eyes

or
You are requested to shut one eye



an alternative which I am in the habit of

representing in the following form:

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- the You are requested to shut eye(s).

- one


Each of the two versions has its special


meaning, and leads along particular paths in the
dream-interpretation. I had made the simplest


possible funeral arrangements, for I knew what the
deceased thought about such matters. Other


members of the family, however, did not approve of
such puritanical simplicity; they thought we should


feel ashamed in the presence of the other mourners.
Hence one of the wordings of the dream asks for the


shutting of one eye, that is to say, it asks that

people should show consideration. The significance


of the vagueness, which is here represented by an



either- or, is plainly to be seen. The dream-work has

not succeeded in concocting a coherent and yet


ambiguous wording for the dream-thoughts. Thus

the two principal trains of thought are separated
from each other, even in the dream-content.



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In some few cases the division of a dream

into two equal parts expresses the alternative which


the dream finds it so difficult to present.


The attitude of dreams to the category of
antithesis and contradiction is very striking. This


category is simply ignored; the word No does not
seem to exist for a dream. Dreams are particularly


fond of reducing antitheses to uniformity. or
representing them as one and the same thing.


Dreams likewise take the liberty of representing any
element whatever by its desired opposite, so that it


is at first impossible to tell, in respect of any

element which is capable of having an opposite,


whether it is contained in the dream-thoughts in the



negative or the positive sense.[13] In one of the

recently cited dreams, whose introductory portion


we have already interpreted ("because my origin is

so and so"), the dreamer climbs down over a trellis,
and holds a blossoming bough in her hands. Since



this picture suggests to her the angel in paintings of

the Annunciation (her own name is Mary) bearing a

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lily-stem in his hand, and the white- robed girls

walking in procession on Corpus Christi Day, when


the streets are decorated with green boughs, the


blossoming bough in the dream is quite clearly an
allusion to sexual innocence. But the bough is thickly


studded with red blossoms, each of which resembles
a camellia. At the end of her walk (so the dream


continues) the blossoms are already beginning to
fall; then follow unmistakable allusions to


menstruation. But this very bough, which is carried
like a lily-stem and as though by an innocent girl, is


also an allusion to Camille, who, as we know, usually

wore a white camellia, but a red one during


menstruation. The same blossoming bough ("the



flower of maidenhood" in Goethe's songs of the

miller's daughter) represents at once sexual


innocence and its opposite. Moreover, the same

dream, which expresses the dreamer's joy at having
succeeded in passing through life unsullied, hints in



several places (as in the falling of the blossom) at

the opposite train of thought, namely, that she had

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been guilty of various sins against sexual purity

(that is, in her childhood). In the analysis of the


dream we may clearly distinguish the two trains of


thought, of which the comforting one seems to be
superficial, and the reproachful one more profound.


The two are diametrically opposed to each other,
and their similar yet contrasting elements have been


represented by identical dream-elements.
The mechanism of dream-formation is


favourable in the highest degree to only one of the
logical relations. This relation is that of similarity,


agreement, contiguity, just as; a relation which may

be represented in our dreams, as no other can be,


by the most varied expedients. The screening which



occurs in the dream-material, or the cases of just as

are the chief points of support for dream-formation,


and a not inconsiderable part of the dream-work

consists in creating new screenings of this kind in
cases where those that already exist are prevented



by the resistance of the censorship from making

their way into the dream. The effort towards

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condensation evinced by the dream-work facilitates

the representation of a relation of similarity.


Similarity, agreement, community, are quite


generally expressed in dreams by contraction into a
unity, which is either already found in the dream-


material or is newly created. The first case may be
referred to as identification, the second as


composition. Identification is used where the dream
is concerned with persons, composition where things


constitute the material to be unified; but
compositions are also made of persons. Localities


are often treated as persons.

Identification consists in giving


representation in the dream- content to only one of



two or more persons who are related by some

common feature, while the second person or other


persons appear to be suppressed as far as the

dream is concerned. In the dream this one
"screening" person enters into all the relations and



situations which derive from the persons whom he

screens. In cases of composition, however, when

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persons are combined, there are already present in

the dream-image features which are characteristic


of, but not common to, the persons in question, so


that a new unity, a composite person, appears as
the result of the union of these features. The


combination itself may be effected in various ways.
Either the dream-person bears the name of one of


the persons to whom he refers- and in this case we
simply know, in a manner that is quite analogous to


knowledge in waking life, that this or that person is
intended- while the visual features belong to another


person; or the dream-image itself is compounded of

visual features which in reality are derived from the


two. Also, in place of the visual features, the part



played by the second person may be represented by

the attitudes and gestures which are usually


ascribed to him by the words he speaks, or by the

situations in which he is placed. In this latter
method of characterization the sharp distinction



between the identification and the combination of

persons begins to disappear. But it may also happen

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that the formation of such a composite person is

unsuccessful. The situations or actions of the dream


are then attributed to one person, and the other- as


a rule the more important- is introduced as an
inactive spectator. Perhaps the dreamer will say:


"My mother was there too" (Stekel). Such an
element of the dream-content is then comparable to


a determinative in hieroglyphic script which is not
meant to be expressed, but is intended only to


explain another sign.
The common feature which justifies the


union of two persons- that is to say, which enables it

to be made- may either be represented in the dream


or it may be absent. As a rule, identification or



composition of persons actually serves to avoid the

necessity of representing this common feature.


Instead of repeating: "A is ill- disposed towards me,

and so is B," I make, in my dream, a composite
person of A and B; or I conceive A as doing



something which is alien to his character, but which

is characteristic of B. The dream-person obtained in

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this way appears in the dream in some new

connection, and the fact that he signifies both A and


B justifies my inserting that which is common to


both persons- their hostility towards me- at the
proper place in the dream- interpretation. In this


manner I often achieve a quite extraordinary degree
of condensation of the dream-content; I am able to


dispense with the direct representation of the very
complicated relations belonging to one person, if I


can find a second person who has an equal claim to
some of these relations. It will be readily understood


how far this representation by means of

identification may circumvent the censoring


resistance which sets up such harsh conditions for



the dream-work. The thing that offends the

censorship may reside in those very ideas which are


connected in the dream-material with the one

person; I now find a second person, who likewise
stands in some relation to the objectionable



material, but only to a part of it. Contact at that one

point which offends the censorship now justifies my

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formation of a composite person, who is

characterized by the indifferent features of each.


This person, the result of combination or


identification, being free of the censorship, is now
suitable for incorporation in the dream-content.


Thus, by the application of dream-condensation, I
have satisfied the demands of the dream-


censorship.
When a common feature of two persons is


represented in a dream, this is usually a hint to look
for another concealed common feature, the


representation of which is made impossible by the

censorship. Here a displacement of the common


feature has occurred, which in some degree



facilitates representation. From the circumstance

that the composite person is shown to me in the


dream with an indifferent common feature, I must

infer that another common feature which is by no
means indifferent exists in the dream-thoughts.



Accordingly, the identification or

combination of persons serves various purposes in

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our dreams; in the first place, that of representing a

feature common to two persons; secondly, that of


representing a displaced common feature; and,


thirdly, that of expressly a community of features
which is merely wished for. As the wish for a


community of features in two persons often
coincides with the interchanging of these persons,


this relation also is expressed in dreams by
identification. In the dream of Irma's injection I wish


to exchange one patient for another- that is to say, I
wish this other person to be my patient, as the


former person has been; the dream deals with this

wish by showing me a person who is called Irma,


but who is examined in a position such as I have



had occasion to see only the other person occupy. In

the dream about my uncle this substitution is made


the centre of the dream; I identify myself with the

minister by judging and treating my colleagues as
shabbily as lie does.



It has been my experience- and to this I

have found no exception- that every dream treats of

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oneself. Dreams are absolutely egoistic.[14] In

cases where not my ego but only a strange person


occurs in the dream-content, I may safely assume


that by means of identification my ego is concealed
behind that person. I am permitted to supplement


my ego. On other occasions, when my ego appears
in the dream, the situation in which it is placed tells


me that another person is concealing himself, by
means of identification, behind the ego. In this case


I must be prepared to find that in the interpretation
I should transfer something which is connected with


this person- the hidden common feature- to myself.

There are also dreams in which my ego appears


together with other persons who, when the



identification is resolved, once more show

themselves to be my ego. Through these


identifications I shall then have to connect with my

ego certain ideas to which the censorship has
objected. I may also give my ego multiple



representation in my dream, either directly or by

means of identification with other people. By means

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of several such identifications an extraordinary

amount of thought material may be condensed.[15]


That one's ego should appear in the same dream


several times or in different forms is fundamentally
no more surprising than that it should appear, in


conscious thinking, many times and in different
places or in different relations: as, for example, in


the sentence: "When I think what a healthy child I
was."


Still easier than in the case of persons is the
resolution of identifications in the case of localities


designated by their own names, as here the

disturbing influence of the all-powerful ego is


lacking. In one of my dreams of Rome (chapter V.,



B.) the name of the place in which I find myself is

Rome: I am surprised, however, by a large number


of German placards at a street corner. This last is a

wish-fulfilment, which immediately suggests Prague;
the wish itself probably originated at a period of my



youth when I was imbued with a German

nationalistic spirit which today is quite subdued. At

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the time of my dream I was looking forward to

meeting a friend in Prague; the identification of


Rome with Prague is therefore explained by a


desired common feature; I would rather meet my
friend in Rome than in Prague; for the purpose of


this meeting I should like to exchange Prague for
Rome.


The possibility of creating composite
formations is one of the chief causes of the fantastic


character so common in dreams. in that it
introduces into the dream-content elements which


could never have been objects of perception. The

psychic process which occurs in the creation of


composite formations is obviously the same as that



which we employ in conceiving or figuring a dragon

or a centaur in our waking senses. The only


difference is that, in the fantastic creations of

waking life, the impression intended is itself the
decisive factor, while the composite formation in the



dream is determined by a factor- the common

feature in the dream-thoughts- which is independent

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of its form. Composite formations in dreams may be

achieved in a great many different ways. In the


most artless of these methods, only the properties


of the one thing are represented, and this
representation is accompanied by a knowledge that


they refer to another object also. A more careful
technique combines features of the one object with


those of the other in a new image, while it makes
skillful use of any really existing resemblances


between the two objects. The new creation may
prove to be wholly absurd, or even successful as a


phantasy, according as the material and the wit

employed in constructing it may permit. If the


objects to be condensed into a unity are too



incongruous, the dream-work is content with

creating a composite formation with a comparatively


distinct nucleus, to which are attached more

indefinite modifications. The unification into one
image has here been to some extent unsuccessful;



the two representations overlap one another, and

give rise to something like a contest between the

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visual images. Similar representations might be

obtained in a drawing if one were to attempt to give


form to a unified abstraction of disparate perceptual


images.
Dreams naturally abound in such composite


formations; I have given several examples of these
in the dreams already analysed, and will now cite


more such examples. In the dream earlier in this
chapter which describes the career of my patient in


flowery language, the dream-ego carries a spray of
blossoms in her hand which, as we have seen,


signifies at once sexual innocence and sexual

transgression. Moreover, from the manner in which


the blossoms are set on, they recall cherry-blossom;



the blossoms themselves, considered singly, are

camellias, and finally the whole spray gives the


dreamer the impression of an exotic plant. The

common feature in the elements of this composite
formation is revealed by the dream-thoughts. The



blossoming spray is made up of allusions to presents

by which she was induced or was to have been

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induced to behave in a manner agreeable to the

giver. So it was with cherries in her childhood, and


with a camellia-tree in her later years; the exotic


character is an allusion to a much- travelled
naturalist, who sought to win her favour by means


of a drawing of a flower. Another female patient
contrives a composite mean out of bathing machines


at a seaside resort, country privies, and the attics of
our city dwelling-houses. A reference to human


nakedness and exposure is common to the first two
elements; and we may infer from their connection


with the third element that (in her childhood) the

garret was likewise the scene of bodily exposure. A


dreamer of the male sex makes a composite locality



out of two places in which "treatment" is given- my

office and the assembly rooms in which he first


became acquainted with his wife. Another, a female

patient, after her elder brother has promised to
regale her with caviar, dreams that his legs are



covered all over with black beads of caviar. The two

elements, taint in a moral sense and the recollection

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of a cutaneous eruption in childhood which made her

legs look as though studded over with red instead of


black spots, have here combined with the beads of


caviar to form a new idea- the idea of what she gets
from her brother. In this dream parts of the human


body are treated as objects, as is usually the case in
dreams. In one of the dreams recorded by Ferenczi


there occurs a composite formation made up of the
person of a physician and a horse, and this


composite being wears a night-shirt. The common
feature in these three components was revealed in


the analysis, after the nightshirt had been

recognized as an allusion to the father of the


dreamer in a scene of childhood. In each of the



three cases there was some object of her sexual

curiosity. As a child she had often been taken by her


nurse to the army stud, where she had the amplest

opportunity to satisfy her curiosity, at that time still
uninhibited.



I have already stated that the dream has no

means of expressing the relation of contradiction,

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contrast, negation. I shall now contradict this

assertion for the first time. A certain number of


cases of what may be summed up under the word


contrast obtain representation, as we have seen,
simply by means of identification- that is when an


exchange, a substitution, can be bound up with the
contrast. Of this we have cited repeated examples.


Certain other of the contrasts in the dream-
thoughts, which perhaps come under the category of


inverted, united into the opposite, are represented
in dreams in the following remarkable manner,


which may almost be described as witty. The

inversion does not itself make its way into the


dream-content, but manifests its presence in the



material by the fact that a part of the already

formed dream-content which is, for other reasons,


closely connected in context is- as it were

subsequently- inverted. It is easier to illustrate this
process than to describe it. In the beautiful "Up and



Down" dream (this chapter, A.), the dream-

representation of ascending is an inversion of its

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prototype in the dream-thoughts: that is, of the

introductory scene of Daudet's Sappho; in the


dream, climbing is difficult at first and easy later on,


whereas, in the novel, it is easy at first, and later
becomes more and more difficult. Again, above and


below, with reference to the dreamer's brother, are
reversed in the dream. This points to a relation of


inversion or contrast between two parts of the
material in the dream-thoughts, which indeed we


found in them, for in the childish phantasy of the
dreamer he is carried by his nurse, while in the


novel, on the contrary, the hero carries his beloved.

My dream of Goethe's attack on Herr M (to be cited


later) likewise contains an inversion of this sort,



which must be set right before the dream can be

interpreted. In this dream, Goethe attacks a young


man, Herr M; the reality, as contained in the dream-

thoughts, is that an eminent man, a friend of mine,
has been attacked by an unknown young author. In



the dream I reckon time from the date of Goethe's

death; in reality the reckoning was made from the

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year in which the paralytic was born. The thought

which influences the dream-material reveals itself as


my opposition to the treatment of Goethe as though


he were a lunatic. "It is the other way about," says
the dream; "if you don't understand the book it is


you who are feeble-minded, not the author." All
these dreams of inversion, moreover, seem to me to


imply an allusion to the contemptuous phrase, "to
turn one's back upon a person" (German: einem die


Kehrseite zeigen, lit. to show a person one's
backside): cf. the inversion in respect of the


dreamer's brother in the Sappho dream. It is further

worth noting how frequently inversion is employed


in precisely those dreams which are inspired by



repressed homosexual impulses.

Moreover, inversion, or transformation into


the opposite, is one of the most favoured and most

versatile methods of representation which the
dream-work has at its disposal. It serves, in the first



place, to enable the wish-fulfilment to prevail

against a definite element of the dream-thoughts.

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"If only it were the other way about!" is often the

best expression for the reaction of the ego against a


disagreeable recollection. But inversion becomes


extraordinarily useful in the service of the
censorship, for it effects, in the material to be


represented, a degree of distortion which at first
simply paralyses our understanding of the dream. It


is therefore always permissible, if a dream
stubbornly refuses to surrender its meaning, to


venture on the experimental inversion of definite
portions of its manifest content. Then, not


infrequently, everything becomes clear.

Besides the inversion of content, the


temporal inversion must not be overlooked. A



frequent device of dream-distortion consists in

presenting the final issue of the event or the


conclusion of the train of thought at the beginning of

the dream, and appending at the end of the dream
the premises of the conclusion, or the causes of the



event. Anyone who forgets this technical device of

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dream-distortion stands helpless before the problem

of dream- interpretation.[16]


In many cases, indeed, we discover the


meaning of the dream only when we have subjected
the dream-content to a multiple inversion, in


accordance with the different relations. For example,
in the dream of a young patient who is suffering


from obsessional neurosis, the memory of the
childish death-wish directed against a dreaded


father concealed itself behind the following words:
His father scolds him because he comes home so


late, but the context of the psycho-analytic

treatment and the impressions of the dreamer show


that the sentence must be read as follows: He is



angry with his father, and further, that his father

always came home too early (i.e., too soon). He


would have preferred that his father should not

come home at all, which is identical with the wish
(see chapter V., D.) that his father would die. As a



little boy, during the prolonged absence of his

father, the dreamer was guilty of a sexual

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aggression against another child, and was punished

by the threat: "Just you wait until your father comes


home!"


If we should seek to trace the relations
between the dream- content and the dream-


thoughts a little farther, we shall do this best by
making the dream itself our point of departure, and


asking ourselves: What do certain formal
characteristics of the dream-presentation signify in


relation to the dream-thoughts? First and foremost
among the formal characteristics which are bound to


impress us in dreams are the differences in the

sensory intensity of the single dream-images, and in


the distinctness of various parts of the dream, or of



whole dreams as compared with one another. The

differences in the intensity of individual dream-


images cover the whole gamut, from a sharpness of

definition which one is inclined- although without
warrant- to rate more highly than that of reality, to



a provoking indistinctness which we declare to be

characteristic of dreams, because it really is not

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wholly comparable to any of the degrees of

indistinctness which we occasionally perceive in real


objects. Moreover, we usually describe the


impression which we receive of an indistinct object
in a dream as fleeting, while we think of the more


distinct dream-images as having been perceptible
also for a longer period of time. We must now ask


ourselves by what conditions in the dream-material
these differences in the distinctness of the individual


portions of the dream-content are brought about.
Before proceeding farther, it is necessary to


deal with certain expectations which seem to be

almost inevitable. Since actual sensations


experienced during sleep may constitute part of the



dream-material, it will probably be assumed that

these sensations, or the dream-elements resulting


from them, are emphasized by a special intensity, or

conversely, that anything which is particularly vivid
in the dream can probably be traced to such real



sensations during sleep. My experience, however,

has never confirmed this. It is not true that those

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elements of a dream which are derivatives of real

impressions perceived in sleep (nerve stimuli) are


distinguished by their special vividness from others


which are based on memories. The factor of reality
is inoperative in determining the intensity of dream-


images.
Further, it might be expected that the


sensory intensity (vividness) of single dream-images
is in proportion to the psychic intensity of the


elements corresponding to them in the dream-
thoughts. In the latter, intensity is identical with


psychic value; the most intense elements are in fact

the most significant, and these constitute the central


point of the dream- thoughts. We know, however,



that it is precisely these elements which are usually

not admitted to the dream-content, owing to the


vigilance of the censorship. Still, it might be possible

for their most immediate derivatives, which
represent them in the dream, to reach a higher



degree of intensity without, however, for that reason

constituting the central point of the dream-

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representation. This assumption also vanishes as

soon as we compare the dream and the dream-


material. The intensity of the elements in the one


has nothing to do with the intensity of the elements
in the other; as a matter of fact, a complete


transvaluation of all psychic values takes place
between the dream-material and the dream. The


very element of the dream which is transient and
hazy, and screened by more vigorous images, is


often discovered to be the one and only direct
derivative of the topic that completely dominates the


dream-thoughts.
The intensity of the dream-elements proves


to be determined in a different manner: that is, by



two factors which are mutually independent. It will

readily be understood that, those elements by


means of which the wish-fulfilment expresses itself

are those which are intensely represented. But
analysis tells us that from the most vivid elements



of the dream the greatest number of trains of

thought proceed, and that those which are most

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vivid are at the same time those which are best

determined. No change of meaning is involved if we


express this latter empirical proposition in the


following formula: The greatest intensity is shown by
those elements of the dream for whose formation


the most extensive condensation-work was required.
We may, therefore, expect that it will be possible to


express this condition, as well as the other condition
of the wish-fulfilment, in a single formula.


I must utter a warning that the problem
which I have just been considering- the causes of


the greater or lesser intensity or distinctness of

single elements in dreams- is not to be confounded


with the other problem- that of variations in the



distinctness of whole dreams or sections of dreams.

In the former case the opposite of distinctness is


haziness; in the latter, confusion. It is, of course,

undeniable that in both scales the two kinds of
intensities rise and fall in unison. A portion of the



dream which seems clear to us usually contains vivid

elements; an obscure dream, on the contrary, is

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composed of less vivid elements. But the problem

offered by the scale of definition, which ranges from


the apparently clear to the indistinct or confused, is


far more complicated than the problem of
fluctuations in vividness of the dream-elements. For


reasons which will be given later, the former cannot
at this stage be further discussed. In isolated cases


one observes, not without surprise, that the
impression of distinctness or indistinctness produced


by a dream has nothing to do with the dream-
structure, but proceeds from the dream-material, as


one of its ingredients. Thus, for example, I

remember a dream which on waking seemed so


particularly well-constructed, flawless and clear that



I made up my mind, while I was still in a somnolent

state, to admit a new category of dreams- those


which had not been subject to the mechanism of

condensation and distortion, and which might thus
be described as phantasies during sleep. A closer



examination, however, proved that this unusual

dream suffered from the same structural flaws and

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breaches as exist in all other dreams; so I

abandoned the idea of a category of dream-


phantasies.[17] The content of the dream, reduced


to its lowest terms, was that I was expounding to a
friend a difficult and long-sought theory of


bisexuality, and the wish-fulfilling power of the
dream was responsible for the fact that this theory


(which, by the way, was not communicated in the
dream) appeared to be so lucid and flawless. Thus,


what I believed to be a judgment as regards the
finished dream was a part, and indeed the most


essential part, of the dream-content. Here the

dream-work reached out, as it were, into my first


waking thoughts, and presented to me, in the form



of a judgment of the dream, that part of the dream-

material which it had failed to represent with


precision in the dream. I was once confronted with

the exact counterpart of this case by a female
patient who at first absolutely declined to relate a



dream which was necessary for the analysis

"because it was so hazy and confused," and who

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finally declared, after repeatedly protesting the

inaccuracy of her description, that it seemed to her


that several persons- herself, her husband, and her


father- had occurred in the dream, and that she had
not known whether her husband was her father, or


who really was her father, or something of that sort.
Comparison of this dream with the ideas which


occurred to the dreamer in the course of the sitting
showed beyond a doubt that it dealt with the rather


commonplace story of a maidservant who has to
confess that she is expecting a child, and hears


doubts expressed as to "who the father really

is."[18] The obscurity manifested by this dream,


therefore, was once more a portion of the dream-



exciting material. A fragment of this material was

represented in the form of the dream. The form of


the dream or of dreaming is employed with

astonishing frequency to represent the concealed
content.



Glosses on the dream, and seemingly

harmless comments on it, often serve in the most

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subtle manner to conceal- although, of course, they

really betray- a part of what is dreamed. As, for


example, when the dreamer says: Here the dream


was wiped out, and the analysis gives an infantile
reminiscence of listening to someone cleaning


himself after defecation. Or another example, which
deserves to be recorded in detail: A young man has


a very distinct dream, reminding him of phantasies
of his boyhood which have remained conscious. He


found himself in a hotel at a seasonal resort; it was
night; he mistook the number of his room, and


entered a room in which an elderly lady and her two

daughters were undressing to go to bed. He


continues: "Then there are some gaps in the dream;



something is missing; and at the end there was a

man in the room, who wanted to throw me out, and


with whom I had to struggle." He tries in vain to

recall the content and intention of the boyish
phantasy to which the dream obviously alluded. But



we finally become aware that the required content

had already been given in his remarks concerning

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the indistinct part of the dream. The gaps are the

genital apertures of the women who are going to


bed: Here something is missing describes the


principal characteristic of the female genitals. In his
young days he burned with curiosity to see the


female genitals, and was still inclined to adhere to
the infantile sexual theory which attributes a male


organ to women.
A very similar form was assumed in an


analogous reminiscence of another dreamer. He
dreamed: I go with Fraulein K into the restaurant of


the Volksgarten... then comes a dark place, an

interruption... then I find myself in the salon of a


brothel, where I see two or three women, one in a



chemise and drawers.

Analysis. Fraulein K is the daughter of his


former employer; as he himself admits, she was a

sister-substitute. He rarely had the opportunity of
talking to her, but they once had a conversation in



which "one recognized one's sexuality, so to speak,

as though one were to say: I am a man and you are

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a woman." He had been only once to the above-

mentioned restaurant, when he was accompanied by


the sister of his brother-in-law, a girl to whom he


was quite indifferent. On another occasion he
accompanied three ladies to the door of the


restaurant. The ladies were his sister, his sister-in-
law, and the girl already mentioned. He was


perfectly indifferent to all three of them, but they all
belonged to the sister category. He had visited a


brothel but rarely, perhaps two or three times in his
life.


The interpretation is based on the dark

place, the interruption in the dream, and informs us


that on occasion, but in fact only rarely, obsessed by



his boyish curiosity, he had inspected the genitals of

his sister, a few years his junior. A few days later


the misdemeanor indicated in the dream recurred to

his conscious memory.
All dreams of the same night belong, in



respect of their content, to the same whole; their

division into several parts, their grouping and

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number, are all full of meaning and may be regarded

as pieces of information about the latent dream-


thoughts. In the interpretation of dreams consisting


of several main sections, or of dreams belonging to
the same night, we must not overlook the possibility


that these different and successive dreams mean
the same thing, expressing the same impulses in


different material. That one of these homologous
dreams which comes first in time is usually the most


distorted and most bashful, while the next dream is
bolder and more distinct.


Even Pharaoh's dream of the ears and the

kine, which Joseph interpreted, was of this kind. It is


given by Josephus in greater detail than in the Bible.



After relating the first dream, the King said: "After I

had seen this vision I awaked out of my sleep, and,


being in disorder, and considering with myself what

this appearance should be, I fell asleep again, and
saw another dream much more wonderful than the



foregoing, which still did more affright and disturb

me." After listening to the relation of the dream,

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Joseph said: "This dream, O King, although seen

under two forms, signifies one and the same event


of things."[19]


Jung, in his Beitrag zur Psychologie des
Geruchtes, relates how a veiled erotic dream of a


schoolgirl was understood by her friends without
interpretation, and continued by them with


variations, and he remarks, with reference to one of
these narrated dreams, that "the concluding idea of


a long series of dream-images had precisely the
same content as the first image of the series had


endeavoured to represent. The censorship thrust the

complex out of the way as long as possible by a


constant renewal of symbolic screenings,



displacements, transformations into something

harmless, etc." Scherner was well acquainted with


this peculiarity of dream-representation, and

describes it in his Leben des Traumes (p. 166) in
terms of a special law in the Appendix to his doctrine



of organic stimulation: "But finally, in all symbolic

dream-formations emanating from definite nerve

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stimuli, the phantasy observes the general law that

at the beginning of the dream it depicts the


stimulating object only by the remotest and freest


allusions, but towards the end, when the graphic
impulse becomes exhausted, the stimulus itself is


nakedly represented by its appropriate organ or its
function; whereupon the dream, itself describing its


organic motive, achieves its end...."
A pretty confirmation of this law of


Scherner's has been furnished by Otto Rank in his
essay: Ein Traum, der sich selbst deutet. This


dream, related to him by a girl, consisted of two

dreams of the same night, separated by an interval


of time, the second of which ended with an orgasm.



It was possible to interpret this orgastic dream in

detail in spite of the few ideas contributed by the


dreamer, and the wealth of relations between the

two dream-contents made it possible to recognize
that the first dream expressed in modest language



the same thing as the second, so that the latter- the

orgastic dream- facilitated a full explanation of the

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former. From this example, Rank very justifiably

argues the significance of orgastic dreams for the


theory of dreams in general.


But, in my experience, it is only in rare
cases that one is in a position to translate the


lucidity or confusion of a dream, respectively, into a
certainty or doubt in the dream-material. Later on I


shall have to disclose a hitherto unmentioned factor
in dream-formation, upon whose operation this


qualitative scale in dreams is essentially dependent.
In many dreams in which a certain situation


and environment are preserved for some time, there

occur interruptions which may be described in the


following words: "But then it seemed as though it



were, at the same time, another place, and there

such and such a thing happened." In these cases,


what interrupts the main action of the dream, which

after a while may be continued again, reveals itself
in the dream-material as a subordinate clause, an



interpolated thought. Conditionality in the dream-

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thoughts is represented by simultaneity in the

dream-content (wenn or wann = if or when, while).


We may now ask: What is the meaning of


the sensation of inhibited movement which so often
occurs in dreams, and is so closely allied to anxiety?


One wants to move, and is unable to stir from the
spot; or wants to accomplish something, and


encounters obstacle after obstacle. The train is
about to start. and one cannot reach it; one's hand


is raised to avenge an insult, and its strength fails,
etc. We have already met with this sensation in


exhibition-dreams, but have as yet made no serious

attempt to interpret it. It is convenient, but


inadequate, to answer that there is motor paralysis



in sleep, which manifests itself by means of the

sensation alluded to. We may ask: Why is it, then,


that we do not dream continually of such inhibited

movements? And we may permissibly suspect that
this sensation, which may at any time occur during



sleep, serves some sort of purpose for

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representation, and is evoked only when the need of

this representation is present in the dream-material.


Inability to do a thing does not always


appear in the dream as a sensation; it may appear
simply as part of the dream-content. I think one


case of this kind is especially fitted to enlighten us
as to the meaning of this peculiarity. I shall give an


abridged version of a dream in which I seem to be
accused of dishonesty. The scene is a mixture made


up of a private sanatorium and several other places.
A manservant appears, to summon me to an


inquiry. I know in the dream that something has

been missed, and that the inquiry is taking place


because I am suspected of having appropriated the



lost article. Analysis shows that inquiry is to be

taken in two senses; it includes the meaning of


medical examination. Being conscious of my

innocence, and my position as consultant in this
sanatorium, I calmly follow the manservant. We are



received at the door by another manservant, who

says, pointing at me, "Have you brought him? Why,

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he is a respectable man." Thereupon, and

unattended, I enter a great hall where there are


many machines, which reminds me of an inferno


with its hellish instruments of punishment. I see a
colleague strapped to an appliance; he has every


reason to be interested in my appearance, but he
takes no notice of me. I understand that I may now


go. Then I cannot find my hat, and cannot go after
all.


The wish that the dream fulfils is obviously
the wish that my honesty shall be acknowledged,


and that I may be permitted to go; there must

therefore be all sorts of material in the dream-


thoughts which comprise a contradiction of this



wish. The fact that I may go is the sign of my

absolution; if, then, the dream provides at its close


an event which prevents me from going, we may

readily conclude that the suppressed material of the
contradiction is asserting itself in this feature. The



fact that I cannot find my hat therefore means: "You

are not after all an honest man." The inability to do

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something in the dream is the expression of a

contradiction, a No; so that our earlier assertion, to


the effect that the dream is not capable of


expressing a negation, must be revised
accordingly.[20]


In other dreams in which the inability to do
something occurs, not merely as a situation, but


also as a sensation, the same contradiction is more
emphatically expressed by the sensation of inhibited


movement, or a will to which a counter-will is
opposed. Thus the sensation of inhibited movement


represents a conflict of will. We shall see later on

that this very motor paralysis during sleep is one of


the fundamental conditions of the psychic process



which functions during dreaming. Now an impulse

which is conveyed to the motor system is none other


than the will, and the fact that we are certain that
the impulse will be inhibited in sleep makes the
whole process extraordinarily well-adapted to the



representation of a will towards something and of a

No which opposes itself thereto. From my

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explanation of anxiety, it is easy to understand why

the sensation of the inhibited will is so closely allied


to anxiety, and why it is so often connected with it


in dreams. Anxiety is a libidinal impulse which
emanates from the unconscious and is inhibited by


the preconscious.[21] Therefore, when a sensation
of inhibition in the dream is accompanied by anxiety,


the dream must be concerned with a volition which
was at one time capable of arousing libido; there


must be a sexual impulse.
As for the judgment which is often


expressed during a dream: "Of course, it is only a

dream," and the psychic force to which it may be


ascribed, I shall discuss these questions later on. For



the present I will merely say that they are intended

to depreciate the importance of what is being


dreamed. The interesting problem allied to this, as

to what is meant if a certain content in the dream is
characterized in the dream itself as having been



dreamed- the riddle of a dream within a dream- has

been solved in a similar sense by W. Stekel, by the

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analysis of some convincing examples. Here again

the part of the dream dreamed is to be depreciated


in value and robbed of its reality; that which the


dreamer continues to dream after waking from the
dream within a dream is what the dream-wish


desires to put in place of the obliterated reality. It
may therefore be assumed that the part dreamed


contains the representation of the reality, the real
memory, while, on the other hand, the continued


dream contains the representation of what the
dreamer merely wishes. The inclusion of a certain


content in a dream within a dream is, therefore,

equivalent to the wish that what has been


characterized as a dream had never occurred. In



other words: when a particular incident is

represented by the dream-work in a dream, it


signifies the strongest confirmation of the reality of

this incident, the most emphatic affirmation of it.
The dream- work utilizes the dream itself as a form



of repudiation, and thereby confirms the theory that

a dream is a wish-fulfilment.

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Footnotes
[1] References to the condensation in


dreams are to be found in the works of many writers


on the subject. Du Prel states in his Philosophie der
Mystik that he is absolutely certain that a


condensation-process of the succession of ideas had
occurred. -


[2] In estimating the significance of this
passage we may recall the meaning of dreams of


climbing stairs, as explained in the chapter on
Symbolism.


[3] Faust I.
[4] The fantastic nature of the situation


relating to the dreamer's wet-nurse is shown by the



circumstance, objectively ascertained, that the nurse

in this case was his mother. Further, I may call


attention to the regret of the young man in the

anecdote related to p. 222 above (that he had not
taken better advantage of his opportunities with his



wet-nurse) as the probable source of his dream.

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[5] Given by translator, as the author's

example could not be translated.


[6] The same analysis and synthesis of


syllables- a veritable chemistry of syllables- serves
us for many a jest in waking life. "What is the


cheapest method of obtaining silver? You go to a
field where silverberries are growing and pick them;


then the berries are eliminated and the silver
remains in a free state." [Translator's example]. The


first person who read and criticized this book made
the objection- with which other readers will probably


agree- that "the dreamer often appears too witty."

That is true, so long as it applies to the dreamer; it


involves a condemnation only when its application is



extended to the interpreter of the dream. In waking

reality I can make very little claim to the predicate


witty; if my dreams appear witty, this is not the

fault of my individuality, but of the peculiar
psychological conditions under which the dream is



fabricated, and is intimately connected with the

theory of wit and the comical. The dream becomes

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witty because the shortest and most direct way to

the expression of its thoughts is barred for it: the


dream is under constraint. My readers may convince


themselves that the dreams of my patients give the
impression of being quite as witty (at least, in


intention), as my own, and even more so.
Nevertheless, this reproach impelled me to compare


the technique of wit with the dream-work.
[7] Lasker died of progressive paralysis; that


is, of the consequences of an infection caught from a
woman (syphilis); Lasalle, also a syphilitic, was


killed in a duel which he fought on account of the

lady whom he had been courting.


[8] In the case of a young man who was



suffering from obsessions, but whose intellectual

functions were intact and highly developed, I


recently found the only exception to this rule. The

speeches which occurred in his dreams did not
originate in speeches which he had heard had made



himself, but corresponded to the undistorted verbal

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expression of his obsessive thoughts, which came to

his waking consciousness only in an altered form.


[9] The psychic intensity or value of an idea-


the emphasis due to interest- is of course to be
distinguished from perceptual or conceptual


intensity.
[10] "The doer gained."


[11] Since I regard the attribution of dream-
distortion to the censorship as the central point of


my conception of the dream, I will here quote the
closing passage of a story, Traumen wie Wachen,


from Phantasien eines Realisten, by Lynkeus

(Vienna, second edition [1900]), in which I find this


chief feature of my doctrine reproduced:



[12] I have since given the complete

analysis and synthesis of two dreams in the


Bruchstuck einer Hysterieanalyse, (1905) (Ges.

Schriften, Vol. VIII). "Fragment of an Analysis of a
Case of Hysteria," translated by Strachey, Collected



Papers, Vol III, (Hogarth Press, London). O. Rank's

analysis, Ein Traum der sich selbst deutet, deserves

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mention as the most complete interpretation of a

comparatively long dream.


[13] From a work of K. Abel's, Der


Gegensinn der Urworte, (1884), see my review of it
in the Bleuler-Freud Jahrbuch, ii (1910) (Ges.


Schriften Vol. X). I learned the surprising fact, which
is confirmed by other philologists, that the oldest


languages behaved just as dreams do in this regard.
They had originally only one word for both extremes


in a series of qualities or activities (strong- weak,
old- young, far- near, bind- separate), and formed


separate designations for the two opposites only

secondarily, by slight modifications of the common


primitive word. Abel demonstrates a very large



number of those relationships in ancient Egyptian,

and points to distinct remnants of the same


development in the Semitic and Indo-Germanic

languages.
[14] Cf. here the observations made in



chapter V.

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[15] If I do not know behind which of the

persons appearing in the dream I am to look for my


ego. I observe the following rule: That person in the


dream who is subject to an emotion which I am
aware of while asleep is the one that conceals my


ego.
[16] The hysterical attack often employs the


same device of temporal inversion in order to
conceal its meaning from the observer. The attack of


a hysterical girl, for example, consists in enacting a
little romance, which she has imagined in the


unconscious in connection with an encounter in a

tram. A man, attracted by the beauty of her foot,


addresses her while she is reading, whereupon she



goes with him and a passionate love-scene ensues.

Her attack begins with the representation of this


scene by writhing movements of the body

(accompanied by movements of the lips and folding
of the arms to signify kisses and embraces),



whereupon she hurries into the next room, sits down

on a chair, lifts her skirt in order to show her foot,

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acts as though she were about to read a book, and

speaks to me (answers me). Cf. the observation of


Artemidorus: "In interpreting dream-stories, one


must consider them the first time from the
beginning to the end, and the second time from the


end to the beginning."
[17] I do not know today whether I was


justified in doing so.
[18] Accompanying hysterical symptoms;


amenorrhoea and profound depression were the
chief troubles of this patient.


[19] Josephus; Antiquities of the Jews, book

II, chap. V, trans. by Wm. Whitson (David McKay,


Philadelphia).


[20] A reference to an experience of

childhood emerges, in the complete analysis,


through the following connecting-links: "The Moor

has done his duty, the Moor can go." And then
follows the waggish question: "How old is the Moor



when he has done his duty?"- "A year, then he can

go (walk)." (It is said that I came into the world with

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so much black curly hair that my young mother

declared that I was a little Moor.) The fact that I


cannot find my hat is an experience of the day which


has been exploited in various senses. Our servant,
who is a genius at stowing things away, had hidden


the hat. A rejection of melancholy thoughts of death
is concealed behind the conclusion of the dream: "I


have not nearly done my duty yet; I cannot go yet."
Birth and death together- as in the dream of Goethe


and the paralytic, which was a little earlier in date.
[21] This theory is not in accordance with


more recent views.







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CHAPTER 6 (Part 2)
THE DREAM-WORK


D. Regard for Representability


We have hitherto been concerned with
investigating the manner in which our dreams


represent the relations between the dream-


thoughts, but we have often extended our inquiry to
the further question as to what alterations the


dream-material itself undergoes for the purposes of
dream-formation. We now know that the dream-

material, after being stripped of a great many of its
relations, is subjected to compression, while at the


same time displacements of the intensity of its

elements enforce a psychic transvaluation of this


material. The displacements which we have

considered were shown to be substitutions of one


particular idea for another, in some way related to

the original by its associations, and the
displacements were made to facilitate the



condensation, inasmuch as in this manner, instead

of two elements, a common mean between them

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found its way into the dream. So far, no mention

has been made of any other kind of displacement.


But we learn from the analyses that displacement of


another kind does occur, and that it manifests itself
in an exchange of the verbal expression for the


thought in question. In both cases we are dealing
with a displacement along a chain of associations,


but the same process takes place in different psychic
spheres, and the result of this displacement in the


one case is that one element is replaced by another,
while in the other case an element exchanges its


verbal shape for another.

This second kind of displacement occurring


in dream-formation is not only of great theoretical



interest, but also peculiarly well- fitted to explain the

appearance of phantastic absurdity in which dreams


disguise themselves. Displacement usually occurs in

such a way that a colourless and abstract expression
of the dream- thought is exchanged for one that is



pictorial and concrete. The advantage, and along

with it the purpose, of this substitution is obvious.

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Whatever is pictorial is capable of representation in

dreams and can be fitted into a situation in which


abstract expression would confront the dream-


representation with difficulties not unlike those
which would arise if a political leading article had to


be represented in an illustrated journal. Not only the
possibility of representation, but also the interests of


condensation and of the censorship, may be
furthered by this exchange. Once the abstractly


expressed and unserviceable dream-thought is
translated into pictorial language, those contacts


and identities between this new expression and the

rest of the dream-material which are required by the


dream-work, and which it contrives whenever they



are not available, are more readily provided, since in

every language concrete terms, owing to their


evolution, are richer in associations than are

abstract terms. It may be imagined that a good part
of the intermediate work in dream-formation, which



seeks to reduce the separate dream- thoughts to the

tersest and most unified expression in the dream, is

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effected in this manner, by fitting paraphrases of the

various thoughts. The one thought whose mode of


expression has perhaps been determined by other


factors will therewith exert a distributive and
selective influence on the expressions available for


the others, and it may even do this from the very
start, just as it would in the creative activity of a


poet. When a poem is to be written in rhymed
couplets, the second rhyming line is bound by two


conditions: it must express the meaning allotted to
it, and its expression must permit of a rhyme with


the first line. The best poems are, of course, those

in which one does not detect the effort to find a


rhyme, and in which both thoughts have as a matter



of course, by mutual induction, selected the verbal

expression which, with a little subsequent


adjustment, will permit of the rhyme.

In some cases the change of expression
serves the purposes of dream-condensation more



directly, in that it provides an arrangement of words

which, being ambiguous, permits of the expression

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of more than one of the dream-thoughts. The whole

range of verbal wit is thus made to serve the


purpose of the dream-work. The part played by


words in dream-formation ought not to surprise us.
A word, as the point of junction of a number of


ideas, possesses, as it were, a predestined
ambiguity, and the neuroses (obsessions, phobias)


take advantage of the opportunities for condensation
and disguise afforded by words quite as eagerly as


do dreams.[22] That dream-distortion also profits by
this displacement of expression may be readily


demonstrated. It is indeed confusing if one

ambiguous word is substituted for two with single


meanings, and the replacement of sober, everyday



language by a plastic mode of expression baffles our

understanding, especially since a dream never tells


us whether the elements presented by it are to be

interpreted literally or metaphorically, whether they
refer to the dream- material directly, or only by



means of interpolated expressions. Generally

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speaking, in the interpretation of any element of a

dream it is doubtful whether it


(a) is to be accepted in the negative or the


positive sense (contrast relation);
(b) is to be interpreted historically (as a


memory);
(c) is symbolic; or whether


(d) its valuation is to be based upon its
wording. - In spite of this versatility, we may say


that the representation effected by the dream-work,
which was never even intended to be understood,


does not impose upon the translator any greater

difficulties than those that the ancient writers of


hieroglyphics imposed upon their readers.



I have already given several examples of

dream-representations which are held together only


by ambiguity of expression (her mouth opens

without difficulty, in the dream of Irma's injection; I
cannot go yet after all, in the last dream related,



etc.) I shall now cite a dream in the analysis of

which plastic representation of the abstract thoughts

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plays a greater part. The difference between such

dream-interpretation and the interpretation by


means of symbols may nevertheless be clearly


defined; in the symbolic interpretation of dreams,
the key to the symbolism is selected arbitrarily by


the interpreter, while in our own cases of verbal
disguise these keys are universally known and are


taken from established modes of speech. Provided
one hits on the right idea on the right occasion, one


may solve dreams of this kind, either completely or
in part, independently of any statements made by


the dreamer.
A lady friend of mine, dreams: She is at the


opera. It is a Wagnerian performance, which has



lasted until 7.45 in the morning. In the stalls and pit

there are tables, at which people are eating and


drinking. Her cousin and his young wife, who have

just returned from their honeymoon, are sitting at
one of these tables; beside them is a member of the



aristocracy. The young wife is said to have brought

him back with her from the honeymoon quite

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openly, just as she might have brought back a hat.

In the middle of the stalls there is a high tower, on


the top of which there is a platform surrounded by


an iron railing. There, high overhead, stands the
conductor, with the features of Hans Richter,


continually running round behind the railing,
perspiring terribly; and from this position he is


conducting the orchestra, which is arranged round
the base of the tower. She herself is sitting in a box


with a friend of her own sex (known to me). Her
younger sister tries to hand her up, from the stalls,


a large lump of coal, alleging that she had not

known that it would be so long, and that she must


by this time be miserably cold. (As though the boxes



ought to have been heated during the long

performance.)


Although in other respects the dream gives a

good picture of the situation, it is, of course,
nonsensical enough: the tower in the middle of the



stalls, from which the conductor leads the orchestra,

and above all the coal which her sister hands up to

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her. I purposely asked for no analysis of this dream.

With some knowledge of the personal relations of


the dreamer, I was able to interpret parts of it


independently of her. I knew that she had felt
intense sympathy for a musician whose career had


been prematurely brought to an end by insanity. I
therefore decided to take the tower in the stalls


verbally. It then emerged that the man whom she
wished to see in the place of Hans Richter towered


above all the other members of the orchestra. This
tower must be described as a composite formation


by means of apposition; by its substructure it

represents the greatness of the man, but by the


railing at the top, behind which he runs round like a



prisoner or an animal in a cage (an allusion to the

name of the unfortunate man),[23] it represents his


later fate. Lunatic-tower is perhaps the expression in

which the two thoughts might have met.
Now that we have discovered the dream's



method of representation, we may try, with the

same key, to unlock the meaning of the second

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apparent absurdity, that of the coal which her sister

hands up to the dreamer. Coal should mean secret


love.


No fire, no coal so hotly glows
As the secret love of which no one knows.


She and her friend remain seated[24] while
her younger sister, who still has a prospect of


marrying, hands her up the coal because she did not
know that it would be so long. What would be so


long is not told in the dream. If it were an anecdote,
we should say the performance; but in the dream


we may consider the sentence as it is, declare it to

be ambiguous, and add before she married. The


interpretation secret love is then confirmed by the



mention of the cousin who is sitting with his wife in

the stalls, and by the open love-affair attributed to


the latter. The contrasts between secret and open

love, between the dreamer's fire and the coldness of
the young wife, dominate the dream. Moreover,



here once again there is a person in a high position

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as a middle term between the aristocrat and the

musician who is justified in raising high hopes.


In the above analysis we have at last


brought to light a third factor, whose part in the
transformation of the dream-thoughts into the


dream-content is by no means trivial: namely,
consideration of the suitability of the dream-


thoughts for representation in the particular psychic
material of which the dream makes use- that is, for


the most part in visual images. Among the various
subordinate ideas associated with the essential


dream-thoughts, those will be preferred which

permit of visual representation, and the dream-work


does not hesitate to recast the intractable thoughts



into an: other verbal form, even though this is a

more unusual form provided it makes representation


possible, and thus puts an end to the psychological

distress caused by strangulated thinking. This
pouring of the thought- content into another mould



may at the same time serve the work of

condensation, and may establish relations with

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another thought which otherwise would not have

been established. It is even possible that this second


thought may itself have previously changed its


original expression for the purpose of meeting the
first one halfway.


Herbert Silberer[25] has described a good
method of directly observing the transformation of


thoughts into images which occurs in dream-
formation, and has thus made it possible to study in


isolation this one factor of the dream-work. If, while
in a state of fatigue and somnolence, he imposed


upon himself a mental effort, it frequently happened

that the thought escaped him and in its place there


appeared a picture in which he could recognize the



substitute for the thought. Not quite appropriately,

Silberer described this substitution as auto-symbolic.


I shall cite here a few examples from Silberer's

work, and on account of certain peculiarities of the
phenomena observed I shall refer to the subject



later on.

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"Example 1. I remember that I have to

correct a halting passage in an essay.


"Symbol. I see myself planing a piece of


wood.
"Example 5. I endeavour to call to mind the


aim of certain metaphysical studies which I am
proposing to undertake.


"This aim, I reflect, consists in working one's
way through, while seeking for the basis of


existence, to ever higher forms of consciousness or
levels of being.


"Symbol. I run a long knife under a cake as

though to take a slice out of it.


"Interpretation. My movement with the knife



signifies working one's way through... The

explanation of the basis of the symbolism is as


follows: At table it devolves upon me now and again

to cut and distribute a cake, a business which I
perform with a long, flexible knife, and which



necessitates a certain amount of care. In particular,

the neat extraction of the cut slices of cake presents

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a certain amount of difficulty; the knife must be

carefully pushed under the slices in question (the


slow working one's way through in order to get to


the bottom). But there is yet more symbolism in the
picture. The cake of the symbol was really a dobos-


cake- that is, a cake in which the knife has to cut
through several layers (the levels of consciousness


and thought).
"Example 9. I lost the thread in a train of


thought. I make an effort to find it again, but I have
to recognize that the point of departure has


completely escaped me.

"Symbol. Part of a form of type, the last


lines of which have fallen out."



In view of the part played by witticisms,

puns, quotations, songs, and proverbs in the


intellectual life of educated persons, it would be

entirely in accordance with our expectations to find
disguises of this sort used with extreme frequency in



the representation of the dream-thoughts. Only in

the case of a few types of material has a generally

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valid dream-symbolism established itself on the

basis of generally known allusions and verbal


equivalents. A good part of this symbolism,


however, is common to the psychoneuroses,
legends, and popular usages as well as to dreams.


In fact, if we look more closely into the
matter, we must recognize that in employing this


kind of substitution the dream- work is doing
nothing at all original. For the achievement of its


purpose, which in this case is representation without
interference from the censorship, it simply follows


the paths which it finds already marked out in

unconscious thinking, and gives the preference to


those transformations of the repressed material



which are permitted to become conscious also in the

form of witticisms and allusions, and with which all


the phantasies of neurotics are replete. Here we

suddenly begin to understand the dream-
interpretations of Scherner, whose essential



correctness I have vindicated elsewhere. The

preoccupation of the imagination with one's own

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body is by no means peculiar to or characteristic of

the dream alone. My analyses have shown me that it


is constantly found in the unconscious thinking of


neurotics, and may be traced back to sexual
curiosity, whose object, in the adolescent youth or


maiden, is the genitals of the opposite sex, or even
of the same sex. But, as Scherner and Volkelt very


truly insist, the house does not constitute the only
group of ideas which is employed for the


symbolization of the body, either in dreams or in the
unconscious phantasies of neurosis. To be sure, I


know patients who have steadily adhered to an

architectural symbolism for the body and the


genitals (sexual interest, of course, extends far



beyond the region of the external genital organs)-

patients for whom posts and pillars signify legs (as


in the Song of Songs), to whom every door suggests

a bodily aperture (hole), and every water-pipe the
urinary system, and so on. But the groups of ideas



appertaining to plant-life. or to the kitchen, are just

as often chosen to conceal sexual images;[26] in

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respect of the former everyday language, the

sediment of imaginative comparisons dating from


the remotest times, has abundantly paved the way


(the vineyard of the Lord, the seed of Abraham, the
garden of the maiden in the Song of Songs). The


ugliest as well as the most intimate details of sexual
life may be thought or dreamed of in apparently


innocent allusions to culinary operations, and the
symptoms of hysteria will become absolutely


unintelligible if we forget that sexual symbolism may
conceal itself behind the most commonplace and


inconspicuous matters as its safest hiding-place.

That some neurotic children cannot look at blood


and raw meat, that they vomit at the sight of eggs



and macaroni, and that the dread of snakes, which

is natural to mankind, is monstrously exaggerated in


neurotics- all this has a definite sexual meaning.

Wherever the neurosis employs a disguise of this
sort, it treads the paths once trodden by the whole



of humanity in the early stages of civilization- paths

to whose thinly veiled existence our idiomatic

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expressions, proverbs, superstitions, and customs

testify to this day.


I here insert the promised flower-dream of a


female patient, in which I shall print in Roman type
everything which is to be sexually interpreted. This


beautiful dream lost all its charm for the dreamer
once it had been interpreted.


(a) Preliminary dream: She goes to the two
maids in the kitchen and scolds them for taking so


long to prepare a little bite of food. She also sees a
very large number of heavy kitchen utensils in the


kitchen, heaped into piles and turned upside down in

order to drain. Later addition: The two maids go to


fetch water, and have, as it were, to climb into a



river which reaches up to the house or into the

courtyard.[27]


(b) Main dream:[28] She is descending from

a height[29] over curiously constructed railings, or a
fence which is composed of large square trellis-work



hurdles with small square apertures.[30] It is really

not adapted for climbing; she is constantly afraid

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that she cannot find a place for her foot, and she is
glad that her dress doesn't get caught anywhere,


and that she is able to climb it so respectably.[31]


As she climbs she is carrying a big branch in her
hand,[32] really like a tree, which is thickly studded


with red flowers; a spreading branch, with many
twigs.[33] With this is connected the idea of cherry-


blossoms (Bluten = flowers), but they look like fully
opened camellias, which of course do not grow on


trees. As she is descending, she first has one, then
suddenly two, and then again only one.[34] When


she has reached the ground the lower flowers have

already begun to fall. Now that she has reached the


bottom she sees an "odd man" who is combing- as



she would like to put it- just such a tree, that is,
with a piece of wood he is scraping thick bunches of


hair from it, which hang from it like moss. Other

men have chopped off such branches in a garden,
and have flung them into the road, where they are



lying about, so that a number of people take some

of them. But she asks whether this is right, whether

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she may take one, too.[35] In the garden there

stands a young man (he is a foreigner, and known


to her) toward whom she goes in order to ask him


how it is possible to transplant such branches in her
own garden.[36] He embraces her, whereupon she


struggles and asks him what he is thinking of,
whether it is permissible to embrace her in such a


manner. He says there is nothing wrong in it, that it
is permitted.[37] He then declares himself willing to


go with her into the other garden, in order to show
her how to put them in, and he says something to


her which she does not quite understand: "Besides

this I need three metres (later she says: square


metres) or three fathoms of ground." It seems as



though he were asking her for something in return

for his willingness, as though he had the intention of


indemnifying (reimbursing) himself in her garden, as

though he wanted to evade some law or other, to
derive some advantage from it without causing her



an injury. She does not know whether or not he

really shows her anything.

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The above dream, which has been given

prominence on account of its symbolic elements,


may be described as a biographical dream. Such


dreams occur frequently in psychoanalysis, but
perhaps only rarely outside it.[38]


I have, of course, an abundance of such
material, but to reproduce it here would lead us too


far into the consideration of neurotic conditions.
Everything points to the same conclusion, namely,


that we need not assume that any special
symbolizing activity of the psyche is operative in


dream-formation; that, on the contrary, the dream

makes use of such symbolizations as are to be found


ready-made in unconscious thinking, since these, by



reason of their case of representation, and for the

most part by reason of their being exempt from the


censorship, satisfy more effectively the

requirements of dream-formation.



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E. Representation in Dreams by
Symbols: Some Further Typical Dreams -


The analysis of the last biographical dream


shows that I recognized the symbolism in dreams
from the very outset. But it was only little by little


that I arrived at a full appreciation of its extent and
significance, as the result of increasing experience,


and under the influence of the works of W. Stekel,
concerning which I may here fittingly say


something.
This author, who has perhaps injured


psychoanalysis as much as he has benefited it,



produced a large number of novel symbolic

translations, to which no credence was given at first,


but most of which were later confirmed and had to

be accepted. Stekel's services are in no way belittled


by the remark that the sceptical reserve with which

these symbols were received was not unjustified.
For the examples upon which he based his



interpretations were often unconvincing, and,

moreover, he employed a method which must be

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rejected as scientifically unreliable. Stekel found his

symbolic meanings by way of intuition, by virtue of


his individual faculty of immediately understanding


the symbols. But such an art cannot be generally
assumed; its efficiency is immune from criticism,


and its results have therefore no claim to credibility.
It is as though one were to base one's diagnosis of


infectious diseases on the olfactory impressions
received beside the sick-bed, although of course


there have been clinicians to whom the sense of
smell- atrophied in most people- has been of greater


service than to others, and who really have been

able to diagnose a case of abdominal typhus by their


sense of smell.


The progressive experience of psycho-

analysis has enabled us to discover patients who


have displayed in a surprising degree this immediate

understanding of dream-symbolism. Many of these
patients suffered from dementia praecox, so that for



a time there was an inclination to suspect that all

dreamers with such an understanding of symbols

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were suffering from that disorder. But this did not

prove to be the case; it is simply a question of a


personal gift or idiosyncrasy without perceptible


pathological significance.
When one has familiarized oneself with the


extensive employment of symbolism for the
representation of sexual material in dreams, one


naturally asks oneself whether many of these
symbols have not a permanently established


meaning, like the signs in shorthand; and one even
thinks of attempting to compile a new dream-book


on the lines of the cipher method. In this connection

it should be noted that symbolism does not


appertain especially to dreams, but rather to the



unconscious imagination, and particularly to that of

the people, and it is to be found in a more


developed condition in folklore, myths, legends,

idiomatic phrases, proverbs, and the current
witticisms of a people than in dreams. We should



have, therefore, to go far beyond the province of

dream- interpretation in order fully to investigate

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the meaning of symbolism, and to discuss the

numerous problems- for the most part still


unsolved- which are associated with the concept of


the symbol.[39] We shall here confine ourselves to
saying that representation by a symbol comes under


the heading of the indirect representations, but that
we are warned by all sorts of signs against


indiscriminately classing symbolic representation
with the other modes of indirect representation


before we have clearly conceived its distinguishing
characteristics. In a number of cases, the common


quality shared by the symbol and the thing which it

represents is obvious; in others, it is concealed; in


these latter cases the choice of the symbol appears



to be enigmatic. And these are the very cases that

must be able to elucidate the ultimate meaning of


the symbolic relation; they point to the fact that it is

of a genetic nature. What is today symbolically
connected was probably united, in primitive times,



by conceptual and linguistic identity.[40] The

symbolic relationship seems to be a residue and

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reminder of a former identity. It may also be noted

that in many cases the symbolic identity extends


beyond the linguistic identity, as had already been


asserted by Schubert (1814).[41] -
Dreams employ this symbolism to give a


disguised representation to their latent thoughts.
Among the symbols thus employed there are, of


course, many which constantly, or all but constantly,
mean the same thing. But we must bear in mind the


curious plasticity of psychic material. Often enough a
symbol in the dream-content may have to be


interpreted not symbolically but in accordance with

its proper meaning; at other times the dreamer,


having to deal with special memory-material, may



take the law into his own hands and employ

anything whatever as a sexual symbol, though it is


not generally so employed. Wherever he has the

choice of several symbols for the representation of a
dream- content, he will decide in favour of that



symbol which is in addition objectively related to his

other thought-material; that is to say, he will

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employ an individual motivation besides the typically

valid one.


Although since Scherner's time the more


recent investigations of dream-problems have
definitely established the existence of dream-


symbolism- even Havelock Ellis acknowledges that
our dreams are indubitably full of symbols- it must


yet be admitted that the existence of symbols in
dreams has not only facilitated dream-


interpretation, but has also made it more difficult.
The technique of interpretation in accordance with


the dreamer's free associations more often than

otherwise leaves us in the lurch as far as the


symbolic elements of the dream-content are



concerned. A return to the arbitrariness of dream-

interpretation as it was practised in antiquity, and is


seemingly revived by Stekel's wild interpretations, is

contrary to scientific method. Consequently, those
elements in the dream-content which are to be



symbolically regarded compel us to employ a

combined technique, which on the one hand is based

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on the dreamer's associations, while on the other

hand the missing portions have to be supplied by


the interpreter's understanding of the symbols.


Critical circumspection in the solution of the symbols
must coincide with careful study of the symbols in


especially transparent examples of dreams in order
to silence the reproach of arbitrariness in dream-


interpretation. The uncertainties which still adhere to
our function as dream-interpreters are due partly to


our imperfect knowledge (which, however, can be
progressively increased) and partly to certain


peculiarities of the dream-symbols themselves.

These often possess many and varied meanings, so


that, as in Chinese script, only the context can



furnish the correct meaning. This multiple

significance of the symbol is allied to the dream's


faculty of admitting over-interpretations, of

representing, in the same content, various wish-
impulses and thought-formations, often of a widely



divergent character.

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After these limitations and reservations, I

will proceed. The Emperor and the Empress (King


and Queen)[42] in most cases really represent the


dreamer's parents; the dreamer himself or herself is
the prince or princess. But the high authority


conceded to the Emperor is also conceded to great
men, so that in some dreams, for example, Goethe


appears as a father symbol (Hitschmann).- All
elongated objects, sticks, tree-trunks, umbrellas (on


account of the opening, which might be likened to
an erection), all sharp and elongated weapons,


knives, daggers, and pikes, represent the male

member. A frequent, but not very intelligible symbol


for the same is a nail-file (a reference to rubbing



and scraping?).- Small boxes, chests, cupboards,

and ovens correspond to the female organ; also


cavities, ships, and all kinds of vessels.- A room in a

dream generally represents a woman; the
description of its various entrances and exits is



scarcely calculated to make us doubt this

interpretation.[43] The interest as to whether the

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room is open or locked will be readily understood in

this connection. (Cf. Dora's dream in Fragment of an


Analysis of Hysteria.) There is no need to be explicit


as to the sort of key that will unlock the room; the
symbolism of lock and key has been gracefully if


broadly employed by Uhland in his song of the Graf
Eberstein.- The dream of walking through a suite of


rooms signifies a brothel or a harem. But, as H.
Sachs has shown by an admirable example, it is also


employed to represent marriage (contrast). An
interesting relation to the sexual investigations of


childhood emerges when the dreamer dreams of two

rooms which were previously one, or finds that a


familiar room in a house of which he dreams has



been divided into two, or the reverse. In childhood

the female genitals and anus (the "behind")[44] are


conceived of as a single opening according to the

infantile cloaca theory, and only later is it discovered
that this region of the body contains two separate



cavities and openings. Steep inclines, ladders and

stairs, and going up or down them, are symbolic

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representations of the sexual act.[45] Smooth walls

over which one climbs, facades of houses, across


which one lets oneself down- often with a sense of


great anxiety- correspond to erect human bodies,
and probably repeat in our dreams childish


memories of climbing up parents or nurses. Smooth
walls are men; in anxiety dreams one often holds


firmly to projections on houses. Tables, whether
bare or covered, and boards, are women, perhaps


by virtue of contrast, since they have no protruding
contours. Wood generally speaking, seems, in


accordance with its linguistic relations, to represent

feminine matter (Materie). The name of the island


Madeira means wood in Portuguese. Since bed and



board (mensa et thorus) constitute marriage, in

dreams the latter is often substituted for the former,


and as far as practicable the sexual representation-

complex is transposed to the eating-complex.- Of
articles of dress, a woman's hat may very often be



interpreted with certainty as the male genitals. In

the dreams of men, one often finds the necktie as a

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symbol for the penis; this is not only because

neckties hang down in front of the body, and are


characteristic of men, but also because one can


select them at pleasure, a freedom which nature
prohibits as regards the original of the symbol.


Persons who make use of this symbol in dreams are
very extravagant in the matter of ties, and possess


whole collections of them.[46] All complicated
machines and appliances are very probably the


genitals- as a rule the male genitals- in the
description of which the symbolism of dreams is as


indefatigable as human wit. It is quite unmistakable

that all weapons and tools are used as symbols for


the male organ: e.g., ploughshare, hammer, gun,



revolver, dagger, sword, etc. Again, many of the

landscapes seen in dreams, especially those that


contain bridges or wooded mountains, may be

readily recognized as descriptions of the genitals.
Marcinowski collected a series of examples in which



the dreamer explained his dream by means of

drawings, in order to represent the landscapes and

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places appearing in it. These drawings clearly

showed the distinction between the manifest and the


latent meaning of the dream. Whereas, naively


regarded, they seemed to represent plans, maps,
and so forth, closer investigation showed that they


were representations of the human body, of the
genitals, etc., and only after conceiving them thus


could the dream be understood.[47] Finally, where
one finds incomprehensible neologisms one may


suspect combinations of components having a
sexual significance.- Children, too, often signify the


genitals, since men and women are in the habit of

fondly referring to their genital organs as little man,


little woman, little thing. The little brother was



correctly recognized by Stekel as the penis. To play

with or to beat a little child is often the dream's


representation of masturbation. The dream-work

represents castration by baldness, hair-cutting, the
loss of teeth, and beheading. As an insurance



against castration, the dream uses one of the

common symbols of the penis in double or multiple

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form and the appearance in a dream of a lizard- an

animal whose tail, if pulled off, is regenerated by a


new growth- has the same meaning. Most of those


animals which are utilized as genital symbols in
mythology and folklore play this part also in dreams:


the fish, the snail, the cat, the mouse (on account of
the hairiness of the genitals), but above all the


snake, which is the most important symbol of the
male member. Small animals and vermin are


substitutes for little children, e.g., undesired sisters
or brothers. To be infected with vermin is often the


equivalent for pregnancy.- As a very recent symbol

of the male organ I may mention the airship, whose


employment is justified by its relation to flying, and



also, occasionally, by its form.- Stekel has given a

number of other symbols, not yet sufficiently


verified, which he has illustrated by examples. The

works of this author, and especially his book: Die
Sprache des Traumes, contain the richest collection



of interpretations of symbols, some of which were

ingeniously guessed and were proved to be correct

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upon investigation, as, for example, in the section

on the symbolism of death. The author's lack of


critical reflection, and his tendency to generalize at


all costs, make his interpretations doubtful or
inapplicable, so that in making use of his works


caution is urgently advised. I shall therefore restrict
myself to mentioning a few examples. -


Right and left, according to Stekel, are to be
understood in dreams in an ethical sense. "The


right-hand path always signifies the way to
righteousness, the left-hand path the path to crime.


Thus the left may signify homosexuality, incest, and

perversion, while the right signifies marriage,


relations with a prostitute, etc. The meaning is



always determined by the individual moral

standpoint of the dreamer" (loc. cit., p. 466).


Relatives in dreams generally stand for the genitals

(p. 473). Here I can confirm this meaning only for
the son, the daughter, and the younger sister- that



is, wherever little thing could be employed. On the

other hand, verified examples allow us to recognize

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sisters as symbols of the breasts, and brothers as

symbols of the larger hemispheres. To be unable to


overtake a carriage is interpreted by Stekel as


regret at being unable to catch up with a difference
in age (p. 479). The luggage of a traveller is the


burden of sin by which one is oppressed (ibid.) But a
traveller's luggage often proves to be an


unmistakable symbol of one's own genitals. To
numbers, which frequently occur in dreams, Stekel


has assigned a fixed symbolic meaning, but these
interpretations seem neither sufficiently verified nor


of universal validity, although in individual cases

they can usually be recognized as plausible. We


have, at all events, abundant confirmation that the



figure three is a symbol of the male genitals. One of

Stekel's generalizations refers to the double


meaning of the genital symbols. "Where is there a

symbol," he asks, "which (if in any way permitted by
the imagination) may not be used simultaneously in



the masculine and the feminine sense?" To be sure,

the clause in parenthesis retracts much of the

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absolute character of this assertion, for this double

meaning is not always permitted by the imagination.


Still, I think it is not superfluous to state that in my


experience this general statement of Stekel's
requires elaboration. Besides those symbols which


are just as frequently employed for the male as for
the female genitals, there are others which


preponderantly, or almost exclusively, designate one
of the sexes, and there are yet others which, so far


as we know, have only the male or only the female
signification. To use long, stiff objects and weapons


as symbols of the female genitals, or hollow objects

(chests, boxes, etc.) as symbols of the male


genitals, is certainly not permitted by the



imagination.
It is true that the tendency of dreams, and


of the unconscious phantasy, to employ the sexual

symbols bisexually, reveals an archaic trait, for in
childhood the difference in the genitals is unknown,



and the same genitals are attributed to both sexes.

One may also be misled as regards the significance

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of a bisexual symbol if one forgets the fact that in

some dreams a general reversal of sexes takes


place, so that the male organ is represented by the


female, and vice versa. Such dreams express, for
example, the wish of a woman to be a man.


The genitals may even be represented in
dreams by other parts of the body: the male


member by the hand or the foot, the female genital
orifice by the mouth, the ear, or even the eye. The


secretions of the human body- mucus, tears, urine,
semen, etc.- may be used in dreams


interchangeably. This statement of Stekel's, correct

in the main, has suffered a justifiable critical


restriction as the result of certain comments of R.



Reitler's (Internat. Zeitschr. fur Psych., i, 1913). The

gist of the matter is the replacement of an important


secretion, such as the semen, by an indifferent one.

These very incomplete indications may
suffice to stimulate others to make a more



painstaking collection.[48] I have attempted a much

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more detailed account of dream-symbolism in my

General Introduction to Psycho-Analysis. -


I shall now append a few instances of the


use of such symbols, which will show how impossible
it is to arrive at the interpretation of a dream if one


excludes dream-symbolism, but also how in many
cases it is imperatively forced upon one. At the


same time, I must expressly warn the investigator
against overestimating the importance of symbols in


the interpretation of dreams, restricting the work of
dream-translation to the translation of symbols, and


neglecting the technique of utilizing the associations

of the dreamer. The two techniques of dream-


interpretation must supplement one another;



practically, however, as well as theoretically,

precedence is retained by the latter process, which


assigns the final significance to the utterances of the

dreamer, while the symbol-translation which we
undertake play an auxiliary part.



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1. The hat as the symbol of a man (of

the male genitals):[49]


(A fragment from the dream of a young


woman who suffered from agoraphobia as the result
of her fear of temptation.) -


I am walking in the street in summer; I am
wearing a straw hat of peculiar shape, the middle


piece of which is bent upwards, while the side pieces
hang downwards (here the description hesitates),


and in such a fashion that one hangs lower than the
other. I am cheerful and in a confident mood, and as


I pass a number of young officers I think to myself:

You can't do anything to me.


As she could produce no associations to the



hat, I said to her: "The hat is really a male genital

organ, with its raised middle piece and the two


downward-hanging side pieces." It is perhaps

peculiar that her hat should be supposed to be a
man, but after all one says: Unter die Haube



kommen (to get under the cap) when we mean: to

get married. I intentionally refrained from

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interpreting the details concerning the unequal

dependence of the two side pieces, although the


determination of just such details must point the


way to the interpretation. I went on to say that if,
therefore, she had a husband with such splendid


genitals she would not have to fear the officers; that
is, she would have nothing to wish from them, for it


was essentially her temptation- phantasies which
prevented her from going about unprotected and


unaccompanied. This last explanation of her anxiety
I had already been able to give her repeatedly on


the basis of other material.

It is quite remarkable how the dreamer


behaved after this interpretation. She withdrew her



description of the hat and would not admit that she

had said that the two side pieces were hanging


down. I was, however, too sure of what I had heard

to allow myself to be misled, and so I insisted that
she did say it. She was quiet for a while, and then



found the courage to ask why it was that one of her

husband's testicles was lower than the other, and

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whether it was the same with all men. With this the
peculiar detail of the hat was explained, and the


whole interpretation was accepted by her.


The hat symbol was familiar to me long
before the patient related this dream. From other


but less transparent cases I believed that I might
assume the hat could also stand for the female


genitals.[50] -

2. The little one as the genital organ.



Being run over as a symbol of sexual
intercourse.


(Another dream of the same agoraphobic



patient.)
Her mother sends away her little daughter


so that she has to go alone. She then drives with

her mother to the railway station, and sees her little


one walking right along the track, so that she is

bound to be run over. She hears the bones crack.
(At this she experiences a feeling of discomfort but



no real horror.) She then looks through the carriage

window, to see whether the parts cannot be seen

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behind. Then she reproaches her mother for allowing

the little one to go out alone.


Analysis.- It is not an easy matter to give


here a complete interpretation of the dream. It
forms part of a cycle of dreams, and can be fully


understood only in connection with the rest. For it is
not easy to obtain the material necessary to


demonstrate the symbolism in a sufficiently isolated
condition. The patient at first finds that the railway


journey is to be interpreted historically as an
allusion to a departure from a sanatorium for


nervous diseases, with whose director she was, of

course, in love. Her mother fetched her away, and


before her departure the physician came to the



railway station and gave her a bunch of flowers; she

felt uncomfortable because her mother witnessed


this attention. Here the mother, therefore, appears

as the disturber of her tender feelings, a role
actually played by this strict woman during her



daughter's girlhood.- The next association referred

to the sentence: She then looks to see whether the

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parts cannot be seen behind. In the dream-facade

one would naturally be compelled to think of the


pieces of the little daughter who had been run over


and crushed. The association, however, turns in
quite a different direction. She recalls that she once


saw her father in the bath-room, naked, from
behind; she then begins to talk about sex


differences, and remarks that in the man the
genitals can be seen from behind, but in the woman


they cannot. In this connection she now herself
offers the interpretation that the little one is the


genital organ, and her little one (she has a four-

year-old daughter) her own organ. She reproaches


her mother for wanting her to live as though she



had no genitals, and recognizes this reproach in the

introductory sentence of the dream: the mother


sends her little one away, so that she has to go

alone. In her phantasy, going alone through the
streets means having no man, no sexual relations



(coire = to go together), and this she does not like.

According to all her statements, she really suffered

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as a girl through her mother's jealousy, because her

father showed a preference for her.


The deeper interpretation of this dream


depends upon another dream of the same night, in
which the dreamer identifies herself with her


brother. She was a tomboy, and was always being
told that she should have been born a boy. This


identification with the brother shows with especial
clearness that the little one signifies the genital


organ. The mother threatened him (her) with
castration, which could only be understood as a


punishment for playing with the genital parts, and

the identification, therefore, shows that she herself


had masturbated as a child, though she had retained



only a memory of her brother's having done so. An

early knowledge of the male genitals, which she lost


later, must, according to the assertions of this

second dream, have been acquired at this time.
Moreover, the second dream points to the infantile



sexual theory that girls originate from boys as a

result of castration. After I had told her of this

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childish belief, she at once confirmed it by an

anecdote in which the boy asks the girl: "Was it cut


off?" to which the girl replies: "No, it's always been


like that."
Consequently the sending away of the little


one, of the genital organ, in the first dream refers
also to the threatened castration. Finally, she


blames her mother for not having borne her as a
boy.


That being run over symbolizes sexual
intercourse would not be evident from this dream if


we had not learned it from many other sources.



3. Representation of the genitals by

buildings, stairs, and shafts.


(Dream of a young man inhibited by a father

complex.)


He is taking a walk with his father in a place

which is certainly the Prater, for one can see the
Rotunda, in front of which there is a small vestibule



to which there is attached a captive balloon; the

balloon, however, seems rather limp. His father asks

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him what this is all for; he is surprised at it, but he

explains it to his father. They come into a courtyard


in which lies a large sheet of tin. His father wants to


pull off a big piece of this, but first looks round to
see if anyone is watching. He tells his father that all


he needs to do is to speak to the overseer, and then
he can take as much as he wants to without any


more ado. From this courtyard a flight of stairs leads
down into a shaft, the walls of which are softly


upholstered, rather like a leather arm-chair. At the
end of this shaft there is a long platform, and then a


new shaft begins...

Analysis. This dreamer belonged to a type of


patient which is not at all promising from a



therapeutic point of view; up to a certain point in

the analysis such patients offer no resistance


whatever, but from that point onwards they prove to

be almost inaccessible. This dream he analysed
almost independently. "The Rotunda," he said, "is



my genitals, the captive balloon in front is my penis,

about whose flaccidity I have been worried." We

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must, however, interpret it in greater detail: the

Rotunda is the buttocks, constantly associated by


the child with the genitals; the smaller structure in


front is the scrotum. In the dream his father asks
him what this is all for- that is, he asks him about


the purpose and arrangement of the genitals. It is
quite evident that this state of affairs should be


reversed, and that he ought to be the questioner. As
such questioning, on the part of the father never


occurred in reality, we must conceive the dream-
thought as a wish, or perhaps take it conditionally,


as follows. "If I had asked my father for sexual

enlightenment..." The continuation of this thought


we shall presently find in another place.



The courtyard in which the sheet of tin is

spread out is not to be conceived symbolically in the


first instance, but originates from his father's place

of business. For reasons of discretion I have inserted
the tin for another material in which the father deals



without, however, changing anything in the verbal

expression of the dream. The dreamer had entered

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his father's business, and had taken a terrible dislike

to the somewhat questionable practices upon which


its profit mainly depended. Hence the continuation


of the above dream-thought ("if I had asked him")
would be: "He would have deceived me just as he


does his customers." For the pulling off, which
serves to represent commercial dishonesty, the


dreamer himself gives a second explanation,
namely, masturbation. This is not only quite familiar


to us (see above), but agrees very well with the fact
that the secrecy of masturbation is expressed by its


opposite (one can do it quite openly). Thus, it

agrees entirely with our expectations that the


autoerotic activity should be attributed to the father,



just as was the questioning in the first scene of the

dream. The shaft he at once interprets as the


vagina, by referring to the soft upholstering of the

walls. That the action of coition in the vagina is
described as a going down instead of in the usual



way as a going up agrees with what I have found in

other instances.[51] -

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The details- that at the end of the first shaft

there is a long platform, and then a new shaft- he


himself explains biographically. He had for some


time had sexual intercourse with women, but had
given it up on account of inhibitions, and now hopes


to be able to begin it again with the aid of
treatment. The dream, however, becomes indistinct


towards the end, and to the experienced interpreter
it becomes evident that in the second scene of the


dream the influence of another subject has already
begun to assert itself; which is indicated by his


father's business, his dishonest practices, and the

vagina represented by the first shaft, so that one


may assume a reference to his mother.



4. The male organ symbolized by

persons and the female by a landscape.


(Dream of a woman of the lower class,

whose husband is a policeman, reported by B.
Dattner.)



...Then someone broke into the house and

she anxiously called for a policeman. But he went

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peacefully with two tramps into a church,[52] to

which a great many steps led up,[53] behind the


church there was a mountain[54] on top of which


there was a dense forest.[55] The policeman was
provided with a helmet, a gorget, and a cloak.[56]


The two vagrants, who went along with the
policeman quite peaceably, had sack-like aprons tied


round their loins.[57] A road led from the church to
the mountain. This road was overgrown on each side


with grass and brushwood, which became thicker
and thicker as it reached the top of the mountain,


where it spread out into quite a forest. -



5. Castration dreams of children.

(a) A boy aged three years and five months,



for whom his father's return from military service is

clearly inconvenient, wakes one morning in a


disturbed and excited state, and constantly repeats

the question: Why did Daddy carry his head on a
plate? Last night Daddy carried his head on a plate.



(b) A student who is now suffering from a

severe obsessional neurosis remembers that in his

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sixth year he repeatedly had the following dream:

He goes to the barber to have his hair cut. Then a


large woman with severe features comes up to him


and cuts off his head. He recognizes the woman as
his mother.


6. A modified staircase dream.


To one of my patients, a sexual abstainer,
who was very ill, whose phantasy was fixated upon


his mother, and who repeatedly dreamed of climbing
stairs while accompanied by his mother, I once
remarked that moderate masturbation would


probably have been less harmful to him than his



enforced abstinence. The influence of this remark

provoked the following dream:


His piano teacher reproaches him for

neglecting his piano- playing, and for not practicing


the Etudes of Moscheles and Clementi's Gradus ad

Parnassum. With reference to this he remarked that
the Gradus, too, is a stairway, and that the piano



itself is a stairway, as it has a scale.

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It may be said that there is no class of ideas

which cannot be enlisted in the representation of


sexual facts and wishes.


7. The sensation of reality and the
representation of repetition.


A man, now thirty-five, relates a clearly


remembered dream which he claims to have had
when he was four years of age: The notary with


whom his father's will was deposited- he had lost his
father at the age of three- brought two large
Emperor-pears, of which he was given one to eat.


The other lay on the window sill of the living-room.



He woke with the conviction of the reality of what he

had dreamt, and obstinately asked his mother to


give him the second pear; it was, he said, still lying

on the window-sill. His mother laughed at this.


Analysis. The notary was a jovial old

gentleman who, as he seems to remember, really
sometimes brought pears with him. The window- sill



was as he saw it in the dream. Nothing else occurs

to him in this connection, except, perhaps, that his

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mother has recently told him a dream. She has two

birds sitting on her head; she wonders when they


will fly away, but they do not fly away, and one of


them flies to her mouth and sucks at it.
The dreamer's inability to furnish


associations justifies the attempt to interpret it by
the substitution of symbols. The two pears- pommes


on poires- are the breasts of the mother who nursed
him; the window-sill is the projection of the bosom,


analogous to the balconies in the dream of houses.
His sensation of reality after waking is justified, for


his mother had actually suckled him for much longer

than the customary term, and her breast was still


available. The dream is to be translated: "Mother,



give (show) me the breast again at which I once

used to drink." The once is represented by the


eating of the one pear, the again by the desire for

the other. The temporal repetition of an act is
habitually represented in dreams by the numerical



multiplication of an object

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It is naturally a very striking phenomenon

that symbolism should already play a part in the


dream of a child of four, but this is the rule rather


than the exception. One may say that the dreamer
has command of symbolism from the very first.


The early age at which people make use of
symbolic representation, even apart from the


dream-life, may be shown by the following
uninfluenced memory of a lady who is now twenty-


seven: She is in her fourth year. The nursemaid is
driving her, with her brother, eleven months


younger, and a cousin, who is between the two in

age, to the lavatory, so that they can do their little


business there before going for their walk. As the



oldest, she sits on the seat and the other two on

chambers. She asks her (female) cousin: Have you


a purse, too? Walter has a little sausage, I have a

purse. The cousin answers: Yes, I have a purse, too.
The nursemaid listens, laughing, and relates the



conversation to the mother, whose reaction is a

sharp reprimand.

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Here a dream may be inserted whose

excellent symbolism permitted of interpretation with


little assistance from the dreamer:


8. The question of symbolism in the
dreams of normal persons. [58] -


An objection frequently raised by the
opponents of psycho- analysis -- and recently also


by Havelock Ellis[59] -- is that, although dream-
symbolism may perhaps be a product of the neurotic


psyche, it has no validity whatever in the case of
normal persons. But while psychoanalysis recognizes


no essential distinctions, but only quantitative

differences, between the psychic life of the normal


person and that of the neurotic, the analysis of



those dreams in which, in sound and sick persons

alike, the repressed complexes display the same


activity, reveals the absolute identity of the

mechanisms as well as of the symbolism. Indeed,
the natural dreams of healthy persons often contain



a much simpler, more transparent, and more

characteristic symbolism than those of neurotics,

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which, owing to the greater strictness of the

censorship and the more extensive dream- distortion


resulting therefrom, are frequently troubled and


obscured, and are therefore more difficult to
translate. The following dream serves to illustrate


this fact. This dream comes from a non-neurotic girl
of a rather prudish and reserved type. In the course


of conversation I found that she was engaged to be
married, but that there were hindrances in the way


of the marriage which threatened to postpone it.
She related spontaneously the following dream: -


I arrange the centre of a table with flowers

for a birthday. On being questioned she states that


in the dream she seemed to be at home (she has no



home at the time) and experienced a feeling of

happiness.


The popular symbolism enables me to

translate the dream for myself. It is the expression
of her wish to be married: the table, with the



flowers in the centre, is symbolic of herself and her

genitals. She represents her future fulfilled,

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inasmuch as she is already occupied with the

thoughts of the birth of a child; so the wedding has


taken place long ago.


I call her attention to the fact that the centre
of a table is an unusual expression, which she


admits; but here, of course, I cannot question her
more directly. I carefully refrain from suggesting to


her the meaning of the symbols, and ask her only
for the thoughts which occur to her mind in


connection with the individual parts of the dream. In
the course of the analysis her reserve gave way to a


distinct interest in the interpretation, and a

frankness which was made possible by the serious


tone of the conversation. To my question as to what



kind of flowers they had been, her first answer is:

expensive flowers; one has to pay for them; then


she adds that they were lilies-of-the-valley, violets,

and pinks or carnations. I took the word lily in this
dream in its popular sense, as a symbol of chastity;



she confirmed this, as purity occurred to her in

association with lily. Valley is a common feminine

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dream-symbol. The chance juxtaposition of the two

symbols in the name of the flower is made into a


piece of dream-symbolism, and serves to emphasize


the preciousness of her virginity- expensive flowers;
one has to pay for them- and expresses the


expectation that her husband will know how to
appreciate its value. The comment, expensive


flowers, etc. has, as will be shown, a different
meaning in every one of the three different flower-


symbols.
I thought of what seemed to me a


venturesome explanation of the hidden meaning of

the apparently quite asexual word violets by an


unconscious relation to the French viol. But to my



surprise the dreamer's association was the English

word violate. The accidental phonetic similarity of


the two words violet and violate is utilized by the

dream to express in the language of flowers the idea
of the violence of defloration (another word which



makes use of flower-symbolism), and perhaps also

to give expression to a masochistic tendency on the

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part of the girl. An excellent example of the word

bridges across which run the paths to the


unconscious. One has to pay for them here means


life, with which she has to pay for becoming a wife
and a mother.


In association with pinks, which she then
calls carnations, I think of carnal. But her


association is colour, to which she adds that
carnations are the flowers which her fiance gives her


frequently and in large quantities. At the end of the
conversation she suddenly admits, spontaneously,


that she has not told me the truth; the word that
occurred to her was not colour, but incarnation, the


very word I expected. Moreover, even the word



colour is not a remote association; it was

determined by the meaning of carnation (i.e., flesh-


colour)- that is, by the complex. This lack of honesty

shows that the resistance here is at its greatest
because the symbolism is here most transparent,



and the struggle between libido and repression is

most intense in connection with this phallic theme.

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The remark that these flowers were often given her

by her fiance is, together with the double meaning


of carnation, a still further indication of their phallic


significance in the dream. The occasion of the
present of flowers during the day is employed to


express the thought of a sexual present and a return
present. She gives her virginity and expects in


return for it a rich love-life. But the words:
expensive flowers; one has to pay for them may


have a real, financial meaning. The flower-
symbolism in the dream thus comprises the virginal


female, the male symbol, and the reference to

violent defloration. It is to be noted that sexual


flower-symbolism, which, of course, is very



widespread, symbolizes the human sexual organs by

flowers, the sexual organs of plants; indeed,


presents of flowers between lovers may have this

unconscious significance.
The birthday for which she is making



preparations in the dream probably signifies the

birth of a child. She identifies herself with the

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bridegroom, and represents him preparing her for a

birth (having coitus with her). It is as though the


latent thought were to say: "If I were he, I would


not wait, but I would deflower the bride without
asking her; I would use violence." Indeed, the word


violate points to this. Thus even the sadistic libidinal
components find expression.


In a deeper stratum of the dream the
sentence I arrange, etc., probably has an auto-


erotic, that is, an infantile significance.
She also has a knowledge- possibly only in


the dream- of her physical need; she sees herself

flat like a table, so that she emphasizes all the more


her virginity, the costliness of the centre (another



time she calls it a centre-piece of flowers). Even the

horizontal element of the table may contribute


something to the symbol. The concentration of the

dream is worthy of remark: nothing is superfluous,
every word is a symbol.



Later on she brings me a supplement to this

dream: I decorate the flowers with green crinkled

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paper. She adds that it was fancy paper of the sort

which is used to disguise ordinary flower-pots. She


says also: "To hide untidy things, whatever was to


be seen which was not pretty to the eye; there is a
gap, a little space in the flowers. The paper looks


like velvet or moss." With decorate she associates
decorum, as I expected. The green colour is very


prominent, and with this she associates hope, yet
another reference to pregnancy. In this part of the


dream the identification with the man is not the
dominant feature, but thoughts of shame and


frankness express themselves. She makes herself

beautiful for him; she admits physical defects, of


which she is ashamed and which she wishes to



correct. The associations velvet and moss distinctly

point to crines pubis.


The dream is an expression of thoughts

hardly known to the waking state of the girl;
thoughts which deal with the love of the senses and



its organs; she is prepared for a birth-day, i.e., she

has coitus; the fear of defloration and perhaps the

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pleasurably toned pain find expression; she admits

her physical defects and over-compensates them by


means of an over-estimation of the value of her


virginity. Her shame excuses the emerging
sensuality by the fact that the aim of it all is the


child. Even material considerations, which are
foreign to the lover, find expression here. The affect


of the simple dream- the feeling of bliss- shows that
here strong emotional complexes have found


satisfaction.
I close with the


9. Dream of a chemist.


(A young man who has been trying to give

up his habit of masturbation by substituting


intercourse with a woman.)

Preliminary statement: On the day before


the dream he had been instructing a student as to

Grignard's reaction, in which magnesium is dissolved
in absolutely pure ether under the catalytic influence



of iodine. Two days earlier there had been an

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explosion in the course of the same reaction, in

which someone had burned his hand.


Dream I. He is going to make


phenylmagnesiumbromide; he sees the apparatus
with particular distinctness, but he has substituted


himself for the magnesium. He is now in a curious,
wavering attitude. He keeps on repeating to himself:


"This is the right thing, it is working, my feet are
beginning to dissolve, and my knees are getting


soft." Then he reaches down and feels for his feet,
and meanwhile (he does not know how) he takes his


legs out of the carboy, and then again he says to

himself: "That can't be... Yes, it has been done


correctly." Then he partially wakes, and repeats the



dream to himself, because he wants to tell it to me.

He is positively afraid of the analysis of the dream.


He is much excited during this state of semi-sleep,

and repeats continually: "Phenyl, phenyl."
II. He is in... with his whole family. He is



supposed to be at the Schottentor at half-past

eleven in order to keep an appointment with the

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lady in question, but he does not wake until half-

past eleven. He says to himself: "It is too late now;


when you get there it will be half-past twelve." The


next moment he sees the whole family gathered
about the table- his mother and the parlourmaid


with the soup tureen with peculiar distinctness. Then
he says to himself: "Well, if we are sitting down to


eat already, I certainly can't get away."
Analysis. He feels sure that even the first


dream contains a reference to the lady whom he is
to meet at the place of rendezvous (the dream was


dreamed during the night before the expected

meeting). The student whom he was instructing is a


particularly unpleasant fellow; the chemist had said



to him: "That isn't right, because the magnesium

was still unaffected," and the student had answered,


as though he were quite unconcerned: "Nor it is." He

himself must be this student; he is as indifferent to
his analysis as the student is to his synthesis; the he



in the dream, however, who performs the operation,

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is myself. How unpleasant he must seem to me with

his indifference to the result!


Again, he is the material with which the


analysis (synthesis) is made. For the question is the
success of the treatment. The legs in the dream


recall an impression of the previous evening. He met
a lady at a dancing class of whom he wished to


make a conquest; he pressed her to him so closely
that she once cried out. As he ceased to press her


legs he felt her firm, responding pressure against his
lower thighs as far as just above the knees, the spot


mentioned in the dream. In this situation, then, the

woman is the magnesium in the retort, which is at


last working. He is feminine towards me, as he is



virile towards the woman. If he succeeds with the

woman, the treatment will also succeed. Feeling


himself and becoming aware of his knees refers to

masturbation, and corresponds to his fatigue of the
previous day... The rendezvous had actually been



made for half-past eleven. His wish to oversleep

himself and to keep to his sexual object at home

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(that is, masturbation) corresponds to his

resistance.


He says, in respect to the repetition of the


name phenyl, that all these radicals ending in yl
have always been pleasing to him; they are very


convenient to use: benzyl, acetyl, etc. That,
however, explained nothing. But when I proposed


the root Schlemihl he laughed heartily, and told me
that during the summer he had read a book by


Prevost which contained a chapter: "Les exclus de
l'amour," and in this there was some mention of


Schlemilies; and in reading of these outcasts he said

to himself: "That is my case." He would have played


the Schlemihl if he had missed the appointment.



It seems that the sexual symbolism of

dreams has already been directly confirmed by


experiment. In 1912 Dr. K. Schrotter, at the

instance of H. Swoboda, produced dreams in deeply
hypnotized persons by suggestions which



determined a large part of the dream- content. If

the suggestion proposed that the subject should

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dream of normal or abnormal sexual relations, the

dream carried out these orders by replacing sexual


material by the symbols with which psycho-analytic


dream-interpretation has made us familiar. Thus,
following the suggestion that the dreamer should


dream of homosexual relations with a lady friend,
this friend appeared in the dream carrying a shabby


travelling-bag, upon which there was a label with
the printed words: "For ladies only." The dreamer


was believed never to have heard of dream-
symbolization or of dream-interpretation.


Unfortunately, the value of this important

investigation was diminished by the fact that Dr.


Schrotter shortly afterwards committed suicide. Of



his dream-experiments be gave us only a

preliminary report in the Zentralblatt fur


Psychoanalyse.
Only when we have formed a due estimate
of the importance of symbolism in dreams can we



continue the study of the typical dreams which was

interrupted in an earlier chapter. I feel justified in

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dividing these dreams roughly into two classes; first,

those which always really have the same meaning,


and second, those which despite the same or a


similar content must nevertheless be given the most
varied interpretations. Of the typical dreams


belonging to the first class I have already dealt fairly
fully with the examination-dream.


On account of their similar affective
character, the dreams of missing a train deserve to


be ranked with the examination-dreams; moreover,
their interpretation justifies this approximation. They


are consolation-dreams, directed against another

anxiety perceived in dreams- the fear of death. To


depart is one of the most frequent and one of the



most readily established of the death-symbols. The

dream therefore says consolingly: "Reassure


yourself, you are not going to die (to depart)," just

as the examination-dream calms us by saying:
"Don't be afraid; this time, too, nothing will happen



to you." The difficulty is understanding both kinds of

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dreams is due to the fact that the anxiety is

attached precisely to the expression of consolation.


The meaning of the dreams due to dental


stimulus which I have often enough had to analyse
in my patients escaped me for a long time because,


much to my astonishment, they habitually offered
too great a resistance to interpretation. But finally


an overwhelming mass of evidence convinced me
that in the case of men nothing other than the


masturbatory desires of puberty furnish the motive
power of these dreams. I shall analyse two such


dreams, one of which is also a flying dream. The two

dreams were dreamed by the same person- a young


man of pronounced homosexuality which, however,



has been inhibited in life.

He is witnessing a performance of Fidelio


from the stalls the of the operahouse; sitting next to

L, whose personality is congenial to him, and whose
friendship he would like to have. Suddenly he flies



diagonally right across the stalls; he then puts his

hand in his mouth and draws out two of his teeth.

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He himself describes the flight by saying

that it was as though he were thrown into the air. As


the opera performed was Fidelio, he recalls the


words: -
He who a charming wife acquires.... -


But the acquisition of even the most
charming wife is not among the wishes of the


dreamer. Two other lines would be more
appropriate: -


He who succeeds in the lucky (big) throw
The friend of a friend to be.... -


The dream thus contains the lucky (big)

throw which is not, however, a wish-fulfilment only.


For it conceals also the painful reflection that in his



striving after friendship he has often had the

misfortune to be thrown out, and the fear lest this


fate may be repeated in the case of the young man

by whose side he has enjoyed the performance of
Fidelio. This is now followed by a confession,



shameful to a man of his refinement, to the effect

that once, after such a rejection on the part of a

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friend, his profound sexual longing caused him to

masturbate twice in succession.


The other dream is as follows: Two


university professors of his acquaintance are
treating him in my place. One of them does


something to his penis; he is afraid of an operation.
The other thrusts an iron bar against his mouth, so


that he loses one or two teeth. He is bound with four
silk handkerchiefs.


The sexual significance of this dream can
hardly be doubted. The silk handkerchiefs allude to


an identification with a homosexual of his

acquaintance. The dreamer, who has never achieved


coition (nor has he ever actually sought sexual



intercourse) with men, conceives the sexual act on

the lines of masturbation with which he was familiar


during puberty.
I believe that the frequent modifications of
the typical dream due to dental stimulus- that, for



example, in which another person draws the tooth

from the dreamer's mouth- will be made intelligible

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by the same explanation.[60] It may, however, be

difficult to understand how dental stimulus can have


come to have this significance. But here I may draw


attention to the frequent displacement from below to
above which is at the service of sexual repression,


and by means of which all kinds of sensations and
intentions occurring in hysteria, which ought to be


localized in the genitals, may at all events be
realized in other, unobjectionable parts of the body.


We have a case of such displacement when the
genitals are replaced by the face in the symbolism of


unconscious thought. This is corroborated by the

fact that verbal usage relates the buttocks to the


cheeks, and the labia minora to the lips which



enclose the orifice of the mouth. The nose is

compared to the penis in numerous allusions, and in


each case the presence of hair completes the

resemblance. Only one feature- the teeth- is beyond
all possibility of being compared in this way; but it is



just this coincidence of agreement and disagreement

which makes the teeth suitable for purposes of

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representation under the pressure of sexual

repression. -


I will not assert that the interpretation of


dreams due to dental stimulus as dreams of
masturbation (the correctness of which I cannot


doubt) has been freed of all obscurity.[61] I carry
the explanation as far as I am able, and must leave


the rest unsolved. But I must refer to yet another
relation indicated by a colloquial expression. In


Austria there is in use an indelicate designation for
the act of masturbation, namely: "To pull one out,"


or "to pull one off."[62] I am unable to say whence

these colloquialisms originate, or on what


symbolisms they are based; but the teeth would



very well fit in with the first of the two. -

Dreams of pulling teeth, and of teeth falling


out, are interpreted in popular belief to mean the

death of a connection. Psycho-analysis can admit of
such a meaning only at the most as a joking allusion



to the sense already indicated.

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To the second group of typical dreams

belong those in which one is flying or hovering,


falling, swimming, etc. What do these dreams


signify? Here we cannot generalize. They mean, as
we shall learn, something different in each case;


only, the sensory material which they contain always
comes from the same source.


We must conclude from the information
obtained in psycho-analysis that these dreams also


repeat impressions of our childhood- that is, that
they refer to the games involving movement which


have such an extraordinary attraction for children.

Where is the uncle who has never made a child fly


by running with it across the room, with



outstretched arms, or has never played at falling

with it by rocking it on his knee and then suddenly


straightening his leg, or by lifting it above his head

and suddenly pretending to withdraw his supporting
hand? At such moments children shout with joy and



insatiably demand a repetition of the performance,

especially if a little fright and dizziness are involved

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in it. In after years they repeat their sensations in

dreams, but in dreams they omit the hands that


held them, so that now they are free to float or fall.


We know that all small children have a fondness for
such games as rocking and see-sawing; and when


they see gymnastic performances at the circus their
recollection of such games is refreshed. In some


boys the hysterical attack consists simply in the
reproduction of such performances, which they


accomplish with great dexterity. Not infrequently
sexual sensations are excited by these games of


movement, innocent though they are in themselves.

To express the matter in a few words: it is these


romping games of childhood which are being



repeated in dreams of flying, falling, vertigo, and the

like, but the pleasurable sensations are now


transformed into anxiety. But, as every mother

knows, the romping of children often enough ends in
quarrelling and tears.



I have therefore good reason for rejecting

the explanation that it is the condition of our

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cutaneous sensations during sleep, the sensation of

the movements of the lungs, etc., that evoke


dreams of flying and falling. As I see it, these


sensations have themselves been reproduced from
the memory to which the dream refers- that they


are therefore dream-content, and not dream-
sources.[63]-


This material, consisting of sensations of
motion, similar in character, and originating from


the same sources, is now used for the
representation of the most manifold dream-


thoughts. Dreams of flying or hovering, for the most

part pleasurably toned, will call for the most widely


differing interpretations- interpretations of a quite



special nature in the case of some dreamers, and

interpretations of a typical nature in that of others.


One of my patients was in the habit of dreaming

very frequently that she was hovering a little way
above the street without touching the ground. She



was very short of stature, and she shunned every

sort of contamination involved by intercourse with

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human beings. Her dream of suspension- which

raised her feet above the ground and allowed her


head to tower into the air- fulfilled both of her


wishes. In the case of other dreamers of the same
sex, the dream of flying had the significance of the


longing: "If only I were a little bird!" Similarly,
others become angels at night, because no one has


ever called them angels by day. The intimate
connection between flying and the idea of a bird


makes it comprehensible that the dream of flying, in
the case of male dreamers, should usually have a


coarsely sensual significance;[64] and we should not

be surprised to hear that this or that dreamer is


always very proud of his ability to fly. -



Dr. Paul Federn (Vienna) has propounded

the fascinating theory that a great many flying


dreams are erection dreams, since the remarkable

phenomenon of erection, which constantly occupies
the human phantasy, cannot fail to be impressive as



an apparent suspension of the laws of gravity (cf.

the winged phalli of the ancients).

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It is a noteworthy fact that a prudent

experimenter like Mourly Vold, who is really averse


to any kind of interpretation, nevertheless defends


the erotic interpretation of the dreams of flying and
hovering.[65] He describes the erotic element as


"the most important motive factor of the hovering
dream," and refers to the strong sense of bodily


vibration which accompanies this type of dream, and
the frequent connection of such dreams with


erections and emissions. -
Dreams of falling are more frequently


characterized by anxiety. Their interpretation, when

they occur in women, offers no difficulty, because


they nearly always accept the symbolic meaning of



falling, which is a circumlocution for giving way to an

erotic temptation. We have not yet exhausted the


infantile sources of the dream of falling; nearly all

children have fallen occasionally, and then been
picked up and fondled; if they fell out of bed at



night, they were picked up by the nurse and taken

into her bed.

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People who dream often, and with great

enjoyment, of swimming, cleaving the waves, etc.,


have usually been bed-wetters, and they now repeat


in the dream a pleasure which they have long since
learned to forego. We shall soon learn, from one


example or another, to what representations dreams
of swimming easily lend themselves.


The interpretation of dreams of fire justifies
a prohibition of the nursery, which forbids children


to play with fire so that they may not wet the bed at
night. These dreams also are based on


reminiscences of the enuresis nocturna of childhood.

In my "Fragment of an Analysis of Hysteria"[66] I


have given the complete analysis and synthesis of



such a dream of fire in connection with the infantile

history of the dreamer, and have shown for the


representation of what maturer impulses this

infantile material has been utilized. -
It would be possible to cite quite a number



of other typical dreams, if by such one understands

dreams in which there is a frequent recurrence, in

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the dreams of different persons, of the same

manifest dream-content. For example: dreams of


passing through narrow alleys, or a whole suite of


rooms; dreams of burglars, in respect of whom
nervous people take measures of precaution before


going to bed; dreams of being chased by wild
animals (bulls, horses); or of being threatened with


knives, daggers, and lances. The last two themes
are characteristic of the manifest dream-content of


persons suffering from anxiety, etc. A special
investigation of this class of material would be well


worth while. In lieu of this I shall offer two

observations, which do not, however, apply


exclusively to typical dreams.



The more one is occupied with the solution

of dreams, the readier one becomes to acknowledge


that the majority of the dreams of adults deal with

sexual material and give expression to erotic wishes.
Only those who really analyse dreams, that is, those



who penetrate from their manifest content to the

latent dream- thoughts, can form an opinion on this

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subject; but never those who are satisfied with

registering merely the manifest content (as, for


example, Nacke in his writings on sexual dreams).


Let us recognize at once that there is nothing
astonishing in this fact, which is entirely consistent


with the principles of dream- interpretation. No
other instinct has had to undergo so much


suppression, from the time of childhood onwards, as
the sexual instinct in all its numerous


components:[67] from no other instincts are so
many and such intense unconscious wishes left over,


which now, in the sleeping state, generate dreams.

In dream- interpretation this importance of the


sexual complexes must never be forgotten, though



one must not, of course, exaggerate it to the

exclusion of all other factors. -


Of many dreams it may be ascertained, by

careful interpretation, that they may even be
understood bisexually, inasmuch as they yield an



indisputable over-interpretation, in which they

realize homosexual impulses- that is, impulses

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which are contrary to the normal sexual activity of

the dreamer. But that all dreams are to be


interpreted bisexually, as Stekel[68] maintains, and


Adler,[69] seems to me to be a generalization as
insusceptible of proof as it is improbable, and one


which, therefore, I should be loth to defend; for I
should, above all, be at a loss to know how to


dispose of the obvious fact that there are many
dreams which satisfy other than erotic needs (taking


the word in the widest sense), as, for example,
dreams of hunger, thirst, comfort, etc. And other


similar assertions, to the effect that "behind every

dream one finds a reference to death" (Stekel), or


that every dream shows "an advance from the



feminine to the masculine line" (Adler), seem to me

to go far beyond the admissible in the interpretation


of dreams. The assertion that all dreams call for a

sexual interpretation, against which there is such an
untiring polemic in the literature of the subject, is



quite foreign to my Interpretation of Dreams. It will

not be found in any of the eight editions of this

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book, and is in palpable contradiction to the rest of

its contents. -


We have stated elsewhere that dreams


which are conspicuously innocent commonly embody
crude erotic wishes, and this we might confirm by


numerous further examples. But many dreams
which appear indifferent, in which we should never


suspect a tendency in any particular direction, may
be traced, according to the analysis, to unmistakably


sexual wish-impulses, often of an unsuspected
nature. For example, who, before it had been


interpreted, would have suspected a sexual wish in

the following dream? The dreamer relates: Between


two stately palaces there stands, a little way back, a



small house, whose doors are closed. My wife leads

me along the little bit of road leading to the house


and pushes the door open, and then I slip quickly

and easily into the interior of a courtyard that slopes
steeply upwards.



Anyone who has had experience in the

translating of dreams will, of course, at once be

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reminded that penetration into narrow spaces and

the opening of locked doors are among the


commonest of sexual symbols, and will readily see


in this dream a representation of attempted coition
from behind (between the two stately buttocks of


the female body). The narrow, steep passage is, of
course, the vagina; the assistance attributed to the


wife of the dreamer requires the interpretation that
in reality it is only consideration for the wife which is


responsible for abstention from such an attempt.
Moreover, inquiry shows that on the previous day a


young girl had entered the household of the

dreamer; she had pleased him, and had given him


the impression that she would not be altogether



averse to an approach of this sort. The little house

between the two palaces is taken from a


reminiscence of the Hradschin in Prague, and once

more points to the girl, who is a native of that city.
If, in conversation with my patients, I



emphasize the frequency of the Oedipus dream- the

dream of having sexual intercourse with one's

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mother- I elicit the answer: "I cannot remember

such a dream." Immediately afterwards, however,


there arises the recollection of another, an


unrecognizable, indifferent dream, which the patient
has dreamed repeatedly, and which on analysis


proves to be a dream with this very content- that is,
yet another Oedipus dream. I can assure the reader


that disguised dreams of sexual intercourse with the
dreamer's mother are far more frequent than


undisguised dreams to the same effect.[70] -
Typical example of a disguised Oedipus


dream:
A man dreams: He has a secret affair with a


woman whom another man wishes to marry. He is



concerned lest the other should discover this relation

and abandon the marriage; he therefore behaves


very affectionately to the man; he nestles up to him

and kisses him. The facts of the dreamer's life touch
the dream- content only at one point. He has a



secret affair with a married woman, and an

equivocal expression of her husband, with whom he

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is on friendly terms, aroused in him the suspicion

that he might have noticed something of this


relationship. There is, however, in reality, yet


another factor, the mention of which was avoided in
the dream, and which alone gives the key to it. The


life of the husband is threatened by an organic
malady. His wife is prepared for the possibility of his


sudden death, and our dreamer consciously
harbours the intention of marrying the young widow


after her husband's decease. It is through this
objective situation that the dreamer finds himself


transferred into the constellation of the Oedipus

dream; his wish is to be enabled to kill the man, so


that he may win the woman for his wife; his dream


gives expression to the wish in a hypocritical

distortion. Instead of representing her as already


married to the other man, it represents the other

man only as wishing to marry her, which indeed
corresponds with his own secret intention, and the



hostile whishes directed against the man are

concealed under demonstrations of affection, which

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are reminiscences of his childish relations to his

father. -


There are dreams of landscapes and


localities in which emphasis is always laid upon the
assurance: "I have been here before." but this Deja


vu has a special significance in dreams. In this case
the locality is the genitals of the mother; of no other


place can it be asserted with such certainty that one
has been here before. I was once puzzled by the


account of a dream given by a patient afflicted with
obsessional neurosis. He dreamed that he called at a


house where he had been twice before. But this very

patient had long ago told me of an episode of his


sixth year. At that time he shared his mother's bed,



and had abused the occasion by inserting his finger

into his mother's genitals while she was asleep.


A large number of dreams, which are

frequently full of anxiety, and often have for content
the traversing of narrow spaces, or staying long in



the water, are based upon phantasies concerning

the intra-uterine life, the sojourn in the mother's

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womb, and the act of birth. I here insert the dream

of a young man who, in his phantasy, has even


profited by the intra-uterine opportunity of spying


upon an act of coition between his parents.
He is in a deep shaft, in which there is a


window, as in the Semmering tunnel. Through this
he sees at first an empty landscape, and then he


composes a picture in it, which is there all at once
and fills up the empty space. The picture represents


a field which is being deeply tilled by an implement,
and the wholesome air, the associated idea of hard


work, and the bluish- black clods of earth make a

pleasant impression on him. He then goes on and


sees a work on education lying open... and is



surprised that so much attention is devoted in it to

the sexual feelings (of children), which makes him


think of me.
Here is a pretty water-dream of a female
patient, which was turned to special account in the



course of treatment.

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At her usual holiday resort on the... Lake,

she flings herself into the dark water at a place


where the pale moon is reflected in the water.


Dreams of this sort are parturition dreams;
their interpretation is effected by reversing the fact


recorded in the manifest dream- content; thus,
instead of flinging oneself into the water, read


coming out of the water- that is, being born.[71]
The place from which one is born may be recognized


if one thinks of the humorous sense of the French la
lune. The pale moon thus becomes the white


bottom, which the child soon guesses to be the

place from which it came. Now what can be the


meaning of the patient's wishing to be born at a



holiday resort? I asked the dreamer this, and she

replied without hesitation: "Hasn't the treatment


made me as though I were born again?" Thus the

dream becomes an invitation to continue the
treatment at this summer resort- that is, to visit her



there; perhaps it also contains a very bashful

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allusion to the wish to become a mother herself.[72]

-


Another dream of parturition, with its


interpretation, I take from a paper by E. Jones. "She
stood at the seashore watching a small boy, who


seemed to be hers, wading into the water. This he
did till the water covered him and she could only see


his head bobbing up and down near the surface. The
scene then changed to the crowded to hall of an


hotel. Her husband left her, and she 'entered into
conversation with' a stranger.


"The second half of the dream was

discovered in the analysis to represent flight from


her husband, and the entering into intimate relations



with a third person, behind whom was plainly

indicated Mr. X's brother, mentioned in a former


dream. The first part of the dream was a fairly

evident birth-phantasy. In dreams, as in mythology,
the delivery of a child from the uterine waters is



commonly represented, by way of distortion, as the

entry of the child into water; among many other

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instances, the births of Adonis, Osiris, Moses, and

Bacchus are well-known illustrations of this. The


bobbing up and down of the head in the water at


once recalled to the patient the sensation of
quickening which she had experienced in her only


pregnancy. Thinking of the boy going into the water
induced a reverie in which she saw herself taking


him out of the water, carrying him into the nursery,
washing and dressing him, and installing him in her


household.
"The second half of the dream, therefore,


represents thoughts concerning the elopement,

which belonged to the first half of the underlying


latent content; the first half of the dream



corresponded with the second half of the latent

content, the birth phantasy. Besides this inversion in


the order, further inversions took place in each half

of the dream. In the first half the child entered the
water, and then his head bobbed; in the underlying



dream-thoughts the quickening occurred first, and

then the child left the water (a double inversion). In

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the second half her husband left her; in the dream-

thoughts she left her husband."


Another parturition dream is related by


Abraham- the dream of a young woman expecting
her first confinement: Front one point of the floor of


the room a subterranean channel leads directly into
the water (path of parturition- amniotic fluid). She


lifts up a trap in the floor, and there immediately
appears a creature dressed in brownish fur, which


almost resembles a seal. This creature changes into
the dreamer's younger brother, to whom her


relation has always been material in character.

Rank has shown from a number of dreams


that parturition-dreams employ the same symbols



as micturition-dreams. The erotic stimulus expresses

itself in these dreams as in urethral stimulus. The


stratification of meaning in these dreams

corresponds with a chance in the significance of the
symbol since childhood.



We may here turn back to the interrupted

theme (see chapter III) of the part played by

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organic, sleep-disturbing stimuli in dream-

formation. Dreams which have come into existence


under these influences not only reveal quite frankly


the wish-fulfilling tendency, and the character of
convenience-dreams, but they very often display a


quite transparent symbolism as well, since waking
not infrequently follows a stimulus whose


satisfaction in symbolic disguise has already been
vainly attempted in the dream. This is true of


emission dreams as well as those evoked by the
need to urinate or defecate. The peculiar character


of emission dreams permits us directly to unmask

certain sexual symbols already recognized as


typical, but nevertheless violently disputed, and it



also convinces us that many an apparently innocent

dream-situation is merely the symbolic prelude to a


crudely sexual scene. This, however, finds direct

representation, as a rule, only in the comparatively
infrequent emission dreams, while it often enough



turns into an anxiety-dream, which likewise leads to

waking.

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The symbolism of dreams due to urethral

stimulus is especially obvious, and has always been


divined. Hippocrates had already advanced the


theory that a disturbance of the bladder was
indicated if one dreamt of fountains and springs


(Havelock Ellis). Scherner, who has studied the
manifold symbolism of the urethral stimulus, agrees


that "the powerful urethral stimulus always turns
into the stimulation of the sexual sphere and its


symbolic imagery.... The dream due to urethral
stimulus is often at the same time the


representative of the sexual dream."

O. Rank, whose conclusions (in his paper on


Die Symbolschichtung im Wecktraum) I have here



followed, argues very plausibly that a large number

of "dreams due to urethral stimulus" are really


caused by sexual stimuli, which at first seek to

gratify themselves by way of regression to the
infantile form of urethral erotism. Those cases are



especially instructive in which the urethral stimulus

thus produced leads to waking and the emptying of

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the bladder, whereupon, in spite of this relief, the

dream is continued, and expresses its need in


undisguisedly erotic images.[73] -


In a quite analogous manner dreams due to
intestinal stimulus disclose the pertinent symbolism,


and thus confirm the relation, which is also amply
verified by ethno-psychology, of gold and feces.[74]


"Thus, for example, a woman, at a time when she is
under the care of a physician on account of an


intestinal disorder, dreams of a digger for hidden
treasure who is burying a treasure in the vicinity of


a little wooden shed which looks like a rural privy. A

second part of the dream has as its content how she


wipes the posterior of her child, a little girl, who has



soiled herself." -
Dreams of rescue are connected with


parturition dreams. To rescue, especially to rescue

from the water, is, when dreamed by a woman,
equivalent to giving birth; this sense is, however,



modified when the dreamer is a man.[75] -

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Robbers, burglars, and ghosts, of which we

are afraid before going to bed, and which sometimes


even disturb our sleep, originate in one and the


same childish reminiscence. They are the nightly
visitors who have waked the child in order to set it


on the chamber, so that it may not wet the bed, or
have lifted the coverlet in order to see clearly how


the child is holding its hands while sleeping. I have
been able to induce an exact recollection of the


nocturnal visitor in the analysis of some of these
anxiety dreams. The robbers were always the


father; the ghosts more probably correspond to

female persons in white night- gowns.



Footnotes
[22] Compare Wit and its Relation to the


Unconscious.
[23] Hugo Wolf.
[24] The German sitzen geblieben is often



applied to women who have not succeeded in

getting married.- TR.

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[25] Bleuler-Freud Jahrbuch, i (1909).

[26] A mass of corroborative material may


be found in the three supplementary volumes of


Edward Fuchs's Illustrierte Sittengeschichte;
privately printed by A. Lange, Munich.


[27] For the interpretation of this
preliminary dream, which is to be regarded as


casual, see earlier in this chapter, C.
[28] Her career.


[29] Exalted origin, the wish-contrast to the
preliminary dream.


[30] A composite formation, which unites

two localities, the so- called garret (German: Boden


= "floor," "garret") of her father's house, in which



she used to play with her brother, the object of her

later phantasies, and the farm of a malicious uncle,


who used to tease her.

[31] Wish-contrast to an actual memory of
her uncle's farm, to the effect that she used to



expose herself while she was asleep.

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[32] Just as the angel bears a lily-stem in

the Annunciation.


[33] For the explanation of this composite


formation, see earlier in this chapter, C.; innocence,
menstruation, La Dame aux Camelias.


[34] Referring to the plurality of the persons
who serve her phantasies.


[35] Whether it is permissible to
masturbate. [Sich einem herunterreissen means "to


pull off" and colloquially "to masturbate."- TR.]
[36] The branch (Ast) has long been used to


represent the male organ, and, moreover, contains

a very distinct allusion to the family name of the


dreamer.


[37] Refers to the matrimonial precautions,

as does that which immediately follows.


[38] An analogous biographical dream is

recorded later in this chapter, among the examples
of dream symbolism.



[39] Cf. the works of Bleuler and his Zurich

disciples, Maeder. Abraham, and others, and of the

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non-medical authors (Kleinpaul and others) to whom

they refer. But the most pertinent things that have


been said on the subject will be found in the work of


O. Rank and H. Sachs, Die Bedeutung der
Psychoanalyse fur die Geisteswissenschaft, (1913),


chap. i.
[40] This conception would seem to find an


extraordinary confirmation in a theory advanced by
Hans Sperber ("Uber den Einfluss sexueller


momente auf Entstehung und Entwicklung der
Sprache," in Imago, i. [1912]). Sperber believes


that primitive words denoted sexual things

exclusively, and subsequently lost their sexual


significance and were applied to other things and



activities, which were compared with the sexual.

[41] For example, a ship sailing on the sea


may appear in the urinary dreams of Hungarian

dreamers, despite the fact that the term of to ship,
for to urinate, is foreign to this language (Ferenczi).



In the dreams of the French and the other romance

peoples room serves as a symbolic representation

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for woman, although these peoples have nothing

analogous to the German Frauenzimmer. Many


symbols are as old as language itself, while others


are continually being coined (e.g., the aeroplane,
the Zeppelin). -


[42] In the U.S.A. the father is represented
in dreams as the President, and even more often as


the Governor- a title which is frequently applied to
the parent in everyday life.- TR.


[43] "A patient living in a boarding-house
dreams that he meets one of the servants, and asks


her what her number is; to his surprise she

answers: 14. He has, in fact, entered into relations


with the girl in question, and has often had her in



his bedroom. She feared, as may be imagined, that

the landlady suspected her, and had proposed, on


the day before the dream, that they should meet in

one of the unoccupied rooms. In reality this room
had the number 14, while in the dream the woman



bore this number. A clearer proof of the

identification of woman and room could hardly be

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imagined," (Ernest Jones, Intern. Zeitschr. f.

Psychoanalyse, ii, [1914]). (Cf. Artemidorus, The


Symbolism of Dreams [German version by F. S.


Krauss, Vienna, 1881, p. 110]: "Thus, for example,
the bedroom signifies the wife, supposing one to be


in the house.")
[44] Cf. "the cloaca theory" in Three


Contributions to the Theory of Sex.
[45] See p. 123-124 above.


[46] Cf. in the Zentralblatt fur
Psychoanalyse, ii, 675, the drawing of a nineteen-


year-old manic patient: a man with a snake as a

neck-tie, which is turning towards a girl. Also the


story Der Schamhaftige (Anthropophyteia, vi, 334):



A woman entered a bathroom, and there came face

to face with a man who hardly had time to put on


his shirt. He was greatly embarrassed, but at once

covered his throat with the front of his shirt, and
said: "Please excuse me, I have no necktie."



[47] Cf. Pfister's works on cryptography and

picture-puzzles. -

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[48] In spite of all the differences between

Scherner's conception of dream-symbolism and the


one developed here, I must still insist that Scherner


should be recognized as the true discoverer of
symbolism in dreams, and that the experience of


psycho analysis has brought his book (published in
1861) into posthumous repute. -


[49] From "Nachtrage sur Traumdeutung" in
Zentralblatt fur Psychoanalyse, i, Nos. 5 and 6,


(1911). -
[50] Cf. Kirchgraber for a similar example


(Zentralblatt fur Psychoanalyse, iii, [1912], p. 95).

Stekel reported a dream in which the hat with an


obliquely-standing feather in the middle symbolized



the (impotent) man. -

[51] Cf. comment in the Zentralblatt fur


Psychoanalyse, i; and see above, note (8) in earlier

paragraph. -
[52] Or Chapel = vagina.



[53] Symbol of coitus.

[54] Mons veneris.

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[55] Crines pubis.

[56] Demons in cloaks and hoods are,


according to the explanation of a specialist, of a


phallic character.
[57] The two halves of the scrotum. -


[58] Alfred Robitsek in the Zentralblatt fur
Psychoanalyse, ii (1911), p. 340.


[59] The World of Dreams, London (1911),
p. 168. -


[60] The extraction of a tooth by another is
usually to be interpreted as castration (cf. hair-


cutting; Stekel). One must distinguish between

dreams due to dental stimulus and dreams referring


to the dentist, such as have been recorded, for



example, by Coriat (Zentralblatt fur Psychoanalyse,

iii, 440). -


[61] According to C. G. Jung, dreams due to

dental stimulus in the case of women have the
significance parturition dreams. E. Jones has given



valuable confirmation of this. The common element

of this interpretation with that represented above

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may be found in the fact that in both cases

(castration-birth) there is a question of removing a


part from the whole body.


[62] Cf. the biographical dream earlier in
this chapter. -


[63] This passage, dealing with dreams of
motion, is repeated on account of the context. Cf.


chapter V., D. -
[64] A reference to the German slang word


vogeln (to copulate) from Vogel (a bird).- TR.
[65] "Uber den Traum," Ges. Schriften, Vol.


III. -
[66] Collected Papers, III. -


[67] Cf. Three Contributions to the Theory of



Sex. -
[68] W. Stekel, Die Sprache des Traumes


(1911).
[69] Alf. Adler, "Der Psychische
Hermaphroditismus im Leben und in der Neurose,"



in Fortschritte der Medizin (1910), No. 16, and later

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papers in the Zentralblatt fur Psychoanalyse, i

(1910-11). -


[70] I have published a typical example of


such a disguised Oedipus dream in No. 1 of the
Zentralblatt fur Psychoanalyse (see below): another,


with a detailed analysis, was published in No. 4 of
the same journal by Otto Rank. For other disguised


Oedipus dreams in which the eye appears as a
symbol, see Rank (Int. Zeitschr. fur Ps. A., i,


[1913]). Papers upon eye dreams and eye
symbolism by Eder, Ferenczi, and Reitler will be


found in the same issue. The blinding in the Oedipus

legend and elsewhere is a substitute for castration.


The ancients, by the way, were not unfamiliar with



the symbolic interpretation of the undisguised

Oedipus dream (see O. Rank, Jahrb. ii, p. 534:


"Thus, a dream of Julius Caesar's of sexual relations

with his mother has been handed down to us, which
the oreirocopists interpreted as a favourable omen



signifying his taking possession of the earth (Mother

Earth). Equally well known is the oracle delivered to

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the Tarquinii, to the effect that that one of them

would become the ruler of Rome who should be the


first to kiss his mother (osculum matri tulerit), which


Brutus conceived as referring to Mother Earth
(terram osculo contigit, scilicet quod ea communis


mater omnium mortalium esset, Livy, I, lvi). Cf.
here the dream of Hippias in Herodotus vi, 107.


These myths and interpretations point to a correct
psychological insight. I have found that those


persons who consider themselves preferred or
favoured by their mothers manifest in life that


confidence in themselves, and that unshakable

optimism, which often seem heroic, and not


infrequently compel actual success.



[71] For the mythological meaning of water-

birth, see Rank: Der Mythus von der Geburt des


Helden (1909).
[72] It was not for a long time that I learned
to appreciate the significance of the phantasies and



unconscious thoughts relating to life in the womb.

They contain the explanation of the curious dread,

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felt by so many people, of being buried alive, as well

as the profoundest unconscious reason for the belief


in a life after death, which represents only the


projection into the future of this mysterious life
before birth. The act of birth, moreover, is the first


experience attended by anxiety, and is thus, the
source and model of the affect of anxiety. -


[73] "The same symbolic representations
which in the infantile sense constitute the basis of


the vesical dream appear in the recent sense in
purely sexual significance: water = urine = semen =


amniotic fluid; ship = to pump ship (urinate) =

seed-capsule; getting wet = enuresis = coitus =


pregnancy; swimming = full bladder = dwelling-



place of the unborn; rain = urination = symbol of

fertilization: traveling (journeying- alighting) =


getting out of bed = having sexual intercourse

(honeymoon journey); urinating = sexual
ejaculation" (Rank, I, c). -



[74] Freud, "Character and Anal Erotism,"

Collected Papers, II; Rank, Die Symbolschictung,

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etc.; Dattner, Intern. Zeitschr. f. Psych. i (1913);

Reik Intern. Zeitschr., iii (1915). -


[75] For such a dream see Pfister, "Ein Fall


von psychoanalytischer Seelensorge und
Seelenheilung," in Evangelische Freiheit (1909).


Concerning the symbol of "rescuing," see my paper,
"The Future Prospects of Psycho-Analytic Therapy"


(p. 123 above). Also "Contribution to the Theory of
Love, I: A Special Type of Object Choice in Men" in


Collected Papers, iv. Also Rank, "Beilege zur
Rettungs-phantasie," in the Zentralblatt fur


Psychoanalyse i (1910), p. 331; Reik; "Zur

Rettungssymbolic," ibid., p. 299. -






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CHAPTER 6 (Part 3)
THE DREAM-WORK


F. Examples- Arithmetic and Speech in


Dreams

Before I proceed to assign to its proper place


the fourth of the factors which control the formation


of dreams, I shall cite a few examples from my
collection of dreams, partly for the purpose of


illustrating the co-operation of the three factors with
which we are already acquainted, and partly for the

purpose of adducing evidence for certain
unsupported assertions which have been made, or of


bringing out what necessarily follows from them. It

has, of course, been difficult in the foregoing


account of the dream-work to demonstrate my

conclusions by means of examples. Examples in


support of isolated statements are convincing only

when considered in the context of an interpretation
of a dream as a whole; when they are wrested from



their context, they lose their value; on the other

hand, a dream-interpretation, even when it is by no

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means profound, soon becomes so extensive that it

obscures the thread of the discussion which it is


intended to illustrate. This technical consideration


must be my excuse if I now proceed to mix together
all sorts of things which have nothing in common


except their reference to the text of the foregoing
chapter.


We shall first consider a few examples of
very peculiar or unusual methods of representation


in dreams. A lady dreamed as follows: A servant-girl
is standing on a ladder as though to clean the


windows, and has with her a chimpanzee and a

gorilla cat (later corrected, angora cat). She throws


the animals on to the dreamer; the chimpanzee



nestles up to her, and this is very disgusting. This

dream has accomplished its purpose by a very


simple means, namely, by taking a mere figure of

speech literally, and representing it in accordance
with the literal meaning of its words. Monkey, like



the names of animals in general, is an opprobrious

epithet, and the situation of the dream means

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merely to hurl invectives. This same collection will

soon furnish us with further examples of the


employment of this simple artifice in the dream-


work.
Another dream proceeds in a very similar


manner: A woman with a child which has a
conspicuously deformed cranium; the dreamer has


heard that the child acquired this deformity owing to
its position in its mother's womb. The doctor says


that the cranium might be given a better shape by
means of compression, but that this would injure the


brain. She thinks that because it is a boy it won't

suffer so much from deformity. This dream contains


a plastic representation of the abstract concept:



Childish impressions, with which the dreamer has

become familiar in the course of the treatment.


In the following example the dream-work

follows rather a different course. The dream contains
a recollection of an excursion to the Hilmteich, near



Graz: There is a terrible storm outside; a miserable

hotel- the water is dripping from the walls, and the

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beds are damp. (The latter part of the content was

less directly expressed than I give it.) The dream


signifies superfluous. The abstract idea occurring in


the dream-thoughts is first made equivocal by a
certain abuse of language; it has perhaps been


replaced by overflowing, or by fluid and super-fluid
(-fluous), and has then been brought to


representation by an accumulation of like
impressions. Water within, water without, water in


the beds in the form of dampness- everything fluid
and super fluid. That for the purposes of dream-


representation the spelling is much less considered

than the sound of words ought not to surprise us


when we remember that rhyme exercises a similar



privilege.
The fact that language has at its disposal a


great number of words which were originally used in

a pictorial and concrete sense, but are at present
used in a colourless and abstract fashion, has, in



certain other cases, made it very easy for the dream

to represent its thoughts. The dream has only to

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restore to these words their full significance, or to

follow their change of meaning a little way back. For


example, a man dreams that his friend, who is


struggling to get out of a very tight place, calls upon
him for help. The analysis shows that the tight place


is a hole, and that the dreamer symbolically uses
these very words to his friend: "Be careful, or you'll


get yourself into a hole."[76] Another dreamer
climbs a mountain from which he obtains an


extraordinarily extensive view. He identifies himself
with his brother, who is editing a review dealing with


the Far East.

In a dream in Der Grune Heinrich, a spirited


horse is plunging about in a field of the finest oats,



every grain of which is really "a sweet almond, a

raisin and a new penny" wrapped in red silk and tied


with a bit of pig's bristle." The poet (or the dreamer)

immediately furnishes the meaning of this dream,
for the horse felt himself pleasantly tickled, so that



he exclaimed: "The oats are pricking me" ("I feel my

oats").

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In the old Norse sagas (according to

Henzen) prolific use is made in dreams of


colloquialisms and witty expressions; one scarcely


finds a dream without a double meaning or a play
upon words.


It would be a special undertaking to collect
such methods of representation and to arrange them


in accordance with the principles upon which they
are based. Some of the representations are almost


witty. They give one the impression that one would
have never guessed their meaning if the dreamer


himself had not succeeded in explaining it.

1. A man dreams that he is asked for a


name, which, however, he cannot recall. He himself



explains that this means: "I shouldn't dream of it."

2. A female patient relates a dream in which


all the persons concerned were singularly large.

"That means," she adds, "that it must deal with an
episode of my early childhood, for at that time all



grown-up people naturally seemed to me immensely

large." She herself did not appear in the dream.

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The transposition into childhood is expressed

differently in other dreams- by the translation of


time into space. One sees persons and scenes as


though at a great distance, at the end of a long
road, or as though one were looking at them


through the wrong end of a pair of opera-glasses.
3. A man who in waking life shows an


inclination to employ abstract and indefinite
expressions, but who otherwise has his wits about


him, dreams, in a certain connection, that he
reaches a railway station just as a train is coming in.


But then the platform moves towards the train,

which stands still; an absurd inversion of the real


state of affairs. This detail, again, is nothing more



than an indication to the effect that something else

in the dream must be inverted. The analysis of the


same dream leads to recollections of picture-books

in which men were represented standing on their
heads and walking on their hands.



4. The same dreamer, on another occasion,

relates a short dream which almost recalls the

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technique of a rebus. His uncle gives him a kiss in

an automobile. He immediately adds the


interpretation, which would never have occurred to


me: it means auto-erotism. In the waking state this
might have been said in jest.


5. At a New Year's Eve dinner the host, the
patriarch of the family, ushered in the New Year with


a speech. One of his sons-in- law, a lawyer, was not
inclined to take the old man seriously, especially


when in the course of his speech he expressed
himself as follows: "When I open the ledger for the


Old Year and glance at its pages I see everything on

the asset side and nothing, thank the Lord, on the


side of liability; all you children have been a great



asset, none of you a liability." On hearing this the

young lawyer thought of X, his wife's brother, who


was a cheat and a liar, and whom he had recently

extricated from the entanglements of the law. That
night, in a dream. he saw the New Year's celebration



once more, and heard the speech, or rather saw it.

Instead of speaking, the old man actually opened

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the ledger, and on the side marked assets he saw

his name amongst others, but on the other side,


marked liability, there was the name of his brother-


in-law, X. However, the word liability was changed
into Lie-Ability, which he regarded as X's main


characteristic.[77]
6. A dreamer treats another person for a


broken bone. The analysis shows that the fracture
represents a broken marriage vow, etc.


7. In the dream-content the time of day
often represents a certain period of the dreamer's


childhood. Thus, for example, 5:15 a.m. means to

one dreamer the age of five years and three


months; when he was that age, a younger brother



was born.
8. Another representation of age in a dream:


A woman is walking with two little girls; there is a

difference of fifteen months in their ages. The
dreamer cannot think of any family of her



acquaintance in which this is the case. She herself

interprets it to mean that the two children represent

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her own person, and that the dream reminds her

that the two traumatic events of her childhood were


separated by this period of time 3 1/2 and 4 3/4


years).
9. It is not astonishing that persons who are


undergoing psycho- analytic treatment frequently
dream of it, and are compelled to give expression in


their dreams to all the thoughts and expectations
aroused by it. The image chosen for the treatment is


as a rule that of a journey, usually in a motor-car,
this being a modern and complicated vehicle; in the


reference to the speed of the car the patient's

ironical humour is given free play. If the


unconscious, as an element of waking thought, is to



be represented in the dream, it is replaced,

appropriately enough, by subterranean localities,


which at other times, when there is no reference to

analytic treatment, have represented the female
body or the womb. Below in the dream very often



refers to the genitals, and its opposite, above, to the

face, mouth or breast. By wild beasts the dream-

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work usually symbolizes passionate impulses; those

of the dreamer, and also those of other persons of


whom the dreamer is afraid; or thus, by means of a


very slight displacement, the persons who
experience these passions. From this it is not very


far to the totemistic representation of the dreaded
father by means of vicious animals, dogs, wild


horses, etc. One might say that wild beasts serve to
represent the libido, feared by the ego, and


combated by repression. Even the neurosis itself,
the sick person, is often separated from the dreamer


and exhibited in the dream as an independent

person.


One may go so far as to say that the dream-



work makes use of all the means accessible to it for

the visual representation of the dream-thoughts,


whether these appear admissible or inadmissible to

waking criticism, and thus exposes itself to the
doubt as well as the derision of all those who have



only hearsay knowledge of dream-interpretation, but

have never themselves practised it. Stekel's book,

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Die Sprache des Traumes, is especially rich in such

examples, but I avoid citing illustrations from this


work as the author's lack of critical judgment and his


arbitrary technique would make even the
unprejudiced observer feel doubtful.


10. From an essay by V. Tausk ("Kleider und
Farben in Dienste der Traumdarstellung," in Interna.


Zeitschr. fur Ps. A., ii [1914]):
(a) A dreams that he sees his former


governess wearing a dress of black lustre, which fits
closely over her buttocks. That means he declares


this woman to be lustful.

(b) C in a dream sees a girl on the road to X


bathed in a white light and wearing a white blouse.



The dreamer began an affair with a Miss

White on this road.


11. In an analysis which I carried out in the

French language I had to interpret a dream in which
I appeared as an elephant. I naturally had to ask



why I was thus represented: "Vous me trompez,"

answered the dreamer (Trompe = trunk).

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The dream-work often succeeds in

representing very refractory material, such as


proper names, by means of the forced exploitation


of very remote relations. In one of my dreams old
Brucke has set me a task. I make a preparation, and


pick something out of it which looks like crumpled
tinfoil. (I shall return to this dream later.) The


corresponding association, which is not easy to find,
is stanniol, and now I know that I have in mind the


name of the author Stannius, which appeared on the
title- page of a treatise on the nervous system of


fishes, which in my youth I regarded with reverence.

The first scientific problem which my teacher set me


did actually relate to the nervous system of a fish-



the Ammocoetes. Obviously, this name could not be

utilized in the picture-puzzle.


Here I must not fail to include a dream with

a curious content, which is worth noting also as the
dream of a child, and which is readily explained by



analysis: A lady tells me: "I can remember that

when I was a child I repeatedly dreamed that God

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wore a conical paper hat on His head. They often

used to make me wear such a hat at table, so that I


shouldn't be able to look at the plates of the other


children and see how much they had received of any
particular dish. Since I had heard that God was


omniscient, the dream signified that I knew
everything in spite of the hat which I was made to


wear."
What the dream-work consists in, and its


unceremonious handling of its material, the dream-
thoughts, may be shown in an instructive manner by


the numbers and calculations which occur in

dreams. Superstition, by the way, regards numbers


as having a special significance in dreams. I shall



therefore give a few examples of this kind from my

collection.


1. From the dream of a lady, shortly before

the end of her treatment:
She wants to pay for something or other;



her daughter takes 3 florins 65 kreuzer from her

purse; but the mother says: "What are you doing? It

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costs only 21 kreuzer." This fragment of the dream

was intelligible without further explanation owing to


my knowledge of the dreamer's circumstances. The


lady was a foreigner, who had placed her daughter
at school in Vienna, and was able to continue my


treatment as long as her daughter remained in the
city. In three weeks the daughter's scholastic year


would end, and the treatment would then stop. On
the day before the dream the principal of the school


had asked her whether she could not decide to leave
the child at school for another year. She had then


obviously reflected that in this case she would be

able to continue the treatment for another year.


Now, this is what the dream refers to, for a year is



equal to 365 days; the three weeks remaining

before the end of the scholastic year, and of the


treatment, are equivalent to 21 days (though not to

so many hours of treatment). The numerals, which
in the dream- thoughts refer to periods of time, are



given money values in the dream, and

simultaneously a deeper meaning finds expression-

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for time is money. 365 kreuzer, of course, are 3

florins 65 kreuzer. The smallness of the sums which


appear in the dream is a self- evident wish-


fulfilment; the wish has reduced both the cost of the
treatment and the year's school fees.


2. In another dream the numerals are
involved in even more complex relations. A young


lady, who has been married for some years, learns
that an acquaintance of hers, of about the same


age, Elise L, has just become engaged. Thereupon
she dreams: She is sitting in the theatre with her


husband and one side of the stalls is quite empty.

Her husband tells her that Elise L and her fiance had


also wished to come to the theatre, but that they



only could have obtained poor seats; three for 1

florin 50 kreuzer, and of course they could not take


those. She thinks they didn't lose much, either.

What is the origin of the 1 florin 50 kreuzer?
A really indifferent incident of the previous day. The



dreamer's sister-in- law had received 150 florins as

a present from her husband, and hastened to get rid

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of them by buying some jewellery. Let us note that

150 florins is 100 times 1 florin 50 kreuzer. But


whence the 3 in connection with the seats in the


theatre? There is only one association for this,
namely, that the fiance is three months younger


than herself. When we have ascertained the
significance of the fact that one side of the stalls is


empty we have the solution of the dream. This
feature is an undisguised allusion to a little incident


which had given her husband a good excuse for
teasing her. She had decided to go to the theatre


that week; she had been careful to obtain tickets a

few days beforehand, and had had to pay the


advance booking-fee. When they got to the theatre



they found that one side of the house was almost

empty; so that she certainly need not have been in


such a hurry.
I shall now substitute the dream-thoughts
for the dream: "It surely was nonsense to marry so



early; there was no need for my being in such a

hurry. From Elise L's example I see that I should

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have got a husband just the same- and one a

hundred times better- If I had only waited


(antithesis to the haste of her sister-in- law), I could


have bought three such men for the money (the
dowry)!"- Our attention is drawn to the fact that the


numerals in this dream have changed their
meanings and their relations to a much greater


extent than in the. one previously considered. The
transforming and distorting activity of the dream has


in this case been greater- a fact which we interpret
as meaning that these dream-thoughts had to


overcome an unusual degree of endo- psychic

resistance before they attained to representation.


And we must not overlook the fact that the dream



contains an absurd element, namely, that two

persons are expected to take three seats. It will


throw some light on the question of the

interpretation of absurdity in dreams if I remark that
this absurd detail of the dream-content is intended



to represent the most strongly emphasized of the

dream-thoughts: "It was nonsense to marry so

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early." The figure 3, which occurs in a quite

subordinate relation between the two persons


compared (three months' difference in their ages),


has thus been adroitly utilized to produce the idea of
nonsense required by the dream. The reduction of


the actual 150 florins to 1 florin 50 kreuzer
corresponds to the dreamer's disparagement of her


husband in her suppressed thoughts.
3. Another example displays the arithmetical


powers of dreams, which have brought them into
such disrepute. A man dreams: He is sitting in the


B's house (the B's are a family with which he was

formerly acquainted), and he says: "It was nonsense


that you didn't give me Amy for my wife."



Thereupon, he asks the girl: "How old are you?"

Answer: "I was born in 1882." "Ah, then you are 28


years old."
Since the dream was dreamed in the year
1898, this is obviously bad arithmetic, and the



inability of the dreamer to calculate may, if it cannot

be otherwise explained, be likened to that of a

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general paralytic. My patient was one of those men

who cannot help thinking about every woman they


see. The patient who for some months came next


after him in my consulting-room was a young lady;
he met this lady after he had constantly asked about


her, and he was very anxious to make a good
impression on her. This was the lady whose age he


estimated at 28. So much for explaining the result of
his apparent calculation. But 1882 was the year in


which he had married. He had been unable to refrain
from entering into conversation with the two other


women whom he met at my house- the two by no

means youthful maids who alternately opened the


door to him- and as he did not find them very



responsive, he had told himself that they probably

regarded him as elderly and serious.


Bearing in mind these examples, and others

of a similar nature (to follow), we may say: The
dream-work does not calculate at all, whether



correctly or incorrectly; it only strings together, in

the form of a sum, numerals which occur in the

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dream-thoughts, and which may serve as allusions

to material which is insusceptible of representation.


It thus deals with figures, as material for expressing


its intentions, just as it deals with all other concepts,
and with names and speeches which are only verbal


images.
For the dream-work cannot compose a new


speech. No matter how many speeches; and
answers, which may in themselves be sensible or


absurd, may occur in dreams, analysis shows us that
the dream has taken from the dream-thoughts


fragments of speeches which have really been

delivered or heard, and has dealt with them in the


most arbitrary fashion. It has not only torn them



from their context and mutilated them, accepting

one fragment and rejecting another, but it has often


fitted them together in a novel manner, so that the

speech which seems coherent in a dream is
dissolved by analysis into three or four components.



In this new application of the words the dream has

often ignored the meaning which they had in the

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dream-thoughts, and has drawn an entirely new

meaning from them.[78] Upon closer inspection, the


more distinct and compact ingredients of the dream-


speech may be distinguished from others, which
serve as connectives, and have probably been


supplied, just as we supply omitted letters and
syllables in reading. The dream-speech thus has the


structure of breccia, in which the larger pieces of
various material are held together by a solidified


cohesive medium.
Neurosis behaves in the same fashion. I


know a patient who- involuntarily and unwillingly-

hears (hallucinates) songs or fragments of songs


without being able to understand their significance



for her psychic life. She is certainly not a paranoiac.

Analysis shows that by exercising a certain license


she gave the text of these songs a false application.

"Oh, thou blissful one! Oh, thou happy one!" This is
the first line of Christmas carol, but by not



continuing it to the word, Christmastide, she turns it

into a bridal song, etc. The same mechanism of

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distortion may operate, without hallucination,

merely in association.


Strictly speaking, of course, this description


is correct only for those dream-speeches which have
something of the sensory character of a speech, and


are described as speeches. The others, which have
not, as it were, been perceived as heard or spoken


(which have no accompanying acoustic or motor
emphasis in the dream) are simply thoughts, such


as occur in our waking life, and find their way
unchanged into many of our dreams. Our reading,


too, seems to provide an abundant and not easily

traceable source for the indifferent speech-material


of dreams. But anything that is at all conspicuous as



a speech in a dream can be referred to actual

speeches which have been made or heard by the


dreamer.
We have already found examples of the
derivation of such dream- speeches in the analyses



of dreams which have been cited for other purposes.

Thus, in the innocent market-dream (chapter V., A.)

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where the speech: That is no longer to be had

serves to identify me with the butcher, while a


fragment of the other speech: I don't know that, I


don't take that, precisely fulfils the task of rendering
the dream innocent. On the previous day, the


dreamer, replying to some unreasonable demand on
the part of her cook, had waved her aside with the


words: I don't know that, behave yourself properly,
and she afterwards took into the dream the first,


indifferent-sounding part of the speech in order to
allude to the latter part, which fitted well into the


phantasy underlying the dream, but which might

also have betrayed it.


Here is one of many examples which all lead



to the same conclusion:

A large courtyard in which dead bodies are


being burned. The dreamer says, "I'm going, I can't

stand the sight of it." (Not a distinct speech.) Then
he meets two butcher boys and asks, "Well, did it



taste good?" And one of them answers, "No, it

wasn't good." As though it had been human flesh.

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The innocent occasion of this dream is as

follows: After taking supper with his wife, the


dreamer pays a visit to his worthy but by no means


appetizing neighbour. The hospitable old lady is just
sitting down to her own supper, and presses him


(among men a composite, sexually significant word
is used jocosely in the place of this word) to taste it.


He declines, saying that he has no appetite. She
replies: "Go on with you, you can manage it all


right," or something of the kind. The dreamer is thus
forced to taste and praise what is offered him. "But


that's good!" When he is alone again with his wife,

he complains of his neighbour's importunity, and of


the quality of the food which he has tasted. "I can't



stand the sight of it," a phrase that in the dream,

too, does not emerge as an actual speech, is a


thought relating to the physical charms of the lady

who invites him, which may be translated by the
statement that he has no desire to look at her.



The analysis of another dream- which I will

cite at this stage for the sake of a very distinct

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speech, which constitutes its nucleus, but which will

be explained only when we come to evaluate the


affects in dreams- is more instructive. I dream very


vividly: I have gone to Brucke's laboratory at night,
and on hearing a gentle knocking at the door, I open


it to (the deceased) Professor Fleischl, who enters in
the company of several strangers, and after saying a


few words sits down at his table. Then follows a
second dream: My friend Fl has come to Vienna,


unobtrusively, in July; I meet him in the street, in
conversation with my (deceased) friend P, and I go


with them somewhere, and they sit down facing

each other as though at a small table, while I sit


facing them at the narrow end of the table. Fl



speaks of his sister, and says: "In three-quarters of

an hour she was dead," and then something like


"That is the threshold." As P does not understand

him, Fl turns to me, and asks me how much I have
told P of his affairs. At this, overcome by strange



emotions, I try to tell Fl that P (cannot possibly

know anything, of course, because he) is not alive.

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But noticing the mistake myself, I say: "Non vixit."

Then I look searchingly at P, and under my gaze he


becomes pale and blurred, and his eyes turn a sickly


blue- and at last he dissolves. I rejoice greatly at
this; I now understand that Ernst Fleischl, too, is


only an apparition, a revenant, and I find that it is
quite possible that such a person should exist only


so long as one wishes him to, and that he can be
made to disappear by the wish of another person.


This very pretty dream unites so many of
the enigmatical characteristics of the dream-


content- the criticism made in the dream itself,

inasmuch as I myself notice my mistake in saying


Non vixit instead of Non vivit, the unconstrained



intercourse with deceased persons, whom the dream

itself declares to be dead, the absurdity of my


conclusion, and the intense satisfaction which it

gives me- that "I would give my life" to expound the
complete solution of the problem. But in reality I am



incapable of doing what I do in the dream, i.e., of

sacrificing such intimate friends to my ambition. And

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if I attempted to disguise the facts, the true

meaning of the dream, with which I am perfectly


familiar, would be spoiled. I must therefore be


content to select a few of the elements of the dream
for interpretation, some here, and some at a later


stage.
The scene in which I annihilate P with a


glance forms the centre of the dream. His eyes
become strange and weirdly blue, and then he


dissolves. This scene is an unmistakable imitation of
a scene that was actually experienced. I was a


demonstrator at the Physiological Institute; I was on

duty in the morning, and Brucke learned that on


several occasions I had been unpunctual in my



attendance at the students' laboratory. One

morning, therefore, he arrived at the hour of


opening, and waited for me. What he said to me was

brief and to the point; but it was not what he said
that mattered. What overwhelmed me was the



terrible gaze of his blue eyes, before which I melted

away- as P does in the dream, for P has exchanged

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roles with me, much to my relief. Anyone who

remembers the eyes of the great master, which


were wonderfully beautiful even in his old age, and


has ever seen him angered, will readily imagine the
emotions of the young transgressor on that


occasion.
But for a long while I was unable to account


for the Non vixit with which I pass sentence in the
dream. Finally, I remembered that the reason why


these two words were so distinct in the dream was
not because they were heard or spoken, but because


they were seen. Then I knew at once where they

came from. On the pedestal of the statue of the


Emperor joseph in the Vienna Hofburg are inscribed



the following beautiful words:

Saluti patriae vixit non diu sed totus.[79]



[He lived for the safety of the public, not for

a long time, but always.] The motive of the mistake:
patriae [fatherland] for publicae, has probably been



correctly divined by Wittels.

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From this inscription I had taken what fitted

one inimical train of thought in my dream-thoughts,


and which was intended to mean: "That fellow has


nothing to say in the matter, he is not really alive."
And I now recalled that the dream was dreamed a


few days after the unveiling of the memorial to
Fleischl, in the cloisters of the University, upon


which occasion I had once more seen the memorial
to Brucke, and must have thought with regret (in


the unconscious) how my gifted friend P, with all his
devotion to science, had by his premature death


forfeited his just claim to a memorial in these halls.

So I set up this memorial to him in the dream; Josef


is my friend P's baptismal name.[80]



According to the rules of dream-

interpretation, I should still not be justified in


replacing non vivit, which I need, by non vixit, which

is placed at my disposal by the recollection of the
Kaiser Josef memorial. Some other element of the



dream-thoughts must have contributed to make this

possible. Something now calls my attention to the

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fact that in the dream scene two trains of thought

relating to my friend P meet, one hostile, the other


affectionate- the former on the surface, the latter


covered up- and both are given representation in
the same words: non vixit. As my friend P has


deserved well of science, I erect a memorial to him;
as he has been guilty of a malicious wish (expressed


at the end of the dream), I annihilate him. I have
here constructed a sentence with a special cadence,


and in doing so I must have been influenced by
some existing model. But where can I find a similar


antithesis, a similar parallel between two opposite

reactions to the same person, both of which can


claim to be wholly justified, and which nevertheless



do not attempt to affect one another? Only in one

passage which, however, makes a profound


impression upon the reader- Brutus's speech of

justification in Shakespeare's Julius Caesar: "As
Caesar loved me, I weep for him; as he was



fortunate, I rejoice at it; as he was valiant. I honour

him; but as he was ambitious, I slew him." Have we

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not here the same verbal structure, and the same

antithesis of thought, as in the dream-thoughts? So


I am playing Brutus in my dream. If only I could find


in my dream-thoughts another collateral connection
to confirm this! I think it might be the following: My


friend Fl comes to Vienna in July. This detail is not
the case in reality. To my knowledge, my friend has


never been in Vienna in July. But the month of July
is named after Julius Caesar, and might therefore


very well furnish the required allusion to the
intermediate thought- that I am playing the part of


Brutus.[81] -
Strangely enough, I once did actually play


the part of Brutus. When I was a boy of fourteen, I



presented the scene between Brutus and Caesar in

Schiller's poem to an audience of children: with the


assistance of my nephew, who was a year older than

I, and who had come to us from England- and was
thus a revenant- for in him I recognized the



playmate of my early childhood. Until the end of my

third year we had been inseparable; we had loved

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each other and fought each other and, as I have

already hinted, this childish relation has determined


all my later feelings in my intercourse with persons


of my own age. My nephew John has since then had
many incarnations, which have revivified first one


and then another aspect of a character that is
ineradicably fixed in my unconscious memory. At


times he must have treated me very badly, and I
must have opposed my tyrant courageously, for in


later years I was often told of a short speech in
which I defended myself when my father- his


grandfather- called me to account: "Why did you hit

John?" "I hit him because he hit me." It must be this


childish scene which causes non vivit to become non



vixit, for in the language of later childhood striking is

known as wichsen (German: wichsen = to polish, to


wax, i.e., to thrash); and the dream-work does not

disdain to take advantage of such associations. My
hostility towards my friend P, which has so little



foundation in reality- he was greatly my superior,

and might therefore have been a new edition of my

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old playmate- may certainly be traced to my

complicated relations with John during our


childhood. I shall, as I have said, return to this


dream later on.

G. Absurd Dreams- Intellectual


Performances in Dreams


I.
Hitherto, in our interpretation of dreams, we


have come upon the element of absurdity in the
dream-content so frequently that we must no longer
postpone the investigation of its cause and its


meaning. We remember, of course, that the



absurdity of dreams has furnished the opponents of

dream-interpretation with their chief argument for


regarding the dream as merely the meaningless

product of an attenuated and fragmentary activity of


the psyche.
I will begin with a few examples in which the
absurdity of the dream-content is apparent only,



disappearing when the dream is more thoroughly

examined. These are certain dreams which --

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accidently [sic], one begins by thinking -- are

concerned with the dreamer's dead father.


1. Here is the dream of a patient who had


lost his father six years before the date of the
dream:


His father had been involved in a terrible
accident. He was travelling by the night express


when the train was derailed, the seats were
telescoped, and his head was crushed from side to


side. The dreamer sees him lying on his bed; from
his left eyebrow a wound runs vertically upwards.


The dreamer is surprised that his father should have

met with an accident (since he is dead already, as


the dreamer adds in relating his dream). His father's



eyes are so clear.

According to the prevailing standards of


dream-criticism, this dream-content would be

explained as follows: At first, while the dreamer is
picturing his father's accident, he has forgotten that



his father has already been many years in his grave;

in the course of the dream this memory awakens, so

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that he is surprised at his own dream even while he

is dreaming it. Analysis, however, tells us that it is


quite superfluous to seek for such explanations. The


dreamer had commissioned a sculptor to make a
bust of his father, and he had inspected the bust two


days before the dream. It is this which seems to him
to have come to grief (the German word means


gone wrong or met with an accident). The sculptor
has never seen his father, and has had to work from


photographs. On the very day before the dream the
son had sent an old family servant to the studio in


order to see whether he, too, would pass the some

judgment upon the marble bust- namely, that it was


too narrow between the temples. And now follows



the memory- material which has contributed to the

formation of the dream: The dreamer's father had a


habit, whenever he was harassed by business cares

or domestic difficulties, of pressing his temples
between his hands, as though his head was growing



too large and be was trying to compress it. When

the dreamer was four years old, he was present

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when a pistol was accidentally discharged, and his

father's eyes were blackened (his eyes are so clear).


When his father was thoughtful or depressed, he


had a deep furrow in his forehead just where the
dream shows his wound. The fact that in the dream


this wrinkle is replaced by a wound points to the
second occasion for the dream. The dreamer had


taken a photograph of his little daughter; the plate
had fallen from his hand, and when he picked it up it


revealed a crack which ran like a vertical furrow
across the child's forehead, extending as far as the


eyebrow. He could not help feeling a superstitious

foreboding, for on the day before his mother's death


the negative of her portrait had been cracked.



Thus, the absurdity of this dream is simply

the result of a carelessness of verbal expression,


which does not distinguish between the bust or the

photograph and the original. We are all accustomed
to making remarks like: "Don't you think it's exactly



your father?" The appearance of absurdity in this

dream might, of course, have been easily avoided. If

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it were permissible to form an opinion on the

strength of a single case, one might be tempted to


say that this semblance of absurdity is admitted or


even desired.

II.


Here is another example of the same kind


from my own dreams (I lost my father in the year
1896): 

After his death, my father has played a part
in the political life of the Magyars, and has united
them into a political whole; and here I see,


indistinctly, a little picture: a number of men, as



though in the Reichstag; a man is standing on one

or two chairs; there are others round about him. I


remember that on his deathbed he looked so like

Garibaldi, and I am glad that this promise has really


come true.
Certainly this is absurd enough. It was
dreamed at the time when the Hungarians were in a



state of anarchy, owing to Parliamentary

obstruction, and were passing through the crisis

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from which Koloman Szell subsequently delivered

them. The trivial circumstance that the scenes


beheld in dreams consist of such little pictures is not


without significance for the elucidation of this
element. The customary visual dream-


representations of our thoughts present images that
impress us as being life-size; my dream-picture,


however, is the reproduction of a wood-cut inserted
in the text of an illustrated history of Austria,


representing Maria Theresa in the Reichstag of
Pressburg- the famous scene of Moriamur pro rege


nostro.[82] Like Maria Theresa, my father, in my

dream, is surrounded by the multitude; but he is


standing on one or two chairs (Stuhlen), and is thus,



like a Stuhlrichter (presiding judge). (He has united

them; here the intermediary is the phrase: "We shall


need no judge.") Those of us who stood about my

father's death-bed did actually notice that he looked
very like Garibaldi. He had a post-mortem rise of



temperature; his cheeks shone redder and redder...

involuntarily we continue: "And behind him, in

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unsubstantial (radiance), lay that which subdues us

all- the common fate."


This uplifting of our thoughts prepares us for


the fact that we shall have to deal with this common
fate. The post-mortem rise in temperature


corresponds to the words after his death in the
dream- content. The most agonizing of his afflictions


had been a complete paralysis of the intestines
(obstruction) during the last few weeks of his life. All


sorts of disrespectful thoughts associate themselves
with this. One of my contemporaries, who lost his


father while still at the Gymnasium- upon which

occasion I was profoundly moved, and tendered him


my friendship- once told me, derisively, of the



distress of a relative whose father had died in the

street, and had been brought home, when it


appeared, upon undressing the corpse, that at the

moment of death, or post- mortem, an evacuation of
the bowels (Stuhlentleerung) had taken place. The



daughter was deeply distressed by this

circumstance, because this ugly detail would

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inevitably spoil her memory of her father. We have

now penetrated to the wish that is embodied in this


dream. To stand after one's death before one's


children great and undefiled: who would not wish
that? What now has become of the absurdity of this


dream? The appearance of absurdity was due only
to the fact that a perfectly permissible figure of


speech, in which we are accustomed to ignore any
absurdity that may exist as between its components,


has been faithfully represented in the dream. Here
again we can hardly deny that the appearance of


absurdity is desired and has been purposely

produced.


The frequency with which dead persons



appear in our dreams as living and active and

associating with us has evoked undue astonishment,


and some curious explanations, which afford

conspicuous proof of our misunderstanding of
dreams. And yet the explanation of these dreams is



close at hand. How often it happens that we say to

ourselves: "If my father were still alive, what would

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he say to this?" The dream can express this if in no

other way than by his presence in a definite


situation. Thus, for instance, a young man whose


grandfather has left him a great inheritance dreams
that the old man is alive, and calls his grandson to


account, reproaching him for his lavish expenditure.
What we regard as an objection to the dream on


account of our better knowledge that the man is
already dead, is in reality the consoling thought that


the dead man does not need to learn the truth, or
satisfaction over the fact that he can no longer have


a say in the matter.

Another form of absurdity found in dreams


of deceased relatives does not express scorn and



derision; it serves to express the extremest

repudiation, the representation of a suppressed


thought which one would like to believe the very last

thing one would think of. Dreams of this kind appear
to be capable of solution only if we remember that a



dream makes no distinction between desire and

reality. For example, a man who nursed his father

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during his last illness, and who felt his death very
keenly, dreamed some time afterwards the following


senseless dream: His father was again living, and


conversing with him as usual, but (and this was the
remarkable thing) he had nevertheless died, though


he did not know it. This dream is intelligible if, after
he had nevertheless died, we insert in consequence


of the dreamer's wish, and if after but he did not
know it, we add that the dreamer had entertained


this wish. While nursing him, the son had often
wished that his father was dead; that is, he had had


the really compassionate thought that it would be a

good thing if death would at last put an end to his


sufferings. While he was mourning his father's



death, even this compassionate wish became an

unconscious reproach, as though it had really


contributed to shorten the sick man's life. By the

awakening of the earliest infantile feelings against
his father, it became possible to express this



reproach as a dream; and it was precisely because

of the extreme antithesis between the dream-

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instigator and the day- thoughts that this dream had

to assume so absurd a form.[83]


As a general thing, the dreams of a


deceased person of whom the dreamer has been
fond confront the interpreter with difficult problems,


the solution of which is not always satisfying. The
reason for this may be sought in the especially


pronounced ambivalence of feeling which controls
the relation of the dreamer to the dead person. In


such dreams it is quite usual for the deceased
person to be treated at first as living; then it


suddenly appears that he is dead; and in the

continuation of the dream he is once more living.


This has a confusing effect. I at last divined that this



alternation of death and life is intended to represent

the indifference of the dreamer ("It is all one to me


whether he is alive or dead"). This indifference, of

course, is not real, but wished; its purpose is to help
the dreamer to deny his very intense and often



contradictory emotional attitudes, and so it becomes

the dream-representation of his ambivalence. For

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other dreams in which one meets with deceased

persons the following rule will often be a guide: If in


the dream the dreamer is not reminded that the


dead person is dead, he sets himself on a par with
the dead; he dreams of his own death. The sudden


realization or astonishment in the dream ("but he
has long been dead!") is a protest against this


identification, and rejects the meaning that the
dreamer is dead. But I will admit that I feel that


dream-interpretation is far from having elicited all
the secrets of dreams having this content.


III.


In the example which I shall now cite, I can

detect the dream- work in the act of purposely


manufacturing an absurdity for which there is no

occasion whatever in the dream-material. It is taken


from the dream which I had as a result of meeting

Count Thun just before going away on a holiday. I
am driving in a cab, and I tell the driver to drive to a



railway station. "Of course, I can't drive with you on

the railway track itself," I say, after the driver had

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reproached me, as though I had worn him out; at

the same time, it seems as though I had already


made with him a journey that one usually makes by


train. Of this confused and senseless story analysis
gives the following explanation: During the day I


had hired a cab to take me to a remote street in
Dornbach. The driver, however, did not know the


way, and simply kept on driving, in the manner of
such worthy people, until I became aware of the fact


and showed him the way, indulging in a few derisive
remarks. From this driver a train of thought led to


the aristocratic personage whom I was to meet later

on. For the present, I will only remark that one thing


that strikes us middle- class plebeians about the



aristocracy is that they like to put themselves in the

driver's seat. Does not Count Thun guide the


Austrian car of State? The next sentence in the

dream, however, refers to my brother, whom I thus
also identify with the cab- driver. I had refused to go



to Italy with him this year (Of course, I can't drive

with you on the railway track itself), and this refusal

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was a sort of punishment for his accustomed

complaint that I usually wear him out on this tour


(this finds its way into the dream unchanged) by


rushing him too quickly from place to place, and
making him see too many beautiful things in a single


day. That evening my brother had accompanied me
to the railway station, but shortly before the


carriage had reached the Western station of the
Metropolitan Railway he had jumped out in order to


take the train to Purkersdorf. I suggested to him
that he might remain with me a little longer, as he


did not travel to Purkersdorf by the Metropolitan but

by the Western Railway. This is why, in my dream, I


made in the cab a journey which one usually makes



by train. In reality, however, it was the other way

about: what I told my brother was: "The distance


which you travel on the Metropolitan Railway you

could travel in my company on the Western Railway"
The whole confusion of the dream is therefore due



to the fact that in my dream I replace "Metropolitan

Railway" by cab, which, to be sure, does good

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service in bringing the driver and my brother into

conjunction. I then elicit from the dream some


nonsense which is hardly disentangled by


elucidation, and which almost constitutes a
contradiction of my earlier speech (of course, I


cannot drive with you on the railway track itself).
But as I have no excuse whatever for confronting


the Metropolitan Railway with the cab, I must
intentionally have given the whole enigmatical story


this peculiar form in my dream.
But with what intention? We shall now learn


what the absurdity in the dream signifies, and the

motives which admitted it or created it. In this case


the solution of the mystery is as follows: In the



dream I need an absurdity, and something

incomprehensible, in connection with driving (Fahren


= riding, driving) because in the dream-thoughts I

have a certain opinion that demands representation.
One evening, at the house of the witty and



hospitable lady who appears, in another scene of the

same dream, as the housekeeper, I heard two

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riddles which I could not solve: As they were known

to the other members of the party, I presented a


somewhat ludicrous figure in my unsuccessful


attempts to find the solutions. They were two puns
turning on the words Nachkommen (to obey orders-


offspring) and Vorfahren (to drive- forefathers,
ancestry). They ran, I believe, as follows:


The coachman does it
At the master's behests;


Everyone has it;
In the grave it rests.


(Vorfahren)


A confusing detail was that the first halves

of the two riddles were identical:


The coachman does it

At the master's behests;


Not everyone has it,

In the cradle it rests.
(Nachkommen)



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When I saw Count Thun drive up (vorfahren)

in state, and fell into the Figaro-like mood, in which


one finds that the sole merit of such aristocratic


gentlemen is that they have taken the trouble to be
born (to become Nachkommen), these two riddles


became intermediary thoughts for the dream-work.
As aristocrats may readily be replaced by coachmen,


and since it was once the custom to call a coachman
Herr Schwager (brother-in-law), the work of


condensation could involve my brother in the same
representation. But the dream-thought at work in


the background is as follows: It is nonsense to be

proud of one's ancestors (Vorfahren). I would rather


be an ancestor (Vorfahr) myself. On account of this



opinion, it is nonsense, we have the nonsense in the

dream. And now the last riddle in this obscure


passage of the dream is solved- namely that I have

driven before (vorher gefahren, vorgefaltren) with
this driver.



Thus, a dream is made absurd if there

occurs in the dream- thoughts, as one of the

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elements of the contents, the opinion: "That is

nonsense"; and, in general, if criticism and derision


are the motives of one of the dreamer's unconscious


trains of thought. Hence, absurdity is one of the
means by which the dream- work represents


contradiction; another means is the inversion of
material relation between the dream-thoughts and


the dream- content; another is the employment of
the feeling of motor inhibition. But the absurdity of a


dream is not to be translated by a simple no; it is
intended to reproduce the tendency of the dream-


thoughts to express laughter or derision

simultaneously with the contradiction. Only with this


intention does the dream- work produce anything



ridiculous. Here again it transforms a part of the

latent content into a manifest form.[84]


Herr Ludwig ist ein grosser Poet

Und singt er, so sturzt Apollo
Vor ihm auf die Knie und bittet und fleht,



Halt ein, ich werde sonst toll, oh!

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As a matter of fact, we have already cited a

convincing example of this significance of an absurd


dream. The dream (interpreted without analysis) of


the Wagnerian performance which lasted until 7.45
a.m., and in which the orchestra is conducted from a


tower, etc. (see this chapter, D.), is obviously
saving: It is a crazy world and an insane society. He


who deserves a thing doesn't get it, and he who
doesn't care for it does get it. In this way the


dreamer compares her fate with that of her cousin.
The fact that dreams of a dead father were the first


to furnish us with examples of absurdity in dreams is

by no means accidental. The conditions for the


creation of absurd dreams are here grouped



together in a typical fashion. The authority proper to

the father has at an early age evoked the criticism


of the child, and the strict demands which he has

made have caused the child, in self- defence, to pay
particularly close attention to every weakness of his



father's; but the piety with which the father's

personality is surrounded in our thoughts, especially

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after his death, intensifies the censorship which

prevents the expression of this criticism from


becoming conscious.


IV.

Here is another absurd dream of a deceased


father:


I receive a communication from the town
council of my native city concerning the cost of


accommodation in the hospital in the year 1851.
This was necessitated by a seizure from which I was
suffering. I make fun of the matter for, in the first


place, I was not yet born in 1851, and in the second



place, my father, to whom the communication might

refer, is already dead. I go to him in the adjoining


room, where he is lying in bed, and tell him about it.

To my surprise he remembers that in the year 1851


he was once drink and had to be locked up or

confined. It was when he was working for the firm of
T. "Then you, too, used to drink?" I ask. "You



married soon after?" I reckon that I was born in

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1856, which seems to me to be immediately

afterwards.


In the light of the foregoing exposition, we


shall translate the insistence with which this dream
exhibits its absurdities as a sure sign of a


particularly embittered and passionate polemic in
the dream-thoughts. All the greater, then, is our


astonishment when we perceive that in this dream
the polemic is waged openly, and that my father is


denoted as the person who is made a laughing-
stock. Such frankness seems to contradict our


assumption of a censorship controlling the dream-

work. The explanation is that here the father is only


an interposed figure, while the quarrel is really with



another person, who appears in the dream only in a

single allusion. Whereas a dream usually treats of


revolt against other persons, behind whom the

father is concealed, here it is the other way about:
the father serves as the man of straw to represent



another, and hence the dream dares to concern

itself openly with a person who is usually hallowed,

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because there is present the certain knowledge that

he is not in reality intended. We learn of this


condition of affairs by considering the occasion of


the dream. It was dreamed after I had heard that an
older colleague, whose judgment was considered


infallible, had expressed disapproval and
astonishment on hearing that one of my patients


had already been undergoing psychoanalytic
treatment at my hands for five years. The


introductory sentences of the dream allude in a
transparently disguised manner to the fact that this


colleague had for a time taken over the duties which

my father could no longer perform (statement of


expenses, accommodation in the hospital); and



when our friendly relations began to alter for the

worse I was thrown into the same emotional conflict


as that which arises in the case of a

misunderstanding between father and son (by
reason of the part played by the father, and his



earlier functions). The dream- thoughts now bitterly

resent the reproach that I am not making better

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progress, which extends itself from the treatment of

this patient to other things. Does my colleague know


anyone who can get on any faster? Does he not


know that conditions of this sort are usually
incurable and last for life? What are four or five


years in comparison to a whole lifetime, especially
when life has been made so much easier for the


patient during the treatment?
The impression of absurdity in this dream is


brought about largely by the fact that sentences
from different divisions of the dream-thoughts are


strung together without any reconciling transition.

Thus, the sentence, I go to him it the adjoining


room, etc., leaves the subject from which the



preceding sentences are taken, and faithfully

reproduces the circumstances under which I told my


father that I was engaged to be married. Thus the

dream is trying to remind me of the noble
disinterestedness which the old man showed at that



time, and to contrast this with the conduct of

another newly-introduced person. I now perceive

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that the dream is allowed to make fun of my father

because in the dream-thoughts, in the full


recognition of his merits, he is held up as an


example to others. It is in the nature of every
censorship that one is permitted to tell untruths


about forbidden things rather than the truth. The
next sentence, to the effect that my father


remembers that he was once drink, and was locked
up in consequence, contains nothing that really


relates to my father any more. The person who is
screened by him is here a no less important


personage than the great Meynert, in whose

footsteps I followed with such veneration, and


whose attitude towards me, after a short period of



favouritism, changed into one of undisguised

hostility. The dream recalls to me his own statement


that in his youth he had at one time formed the

habit of intoxicating himself with chloroform, with
the result that he had to enter a sanatorium; and



also my second experience with him, shortly before

his death. I had an embittered literary controversy

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with him in reference to masculine hysteria, the

existence of which he denied, and when I visited him


during his last illness, and asked him how he felt, he


described his condition at some length, and
concluded with the words: "You know, I have always


been one of the prettiest cases of masculine
hysteria." Thus, to my satisfaction, and to my


astonishment, he admitted what he so long and so
stubbornly denied. But the fact that in this scene of


my dream I can use my father to screen Meynert is
explained not by any discovered analogy between


the two persons, but by the fact that it is the brief

yet perfectly adequate representation of a


conditional sentence in the dream- thoughts which,



if fully expanded, would read as follows: "Of course,

if I belonged to the second generation, if I were the


son of a professor or a privy councillor, I should

have progressed more rapidly." In my dream I make
my father a professor and a privy councillor. The



most obvious and most annoying absurdity of the

dream lies in the treatment of the date 1851, which

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seems to me to be indistinguishable from 1856, as

though a difference of five years meant nothing


whatever. But it is just this one of the dream-


thoughts that requires expression. Four or five
years- that is precisely the length of time during


which I enjoyed the support of the colleague
mentioned at the outset; but it is also the duration


of time I kept my fiance waiting before I married
her; and by a coincidence that is eagerly exploited


by the dream- thoughts, it is also the time I have
kept my oldest patient waiting for a complete cure.


"What are five years?" ask the dream- thoughts.

"That is no time at all to me, that isn't worth


consideration. I have time enough ahead of me, and



just as what you wouldn't believe came true at last,

so I shall accomplish this also." Moreover, the


number 51, when considered apart from the number

of the century, is determined in yet another manner
and in an opposite sense; for which reason it occurs



several times over in the dream. It is the age at

which man seems particularly exposed to danger;

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the age at which I have seen colleagues die

suddenly, among them one who had been appointed


a few days earlier to a professorship for which he


had long been waiting.

V.


Another absurd dream which plays with


figures:
An acquaintance of mine, Herr M, has been


attacked in an essay by no less a person than
Goethe and, as we all think, with unjustifiable
vehemence. Herr M is, of course, crushed by this


attack. He complains of it bitterly at a dinner-party;



but his veneration for Goethe has not suffered as a

result of this personal experience. I try to elucidate


the temporal relations a little, as they seem

improbable to me. Goethe died in 1832; since his


attack upon M must, of course, have taken place

earlier, M was at the time quite a young man. It
seems plausible to me that he was 18 years old. But



I do not know exactly what the date of the present

year is, and so the whole calculation lapses into

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obscurity. The attack, by the way, is contained in

Goethe's well- known essay on "Nature."


We shall soon find the means of justifying


the nonsense of this dream. Herr M, with whom I
became acquainted at a dinner-party, had recently


asked me to examine his brother, who showed signs
of general paralysis. The conjecture was right; the


painful thing about this visit was that the patient
gave his brother away by alluding to his youthful


pranks, though our conversation gave him no
occasion to do so. I had asked the patient to tell me


the year of his birth, and had repeatedly got him to

make trifling calculations in order to show the


weakness of his memory- which tests, by the way,



he passed quite well. Now I can see that I behave

like a paralytic in the dream (I do not know exactly


what the date of the present year is). Other material

of the dream is drawn from another recent source.
The editor of a medical periodical, a friend of mine,



had accepted for his paper a very unfavourable

crushing review of the last book of my Berlin friend,

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Fl, the critic being a very youthful reviewer, who was

not very competent to pass judgment. I thought I


had a right to interfere, and called the editor to


account; he greatly regretted his acceptance of the
review, but he would not promise any redress. I


thereupon broke off my relations with the periodical,
and in my letter of resignation I expressed the hope


that our personal relations would not suffer as a
result of the incident. The third source of this dream


is an account given by a female patient- it was fresh
in my memory at the time- of the psychosis of her


brother who had fallen into a frenzy crying "Nature,

Nature." The physicians in attendance thought that


the cry was derived from a reading of Goethe's



beautiful essay, and that it pointed to the patient's

overwork in the study of natural philosophy. I


thought, rather, of the sexual meaning in which

even our less cultured people use the word Nature,
and the fact that the unfortunate man afterwards



mutilated his genitals seems to show that I was not

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far wrong. Eighteen years was the age of this

patient at the time of this access of frenzy.


If I add, further, that the book of my so


severely criticized friend ("One asks oneself whether
the author or oneself is crazy" had been the opinion


of another critic) treats of the temporal conditions of
life, and refers the duration of Goethe's life to the


multiple of a number significant from the biological
point of view, it will readily be admitted that in my


dream I am putting myself in my friend's place. (I
try to elucidate the temporal relations a little.) But I


behave like a paretic, and the dream revels in

absurdity. This means that the dream-thoughts say,


ironically: "Naturally, he is the fool, the lunatic, and



you are the clever people who know better. Perhaps,

however, it is the other way about?" Now, the other


way about is abundantly represented in my dream,

inasmuch as Goethe has attacked the young man,
which is absurd, while it is perfectly possible even



today for a young fellow to attack the immortal

Goethe; and inasmuch as I reckon from the year of

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Goethe's death, while I made the paretic reckon

from the year of his birth.


But I have further promised to show that no


dream is inspired by other than egoistical motives.
Accordingly, I must account for the fact that in this


dream I make my friend's cause my own, and put
myself in his place. My critical conviction in waking


life would not justify my doing so. Now, the story of
the eighteen- year-old patient, and the divergent


interpretations of his cry, "Nature," allude to the fact
that I have put myself into opposition to the


majority of physicians by claiming a sexual aetiology

for the psychoneuroses. I may say to myself: "You


will meet with the same kind of criticism as your



friend; indeed you have already done so to some

extent"; so that I may now replace the he in the


dream-thoughts by we. "Yes, you are right; we two

are the fools." That mea res agitur is clearly shown
by the mention of the short, incomparably beautiful



essay of Goethe's, for it was a popular lecture on

this essay which induced me to study the natural

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sciences when I left the Gymnasium, and was still

undecided as to my future.


VI.


I have to show that yet another dream in
which my ego does not appear is none the less


egoistic. In chapter V., D., I referred to a short


dream in which Professor M says: "My son, the
myopic..."; and I stated that this was only a


preliminary dream, preceding another in which I
play a part. Here is the main dream, previously
omitted, which challenges us to explain its absurd


and unintelligible word-formation.



On account of something or other that is

happening in Rome, it is necessary for the children


to flee, and this they do. The scene is then laid

before a gate, a double gate in the ancient style (the


Porta Romana in Siena, as I realize while I am

dreaming). I am sitting on the edge of a well, and I
am greatly depressed; I am almost weeping. A



woman- a nurse, a nun- brings out the two boys and

hands them over to their father, who is not myself.

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The elder is distinctly my eldest son, but I do not

see the face of the other boy. The woman asks the


eldest boy for a parting kiss. She is remarkable for a


red nose. The boy refuses her the kiss, but says to
her, extending her his hand in parting, "Auf


Geseres," and to both of us (or to one of us) "Auf
Ungeseres." I have the idea that this indicates a


preference.
This dream is built upon a tangle of thoughts


induced by a play I saw at the theatre, called Das
neue Ghetto (The New Ghetto). The Jewish


question, anxiety as to the future of my children,

who cannot be given a fatherland, anxiety as to


educating them so that they may enjoy the



privileges of citizens- all these features may easily

be recognized in the accompanying dream-


thoughts.
"By the waters of Babylon we sat down and
wept." Siena, like Rome, is famous for its beautiful



fountains. In the dream I have to find some sort of

substitute for Rome (cf. chapter V., B.) from among

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localities which are known to me. Near the Porta

Romana of Siena we saw a large, brightly-lit


building, which we learned was the Manicomio, the


insane asylum. Shortly before the dream I had
heard that a co-religionist had been forced to resign


a position, which he had secured with great effort, in
a State asylum.


Our interest is aroused by the speech: "Auf
Geseres," where one might expect, from the


situation continued throughout the dream, "Auf
Wiedersehen" (Au revoir), and by its quite


meaningless antithesis: "Auf Ungeseres." (Un is a

prefix meaning "not.")


According to information received from



Hebrew scholars, Geseres is a genuine Hebrew

word, derived from the verb goiser, and may best be


rendered by "ordained sufferings, fated disaster."

From its employment in the Jewish jargon one would
take it to mean "wailing and lamentation."



Ungeseres is a coinage of my own, and is the first to

attract my attention, but for the present it baffles

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me. The little observation at the end of the dream-

that Ungeseres indicates an advantage over


Geseres- opens the way to the associations, and


therewith to understanding. This relation holds good
in the case of caviar; the unsalted kind is more


highly prized than the salted. "Caviar to the
general"- "noble passions." Herein lies concealed a


jesting allusion to a member of my household, of
whom I hope- for she is younger than I- that she


will watch over the future of my children; this, too,
agrees with the fact that another member of my


household, our worthy nurse, is clearly indicated by

the nurse (or nun) of the dream. But a connecting-


link is wanting between the pair, salted- unsalted



and Geseres- Ungeseres. This is to be found in

gesauert and ungesauert (leavened and


unleavened). In their flight or exodus from Egypt

the children of Israel had not time to allow their
dough to become leavened, and in commemoration



of this event they eat unleavened bread at Passover

to this day. Here, too, I can find room for the

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sudden association which occurred to me in this part

of the analysis. I remembered how we, my friend


from Berlin and myself, had strolled about the


streets of Breslau, a city which was strange to us,
during the last days of Easter. A little girl asked me


the way to a certain street; I had to tell her that I
did not know it; I then remarked to my friend, "I


hope that later on in life the child will show more
perspicacity in selecting the persons whom she


allows to direct her." Shortly afterwards a sign
caught my eye: "Dr. Herod, consulting hours..." I


said to myself: "I hope this colleague does not

happen to be a children's specialist." Meanwhile, my


friend had been developing his views on the



biological significance of bilateral symmetry, and had

begun a sentence with the words: "If we had only


one eye in the middle of the forehead, like

Cyclops..." This leads us to the speech of the
professor in the preliminary dream: "My son, the



myopic." And now I have been led to the chief

source for Geseres. Many years ago, when this son

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of Professor M's, who is today an independent

thinker, was still sitting on his school-bench, he


contracted an affection of the eye which, according


to the doctor, gave some cause for anxiety. He
expressed the opinion that so long as it was


confined to one eye it was of no great significance,
but that if it should extend to the other eye it would


be serious. The affection subsided in the one eye
without leaving any ill effects; shortly afterwards,


however, the same symptoms did actually appear in
the other eye. The boy's terrified mother


immediately summoned the physician to her distant

home in the country. But the doctor was now of a


different opinion (took the other side). "What sort of



'Geseres' is this you are making?" he asked the

mother, impatiently. "If one side got well, the other


will, too." And so it turned out.

And now as to the connection between this
and myself and my family. The school-bench upon



which Professor M's son learned his first lessons has

become the property of my eldest son; it was given

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to him by the boy's mother, and it is into his mouth

that I put the words of farewell in the dream. One of


the wishes that may be connected with this


transference may now be readily guessed. This
school-bench is intended by its construction to guard


the child from becoming shortsighted and one-sided.
Hence myopia (and behind it the Cyclops), and the


discussion about bilateralism. The fear of one-
sidedness has a twofold significance; it might mean


not only physical one-sidedness, but intellectual
one-sidedness also. Does it not seem as though the


scene in the dream, with all its craziness, were

contradicting precisely this anxiety? When on the


one hand the boy has spoken his words of farewell,



on the other hand he calls out the very opposite, as

though to establish an equilibrium. He is acting, as it


were, in obedience to bilateral symmetry!

Thus, a dream frequently has the
profoundest meaning in the places where it seems



most absurd. In all ages those who have had

something to say and have been unable to say it

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without danger to themselves have gladly donned

the cap and bells. He for whom the forbidden saying


was intended was more likely to tolerate it if he was


able to laugh at it, and to flatter himself with the
comment that what he disliked was obviously


absurd. Dreams behave in real life as does the
prince in the play who is obliged to pretend to be a


madman, and hence we may say of dreams what
Hamlet said of himself, substituting an unintelligible


jest for the actual truth: "I am but mad north-
northwest; when the wind is southerly I know a


hawk from a handsaw" (Act II. sc. ii).[85]

Thus, my solution of the problem of


absurdity in dreams is that the dream-thoughts are



never absurd- at least, not those of the dreams of

sane persons- and that the dream-work produces


absurd dreams, and dreams with individually absurd

elements, when the dream-thoughts contain
criticism, ridicule, and derision, which have to be



given expression. My next concern is to show that

the dream-work is exhausted by the co-operation of

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the three factors enumerated- and of a fourth which

has still to be mentioned- that it does no more than


translate the dream-thoughts, observing the four


conditions prescribed, and that the question whether
the mind goes to work in dreams with all its


intellectual faculties, or with only part of them, is
wrongly stated, and does not meet the actual state


of affairs. But since there are plenty of dreams in
which judgments are passed, criticisms made, and


facts recognized in which astonishment at some
individual element of the dream appears, and


explanations are attempted, and arguments

adduced, I must meet the objections deriving from


these occurrences by the citation of selected



examples.
My answer is as follows: Everything in


dreams which occurs as the apparent functioning of

the critical faculty is to be regarded, not as the
intellectual performance of the dream-work, but as



belonging to the substance of the dream-thoughts,

and it has found its way from these, as a completed

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structure, into the manifest dream-content. I may

go even farther than this! I may even say that the


judgments which are passed upon the dream as it is


remembered after waking, and the feelings which
are aroused by the reproduction of the dream,


belong largely to the latent dream- content, and
must be fitted into place in the interpretation of the


dream.
1. One striking example of this has already


been given. A female patient does not wish to relate
her dream because it was too vague. She saw a


person in the dream, and does not know whether it

was her husband or her father. Then follows a


second dream- fragment, in which there occurs a



manure-pail, with which the following reminiscence

is associated. As a young housewife she once


declared jestingly, in the presence of a young male

relative who frequented the house, that her next
business would be to procure a new manure-pail.



Next morning one was sent to her, but it was filled

with lilies of the valley. This part of the dream

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served to represent the phrase, "Not grown on my

own manure."[86] If we complete the analysis, we


find in the dream-thoughts the after-effect of a story


heard in youth; namely, that a girl had given birth
to a child, and that it was not clear who was the


father. The dream-representation here overlaps into
the waking thought, and allows one of the elements


of the dream-thoughts to be represented by a
judgment, formed in the waking state, of the whole


dream.
2. A similar case: One of my patients has a


dream which strikes him as being an interesting

one, for he says to himself, immediately after


waking: "I must tell that to the doctor." The dream



is analysed, and shows the most distinct allusion to

an affair in which he had become involved during


the treatment, and of which he had decided to tell

me nothing.[87]
3. Here is a third example from my own



experience:

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I go to the hospital with P, through a

neighbourhood in which there are houses and


gardens. Thereupon I have an idea that I have


already seen this locality several times in my
dreams. I do not know my way very well; P shows


me a way which leads round a corner to a restaurant
(indoor); here I ask for Frau Doni, and I hear that


she is living at the back of the house, in a small
room, with three children. I go there, and on the


way I meet an undefined person with my two little
girls. After I have been with them for a while, I take


them with me. A sort of reproach against my wife

for having left them there.


On waking I am conscious of a great



satisfaction, whose motive seems to be the fact that

I shall now learn from the analysis what is meant by


I have already dreamed of this.[88] But the analysis

of the dream tells me nothing about this; it shows
me only that the satisfaction belongs to the latent



dream-content, and not to a judgment of the dream.

It is satisfaction concerning the fact that I have had

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children by my marriage. P's path through life and

my own ran parallel for a time; now he has


outstripped me both socially and financially, but his


marriage has remained childless. Of this the two
occasions of the dream give proof on complete


analysis. On the previous day I had read in the
newspaper the obituary notice of a certain Frau


Dona A- y (which I turn into Doni), who had died in
childbirth; I was told by my wife that the dead


woman had been nursed by the same midwife whom
she herself had employed at the birth of our two


youngest boys. The name Dona had caught my

attention, for I had recently met with it for the first


time in an English novel. The other occasion for the



dream may be found in the date on which it was

dreamed; this was the night before the birthday of


my eldest boy, who, it seems, is poetically gifted.

4. The same satisfaction remained with me
after waking from the absurd dream that my father,



after his death, had played a political role among the

Magyars. It is motivated by the persistence of the

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feeling which accompanied the last sentence of the

dream: I remember that on his deathbed he looked


so like Garibaldi, and I am glad that it has really


come true... (Followed by a forgotten continuation.)
I can now supply from the analysis what should fill


this gap. It is the mention of my second boy, to
whom I have given the baptismal name of an


eminent historical personage who attracted me
greatly during my boyhood, especially during my


stay in England. I had to wait for a year before I
could fulfil my intention of using this name if the


next child should be a son, and with great

satisfaction I greeted him by this name as soon as


he was born. It is easy to see how the father's



suppressed desire for greatness is, in his thoughts,

transferred to his children; one is inclined to believe


that this is one of the ways by which the

suppression of this desire (which becomes necessary
in the course of life) is effected. The little fellow won



his right to inclusion in the text of this dream by

virtue of the fact that the same accident- that of

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soiling his clothes (quite pardonable in either a child

or in a dying person)- had occurred to him. Compare


with this the allusion Stuhlrichter (presiding judge)


and the wish of the dream: to stand before one's
children great and undefiled.


5. If I should now have to look for examples
of judgments or expressions of opinion which remain


in the dream itself, and are not continued in, or
transferred to, our waking thoughts, my task would


be greatly facilitated were I to take my examples
from dreams which have already been cited for


other purposes. The dream of Goethe's attack on

Herr M appears to contain quite a number of acts of


judgment. I try to elucidate the temporal relations a



little, as they seem improbable to me. Does not this

look like a critical impulse directed against the


nonsensical idea that Goethe should have made a

literary attack upon a young man of my
acquaintance? It seems plausible to me that he was



18 years old. That sounds quite like the result of a

calculation, though a silly one; and the I do not

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know exactly what is the date of the present year

would be an example of uncertainty or doubt in


dreams.


But I know from analysis that these acts of
judgment, which seem to have been performed in


the dream for the first time, admit of a different
construction, in the light of which they become


indispensable for interpreting the dream, while at
the same time all absurdity is avoided. With the


sentence I try to elucidate the temporal relations a
little, I put myself in the place of my friend, who is


actually trying to elucidate the temporal relations of

life. The sentence then loses its significance as a


judgment which objects to the nonsense of the



previous sentences. The interposition, Which seems

improbable to me, belongs to the following: It


seems plausible to me. With almost these identical

words I replied to the lady who told me of her
brother's illness: "It seems improbable to me" that



the cry of "Nature, Nature," was in any way

connected with Goethe; it seems much more

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plausible to me that it has the sexual significance

which is known to you. In this case, it is true, a


judgment was expressed, but in reality, not in a


dream, and on an occasion which is remembered
and utilized by the dream-thoughts. The dream-


content appropriates this judgment like any other
fragment of the dream-thoughts.


The number 18 with which the judgment in
the dream is meaninglessly connected still retains a


trace of the context from which the real judgment
was taken. Lastly, the I do not know exactly what is


the date of the present year is intended for no other

purpose than that of my identification with the


paralytic, in examining whom this particular fact was



established.
In the solution of these apparent acts of


judgment in dreams, it will be well to keep in mind

the above-mentioned rule of interpretation, which
tells us that we must disregard the coherence which



is established in the dream between its constituent

parts as an unessential phenomenon, and that every

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dream-element must be taken separately and traced

back to its source. The dream is a compound, which


for the purposes of investigation must be broken up


into its elements. On the other hand, we become
alive to the fact that there is a psychic force which


expresses itself in our dreams and establishes this
apparent coherence; that is, the material obtained


by the dream- work undergoes a secondary
elaboration. Here we have the manifestations of that


psychic force which we shall presently take into
consideration as the fourth of the factors which co-


operate in dream-formation.
6. Let us now look for other examples of


acts of judgment in the dreams which have already



been cited. In the absurd dream about the

communication from the town council, I ask the


question, "You married soon after?" I reckon that I

was born in 1856, which seems to me to be directly
afterwards. This certainly takes the form of an



inference. My father married shortly after his attack,

in the year 1851. I am the eldest son, born in 1856;

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so this is correct. We know that this inference has in

fact been falsified by the wish-fulfilment, and that


the sentence which dominates the dream-thoughts


is as follows: Four or five years- that is no time at
all- that need not be counted. But every part of this


chain of reasoning may be seen to be otherwise
determined from the dream- thoughts, as regards


both its content and its form. It is the patient of
whose patience my colleague complains who intends


to marry immediately the treatment is ended. The
manner in which I converse with my father in this


dream reminds me of an examination or cross-

examination, and thus of a university professor who


was in the habit of compiling a complete docket of



personal data when entering his pupils' names: You

were born when?- 1856.- Patre?- Then the applicant


gave the Latin form of the baptismal name of the

father and we students assumed that the Hofrat
drew inferences from the father's name which the



baptismal name of the candidate would not always

have justified. Hence, the drawing of inferences in

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the dream would be merely the repetition of the

drawing of inferences which appears as a scrap of


material in the dream-thoughts. From this we learn


something new. If an inference occurs in the dream-
content, it assuredly comes from the dream-


thoughts; but it may be contained in these as a
fragment of remembered material, or it may serve


as the logical connective of a series of dream-
thoughts. In any case, an inference in the dream


represents an inference taken from the dream-
thoughts.[89]


It will be well to continue the analysis of this

dream at this point. With the inquisition of the


professor is associated the recollection of an index



(in my time published in Latin) of the university

students; and further, the recollection of my own


course of study. The five years allowed for the study

of medicine were, as usual, too little for me. I
worked unconcernedly for some years longer; my



acquaintances regarded me as a loafer, and doubted

whether I should get through. Then, suddenly, I

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decided to take my examinations, and I got through

in spite of the postponement. A fresh confirmation of


the dream-thoughts with which I defiantly meet my


critics: "Even though you won't believe it, because I
am taking my time, I shall reach the conclusion


(German, Schluss = end, conclusion, inference). It
has often happened like that."


In its introductory portion, this dream
contains several sentences which, we can hardly


deny, are of the nature of an argument. And this
argument is not at all absurd; it might just as well


occur in my waking thoughts. In my dream I make

fun of the communication from the town council, for


in the first place I was not yet born in 1851, and in



the second place my father, to whom it might refer,

is already dead. Not only is each of these


statements perfectly correct in itself, but they are

the very arguments that I should employ if I
received such a communication. We know from the



foregoing analysis that this dream has sprung from

the soil of deeply embittered and scornful dream-

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thoughts; and if we may also assume that the

motive of the censorship is a very powerful one, we


shall understand that the dream-thought has every


occasion to create a flawless refutation of an
unreasonable demand, in accordance with the


pattern contained in the dream-thoughts. But the
analysis shows that in this case the dream-work has


not been required to make a free imitation, but that
material taken from the dream-thoughts had to be


employed for the purpose. It is as though in an
algebraic equation there should occur, besides the


figures, plus and minus signs, and symbols of

powers and of roots, and as though someone, in


copying this equation, without understanding it,



should copy both the symbols and the figures, and

mix them all up together. The two arguments may


be traced to the following material: It is painful to

me to think that many of the hypotheses upon which
I base my psychological solution of the



psychoneuroses which will arouse scepticism and

ridicule when they first become known. For instance,

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I shall have to assert that impressions of the second

year of life, and even the first, leave an enduring


trace upon the emotional life of subsequent


neuropaths, and that these impressions- although
greatly distorted and exaggerated by the memory-


may furnish the earliest and profoundest basis of a
hysterical symptom. Patients to whom I explain this


at a suitable moment are wont to parody my
explanation by offering to search for reminiscences


of the period when they were not yet born. My
disclosure of the unsuspected part played by the


father in the earliest sexual impulses of female

patients may well have a similar reception. (Cf. the


discussion in chapter V., D). Nevertheless, it is my



well-founded conviction that both doctrines are true.

In confirmation of this I recall certain examples in


which the death of the father occurred when the

child was very young, and subsequent incidents,
otherwise inexplicable, proved that the child had



unconsciously reserved recollections of the person

who had so early gone out of its life. I know that

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both my assertions are based upon inferences

whose validity will be attacked. It is the doing of the


wish-fulfilment that precisely the material of those


inferences, which I fear will be contested, should be
utilized by the dream-work for establishing


incontestable conclusions.
7. In one dream, which I have hitherto only


touched upon, astonishment at the subject emerging
is distinctly expressed at the outset.


The elder Brucke must have set me some
task or other; strangely enough, it relates to the


preparation of the lower part of my own body, the

pelvis and legs, which I see before me as though in


the dissecting-room, but without feeling the absence



of part of my body, and without a trace of horror.

Louise N is standing beside me, and helps me in the


work. The pelvis is eviscerated; now the upper, now

the lower aspect is visible, and the two aspects are
commingled. Large fleshy red tubercles are visible



(which, even in the dream, make me think of

haemorrhoids). Also something lying over them had

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to be carefully picked off; it looked like crumpled

tinfoil.[90] Then I was once more in possession of


my legs, and I made a journey through the city, but


I took a cab (as I was tired). To my astonishment,
the cab drove into the front door of a house, which


opened and allowed it to pass into a corridor, which
was broken off at the end, and eventually led on into


the open.[91] Finally I wandered through changing
landscapes, with an Alpine guide, who carried my


things. He carried me for some distance, out of
consideration for my tired legs. The ground was


swampy; we went along the edge; people were

sitting on the ground, like Red Indians or gypsies;


among them a girl. Until then I had made my way



along on the slippery ground, in constant

astonishment that I was so well able to do so after


making the preparation. At last we came to a small

wooden house with an open window at one end.
Here the guide set me down, and laid two planks,



which stood in readiness, on the window-sill so as to

bridge the chasm which had to be crossed from the

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window. Now I grew really alarmed about my legs.

Instead of the expected crossing, I saw two grown-


up men lying upon wooden benches which were


fixed on the walls of the hut, and something like two
sleeping children next to them; as though not the


planks but the children were intended to make the
crossing possible. I awoke with terrified thoughts.


Anyone who his been duly impressed by the
extensive nature of dream-condensation will readily


imagine what a number of pages the exhaustive
analysis of this dream would fill. Fortunately for the


context, I shall make this dream only the one

example of astonishment in dreams, which makes


its appearance in the parenthetical remark,



strangely enough. Let us consider the occasion of

the dream. It is a visit of this lady, Louise N, who


helps me with my work in the dream. She says:

"Lend me something to read." I offer her She, by
Rider Haggard. A strange book, but full of hidden



meaning," I try to explain; "the eternal feminine, the

immortality of our emotions-" Here she interrupts

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me: "I know that book already. Haven't you

something of your own?" "No, my own immortal


works are still unwritten." "Well, when are you going


to publish your so-called 'latest revelations,' which,
you promised us, even we should be able to read?"


she asks, rather sarcastically. I now perceive that
she is a mouthpiece for someone else, and I am


silent. I think of the effort it cost me to make public
even my work on dreams, in which I had to


surrender so much of my own intimate nature. ("The
best that you know you can't tell the boys.") The


preparation of my own body which I am ordered to

make in my dream is thus the self-analysis involved


in the communication of my dreams. The elder



Brucke very properly finds a place here; in the first

years of my scientific work it so happened that I


neglected the publication of a certain discovery until

his insistence forced me to publish it. But the further
trains of thought, proceeding from my conversation



with Louise N, go too deep to become conscious;

they are side-tracked by way of the material which

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has been incidentally awakened in me by the

mention of Rider Haggard's She. The comment


strangely enough applies to this book, and to


another by the same author, The Heart of the
World; and numerous elements of the dream are


taken from these two fantastic romances. The
swampy ground over which the dreamer is carried,


the chasm which has to be crossed by means of
planks, come from She; the Red Indians, the girl,


and the wooden house, from The Heart of the World.
In both novels a woman is the leader, and both treat


of perilous wanderings; She has to do with an

adventurous journey to an undiscovered country, a


place almost untrodden by the foot of man.



According to a note which I find in my record of the

dream, the fatigue in my legs was a real sensation


from those days. Probably a weary mood

corresponded with this fatigue, and the doubting
question: "How much farther will my legs carry me?"



In She, the end of the adventure is that the heroine

meets her death in the mysterious central fire,

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instead of winning immortality for herself and for

others. Some related anxiety has mistakably arisen


in the dream- thoughts. The wooden house is


assuredly also a coffin- that is, the grave. But in
representing this most unwished-for of all thoughts


by means of a wish-fulfilment, the dream-work has
achieved its masterpiece. I was once in a grave, but


it was an empty Etruscan grave near Orvieto- a
narrow chamber with two stone benches on the


walls, upon which were lying the skeletons of two
adults. The interior of the wooden house in the


dream looks exactly like this grave, except that

stone has been replaced by wood. The dream seems


to say: "If you must already sojourn in your grave,



let it be this Etruscan grave," and by means of this

interpolation it transforms the most mournful


expectation into one that is really to be desired.

Unfortunately, as we shall learn, the dream is able
to change into its opposite only the idea



accompanying an affect, but not always the affect

itself. Hence, I awake with thoughts of terror, even

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after the idea that perhaps my children will achieve

what has been denied to their father has forced its


way to representation: a fresh allusion to the


strange romance in which the identity of a character
is preserved through a series of generations


covering two thousand years.
8. in the context of another dream there is a


similar expression of astonishment at what is
experienced in the dream. This, however, is


connected with such a striking, far-fetched, and
almost intellectual attempt at explanation that if


only on this account I should have to subject the

whole dream to analysis, even if it did not possess


two other interesting features. On the night of the



eighteenth of July I was travelling on the Southern

Railway, and in my sleep I heard someone call out:


"Hollthurn, 10 minutes." I immediately think of

Holothuria- of a natural history museum- that here
is a place where valiant men have vainly resisted the



domination of their overlord.- Yes, the counter-

reformation in Austria!- As though it were a place in

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Styria or the Tyrol. Now I see indistinctly a small

museum, in which the relics of the acquisitions of


these men are preserved. I should like to leave the


train, but I hesitate to do so. There are women with
fruit on the platform; they squat on the ground, and


in that position invitingly hold up their baskets.- I
hesitated, in doubt as to whether we have time, but


here we are still stationary.- I am suddenly in
another compartment in which the leather and the


seats are so narrow that one's spine directly touches
the back.[92] I am surprised at this, but I may have


changed carriages while asleep. Several people,

among them an English brother and sister; a row of


books plainly on a shelf on the wall.- I see The



Wealth of Nations, and Matter and Motion (by

Maxwell), thick books bound in brown linen. The


man asks his sister about a book of Schiller's,

whether she has forgotten it. These books seem to
belong now to me, now to them. At this point I wish



to join in the conversation in order to confirm or

support what is being said. I wake sweating all over,

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because all the windows are shut, The train stops at

Marburg.


While writing down the dream, a part of it


occurs to me which my memory wished to pass
over. I tell the brother and sister (in English),


referring to a certain book: "It is from..." but I
correct myself: "It is by..." The man remarks to his


sister: "He said it correctly."
The dream begins with the name of a


station, which seems to have almost waked me. For
this name, which was Marburg, I substitute


Hollthurn. The fact that I heard Marburg the first, or

perhaps the second time it was called out, is proved


by the mention of Schiller in the dream; he was born



in Marburg, though not the Styrian Marburg.[93]

Now on this occasion, although I was travelling first


class, I was doing so under very disagreeable

circumstances. The train was overcrowded; in my
compartment I had come upon a lady and



gentleman who seemed very fine people, and had

not the good breeding, or did not think it worth

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while, to conceal their displeasure at my intrusion.

My polite greeting was not returned, and although


they were sitting side by side (with their backs to


the engine), the woman before my eyes hastened to
pre-empt the seat opposite her, and next to the


window, with her umbrella; the door was
immediately closed, and pointed remarks about the


opening of windows were exchanged. Probably I was
quickly recognized as a person hungry for fresh air.


It was a hot night, and the atmosphere of the
compartment, closed on both sides, was almost


suffocating. My experience as a traveller leads me to

believe that such inconsiderate and overbearing


conduct marks people who have paid for their tickets



only partly, or not at all. When the conductor came

round, and I presented my dearly bought ticket, the


lady exclaimed haughtily and almost threateningly:

"My husband has a pass." She was an imposing-
looking person, with a discontented expression, in



age not far removed from the autumn of feminine

beauty; the man had no chance to say anything; he

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sat there motionless. I tried to sleep. In my dream I

take a terrible revenge on my disagreeable travelling


companions; no one would suspect what insults and


humiliations are concealed behind the disjointed
fragments of the first half of the dream. After this


need has been satisfied, the second wish, to
exchange my compartment for another, makes itself


felt. The dream changes its scene so often, and
without making the slightest objection to such


changes, that it would not have seemed at all
remarkable had I at once, from my memories,


replaced my travelling companions by more

agreeable persons. But here was a case where


something or other opposes the change of scene,



and finds it necessary to explain it. How did I

suddenly get into another compartment? I could not


positively remember having changed carriages. So

there was only one explanation. I must have left the
carriage while asleep- an unusual occurrence,



examples of which, however, are known to

neuropathologists. We know of persons who

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undertake railway journeys in a crepuscular state,

without betraying their abnormal condition by any


sign whatever, until at some stage of their journey


they come to themselves, and are surprised by the
gap in their memory. Thus, while I am still


dreaming, I declare my own case to be such a case
of automatisme ambulatoire.


Analysis permits of another solution. The
attempt at explanation, which so surprises me if I


am to attribute it to the dream-work, is not original,
but is copied from the neurosis of one of my


patients. I have already spoken in another chapter

of a highly cultured and kindly man who began,


shortly after the death of his parents, to accuse



himself of murderous tendencies, and who was

distressed by the precautionary measures which he


had to take to secure himself against these

tendencies. His was a case of severe obsessional
ideas with full insight. To begin with, it was painful



to him to walk through the streets, as he was

obsessed by the necessity of accounting for all the

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persons he met; he had to know whither they had

disappeared; if one of them suddenly eluded his


pursuing glance, he was left with a feeling of


distress and the idea that he might possibly have
made away with the man. Behind this obsessive idea


was concealed, among other things, a Cain-
phantasy, for "all men are brothers." Owing to the


impossibility of accomplishing this task, he gave up
going for walks, and spent his life imprisoned within


his four walls. But reports of murders which had
been committed in the world outside were


constantly reaching his room by way of the

newspapers, and his conscience tormented him with


the doubt that he might be the murderer for whom



the police were looking. The certainty that he had

not left the house for weeks protected him for a time


against these accusations, until one day there

dawned upon him the possibility that he might have
left his house while in an unconscious state, and



might thus have committed murder without knowing

anything about it. From that time onwards he locked

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his front door, and gave the key to his old

housekeeper, strictly forbidding her to give it into


his hands, even if he demanded it.


This, then, is the origin of the attempted
explanation that I may have changed carriages while


in an unconscious state; it has been taken into the
dream ready-made, from the material of the dream-


thoughts, and is evidently intended to identify me
with the person of my patient. My memory of this


patient was awakened by natural association. My
last night journey had been made a few weeks


earlier in his company. He was cured, and we were

going into the country together to his relatives, who


had sent for me; as we had a compartment to



ourselves, we left all the windows open throughout

the night, and for as long as I remained awake we


had a most interesting conversation. I knew that

hostile impulses towards his father in childhood, in a
sexual connection, had been at the root of his



illness. By identifying myself with him, I wanted to

make an analogous confession to myself. The

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second scene of the dream really resolves itself into

a wanton phantasy to the effect that my two elderly


travelling companions had acted so uncivilly towards


me because my arrival on the scene had prevented
them from exchanging kisses and embraces during


the night, as they had intended. This phantasy,
however, goes back to an early incident of my


childhood when, probably impelled by sexual
curiosity, I had intruded into my parents' bedroom,


and was driven thence by my father's emphatic
command.


I think it would be superfluous to multiply

such examples. They would all confirm what we


have learned from those already cited: namely, that



an act of judgment in a dream is merely the

repetition of an original act of judgment in the


dream-thoughts. In most cases it is an unsuitable

repetition, fitted into an inappropriate context;
occasionally, however, as in our last example, it is



so artfully applied that it may almost give one the

impression of independent intellectual activity in the

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dream. At this point we might turn our attention to

that psychic activity which, though it does not


appear to co-operate constantly in the formation of


dreams, yet endeavours to fuse the dream-elements
of different origin into a flawless and significant


whole. We consider it necessary, however, first of all
to consider the expressions of affect which appear in


dreams, and to compare these with the affects
which analysis discovers in the dream-thoughts.


Footnotes


[76] English Example.- TR.

[77] Reported by Brill in his Fundamental


Conceptions of Psychoanalysis.


[78] Analyses of other numerical dreams

have been given by Jung, Marcinowski and others.


Such dreams often involve very complicated

arithmetical operations, which are none the less
solved by the dreamer with astonishing confidence.



Cf. also Ernest Jones, "Uber unbewusste

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Zahlenbehandlung," Zentralb. fur Psychoanalyse, 4,

ii, [1912], p. 241).


[79] The inscription in fact reads:


Saluti publicae vixit
non diu sed totus.


[80] As an example of over-determination:


My excuse for coming late was that after working
late into the night, in the morning I had to make the


long journey from Kaiser-Josef-Strasse to Wahringer
Strasse.
[81] And also, Caesar = Kaiser.


[82] [We die for our king.] I have forgotten



in what author I found a reference to a dream which

was overrun with unusually small figures, the source


of which proved to be one of the engravings of

Jacques Callot, which the dreamer had examined


during the day. These engravings contain an

enormous number of very small figures; a whole
series of them deals with the horrors of the Thirty



Years War.

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[83] Cf. "Formulations regarding the Two

Principles in Mental Functioning," Collected Papers,


IV.


[84] Here the dream-work parodies the
thought which it qualifies as ridiculous, in that it


creates something ridiculous in relation to it. Heine
does the same thing when he wishes to deride the


bad rhymes of the King of Bavaria. He does it by
using even worse rhymes:


[85] This dream furnishes a good example in
support of the universally valid doctrine that dreams


of the same night, even though they are separated

in the memory, spring from the same thought-


material. The dream-situation in which I am



rescuing my children from the city of Rome,

moreover, is distorted by a reference back to an


episode of my childhood. The meaning is that I envy

certain relatives who years ago had occasion to
transplant their children to the soil of another



country.

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[86] This German expression is equivalent to

our saying: "I am not responsible for that," "That's


not my funeral," or "That's not due to my own


efforts."- TR.
[87] The injunction or resolve already


contained in the dream: "I must tell that to the
doctor," when it occurs in dreams during psycho-


analytic treatment, is constantly accompanied by a
great resistance to confessing the dream, and is not


infrequently followed by the forgetting of the dream.
[88] A subject which has been extensively


discussed in recent volumes If the Revue

Philosophique (paramnesia in dreams).


[89] These results correct at several points



my earlier statements concerning the representation

of logical relations (chapter VI., C.). These described


the general procedure of the dream-work, but

overlooked its most delicate and most careful
operations.



[90] Stanniol, allusion to Stannius; the

nervous system of fishes; cf chapter VI., F.

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[91] The place in the corridor of my

apartment-house where the perambulators of the


other tenants stand; it is also otherwise hyper-


determined several times over.
[92] This description is not intelligible even


to myself, but I follow the principle of reproducing
the dream in those words which occur to me while I


am writing it down. The wording itself is a part of
the dream-representation.


[93] Schiller was not born in one of the
Marbergs, but in Marbach, as every German


schoolboy knows, and I myself knew. This again is

one of those errors (Cf. chapter VI., B) which creep


in as substitutes for an intentional falsification in



another place and which I have endeavoured to

explain in The Psycho-pathology of Everyday Life.




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CHAPTER 6 (Part 4)
THE DREAM-WORK


H. The Affects in Dreams


A shrewd remark of Stricker's called our
attention to the fact that the expressions of affects


in dreams cannot be disposed of in the


contemptuous fashion in which we are wont to
shake off the dream-content after we have waked.


"If I am afraid of robbers in my dreams, the
robbers, to be sure, are imaginary, but the fear of

them is real"; and the same thing is true if I rejoice
in my dream. According to the testimony of our


feelings, an affect experienced in a dream is in no

way inferior to one of like intensity experienced in


waking life, and the dream presses its claim to be

accepted as part of our real psychic experiences, by


virtue of its affective rather than its ideational

content. In the waking state, we do not put the one
before the other, since we do not know how to



evaluate an affect psychically except in connection

with an ideational content. If an affect and an idea

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are ill-matched as regards their nature or their

intensity, our waking judgment becomes confused.


The fact that in dreams the ideational


content does not always produce the affective result
which in our waking thoughts we should expect as


its necessary consequence has always been a cause
of astonishment. Strumpell declared that ideas in


dreams are stripped of their psychic values. But
there is no lack of instances in which the reverse is


true; when an intensive manifestation of affect
appears in a content which seems to offer no


occasion for it. In my dream I may be in a horrible,

dangerous, or disgusting situation, and yet I may


feel no fear or aversion; on the other hand, I am



sometimes terrified by harmless things, and

sometimes delighted by childish things.


This enigma disappeared more suddenly and

more completely than perhaps any other dream-
problem if we pass from the manifest to the latent



content. We shall then no longer have to explain it,

for it will no longer exist. Analysis tells us that the

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ideational contents have undergone displacements

and substitutions, while the affects have remained


unchanged. No wonder, then, that the ideational


content which has been altered by dream-distortion
no longer fits the affect which has remained intact;


and no cause for wonder when analysis has put the
correct content into its original place.[94]


In a psychic complex which has been
subjected to the influence of the resisting


censorship, the affects are the unyielding
constituent, which alone can guide us to the correct


completion. This state of affairs is revealed in the

psychoneuroses even more distinctly than in


dreams. Here the affect is always in the right, at



least as regards its quality; its intensity may, of

course, be increased by displacement of the neurotic


attention. When the hysterical patient wonders that

he should be so afraid of a trifle, or when the
sufferer from obsessions is astonished that he



should reproach himself so bitterly for a mere

nothing, they are both in error, inasmuch as they

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regard long conceptual content- the trifle, the mere

nothing- as the essential thing, and they defend


themselves in vain, because they make this


conceptual content the starting-point of their
thought-work. Psycho-analysis, however, puts them


on the right path, inasmuch as it recognizes that, on
the contrary, it is the affect that is justified, and


looks for the concept which pertains to it, and which
has been repressed by a substitution. All that we


need assume is that the liberation of affect and the
conceptual content do not constitute the indissoluble


organic unity as which we are wont to regard them,

but that the two parts may be welded together, so


that analysis will separate them. Dream-



interpretation shows that this is actually the case.

I will first of all give an example in which


analysis explains the apparent absence of affect in a

conceptual content which ought to compel a
liberation of affect.



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I.


The dreamer sees three lions in a desert,
one of which is laughing, but she is not afraid of


them. Then, however, she must have fled from
them, for she is trying to climb a tree. But she finds


that her cousin, the French teacher, is already up in
the tree, etc.


The analysis yields the following material:
The indifferent occasion of the dream was a


sentence in the dreamer's English exercise: "The
lion's greatest adornment is his mane." Her father


used to wear a beard which encircled his face like a



Mane. The name of her English teacher is Miss

Lyons. An acquaintance of hers sent her the ballads


of Loewe (Loewe = lion). These, then, are the three

lions; why should she be afraid of them? She has


read a story in which a negro who has incited his

fellows to revolt is hunted with bloodhounds, and
climbs a tree to save himself. Then follow



fragmentary recollections in the merriest mood,

such as the following directions for catching lions

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(from Die Fliegende Blatter): "Take a desert and put

it through a sieve; the lions will be left behind." Also


a very amusing, but not very proper anecdote about


an official who is asked why he does not take
greater pains to win the favour of his chief, and who


replies that he has been trying to creep into favour,
but that his immediate superior was already up


there. The whole matter becomes intelligible as soon
as one learns that on the dream-day the lady had


received a visit from her husband's superior. He was
very polite to her, and kissed her hand, and she was


not at all afraid of him, although he is a big bug

(Grosses Tier = big animal) and plays the part of a


social lion in the capital of her country. This lion is,



therefore, like the lion in A Midsummer Night's

Dream, who is unmasked as Snug the joiner; and of


such stuff are all the dream-lions of which one is not

afraid.

II.



As my second example, I will cite the dream

of the girl who saw her sister's little son lying as a

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corpse in his coffin, but who, it may be added, was

conscious of no pain or sorrow. Why she was


unmoved we know from the analysis. The dream


only disguised her wish to see once more the man
she loved; the affect had to be attuned to the wish,


and not to its disguisement. There was thus no
occasion for sorrow.


In a number of dreams the affect does at
least remain connected with the conceptual content


which has replaced the content really belonging to
it. In others, the dissolution of the complex is


carried farther. The affect is entirely separated from

the idea belonging to it, and finds itself


accommodated elsewhere in the dream, where it fits



into the new arrangement of the dream- elements.

We have seen that the same thing happens to acts


of judgment in dreams. If an important inference

occurs in the dream- thoughts, there is one in the
dream also; but the inference in the dream may be



displaced to entirely different material. Not

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infrequently this displacement is effected in

accordance with the principle of antithesis.


I will illustrate the latter possibility by the


following dream, which I have subjected to the most
exhaustive analysis.


III.


A castle by the sea; afterwards it lies not
directly on the coast, but on a narrow canal leading


to the sea. A certain Herr P is the governor of the
castle. I stand with him in a large salon with three
windows, in front of which rise the projections of a


wall, like battlements of a fortress. I belong to the



garrison, perhaps as a volunteer naval officer. We

fear the arrival of enemy warships, for we are in a


state of war. Herr P intends to leave the castle; he

gives me instructions as to what must be done if


what we fear should come to pass. His sick wife and

his children are in the threatened castle. As soon as
the bombardment begins, the large hall is to be



cleared. He breathes heavily, and tries to get away;

I detain him, and ask him how I am to send him

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news in case of need. He says something further,

and immediately afterwards he sinks to the floor


dead. I have probably taxed him unnecessarily with


my questions. After his death, which makes no
further impression upon me, I consider whether the


widow is to remain in the castle, whether I should
give notice of the death to the higher command,


whether I should take over the control of the castle
as the next in command. I now stand at the window,


and scrutinize the ships as they pass by; they are
cargo steamers, and they rush by over the dark


water; several with more than one funnel, others

with bulging decks (these are very like the railway


stations in the preliminary dream, which has not



been related). Then my brother is standing beside

me, and we both look out of the window on to the


canal. At the sight of one ship we are alarmed, and

call out: "Here comes the warship!" It turns out,
however, that they are only the ships which I have



already seen, returning. Now comes a small ship,

comically truncated, so that it ends amidships; on

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the deck one sees curious things like cups or little

boxes. We call out as with one voice: "That is the


breakfast ship."


The rapid motion of the ships, the deep blue
of the water, the brown smoke of the funnels- all


these together produce an intense and gloomy
impression.


The localities in this dream are compiled
from several journeys to the Adriatic (Miramare,


Duino, Venice, Aquileia). A short but enjoyable
Easter trip to Aquileia with my brother, a few weeks


before the dream, was still fresh in my memory;

also the naval war between America and Spain, and,


associated with this my anxiety as to the fate of my



relatives in America, play a part in the dream.

Manifestations of affect appear at two places in the


dream. In one place an affect that would be

expected is lacking: it expressly emphasized that
the death of the governor makes no impression



upon me; at another point, when I see the warships,

I am frightened, and experience all the sensations of

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fright in my sleep. The distribution of affects in this

well-constructed dream has been effected in such a


way that any obvious contradiction is avoided. For


there is no reason why I should be frightened at the
governor's death, and it is fitting that, as the


commander of the castle, I should be alarmed by
the sight of the warship. Now analysis shows that


Herr P is nothing but a substitute for my own ego (in
the dream I am his substitute). I am the governor


who suddenly dies. The dream-thoughts deal with
the future of my family after my premature death.


No other disagreeable thought is to be found among

the dream-thoughts. The alarm which goes with the


sight of the warship must be transferred from it to



this disagreeable thought. Inversely, the analysis

shows that the region of the dream-thoughts from


which the warship comes is laden with most cheerful

reminiscences. In Venice, a year before the dream,
one magically beautiful day, we stood at the



windows of our room on the Riva Schiavoni and

looked out over the blue lagoon, on which there was

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more traffic to be seen than usual. Some English

ships were expected; they were to be given a festive


reception; and suddenly my wife cried, happy as a


child: "Here comes the English warship!" In the
dream I am frightened by the very same words;


once more we see that speeches in dreams have
their origin in speeches in real life. I shall presently


show that even the element English in this speech
has not been lost for the dream-work. Here, then,


between the dream-thoughts and the dream-
content, I turn joy into fright, and I need only point


to the fact that by means of this transformation I

give expression to part of the latent dream-content.


The example shows, however, that the dream-work



is at liberty to detach the occasion of an affect from

its connections in the dream-thoughts, and to insert


it at any other place it chooses in the dream-

content.
I will take the opportunity which is here,



incidentally offered of subjecting to a closer analysis

the breakfast ship, whose appearance in the dream

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so absurdly concludes a situation that has been

rationally adhered to. If I look more closely at this


dream-object, I am impressed after the event by the


fact that it was black. and that by reason of its
truncation at its widest beam it achieved, at the


truncated end, a considerable resemblance to an
object which had aroused our interest in the


museums of the Etruscan cities. This object was a
rectangular cup of black clay, with two handles,


upon which stood things like coffee-cups or tea-
cups, very similar to our modern service for the


breakfast table. Upon inquiry we learned that this

was the toilet set of an Etruscan lady, with little


boxes for rouge and powder; and we told one



another jestingly that it would not be a bad idea to

take a thing like that home to the lady of the house.


The dream-object, therefore, signifies a black toilet

(toilette = dress), or mourning. and refers directly
to a death. The other end of the dream-object



reminds us of the boat (German, Nachen, from the

Greek root, nechus, as a philological friend informs

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me), upon which corpses were laid in prehistoric

times, and were left to be buried by the sea. This is


associated with the return of the ships in the dream.


"Silently on his rescued boat the old man
drifts into harbour."


It is the return voyage after the shipwreck
(German: Schiff-bruch = ship-breaking); the


breakfast ship looks as though it were broken off
amidships. But whence comes the name breakfast


ship? This is where English comes in, which we have
left over from the warships. Breakfast, a breaking of


the fast. Breaking again belongs to shipwreck

(Schiff-bruch), and fasting is associated with the


black (mourning).


But the only thing about this breakfast ship

which has been newly created by the dream is its


name. The thing existed in reality, and recalls to me

one of the merriest moments of my last journey. As
we distrusted the fare in Aquileia, we took some



food with us from Goerz, and bought a bottle of the

excellent Istrian wine in Aquileia; and while the little

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mail-steamer slowly travelled through the canale

delle Mee and into the lonely expanse of lagoon in


the direction of Grado, we had breakfast on deck in


the highest spirits- we were the only passengers-
and it tasted to us as few breakfasts have ever


tasted. This, then, was the breakfast ship, and it is
behind this very recollection of the gayest joie de


vivre that the dream hides the saddest thoughts of
an unknown and mysterious future.


The detachment of affects from the groups
of ideas which have occasioned their liberation is the


most striking thing that happens to them in dream-

formation, but it is neither the only nor even the


most essential change which they undergo on the



way from the dream-thoughts to the manifest

dream. If the affects in the dream-thoughts are


compared with those in the dream, one thing at

once becomes clear: Wherever there is an affect in
the dream, it is to be found also in the dream-



thoughts; the converse, however, is not true. In

general, a dream is less rich in affects than the

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psychic material from which it is elaborated. When I

have reconstructed the dream-thoughts, I see that


the most intense psychic impulses are constantly


striving in them for self- assertion, usually in conflict
with others which are sharply opposed to them.


Now, if I turn back to the dream. I often find it
colourless and devoid of any very intensive affective


tone. Not only the content, but also the affective
tone of my thoughts is often reduced by the dream-


work to the level of the indifferent. I might say that
a suppression of the affects has been accomplished


by the dream-work. Take, for example, the dream of

the botanical monograph. It corresponds to a


passionate plea for my freedom to act as I am



acting, to arrange my life as seems right to me, and

to me alone. The dream which results from this


sounds indifferent; I have written a monograph; it is

lying before me; it is provided with coloured plates,
and dried plants are to be found in each copy. It is



like the peace of a deserted battlefield; no trace is

left of the tumult of battle.

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But things may turn out quite differently;

vivid expressions of affect may enter into the dream


itself; but we will first of all consider the


unquestioned fact that so many dreams appear
indifferent, whereas it is never possible to go deeply


into the dream-thoughts without deep emotion.
The complete theoretical explanation of this


suppression of affects during the dream-work cannot
be given here; it would require a most careful


investigation of the theory of the affects and of the
mechanism of repression. Here I can put forward


only two suggestions. I am forced- for other

reasons- to conceive the liberation of affects as a


centrifugal process directed towards the interior of



the body, analogous to the processes of motor and

secretory innervation. Just as in the sleeping state


the emission of motor impulses towards the outer

world seems to be suspended, so the centrifugal
awakening of affects by unconscious thinking during



sleep may be rendered more difficult. The affective

impulses which occur during the course of the

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dream-thoughts may thus in themselves be feeble,

so that those that find their way into the dream are


no stronger. According to this line of thought, the


suppression of the affects would not be a
consequence of the dream-work at all, but a


consequence of the state of sleep. This may be so,
but it cannot possibly be all the truth. We must


remember that all the more complex dreams have
revealed themselves as the result of a compromise


between conflicting psychic forces. On the one hand,
the wish-forming thoughts have to oppose the


contradiction of a censorship; on the other hand, as

we have often seen, even in unconscious thinking,


every train of thought is harnessed to its



contradictory counterpart. Since all these trains of

thought are capable of arousing affects, we shall,


broadly speaking, hardly go astray if we conceive

the suppression of affects as the result of the
inhibition which the contrasts impose upon one



another, and the censorship upon the urges which it

has suppressed. The inhibition of affects would

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accordingly be the second consequence of the

dream-censorship, just as dream-distortion was the


first consequence.


I will here insert an example of a dream in
which the indifferent emotional tone of the dream-


content may be explained by the antagonism of the
dream-thoughts. I must relate the following short


dream, which every reader will read with disgust.

IV.


Rising ground, and on it something like an
open-air latrine; a very long bench, at the end of


which is a wide aperture. The whole of the back



edge is thickly covered with little heaps of

excrement of all sizes and degrees of freshness. A


thicket behind the bench. I urinate upon the bench;

a long stream of urine rinses everything clean, the


patches of excrement come off easily and fall into

the opening. Nevertheless, it seems as though
something remained at the end.



Why did I experience no disgust in this

dream?

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Because, as the analysis shows, the most

pleasant and gratifying thoughts have cooperated in


the formation of this dream. Upon analysing it, I


immediately think of the Augean stables which were
cleansed by Hercules. I am this Hercules. The rising


ground and the thicket belong to Aussee, where my
children are now staying. I have discovered the


infantile aetiology of the neuroses, and have thus
guarded my own children from falling ill. The bench


(omitting the aperture, of course) is the faithful copy
of a piece of furniture of which an affectionate


female patient has made me a present. This reminds

me how my patients honour me. Even the museum


of human excrement is susceptible of a gratifying



interpretation. However much it disgusts me, it is a

souvenir of the beautiful land of Italy, where in the


small cities, as everyone knows, the privies are not

equipped in any other way. The stream of urine that
washes everything clean is an unmistakable allusion



to greatness. It is in this manner that Gulliver

extinguishes the great fire in Lilliput; to be sure, he

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thereby incurs the displeasure of the tiniest of

queens. In this way, too, Gargantua, the superman


of Master Rabelais, takes vengeance upon the


Parisians, straddling Notre-Dame and training his
stream of urine upon the city. Only yesterday I was


turning over the leaves of Garnier's illustrations to
Rabelais before I went to bed. And, strangely


enough, here is another proof that I am the
superman! The platform of Notre-Dame was my


favourite nook in Paris; every free afternoon I used
to go up into the towers of the cathedral and there


clamber about between the monsters and gargoyles.

The circumstance that all the excrement vanishes so


rapidly before the stream of urine corresponds to



the motto: Afflavit et dissipati sunt, which I shall

some day make the title of a chapter on the


therapeutics of hysteria.
And now as to the affective occasion of the
dream. It had been a hot summer afternoon; in the



evening, I had given my lecture on the connection

between hysteria and the perversions, and

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everything which I had to say displeased me

thoroughly, and seemed utterly valueless. I was


tired; I took not the least pleasure in my difficult


work, and longed to get away from this rummaging
in human filth; first to see my children, and then to


revisit the beauties of Italy. In this mood I went
from the lecture-hall to a cafe to get some little


refreshment in the open air, for my appetite had
forsaken me. But a member of my audience went


with me; he begged for permission to sit with me
while I drank my coffee and gulped down my roll,


and began to say flattering things to me. He told me

how much he had learned from me, that he now saw


everything through different eyes, that I had



cleansed the Augean stables of error and prejudice,

which encumbered the theory of the neuroses- in


short, that I was a very great man. My mood was ill-

suited to his hymn of praise; I struggled with my
disgust, and went home earlier in order to get rid of



him; and before I went to sleep I turned over the

leaves of Rabelais, and read a short story by C. F.

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Meyer entitled Die Leiden eines Knaben (The

Sorrows of a Boy).


The dream had originated from this material,


and Meyer's novel had supplied the recollections of
scenes of childhood.[95] The day's mood of


annoyance and disgust is continued in the dream,
inasmuch as it is permitted to furnish nearly all the


material for the dream-content. But during the night
the opposite mood of vigorous, even immoderate


self-assertion awakened and dissipated the earlier
mood. The dream had to assume such a form as


would accommodate both the expressions of self-

depreciation and exaggerated self-glorification in the


same material. This compromise-formation resulted



in an ambiguous dream-content, but, owing to the

mutual inhibition of the opposites, in an indifferent


emotional tone.
According to the theory of wish-fulfilment,
this dream would not have been possible had not



the opposed, and indeed suppressed, yet pleasure-

emphasized megalomanic train of thought been

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added to the thoughts of disgust. For nothing painful

is intended to be represented in dreams; the painful


elements of our daily thoughts are able to force their


way into our dreams only if at the same time they
are able to disguise a wish-fulfilment.


The dream-work is able to dispose of the
affects of the dream- thoughts in yet another way


than by admitting them or reducing them to zero. It
can transform them into their opposites. We are


acquainted with the rule that for the purposes of
interpretation every element of the dream may


represent its opposite, as well as itself. One can

never tell beforehand which is to be posited; only


the context can decide this point. A suspicion of this



state of affairs has evidently found its way into the

popular consciousness; the dream-books, in their


interpretations, often proceed according to the

principle of contraries. This transformation into the
contrary is made possible by the intimate associative



ties which in our thoughts connect the idea of a

thing with that of its opposite. Like every other

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displacement, this serves the purposes of the

censorship, but it is often the work of wish-


fulfilment, for wish-fulfilment consists in nothing


more than the substitution of an unwelcome thing
by its opposite. Just as concrete images may be


transformed into their contraries in our dreams, so
also may the affects of the dream-thoughts, and it is


probable that this inversion of affects is usually
brought about by the dream-censorship. The


suppression and inversion of affects is useful even in
social life, as is shown by the familiar analogy of the


dream-censorship and, above all, hypocrisy. If I am

conversing with a person to whom I must show


consideration while I should like to address him as



an enemy, it is almost more important that I should

conceal the expression of my affect from him than


that I should modify the verbal expression of my

thoughts. If I address him in courteous terms, but
accompany them by looks or gestures of hatred and



disdain, the effect which I produce upon him is not

very different from what it would have been had I

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cast my unmitigated contempt into his face. Above

all, then, the censorship bids me suppress my


affects. and if I am a master of the art of


dissimulation I can hypocritically display the
opposite affect- smiling where I should like to be


angry, and pretending affection where I should like
to destroy.


We have already had an excellent example
of such an inversion of affect in the service of the


dream-censorship. In the dream of my uncle's beard
I feel great affection for my friend R, while (and


because) the dream-thoughts berate him as a

simpleton. From this example of the inversion of


affects we derived our first proof of the existence of



the censorship. Even here it is not necessary to

assume that the dream-work creates a counter-


affect of this kind that is altogether new; it usually

finds it lying ready in the material of the dream-
thoughts, and merely intensifies it with the psychic



force of the defence-motives until it is able to

predominate in the dream-formation. In the dream

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of my uncle, the affectionate counter-affect probably

has its origin in an infantile source (as the


continuation of the dream would suggest), for owing


to the peculiar nature of my earliest childhood
experiences the relation of uncle and nephew has


become the source of all my friendships and hatreds
(cf. analysis chapter VI., F.).


An excellent example of such a reversal of
affect is found in a dream recorded by Ferenczi.[96]


"An elderly gentleman was awakened at night by his
wife, who was frightened because he laughed so


loudly and uncontrollably in his sleep. The man

afterwards related that he had had the following


dream: I lay in my bed, a gentleman known to me



came in, I wanted to turn on the light, but I could

not; I attempted to do so repeatedly, but in vain.


Thereupon my wife got out of bed, in order to help

me, but she, too, was unable to manage it; being
ashamed of her neglige in the presence of the



gentleman, she finally gave it up and went back to

her bed; all this was so comical that I had to laugh

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terribly. My wife said: 'What are you laughing at,

what are you laughing at?' but I continued to laugh


until I woke. The following day the man was


extremely depressed, and suffered from headache:
'From too much laughter, which shook me up,' he


thought.
"Analytically considered, the dream looks


less comical. In the latent dream-thoughts the
gentleman known to him who came into the room is


the image of death as the 'great unknown,' which
was awakened in his mind on the previous day. The


old gentleman, who suffers from arteriosclerosis,

had good reason to think of death on the day before


the dream. The uncontrollable laughter takes the



place of weeping and sobbing at the idea that he has

to die. It is the light of life that he is no longer able


to turn on. This mournful thought may have

associated itself with a failure to effect sexual
intercourse, which he had attempted shortly before



this, and in which the assistance of his wife en

neglige was of no avail; he realized that he was

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already on the decline. The dream-work knew how

to transform the sad idea of impotence and death


into a comic scene, and the sobbing into laughter."


There is one class of dreams which has a
special claim to be called hypocritical, and which


severely tests the theory of wish- fulfilment. My
attention was called to them when Frau Dr. M.


Hilferding proposed for discussion by the
Psychoanalytic Society of Vienna a dream recorded


by Rosegger, which is here reprinted:
In Waldheimat, vol. xi, Rosegger writes as


follows in his story, Fremd gemacht (p. 303):

"I usually enjoy healthful sleep, yet I have


gone without repose on many a night; in addition to



my modest existence as a student and literary man,

I have for long years dragged out the shadow of a


veritable tailor's life- like a ghost from which I could

not become divorced.
"It is not true that I have occupied myself



very often or very intensely with thoughts of my

past during the day. A stormer of heaven and earth

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who has escaped from the hide of the Philistine has

other things to think about. And as a gay young


fellow, I hardly gave a thought to my nocturnal


dreams; only later, when I had formed the habit of
thinking about everything, or when the Philistine


within me began to assert itself a little, did it strike
me that- when I dreamed at all- I was always a


journeyman tailor, and that in that capacity I had
already worked in my master's shop for a long time


without any pay. As I sat there beside him, and
sewed and pressed, I was perfectly well aware that I


no longer belonged there, and that as a burgess of

the town I had other things to attend to; but I was


always on a holiday, or away in the country, and so



I sat beside my master and helped him. I often felt

far from comfortable about it, and regretted the


waste of time which I might have employed for

better and more useful purposes. If anything was
not quite correct in measure and cut I had to put up



with a scolding from my master. Of wages there was

never a question. Often, as I sat with bent back in

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the dark workshop, I decided to give notice and

make myself scarce. Once I actually did so, but the


master took no notice of me, and next time I was


sitting beside him again and sewing.
"How happy I was when I woke up after


such weary hours! And I then resolved that, if this
intrusive dream should ever occur again, I would


energetically throw it off, and would cry aloud: 'It is
only a delusion, I am lying in bed, and I want to


sleep'... And the next night I would be sitting in the
tailor's shop again.


"So it went on for years, with dismal

regularity. Once when the master and I were


working at Alpelhofer's, at the house of the peasant



with whom I began my apprenticeship, it happened

that my master was particularly dissatisfied with my


work. 'I should like to know where in the world your

thoughts are?' he cried, and looked at me sullenly. I
thought the most sensible thing to do would be to



get up and explain to the master that I was working

with him only as a favour, and then take my leave.

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But I did not do this. I even submitted when the

master engaged an apprentice, and ordered me to


make room for him on the bench. I moved into the


corner, and kept on sewing. On the same day
another journeyman was engaged; a bigoted fellow;


he was the Bohemian who had worked for us
nineteen years earlier, and then had fallen into the


lake on his way home from the public-house. When
he tried to sit down there was no room for him. I


looked at the master inquiringly, and he said to me:
'You have no talent for tailoring; you may go; you're


a stranger henceforth.' My fright on that occasion

was so overpowering that I woke.


"The grey of morning glimmered through the



clear windows of my familiar home. Objets d'art

surrounded me; in the tasteful bookcase stood the


eternal Homer, the gigantic Dante, the incomparable

Shakespeare, the glorious Goethe- all radiant and
immortal. From the adjoining room resounded the



clear little voices of the children, who were waking

up and prattling to their mother. I felt as though I

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had rediscovered that idyllically sweet, peaceful,

poetical and spiritualized life in which I have so


often and so deeply been conscious of contemplative


human happiness. And yet I was vexed that I had
not given my master notice first, but had been


dismissed by him.
"And how remarkable this seems to me:


since that night, when my master 'made a stranger'
of me, I have enjoyed restful sleep; I no longer


dream of my tailoring days, which now lie in the
remote past: which in their unpretentious simplicity


were really so cheerful, but which, none the less,

have cast a long shadow over the later years of my


life."


In this series of dreams of a poet who, in his

younger years, had been a journeyman tailor, it is


hard to recognize the domination of the wish-

fulfilment. All the delightful things occurred in his
waking life, while the dream seemed to drag along



with it the ghost-like shadow of an unhappy

existence which had long been forgotten. Dreams of

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my own of a similar character enable me to give

some explanation of such dreams. As a young


doctor, I worked for a long time in the Chemical


Institute without being able to accomplish anything
in that exacting science, so that in the waking state


I never think about this unfruitful and actually
somewhat humiliating period of my student days. On


the other hand, I have a recurring dream to the
effect that I am working in the laboratory, making


analyses, and experiments, and so forth; these
dreams, like the examination-dreams, are


disagreeable, and they are never very distinct.

During the analysis of one of these dreams my


attention was directed to the word analysis, which



gave me the key to an understanding of them. Since

then I have become an analyst. I make analyses


which are greatly praised- psycho- analyses, of

course. Now I understand: when I feel proud of
these analyses in my waking life, and feel inclined to



boast of my achievements, my dreams hold up to

me at night those other, unsuccessful analyses, of

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which I have no reason to be proud; they are the

punitive dreams of the upstart, like those of the


journeyman tailor who became a celebrated poet.


But how is it possible for a dream to place itself at
the service of self- criticism in its conflict with


parvenu pride, and to take as its content a rational
warning instead of a prohibited wish- fulfilment? I


have already hinted that the answer to this question
presents many difficulties. We may conclude that


the foundation of the dream consisted at first of an
arrogant phantasy of ambition; but that in its stead


only its suppression and abasement has reached the

dream-content. One must remember that there are


masochistic tendencies in mental life to which such



an inversion might be attributed. I see no objection

to regarding such dreams as punishment-dreams, as


distinguished from wish-fulfilling dreams. I should

not see in this any limitation of the theory of dreams
hitherto as presented, but merely a verbal



concession to the point of view to which the

convergence of contraries seems strange. But a

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more thorough investigation of individual dreams of

this class allows us to recognize yet another


element. In an indistinct, subordinate portion of one


of my laboratory dreams, I was just at the age
which placed me in the most gloomy and most


unsuccessful year of my professional career; I still
had no position, and no idea how I was going to


support myself, when I suddenly found that I had
the choice of several women whom I might marry! I


was, therefore, young again and, what is more, she
was young again- the woman who has shared with


me all these difficult years. In this way, one of the

wishes which constantly gnaws at the heart of the


aging man was revealed as the unconscious dream-



instigator. The conflict raging in other psychic strata

between vanity and self-criticism had certainly


determined the dream-content, but the more

deeply-rooted wish for youth had alone made it
possible as a dream. One often says to oneself even



in the waking state: "To be sure, things are going

well with you today, and once you found life very

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hard; but, after all, life was sweet in those days,

when you were still so young."[97]


Another group of dreams, which I have often


myself experienced, and which I have recognized to
be hypocritical, have as their content a reconciliation


with persons with whom one has long ceased to
have friendly relations. The analysis constantly


discovers an occasion which might well induce me to
cast aside the last remnants of consideration for


these former friends, and to treat them as strangers
or enemies. But the dream chooses to depict the


contrary relation.
In considering dreams recorded by a novelist


or poet, we may often enough assume that he has



excluded from the record those details which he felt

to be disturbing and regarded as unessential. His


dreams thus set us a problem which could be readily

solved if we had an exact reproduction of the
dream- content.



O. Rank has called my attention to the fact

that in Grimm's fairy- tale of the valiant little tailor,

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or Seven at One Stroke, there is related a very

similar dream of an upstart. The tailor, who has


become a hero, and has married the king's


daughter, dreams one night while lying beside the
princess, his wife, about his trade; having become


suspicious, on the following night she places armed
guards where they can listen to what is said by the


dreamer, and arrest him. But the little tailor is
warned, and is able to correct his dream.


The complicated processes of removal,
diminution, and inversion by which the affects of the


dream-thoughts finally become the affects of the

dream may be very well survived in suitable


syntheses of completely analysed dreams. I shall



here discuss a few examples of affective

manifestations in dreams which will, I think, prove


this conclusively in some of the cases cited.

V.

In the dream about the odd task which the



elder Brucke sets me- that of preparing my own

pelvis- I am aware in the dream itself of not feeling

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appropriate horror. Now this is a wish-fulfilment in

more senses than one. The preparation signifies the


self- analyses which I perform, as it were, by


publishing my book on dreams, which I actually
found so painful that I postponed the printing of the


completed manuscript for more than a year. The
wish now arises that I may disregard this feeling of


aversion, and for that reason I feel no horror
(Grauen, which also means to grow grey) in the


dream. I should much like to escape Grauen in the
other sense too, for I am already growing quite


grey, and the grey in my hair warns me to delay no

longer. For we know that at the end of the dream


this thought secures representation: "I shall have to



leave my children to reach the goal of their difficult

journey without my help."


In the two dreams that transfer the

expression of satisfaction to the moments
immediately after waking, this satisfaction is in the



one case motivated by the expectation that I am

now going to learn what is meant by I have already

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dreamed of this, and refers in reality to the birth of

my first child, and in the other case it is motivated


by the conviction that "that which has been


announced by a premonitory sign" is now going to
happen, and the satisfaction is that which I felt on


the arrival of my second son. Here the same affects
that dominated in the dream-thoughts have


remained in the dream, but the process is probably
not quite so simple as this in any dream. If the two


analyses are examined a little more closely it will be
seen that this satisfaction, which does not succumb


to the censorship, receives reinforcement from a

source which must fear the censorship, and whose


affect would certainly have aroused opposition if it



had not screened itself by a similar and readily

admitted affect of satisfaction from the permitted


source, and had, so to speak, sneaked in behind it. I

am unfortunately unable to show this in the case of
the actual dream, but an example from another



situation will make my meaning intelligible. I will put

the following case: Let there be a person near me

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whom I hate so strongly that I have a lively impulse

to rejoice should anything happen to him. But the


moral side of my nature does not give way to this


impulse; I do not dare to express this sinister wish,
and when something does happen to him which he


does not deserve I suppress my satisfaction, and
force myself to thoughts and expressions of regret.


Everyone will at some time have found himself in
such a position. But now let it happen that the hated


person, through some transgression of his own,
draws upon himself a well-deserved calamity; I shall


now be allowed to give free rein to my satisfaction

at his being visited by a just punishment, and I shall


be expressing an opinion which coincides with that



of other impartial persons. But I observe that my

satisfaction proves to be more intense than that of


others, for it has received reinforcement from

another source- from my hatred, which was hitherto
prevented by the inner censorship from furnishing



the affect, but which, under the altered

circumstances, is no longer prevented from doing

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so. This case generally occurs in social life when

antipathetic persons or the adherents of an


unpopular minority have been guilty of some


offence. Their punishment is then usually
commensurate not with their guilt, but with their


guilt plus the ill-will against them that has hitherto
not been put into effect. Those who punish them


doubtless commit an injustice, but they are
prevented from becoming aware of it by the


satisfaction arising from the release within
themselves of a suppression of long standing. In


such cases the quality of the affect is justified, but

not its degree; and the self-criticism that has been


appeased in respect of the first point is only too



ready to neglect to scrutinize the second point. Once

you have opened the doors, more people enter than


it was your original intention to admit.

A striking feature of the neurotic character,
namely, that in it causes capable of evoking affect



produce results which are qualitatively justified but

quantitatively excessive, is to be explained on these

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lines, in so far as it admits of a psychological

explanation at all. But the excess of affect proceeds


from unconscious and hitherto suppressed affective


sources which are able to establish an associative
connection with the actual occasion, and for whose


liberation of affect the unprotested and permitted
source of affects opens up the desired path. Our


attention is thus called to the fact that the relation
of mutual inhibition must not be regarded as the


only relation obtaining between the suppressed and
the suppressing psychic institution. The cases in


which the two institutions bring about a pathological

result by co-operation and mutual reinforcement


deserve just as much attention. These hints



regarding the psychic mechanism will contribute to

our understanding of the expressions of affects in


dreams. A gratification which makes its appearance

in a dream, and which, of course, may readily be
found in its proper place in the dream-thoughts,



may not always be fully explained by means of this

reference. As a rule, it is necessary to search for a

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second source in the dream-thoughts, upon which

the pressure of the censorship rests, and which,


under this pressure, would have yielded not


gratification but the contrary affect, had it not been
enabled by the presence of the first dream-source to


free its gratification-affect from repression, and
reinforce the gratification springing from the other


source. Hence affects which appear in dreams
appear to be formed by the confluence of several


tributaries, and are over-determined in respect of
the material of the dream-thoughts. Sources of


affect which are able to furnish the same affect

combine in the dream- work in order to produce


it.[98]


Some insight into these involved relations is

gained from the analysis of the admirable dream in


which Non vixit constitutes the central point (cf.

chapter VI., F). In this dream expressions of affect
of different qualities are concentrated at two points



in the manifest content. Hostile and painful impulses

(in the dream itself we have the phrase overcome by

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strange emotions) overlap one another at the point

where I destroy my antagonistic friend with a couple


of words. At the end of the dream I am greatly


pleased, and am quite ready to believe in a
possibility which I recognize as absurd when I am


awake, namely, that there are revenants who can be
swept away by a mere wish.


I have not yet mentioned the occasion of
this dream. It is an important one, and leads us far


down into the meaning of the dream. From my
friend in Berlin (whom I have designated as Fl) I had


received the news that he was about to undergo an

operation, and that relatives of his living in Vienna


would inform me as to his condition. The first few



messages after the operation were not very

reassuring, and caused me great anxiety. I should


have liked to go to him myself, but at that time I

was afflicted with a painful complaint which made
every movement a torment. I now learn from the



dream-thoughts that I feared for this dear friend's

life. I knew that his only sister, with whom I had

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never been acquainted, had died young, after a very

brief illness. (In the dream Fl tells me about his


sister, and says: "In three- quarters of an hour she


was dead.") I must have imagined that his own
constitution was not much stronger, and that I


should soon be travelling, in spite of my health, in
response to far worse news- and that I should arrive


too late, for which I should eternally reproach
myself.[99] This reproach, that I should arrive too


late, has become the central point of the dream, but
it has been represented in a scene in which the


revered teacher of my student years- Brucke-

reproaches me for the same thing with a terrible


look from his blue eyes. What brought about this



alteration of the scene will soon become apparent:

the dream cannot reproduce the scene itself as I


experienced it. To be sure, it leaves the blue eyes to

the other man, but it gives me the part of the
annihilator, an inversion which is obviously the work



of the wish- fulfilment. My concern for the life of my

friend, my self- reproach for not having gone to him,

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my shame (he had come to me in Vienna

unobtrusively), my desire to consider myself


excused on account of my illness- all this builds up


an emotional tempest which is distinctly felt in my
sleep, and which rages in that region of the dream-


thoughts.
But there was another thing in the occasion


of the dream which had quite the opposite effect.
With the unfavourable news during the first days of


the operation I received also an injunction to speak
to no one about the whole affair, which hurt my


feelings, for it betrayed an unnecessary distrust of

my discretion. I knew, of course, that this request


did not proceed from my friend, but that it was due



to clumsiness or excessive timidity on the part of the

messenger; yet the concealed reproach affected me


very disagreeably, because it was not altogether

unjustified. As we know, only reproaches which have
something in them have the power to hurt. Years



ago, when I was younger than I am now, I knew two

men who were friends, and who honoured me with

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their friendship; and I quite superfluously told one of

them what the other had said of him. This incident,


of course, had nothing to do with the affairs of my


friend Fl, but I have never forgotten the reproaches
to which I had to listen on that occasion. One of the


two friends between whom I made trouble was
Professor Fleischl; the other one I will call by his


baptismal name, Josef, a name which was borne
also by my friend and antagonist P, who appears in


this dream.
In the dream the element unobtrusively


points to the reproach that I cannot keep anything

to myself, and so does the question of Fl as to how


much of his affairs I have told P. But it is the



intervention of that old memory which transposes

the reproach for arriving too late from the present to


the time when I was working in Brucke's laboratory;

and by replacing the second person in the
annihilation scene of the dream by a Josef, I enable



this scene to represent not only the first reproach-

that I have arrived too late- but also that other

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reproach, more strongly affected by the repression,

to the effect that I do not keep secrets. The work of


condensation and displacement in this dream, as


well as the motives for it, are now obvious.
My present trivial annoyance at the


injunction not to divulge secrets draws
reinforcement from springs that flow far beneath the


surface, and so swells to a stream of hostile
impulses towards persons who are in reality dear to


me. The source which furnishes the reinforcement is
to be found in my childhood. I have already said


that my warm friendships as well as my enmities

with persons of my own age go back to my childish


relations to my nephew, who was a year older than



I. In these he had the upper hand, and I early

learned how to defend myself; we lived together,


were inseparable, and loved one another, but at

times, as the statements of older persons testify, we
used to squabble and accuse one another. In a



certain sense, all my friends are incarnations of this

first figure; they are all revenants. My nephew

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himself returned when a young man, and then we

were like Caesar and Brutus. An intimate friend and


a hated enemy have always been indispensable to


my emotional life; I have always been able to create
them anew, and not infrequently my childish ideal


has been so closely approached that friend and
enemy have coincided in the same person; but not


simultaneously, of course, nor in constant
alternation, as was the case in my early childhood.


How, when such associations exist, a recent
occasion of emotion may cast back to the infantile


occasion and substitute this as a cause of affect, I

shall not consider now. Such an investigation would


properly belong to the psychology of unconscious



thought, or a psychological explanation of the

neuroses. Let us assume, for the purposes of


dream-interpretation, that a childish recollection

presents itself, or is created by the phantasy with,
more or less, the following content: We two children



quarrel on account of some object- just what we

shall leave undecided, although the memory, or

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illusion of memory, has a very definite object in

view- and each claims that he got there first, and


therefore has the first right to it. We come to blows;


Might comes before Right; and, according to the
indications of the dream, I must have known that I


was in the wrong (noticing the error myself); but
this time I am the stronger, and take possession of


the battlefield; the defeated combatant hurries to
my father, his grandfather, and accuses me, and I


defend myself with the words, which I have heard
from my father: "I hit him because he hit me." Thus,


this recollection, or more probably phantasy, which

forces itself upon my attention in the course of the


analysis- without further evidence I myself do not



know how- becomes a central item of the dream-

thoughts, which collects the affective impulses


prevailing in the dream-thoughts, as the bowl of a

fountain collects the water that flows into it. From
this point the dream-thoughts flow along the



following channels: "It serves you right that you

have had to make way for me; why did you try to

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push me off? I don't need you; I'll soon find

someone else to play with," etc. Then the channels


are opened through which these thoughts flow back


again into the dream- representation. For such an
"ote-toi que je m'y mette,"[100] I once had to


reproach my deceased friend Josef. He was next to
me in the line of promotion in Brucke's laboratory,


but advancement there was very slow. Neither of
the two assistants budged from his place, and youth


became impatient. My friend, who knew that his
days were numbered, and was bound by no intimate


relation to his superior, sometimes gave free

expression to his impatience. As this superior was a


man seriously ill, the wish to see him removed by



promotion was susceptible of an obnoxious

secondary interpretation. Several years earlier, to be


sure, I myself had cherished, even more intensely,

the same wish- to obtain a post which had fallen
vacant; wherever there are gradations of rank and



promotion the way is opened for the suppression of

covetous wishes. Shakespeare's Prince Hal cannot

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rid himself of the temptation to see how the crown

fits, even at the bedside of his sick father. But, as


may readily be understood, the dream inflicts this


inconsiderate wish not upon me, but upon my
friend.[101]


"As he was ambitious, I slew him." As he
could not expect that the other man would make


way for him, the man himself has been put out of
the way. I harbour these thoughts immediately after


attending the unveiling of the memorial to the other
man at the University. Part of the satisfaction which


I feel in the dream may therefore be interpreted: A

just punishment; it serves you right.


At the funeral of this friend a young man



made the following remark, which seemed rather

out of place: "The preacher talked as though the


world could no longer exist without this one human

being." Here was a stirring of revolt in the heart of a
sincere man, whose grief had been disturbed by



exaggeration. But with this speech are connected

the dream-thoughts: "No one is really irreplaceable;

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how many men have I already escorted to the

grave! But I am still alive; I have survived them all;


I claim the field." Such a thought, at the moment


when I fear that if I make a journey to see him I
shall find my friend no longer among the living,


permits only of the further development that I am
glad once more to have survived someone; that it is


not I who have died but he; that I am master of the
field, as once I was in the imagined scene of my


childhood. This satisfaction, infantile in origin, at the
fact that I am master of the field, covers the greater


part of the affect which appears in the dream. I am

glad that I am the survivor; I express this sentiment


with the naive egoism of the husband who says to



his wife: "If one of us dies, I shall move to Paris."

My expectation takes it as a matter of course that I


am not the one to die.

It cannot be denied that great self-control is
needed to interpret one's dreams and to report



them. One has to reveal oneself as the sole villain

among all the noble souls with whom one shares the

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breath of life. Thus, I find it quite comprehensible

that revenants should exist only as long as one


wants them, and that they can be obliterated by a


wish. It was for this reason that my friend Josef was
punished. But the revenants are the successive


incarnations of the friend of my childhood; I am also
gratified at having replaced this person for myself


over and over again, and a substitute will doubtless
soon be found even for the friend whom I am now


on the point of losing. No one is irreplaceable.
But what has the dream-censorship been


doing in the meantime? Why does it not raise the

most emphatic objection to a train of thoughts


characterized by such brutal selfishness, and



transform the satisfaction inherent therein into

extreme discomfort? I think it is because other


unobjectionable trains of thought referring to the

same persons result also in satisfaction, and with
their affect cover that proceeding from the forbidden



infantile sources. In another stratum of thought I

said to myself, at the ceremony of unveiling the

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memorial: "I have lost so many dear friends, some

through death, some through the dissolution of


friendship; is it not good that substitutes have


presented themselves, that I have gained a friend
who means more to me than the others could, and


whom I shall now always retain, at an age when it is
not easy to form new friendships?" The gratification


of having found this substitute for my lost friend can
be taken over into the dream without interference,


but behind it there sneaks in the hostile feeling of
malicious gratification from the infantile source.


Childish affection undoubtedly helps to reinforce the

rational affection of today; but childish hatred also


has found its way into the representation.



But besides this, there is in the dream a

distinct reference to another train of thoughts which


may result in gratification. Some time before this,

after long waiting, a little daughter was born to my
friend. I knew how he had grieved for the sister



whom he had lost at an early age, and I wrote to

him that I felt that he would transfer to this child the

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love he had felt for her, that this little girl would at
last make him forget his irreparable loss.


Thus this train also connects up with the


intermediary thoughts of the latent dream-content,
from which paths radiate in the most contrary


directions: "No one is irreplaceable. See, here are
only revenants; all those whom one has lost return."


And now the bonds of association between the
contradictory components of the dream- thoughts


are more tightly drawn by the accidental
circumstance that my friend's little daughter bears


the same name as the girl playmate of my own

youth, who was just my own age, and the sister of


my oldest friend and antagonist. I heard the name



Pauline with satisfaction, and in order to allude to

this coincidence I replaced one Josef in the dream


by another Josef, and found it impossible to

suppress the identical initials in the name Fleischl
and Fl. From this point a train of thought runs to the



naming of my own children. I insisted that the

names should not be chosen according to the

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fashion of the day, but should be determined by

regard for the memory of those dear to us. The


children's names make them revenants. And, finally,


is not the procreation of children for all men the only
way of access to immortality?


I shall add only a few observations as to the
affects of dreams considered from another point of


view. In the psyche of the sleeper an affective
tendency- what we call a mood- may be contained


as its dominating element, and may induce a
corresponding mood in the dream. This mood may


be the result of the experiences and thoughts of the

day, or it may be of somatic origin; in either case it


will be accompanied by the corresponding trains of



thought. That this ideational content of the dream-

thoughts should at one time determine the affective


tendency primarily, while at another time it is

awakened in a secondary manner by the somatically
determined emotional disposition, is indifferent for



the purposes of dream-formation. This is always

subject to the restriction that it can represent only a

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wish-fulfilment, and that it may lend its psychic

energy to the wish alone. The mood actually present


will receive the same treatment as the sensation


which actually emerges during sleep (Cf. chapter V.,
C), which is either neglected or reinterpreted in the


sense of a wish-fulfilment. Painful moods during
sleep become the motive force of the dream,


inasmuch as they awake energetic wishes which the
dream has to fulfil. The material in which they


inhere is elaborated until it is serviceable for the
expression of the wish-fulfilment. The more intense


and the more dominating the element of the painful

mood in the dream-thoughts, the more surely will


the most strongly suppressed wish-impulses take



advantage of the opportunity to secure

representation; for thanks to the actual existence of


discomfort, which otherwise they would have to

create, they find that the more difficult part of the
work necessary to ensure representation has already



been accomplished; and with these observations we

touch once more upon the problem of anxiety-

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dreams, which will prove to be the boundary-case of

dream- activity.


I. The Secondary Elaboration


We will at last turn our attention to the
fourth of the factors participating in dream-


formation.


If we continue our investigation of the
dream-content on the lines already laid down- that


is, by examining the origin in the dream-thoughts of
conspicuous occurrences- we come upon elements
that can be explained only by making an entirely


new assumption. I have in mind cases where one



manifests astonishment, anger, or resistance in a

dream, and that, too, in respect of part of the


dream-content itself. Most of these impulses of

criticism in dreams are not directed against the


dream-content, but prove to be part of the dream-

material, taken over and fittingly applied, as I have
already shown by suitable examples. There are,



however, criticisms of this sort which are not so

derived: their correlatives cannot be found in the

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dream-material. What, for instance, is meant by the

criticism not infrequent in dreams: "After all, it's


only a dream"? This is a genuine criticism of the


dream, such as I might make if I were awake, Not
infrequently it is only the prelude to waking; even


oftener it is preceded by a painful feeling, which
subsides when the actuality of the dream- state has


been affirmed. The thought: "After all, it's only a
dream" in the dream itself has the same intention as


it has on the stage on the lips of Offenbach's Belle
Helene; it seeks to minimize what has just been


experienced, and to secure indulgence for what is to

follow. It serves to lull to sleep a certain mental


agency which at the given moment has every



occasion to rouse itself and forbid the continuation

of the dream, or the scene. But it is more


convenient to go on sleeping and to tolerate the

dream, "because, after all, it's only a dream." I
imagine that the disparaging criticism: "After all, it's



only a dream," appears in the dream at the moment

when the censorship. which is never quite asleep,

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feels that it has been surprised by the already

admitted dream. It is too late to suppress the


dream, and the agency therefore meets with this


remark the anxiety or painful emotion which rises
into the dream. It is an expression of the esprit


d'escalier on the part of the psychic censorship.
In this example we have incontestable proof


that everything which the dream contains does not
come from the dream-thoughts, but that a psychic


function, which cannot be differentiated from our
waking thoughts, may make contributions to the


dream-content. The question arises, does this occur

only in exceptional cases, or does the psychic


agency, which is otherwise active only as the



censorship, play a constant part in dream-

formation?


One must decide unhesitatingly for the latter

view. It is indisputable that the censoring agency,
whose influence we have so far recognized only in



the restrictions of and omissions in the dream-

content, is likewise responsible for interpolations in

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and amplifications of this content. Often these

interpolations are readily recognized; they are


introduced with hesitation, prefaced by an "as if";


they have no special vitality of their own, and are
constantly inserted at points where they may serve


to connect two portions of the dream-content or
create a continuity between two sections of the


dream. They manifest less ability to adhere in the
memory than do the genuine products of the dream-


material; if the dream is forgotten, they are
forgotten first, and I strongly suspect that our


frequent complaint that although we have dreamed

so much we have forgotten most of the dream, and


have remembered only fragments, is explained by



the immediate falling away of just these cementing

thoughts. In a complete analysis, these


interpolations are often betrayed by the fact that no

material is to be found for them in the dream-
thoughts. But after careful examination I must



describe this case as the less usual one; in most

cases the interpolated thoughts can be traced to

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material in the dream-thoughts which can claim a

place in the dream neither by its own merits nor by


way of over- determination. Only in the most


extreme cases does the psychic function in dream-
formation which we are now considering rise to


original creation; whenever possible it makes use of
anything appropriate that it can find in the dream-


material.
What distinguishes this part of the dream-


work, and also betrays it, is its tendency. This
function proceeds in a manner which the poet


maliciously attributes to the philosopher: with its

rags and tatters it stops up the breaches in the


structure of the dream. The result of its efforts is



that the dream loses the appearance of absurdity

and incoherence, and approaches the pattern of an


intelligible experience. But the effort is not always

crowned with complete success. Thus, dreams occur
which may, upon superficial examination, seem



faultlessly logical and correct; they start from a

possible situation, continue it by means of consistent

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changes, and bring it- although this is rare- to a not

unnatural conclusion. These dreams have been


subjected to the most searching elaboration by a


psychic function similar to our waking thought; they
seem to have a meaning, but this meaning is very


far removed from the real meaning of the dream. If
we analyse them, we are convinced that the


secondary elaboration has handled the material with
the greatest freedom, and has retained as little as


possible of its proper relations. These are the
dreams which have, so to speak, already been once


interpreted before we subject them to waking

interpretation. In other dreams this tendencious


elaboration has succeeded only up to a point; up to



this point consistency seems to prevail, but then the

dream becomes nonsensical or confused; but


perhaps before it concludes it may once more rise to

a semblance of rationality In yet other dreams the
elaboration has failed completely; we find ourselves



helpless, confronted with a senseless mass of

fragmentary contents.

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I do not wish to deny to this fourth dream-

forming power, which will soon become familiar to


us- it is in reality the only one of the four dream-


creating factors which is familiar to us in other
connections- I do not wish to deny to this fourth


factor the faculty of creatively making new
contributions to our dreams. But its influence is


certainly exerted, like that of the other factors,
mainly in the preference and selection of psychic


material already formed in the dream-thoughts. Now
there is a case where it is to a great extent spared


the work of building, as it were, a facade to the

dream by the fact that such a structure, only waiting


to be used, already exists in the material of the



dream-thoughts. I am accustomed to describe the

element of the dream-thoughts which I have in mind


as phantasy; I shall perhaps avoid misunderstanding

if I at once point to the day-dream as an analogy in
waking life.[102] The part played by this element in



our psychic life has not yet been fully recognized

and revealed by psychiatrists; though M. Benedikt

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has, it seems to me, made a highly promising

beginning. Yet the significance of the day-dream has


not escaped the unerring insight of the poets; we


are all familiar with the description of the day-
dreams of one of his subordinate characters which


Alphonse Daudet has given us in his Nabab. The
study of the psychoneuroses discloses the


astonishing fact that these phantasies or day-
dreams are the immediate predecessors of


symptoms of hysteria- at least, of a great many of
them; for hysterical symptoms are dependent not


upon actual memories, but upon the phantasies built

up on a basis of memories. The frequent occurrence


of conscious day-phantasies brings these formations



to our ken; but while some of these phantasies are

conscious, there is a super-abundance of


unconscious phantasies, which must perforce remain

unconscious on account of their content and their
origin in repressed material. A more thorough



examination of the character of these day-

phantasies shows with what good reason the same

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name has been given to these formations as to the

products of nocturnal thought- dreams. They have


essential features in common with nocturnal


dreams; indeed, the investigation of day-dreams
might really have afforded the shortest and best


approach to the understanding of nocturnal dreams.
Like dreams, they are wish-fulfilments; like


dreams, they are largely based upon the
impressions of childish experiences; like dreams,


they obtain a certain indulgence from the censorship
in respect of their creations. If we trace their


formation, we become aware how the wish-motive

which has been operative in their production has


taken the material of which they are built, mixed it



together, rearranged it, and fitted it together into a

new whole. They bear very much the same relation


to the childish memories to which they refer as

many of the baroque palaces of Rome bear to the
ancient ruins, whose hewn stones and columns have



furnished the material for the structures built in the

modern style.

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In the secondary elaboration of the dream-

content which we have ascribed to our fourth


dream-forming factor, we find once more the very


same activity which is allowed to manifest itself,
uninhibited by other influences, in the creation of


day-dreams. We may say, without further
preliminaries, that this fourth factor of ours seeks to


construct something like a day-dream from the
material which offers itself. But where such a day-


dream has already been constructed in the context
of the dream-thoughts, this factor of the dream-


work will prefer to take possession of it, and contrive

that it gets into the dream-content. There are


dreams that consist merely of the repetition of a



day-phantasy, which has perhaps remained

unconscious- as, for instance, the boy's dream that


he is riding in a war-chariot with the heroes of the

Trojan war. In my Autodidasker dream the second
part of the dream at least is the faithful repetition of



a day-phantasy- harmless in itself- of my dealings

with Professor N. The fact that the exciting phantasy

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forms only a part of the dream, or that only a part of

it finds its way into the dream-content, is due to the


complexity of the conditions which the dream must


satisfy at its genesis. On the whole, the phantasy is
treated like any other component of the latent


material; but it is often still recognizable as a whole
in the dream. In my dreams there are often parts


which are brought into prominence by their
producing a different impression from that produced


by the other parts. They seem to me to be in a state
of flux, to be more coherent and at the same time


more transient than other portions of the same

dream. I know that these are unconscious


phantasies which find their way into the context of



the dream, but I have never yet succeeded in

registering such a phantasy. For the rest, these


phantasies, like all the other component parts of the

dream- thoughts, are jumbled together, condensed,
superimposed, and so on; but we find all the



transitional stages, from the case in which they may

constitute the dream-content, or at least the dream-

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facade, unaltered, to the most contrary case, in

which they are represented in the dream-content by


only one of their elements, or by a remote allusion


to such an element. The fate of the phantasies in the
dream-thoughts is obviously determined by the


advantages they can offer as against the claims of
the censorship and the pressure of condensation.


In my choice of examples for dream-
interpretation I have, as far as possible, avoided


those dreams in which unconscious phantasies play
a considerable part, because the introduction of this


psychic element would have necessitated an

extensive discussion of the psychology of


unconscious thought. But even in this connection I



cannot entirely avoid the phantasy, because it often

finds its way into the dream complete, and still more


often perceptibly glimmers through it. I might

mention yet one more dream, which seems to be
composed of two distinct and opposed phantasies,



overlapping here and there, of which the first is

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superficial, while the second becomes, as it were,

the interpretation of the first.[103]


The dream- it is the only one of which I


possess no careful notes- is roughly to this effect:
The dreamer- a young unmarried man- is sitting in


his favourite inn, which is seen correctly; several
persons come to fetch him, among them someone


who wants to arrest him. He says to his table
companions, "I will pay later, I am coming back."


But they cry, smiling scornfully: "We know all about
that; that's what everybody says." One guest calls


after him: "There goes another one." He is then led

to a small place where he finds a woman with a child


in her arms. One of his escorts says: "This is Herr



Muller." A commissioner or some other official is

running through a bundle of tickets or papers,


repeating Muller, Muller, Muller. At last the

commissioner asks him a question, which he
answers with a "Yes." He then takes a look at the



woman, and notices that she has grown a large

beard.

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The two component parts are here easily

separable. What is superficial is the phantasy of


being arrested; this seems to be newly created by


the dream-work. But behind it the phantasy of
marriage is visible, and this material, on the other


hand, has been slightly modified by the dream-work,
and the features which may be common to the two


phantasies appear with special distinctness, as in
Galton's composite photographs. The promise of the


young man, who is at present a bachelor, to return
to his place at his accustomed table- the scepticism


of his drinking companions, made wise by their

many experiences- their calling after him: "There


goes (marries) another one"- are all features easily



susceptible of the other interpretation, as is the

affirmative answer given to the official. Running


through a bundle of papers and repeating the same

name corresponds to a subordinate but easily
recognized feature of the marriage ceremony- the



reading aloud of the congratulatory telegrams which

have arrived at irregular intervals, and which, of

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course, are all addressed to the same name. In the

personal appearance of the bride in this dream the


marriage phantasy has even got the better of the


arrest phantasy which screens it. The fact that this
bride finally wears a beard I can explain from


information received- I had no opportunity of
making an analysis. The dreamer had, on the


previous day, been crossing the street with a friend
who was just as hostile to marriage as himself, and


had called his friend's attention to a beautiful
brunette who was coming towards them. The friend


had remarked: "Yes, if only these women wouldn't

get beards as they grow older, like their fathers."


Of course, even in this dream there is no



lack of elements with which the dream-distortion

has done deep work. Thus, the speech, "I will pay


later," may have reference to the behaviour feared

on the part of the father-in-law in the matter of a
dowry. Obviously all sorts of misgivings are



preventing the dreamer from surrendering himself

with pleasure to the phantasy of marriage. One of

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these misgivings- at with marriage he might lose his

freedom- has embodied itself in the transformation


of a scene of arrest.


If we once more return to the thesis that the
dream-work prefers to make use of a ready-made


phantasy, instead of first creating one from the
material of the dream-thoughts, we shall perhaps be


able to solve one of the most interesting problems of
the dream. I have related the dream of Maury, who


is struck on the back of the neck by a small board,
and wakes after a long dream- a complete romance


of the period of the French Revolution. Since the

dream is produced in a coherent form, and


completely fits the explanation of the waking



stimulus, of whose occurrence the sleeper could

have had no forboding, only one assumption seems


possible, namely, that the whole richly elaborated

dream must have been composed and dreamed in
the short interval of time between the falling of the



board on cervical vertebrae and the waking induced

by the blow. We should not venture to ascribe such

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rapidity to the mental operations of the waking

state, so that we have to admit that the dream-work


has the privilege of a remarkable acceleration of its


issue.
To this conclusion, which rapidly became


popular, more recent authors (Le Lorrain, Egger,
and others) have opposed emphatic objections;


some of them doubt the correctness of Maury's
record of the dream, some seek to show that the


rapidity of our mental operations in waking life is by
no means inferior to that which we can, without


reservation, ascribe to the mental operations in

dreams. The discussion raises fundamental


questions, which I do not think are at all near



solution. But I must confess that Egger's objections,

for example, to Maury's dream of the guillotine, do


not impress me as convincing. I would suggest the

following explanation of this dream: Is it so very
improbable that Maury's dream may have



represented a phantasy which had been preserved

for years in his memory, in a completed state, and

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which was awakened- I should like to say, alluded

to- at the moment when he became aware of the


waking stimulus? The whole difficulty of composing


so long a story, with all its details, in the
exceedingly short space of time which is here at the


dreamer's disposal then disappears; the story was
already composed. If the board had struck Maury's


neck when he was awake, there would perhaps have
been time for the thought: "Why, that's just like


being guillotined." But as he is struck by the board
while asleep, the dream-work quickly utilizes the


incoming stimulus for the construction of a wish-

fulfilment, as if it thought (this is to be taken quite


figuratively): "Here is a good opportunity to realize



the wish-phantasy which I formed at such and such

a time while I was reading." It seems to me


undeniable that this dream-romance is just such a

one as a young man is wont to construct under the
influence of exciting impressions. Who has not been



fascinated- above all, a Frenchman and a student of

the history of civilization- by descriptions of the

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Reign of Terror, in which the aristocracy, men and

women, the flower of the nation, showed that it was


possible to die with a light heart, and preserved


their ready wit and the refinement of their manners
up to the moment of the last fateful summons? How


tempting to fancy oneself in the midst of all this, as
one of these young men who take leave of their


ladies with a kiss of the hand, and fearlessly ascend
the scaffold! Or perhaps ambition was the ruling


motive of the phantasy- the ambition to put oneself
in the place of one of those powerful personalities


who, by their sheer force of intellect and their fiery

eloquence, ruled the city in which the heart of


mankind was then beating so convulsively; who



were impelled by their convictions to send

thousands of human beings to their death, and were


paving the way for the transformation of Europe;

who, in the meantime, were not sure of their own
heads, and might one day lay them under the knife



of the guillotine, perhaps in the role of a Girondist or

the hero Danton? The detail preserved in the

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memory of the dream, accompanied by an

enormous crowd, seems to show that Maury's


phantasy was an ambitious one of just this


character.
But the phantasy prepared so long ago need


not be experienced again in sleep; it is enough that
it should be, so to speak, "touched off." What I


mean is this: If a few notes are struck, and someone
says, as in Don Juan: "That is from The Marriage of


Figaro by Mozart," memories suddenly surge up
within me, none of which I can recall to


consciousness a moment later. The phrase serves as

a point of irruption from which a complete whole is


simultaneously put into a condition of stimulation. It



may well be the same in unconscious thinking.

Through the waking stimulus the psychic station is


excited which gives access to the whole guillotine

phantasy. This phantasy, however, is not run
through in sleep, but only in the memory of the



awakened sleeper. Upon waking, the sleeper

remembers in detail the phantasy which was

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transferred as a whole into the dream. At the same

time, he has no means of assuring himself that he is


really remembering something which was dreamed.


The same explanation- namely, that one is dealing
with finished phantasies which have been evoked as


wholes by the waking stimulus- may be applied to
other dreams which are adapted to the waking


stimulus- for example, to Napoleon's dream of a
battle before the explosion of a bomb. Among the


dreams collected by Justine Tobowolska in her
dissertation on the apparent duration of time in


dreams,[104] I think the most corroborative is that

related by Macario (1857) as having been dreamed


by a playwright, Casimir Bonjour. Bonjour intended



one evening to witness the first performance of one

of his own plays, but he was so tired that he dozed


off in his chair behind the scenes just as the curtain

was rising. In his sleep he went through all the five
acts of his play, and observed all the various signs



of emotion which were manifested by the audience

during each individual scene. At the close of the

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performance, to his great satisfaction, he heard his

name called out amidst the most lively


manifestations of applause. Suddenly he woke. He


could hardly believe his eyes or his ears; the
performance had not gone beyond the first lines of


the first scene; he could not have been asleep for
more than two minutes. As for the dream, the


running through the five acts of the play and the
observing the attitude of the public towards each


individual scene need not, we may venture to
assert, have been something new, produced while


the dreamer was asleep; it may have been a

repetition of an already completed work of the


phantasy. Tobowolska and other authors have



emphasized a common characteristic of dreams that

show an accelerated flow of ideas: namely, that they


seem to be especially coherent, and not at all like

other dreams, and that the dreamer's memory of
them is summary rather than detailed. But these are



precisely the characteristics which would necessarily

be exhibited by ready-made phantasies touched off

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by the dream- work- a conclusion which is not, of

course, drawn by these authors. I do not mean to


assert that all dreams due to a waking stimulus


admit of this explanation, or that the problem of the
accelerated flux of ideas in dreams is entirely


disposed of in this manner.
And here we are forced to consider the


relation of this secondary elaboration of the dream-
content to the other factors of the dream-work. May


not the procedure perhaps be as follows? The
dream-forming factors, the efforts at condensation,


the necessity of evading the censorship, and the

regard for representability by the psychic means of


the dream first of all create from the dream-



material a provisional dream-content, which is

subsequently modified until it satisfies as far as


possible the exactions of a secondary agency. No,

this is hardly probable. We must rather assume that
the requirements of this agency constitute from the



very first one of the conditions which the dream

must satisfy, and that this condition, as well as the

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conditions of condensation, the opposing censorship,

and representability, simultaneously influence, in an


inductive and selective manner, the whole mass of


material in the dream-thoughts. But of the four
conditions necessary for dream-formation, the last


recognized is that whose exactions appear to be
least binding upon the dream. The following


consideration makes it seem very probable that this
psychic function, which undertakes the so-called


secondary elaboration of the dream-content, is
identical with the work of our waking thought: Our


waking (preconscious) thought behaves towards any

given perceptual material precisely as the function in


question behaves towards the dream-content. It is



natural to our waking thought to create order in

such material, to construct relations, and to subject


it to the requirements of an intelligible coherence.

Indeed, we go rather too far in this respect; the
tricks of conjurers befool us by taking advantage of



this intellectual habit of ours. In the effort to

combine in an intelligible manner the sensory

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impressions which present themselves we often

commit the most curious mistakes, and even distort


the truth of the material before us. The proofs of


this fact are so familiar that we need not give them
further consideration here. We overlook errors which


make nonsense of a printed page because we
imagine the proper words. The editor of a widely


read French journal is said to have made a bet that
he could print the words from in front or from


behind in every sentence of a long article without
any of his readers noticing it. He won his bet. Years


ago I came across a comical example of false

association in a newspaper. After the session of the


French Chamber in which Dupuy quelled the panic,



caused by the explosion of a bomb thrown by an

anarchist, with the courageous words, "La seance


continue,"[105] the visitors in the gallery were

asked to testify as to their impressions of the
outrage. Among them were two provincials. One of



these said that immediately after the end of a

speech he had heard a detonation, but that he had

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thought that it was the parliamentary custom to fire

a shot whenever a speaker had finished. The other,


who had apparently already listened to several


speakers, had got hold of the same idea, but with
this variation, that he supposed the shooting to be a


sign of appreciation following a specially successful
speech.


Thus, the psychic agency which approaches
the dream-content with the demand that it must be


intelligible, which subjects it to a first interpretation,
and in doing so leads to the complete


misunderstanding of it, is none other than our

normal thought. In our interpretation the rule will


be, in every case, to disregard the apparent



coherence of the dream as being of suspicious origin

and, whether the elements are confused or clear, to


follow the same regressive path to the dream-

material.
At the same time, we note those factors



upon which the above- mentioned (chapter VI., C)

scale of quality in dreams- from confusion to

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clearness- is essentially independent. Those parts of

the dream seem to us clear in which the secondary


elaboration has been able to accomplish something;


those seem confused where the powers of this
performance have failed. Since the confused parts of


the dream are often likewise those which are less
vividly presented, we may conclude that the


secondary dream-work is responsible also for a
contribution to the plastic intensity of the individual


dream-structures.
If I seek an object of comparison for the


definitive formation of the dream, as it manifests

itself with the assistance of normal thinking, I can


think of none better than those mysterious



inscriptions with which Die Fliegende Blatter has so

long amused its readers. In a certain sentence


which, for the sake of contrast, is in dialect, and

whose significance is as scurrilous as possible, the
reader is led to expect a Latin inscription. For this



purpose the letters of the words are taken out of

their syllabic groupings, and are rearranged. Here

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and there a genuine Latin word results; at other

points, on the assumption that letters have been


obliterated by weathering, or omitted, we allow


ourselves to be deluded about the significance of
certain isolated and meaningless letters. If we do


not wish to be fooled we must give up looking for an
inscription, must take the letters as they stand, and


combine them, disregarding their arrangement, into
words of our mother tongue.


The secondary elaboration is that factor of
the dream-work which has been observed by most


of the writers on dreams, and whose importance has

been duly appreciated. Havelock Ellis gives an


amusing allegorical description of its performances:



"As a matter of fact, we might even imagine the

sleeping consciousness as saying to itself: 'Here


comes our master, Waking Consciousness, who

attaches such mighty importance to reason and logic
and so forth. Quick! gather things up, put them in



order- any order will do- before he enters to take

possession.'"[106]

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The identity of this mode of operation with

that of waking thought is very clearly stated by


Delacroix in his Sur la structure logique du reve (p.


526): "Cette fonction d'interpretation n'est pas
particuliere au reve; c'est le meme travail de


coordination logique que nous faisons sur nos
sensations pendant la veille."[107]


J. Sully is of the same opinion; and so is
Tobowolska: "Sur ces successions incoherentes


d'hallucinations, l'esprit s'efforce de faire le meme
travail de coordination logique qu'il fait pendant le


veille sur les sensations. Il relie entre elles par un

lien imaginaire toutes ces images decousues et


bouche les ecarts trop grands qui se trouvaient



entre elles"[108] (p. 93).

Some authors maintain that this ordering


and interpreting activity begins even in the dream

and is continued in the waking state. Thus Paulhan
(p. 547): "Cependant j'ai souvent pense qu'il



pouvait y avoir une certain deformation, ou plutot

reformation du reve dans le souvenir.... La tendence

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systematisante de l'imagination pourrait fort bien

achever apres le reveil ce qu'elle a ebauche pendant


le sommeil. De la sorte, la rapidite reelle de la


pensee serait augmentee en apparence par les
perfectionnements dus a l'imagination


eveillee."[109]
Leroy and Tobowolska (p. 502): "Dans le


reve, au contraire, l'interpretation et la coordination
se font non seulement a l'aide des donnees du reve,


mais encore a l'aide de celles de la veille...."[110]
It was therefore inevitable that this one


recognized factor of dream-formation should be

over-estimated, so that the whole process of


creating the dream was attributed to it. This creative



work was supposed to be accomplished at the

moment of waking, as was assumed by Goblot, and


with deeper conviction by Foucault, who attributed

to waking thought the faculty of creating the dream
out of the thoughts which emerged in sleep.



In respect to this conception, Leroy and

Tobowolska express themselves as follows: "On a

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cru pouvoir placer le reve au moment du reveil et ils

ont attribue a la pensee de la veille la fonction de


construire le reve avec les images presentes dans la


pensee du sommeil."[111]
To this estimate of the secondary


elaboration I will add the one fresh contribution to
the dream-work which has been indicated by the


sensitive observations of H. Silberer. Silberer has
caught the transformation of thoughts into images in


flagranti, by forcing himself to accomplish
intellectual work while in a state of fatigue and


somnolence. The elaborated thought vanished, and

in its place there appeared a vision which proved to


be a substitute for- usually abstract- thoughts. In



these experiments it so happened that the emerging

image, which may be regarded as a dream-element,


represented something other than the thoughts

which were waiting for elaboration: namely, the
exhaustion itself, the difficulty or distress involved in



this work; that is, the subjective state and the

manner of functioning of the person exerting himself

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rather than the object of his exertions. Silberer

called this case, which in him occurred quite often,


the functional phenomenon, in contradistinction to


the material phenomenon which he expected.
"For example: one afternoon I am lying,


extremely sleepy, on my sofa, but I nevertheless
force myself to consider a philosophical problem. I


endeavour to compare the views of Kant and
Schopenhauer concerning time. Owing to my


somnolence I do not succeed in holding on to both
trains of thought, which would have been necessary


for the purposes of comparison. After several vain

efforts, I once more exert all my will-power to


formulate for myself the Kantian deduction in order



to apply it to Schopenhauer's statement of the

problem. Thereupon, I directed my attention to the


latter, but when I tried to return to Kant, I found

that he had again escaped me, and I tried in vain to
fetch him back. And now this fruitless endeavour to



rediscover the Kantian documents mislaid

somewhere in my head suddenly presented itself,

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my eyes being closed, as in a dream-image, in the

form of a visible, plastic symbol: I demand


information of a grumpy secretary, who, bent over a


desk, does not allow my urgency to disturb him; half
straightening himself, he gives me a look of angry


refusal."[112]
Other examples, which relate to the


fluctuation between sleep and waking:
"Example No. 2. Conditions: Morning, while


awaking. While to a certain extent asleep
(crepuscular state), thinking over a previous dream,


in a way repeating and finishing it, I feel myself

drawing nearer to the waking state, yet I wish to


remain in the crepuscular state. .."Scene: I am



stepping with one foot over a stream, but I at once

pull it back again and resolve to remain on this


side."[113]
"Example No. 6. Conditions the same as in
Example No. 4 (he wishes to remain in bed a little



longer without oversleeping). I wish to indulge in a

little longer sleep. .."Scene: I am saying good-bye

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to somebody, and I agree to meet him (or her)

again before long."


I will now proceed to summarize this long


disquisition on the dream-work. We were confronted
by the question whether in dream- formation the


psyche exerts all its faculties to their full extent,
without inhibition, or only a fraction of them, which


are restricted in their action. Our investigations lead
us to reject such a statement of the problem as


wholly inadequate in the circumstances. But if, in
our answer, we are to remain on the ground upon


which the question forces us, we must assent to two

conceptions which are apparently opposed and


mutually exclusive. The psychic activity in dream-



formation resolves itself into two achievements: the

production of the dream-thoughts and the


transformation of these into the dream-content. The

dream- thoughts are perfectly accurate, and are
formed with all the psychic profusion of which we



are capable; they belong to the thoughts which have

not become conscious, from which our conscious

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thoughts also result by means of a certain

transposition. There is doubtless much in them that


is worth knowing, and also mysterious, but these


problems have no particular relation to our dreams,
and cannot claim to be treated under the head of


dream-problems.[114] On the other hand, we have
the process which changes the unconscious thoughts


into the dream- content, which is peculiar to the
dream-life and characteristic of it. Now, this peculiar


dream-work is much farther removed from the
pattern of waking thought than has been supposed


by even the most decided depreciators of the

psychic activity in dream- formation. It is not so


much that it is more negligent, more incorrect, more



forgetful, more incomplete than waking thought; it

is something altogether different, qualitatively, from


waking thought, and cannot therefore be compared

with it. It does not think, calculate, or judge at all,
but limits itself to the work of transformation. It may



be exhaustively described if we do not lose sight of

the conditions which its product must satisfy. This

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product, the dream, has above all to be withdrawn

from the censorship, and to this end the dream-


work makes use of the displacement of psychic


intensities, even to the transvaluation of all psychic
values; thoughts must be exclusively or


predominantly reproduced in the material of visual
and acoustic memory-traces, and from this


requirement there proceeds the regard of the
dream-work for representability, which it satisfies by


fresh displacements. Greater intensities have
(probably) to be produced than are at the disposal


of the night dream-thoughts, and this purpose is

served by the extensive condensation to which the


constituents of the dream-thoughts are subjected.



Little attention is paid to the logical relations of the

thought- material; they ultimately find a veiled


representation in the formal peculiarities of the

dream. The affects of the dream- thoughts undergo
slighter alterations than their conceptual content. As



a rule, they are suppressed; where they are

preserved, they are freed from the concepts and

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combined in accordance with their similarity. Only

one part of the dream-work- the revision, variable in


amount, which is effected by the partially wakened


conscious thought- is at all consistent with the
conception which the writers on the subject have


endeavoured to extend to the whole performance of
dream-formation.

Footnotes



[94] If I am not greatly mistaken, the first
dream which I was able to elicit from my grandson


(aged 20 months) points to the fact that the dream-

work had succeeded in transforming its material into


a wish-fulfilment, while the affect which belonged to



it remained unchanged even in the sleeping state.

The night before its father was to return to the front


the child cried out, sobbing violently: "Papa, Papa-

Baby." That may mean: Let Papa and Baby still be
together; while the weeping takes cognizance of the



imminent departure. The child was at the time very

well able to express the concept of separation. Fort

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(= away, replaced by a peculiarly accented, long-

drawn-out ooooh) had been his first word, and for


many months before this first dream he had played


at away with all his toys; which went back to his
early self- conquest in allowing his mother to go


away.
[95] Cf. the dream about Count Thun, last


scene.
[96] Internat. Zeitschr. f. Psychoanalyse, IV


(1916).
[97] Ever since psycho-analysis has


dissected the personality into an ego and a super-

ego (Group Psychology and the Analysis of the Ego,


p. 664 below), it has been easy to recognize in these



punishment-dreams wishfulfilments of the super-

ego.


[98] I have since explained the

extraordinary effect of pleasure produced by
tendency wit on analogous lines.



[99] It is this fancy from the unconscious

dream-thoughts which peremptorily demands non

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vivit instead of non vixit. "You have come too late,

he is no longer alive." The fact that the manifest


situation of the dream aims at the non vivit has


been mentioned in chapter VI., G.
[100] Make room for me.


[101]It will have been obvious that the
name Josef plays a great part in my dreams (see the


dream about my uncle). It is particularly easy for
me to hide my ego in my dreams behind persons of


this name, since Joseph was the name of the dream-
interpreter in the Bible.


[102] Reve, petit roman = day-dream,

story.


[103] I have analysed an excellent example



of a dream of this kind, having its origin in the

stratification of several phantasies, in the Fragment


of an Analysis of a Case of Hysteria (Collected

Papers, vol. III). I undervalued the significance of
such phantasies for dream-formation as long as I



was working principally on my own dreams, which

were rarely based upon day- dreams but most

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frequently upon discussions and mental conflicts.

With other persons it is often much easier to prove


the complete analogy between the nocturnal dream


and the day-dream. In hysterical patients an attack
may often be replaced by a dream; it is then


obvious that the day-dream phantasy is the first
step for both these psychic formations.


[104] Justine Tobowolska, Etude sur les
illusions de temps dans les reves du sommeil normal


(1900) p. 53.
[105] The meeting will continue.


[106] The World of Dreams, pp. 10, 11

(London, 1911).


[107] This function of interpretation is not



particular to the dream; it is the same work of

logical coordination that we use on our sensations


when awake.
[108] With these series of incoherent
halucinations, the mind must do the same work of



logical coordination that it does with the sensations

when awake. With a bon of imagination, it reunites

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all the disconnected images, and fills in the gaps

found which are too great.


[109] However, I have often thought that


there might be a certain deformation, or rather
reformation, of the dream when it is recalled.... The


systematizing tendency of the imagination can well
finish, after waking, the sketch begun in sleep. In


that way, the real speed of thought will be
augmented in appearance by improvements due to


the wakened imagination.
[110] In the dream, on the contrary, the


interpretation and coordination are made not only

with the aid of what is given by the dream, but also


with what is given by the wakened mind.



[111] It was thought that the dream could

be placed at the moment of waking, and they


attributed to the waking thoughts the function of

constructing the dream from the images present in
the sleeping thoughts.



[112] Jahrb., i, p. 514.

[113] Jahrb., iii, p. 625.

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[114] Formerly I found it extraordinarily

difficult to accustom my readers to the distinction


between the manifest dream-content and the latent


dream-thoughts. Over and over again arguments
and objections were adduced from the uninterpreted


dream as it was retained in the memory, and the
necessity of interpreting the dream was ignored. But


now, when the analysts have at least become
reconciled to substituting for the manifest dream its


meaning as found by interpretation, many of them
are guilty of another mistake, to which they adhere


just as stubbornly. They look for the essence of the

dream in this latent content, and thereby overlook


the distinction between latent dream-thoughts and



the dream-work. The dream is fundamentally

nothing more than a special form of our thinking,


which is made possible by the conditions of the

sleeping state. It is the dream-work which produces
this form, and it alone is the essence of dreaming-



the only explanation of its singularity. I say this in

order to correct the reader's judgment of the

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notorious prospective tendency of dreams. That the

dream should concern itself with efforts to perform


the tasks with which our psychic life is confronted is


no more remarkable than that our conscious waking
life should so concern itself, and I will only add that


this work may be done also in the preconscious, a
fact already familiar to us.











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CHAPTER 7 (Part 1)
THE PSYCHOLOGY OF THE DREAM PROCESSES


Among the dreams which have been


communicated to me by others, there is one which
is at this point especially worthy of our attention. It


was told me by a female patient who had heard it
related in a lecture on dreams. Its original source is


unknown to me. This dream evidently made a deep
impression upon the lady, since she went so far as


to imitate it, i.e., to repeat the elements of this
dream in a dream of her own; in order, by this


transference, to express her agreement with a



certain point in the dream.

The preliminary conditions of this typical


dream were as follows: A father had been watching

day and night beside the sick-bed of his child. After


the child died, he retired to rest in an adjoining

room, but left the door ajar so that he could look
from his room into the next, where the child's body



lay surrounded by tall candles. An old man, who had

been installed as a watcher, sat beside the body,

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murmuring prayers. After sleeping for a few hours

the father dreamed that the child was standing by


his bed, clasping his arm and crying reproachfully:


"Father, don't you see that I am burning?" The
father woke up and noticed a bright light coming


from the adjoining room. Rushing in, he found that
the old man had fallen asleep, and the sheets and


one arm of the beloved body were burnt by a fallen
candle.


The meaning of this affecting dream is
simple enough, and the explanation given by the


lecturer, as my patient reported it, was correct. The

bright light shining through the open door on to the


sleeper's eyes gave him the impression which he



would have received had he been awake: namely,

that a fire had been started near the corpse by a


falling candle. It is quite possible that he had taken

into his sleep his anxiety lest the aged watcher
should not be equal to his task.



We can find nothing to change in this

interpretation; we can only add that the content of

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the dream must be overdetermined, and that the

speech of the child must have consisted of phrases


which it had uttered while still alive, and which were


associated with important events for the father.
Perhaps the complaint, "I am burning," was


associated with the fever from which the child died,
and "Father, don't you see?" to some other affective


occurrence unknown to us.
Now, when we have come to recognize that


the dream has meaning, and can be fitted into the
context of psychic events, it may be surprising that


a dream should have occurred in circumstances

which called for such an immediate waking. We shall


then note that even this dream is not lacking in a



wish-fulfilment. The dead child behaves as though

alive; he warns his father himself; he comes to his


father's bed and clasps his arm, as he probably did

in the recollection from which the dream obtained
the first part of the child's speech. It was for the



sake of this wish- fulfilment that the father slept a

moment longer. The dream was given precedence

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over waking reflection because it was able to show

the child still living. If the father had waked first,


and had then drawn the conclusion which led him


into the adjoining room, he would have shortened
the child's life by this one moment.


There can be no doubt about the peculiar
features in this brief dream which engage our


particular interest. So far, we have endeavoured
mainly to ascertain wherein the secret meaning of


the dream consists, how it is to be discovered, and
what means the dream-work uses to conceal it. In


other words, our greatest interest has hitherto been

centered on the problems of interpretation. Now,


however, we encounter a dream which is easily



explained, and the meaning of which is without

disguise; we note that nevertheless this dream


preserves the essential characteristics which

conspicuously differentiate a dream from our waking
thoughts, and this difference demands an



explanation. It is only when we have disposed of all

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the problems of interpretation that we feel how

incomplete is our psychology of dreams.


But before we turn our attention to this new


path of investigation, let us stop and look back, and
consider whether we have not overlooked something


important on our way hither. For we must
understand that the easy and comfortable part of


our journey lies behind us. Hitherto, all the paths
that we have followed have led, if I mistake not, to


light, to explanation, and to full understanding; but
from the moment when we seek to penetrate more


deeply into the psychic processes in dreaming, all

paths lead into darkness. It is quite impossible to


explain the dream as a psychic process, for to



explain means to trace back to the known, and as

yet we have no psychological knowledge to which


we can refer such explanatory fundamentals as may

be inferred from the psychological investigation of
dreams. On the contrary, we shall be compelled to



advance a number of new assumptions, which do

little more than conjecture the structure of the

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psychic apparatus and the play of the energies

active in it; and we shall have to be careful not to go


too far beyond the simplest logical construction,


since otherwise its value will be doubtful. And even
if we should be unerring in our inferences, and take


cognizance of all the logical possibilities, we should
still be in danger of arriving at a completely


mistaken result, owing to the probable
incompleteness of the preliminary statement of our


elementary data. We shall not he able to arrive at
any conclusions as to the structure and function of


the psychic instrument from even the most careful

investigation of dreams, or of any other isolated


activity; or, at all events, we shall not be able to



confirm our conclusions. To do this we shall have to

collate such phenomena as the comparative study of


a whole series of psychic activities proves to be

reliably constant. So that the psychological
assumptions which we base on the analysis of the



dream-processes will have to mark time, as it were,

until they can join up with the results of other

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investigations which, proceeding from another

starting-point, will seek to penetrate to the heart of


the same problem.


A. The Forgetting of Dreams

I propose, then, that we shall first of all turn


our attention to a subject which brings us to a


hitherto disregarded objection, which threatens to
undermine the very foundation of our efforts at


dream-interpretation. The objection has been made
from more than one quarter that the dream which
we wish to interpret is really unknown to us, or, to


be more precise, that we have no guarantee that we



know it as it really occurred.

What we recollect of the dream, and what


we subject to our methods of interpretation, is, in

the first place, mutilated by the unfaithfulness of our


memory, which seems quite peculiarly incapable of

retaining dreams, and which may have omitted
precisely the most significant parts of their content.



For when we try to consider our dreams attentively,

we often have reason to complain that we have

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dreamed much than we remember; that

unfortunately we know nothing more than this one


fragment, and that our recollection of even this


fragment seems to us strangely uncertain.
Moreover, everything goes to prove that our


memory reproduces the dream not only
incompletely but also untruthfully, in a falsifying


manner. As, on the one hand, we may doubt
whether what we dreamed was really as


disconnected as it is in our recollections, so on the
other hand we may doubt whether a dream was


really as coherent as our account of it; whether in

our attempted reproduction we have not filled in the


gaps which really existed, or those which are due to



forgetfulness, with new and arbitrarily chosen

material; whether we have not embellished the


dream, rounded it off and corrected it, so that any

conclusion as to its real content becomes impossible.
Indeed, one writer (Spitta)[1] surmises that all that



is orderly and coherent is really first put into the

dream during the attempt to recall it. Thus we are in

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danger of being deprived of the very object whose

value we have undertaken to determine.


In all our dream-interpretations we have


hitherto ignored these warnings. On the contrary,
indeed, we have found that the smallest, most


insignificant, and most uncertain components of the
dream-content invited interpretations no less


emphatically than those which were distinctly and
certainly contained in the dream. In the dream of


Irma's injection we read: "I quickly called in Dr. M,"
and we assumed that even this small addendum


would not have got into the dream if it had not been
susceptible of a special derivation. In this way we


arrived at the history of that unfortunate patient to



whose bedside I quickly called my older colleague.

In the seemingly absurd dream which treated the


difference between fifty-one and fifty-six as a

quantity negligible the number fifty-one was
mentioned repeatedly. Instead of regarding this as a



matter of course, or a detail of indifferent value, we

proceeded from this to a second train of thought in

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the latent dream-content, which led to the number

fifty-one, and by following up this clue we arrived at


the fears which proposed fifty-one years as the term


of life in the sharpest opposition to a dominant train
of thought which was boastfully lavish of the years.


In the dream Non vixit I found, as an insignificant
interpolation, that I had at first overlooked the


sentence: As P does not understand him, Fl asks
me, etc. The interpretation then coming to a


standstill, I went back to these words, and I found
through them the way to the infantile phantasy


which appeared in the dream-thoughts as an

intermediate point of junction. This came about by


means of the poet's verses:



Selten habt ihr mich verstanden,

Selten auch verstand ich Euch,


Nur wenn wir im Kot uns fanden

So verstanden wir uns gleich![2]
Every analysis will afford evidence of the



fact that the most insignificant features of the dream

are indispensable to interpretation, and will show

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how the completion of the task is delayed if we

postpone our examination of them. We have given


equal attention, in the interpretation of dreams, to


every nuance of verbal expression found in them;
indeed, whenever we are confronted by a senseless


or insufficient wording, as though we had failed to
translate the dream into the proper version, we have


respected even these defects of expression. In brief,
what other writers have regarded as arbitrary


improvisations, concocted hastily to avoid confusion,
we have treated like a sacred text. This


contradiction calls for explanation.

It would appear, without doing any injustice


to the writers in question, that the explanation is in



our favour. From the standpoint of our newly-

acquired insight into the origin of dreams, all


contradictions are completely reconciled. It is true

that we distort the dream in our attempt to
reproduce it; we once more find therein what we



have called the secondary and often

misunderstanding elaboration of the dream by the

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agency of normal thinking. But this distortion is itself

no more than a part of the elaboration to which the


dream-thoughts are constantly subjected as a result


of the dream-censorship. Other writers have here
suspected or observed that part of the dream-


distortion whose work is manifest; but for us this is
of little consequence, as we know that a far more


extensive work of distortion, not so easily
apprehended, has already taken the dream for its


object from among the hidden dream-thoughts. The
only mistake of these writers consists in believing


the modification effected in the dream by its

recollection and verbal expression to be arbitrary,


incapable of further solution, and consequently liable



to lead us astray in our cognition of the dream. They

underestimate the determination of the dream in the


psyche. Here there is nothing arbitrary. It can be

shown that in all cases a second train of thought
immediately takes over the determination of the



elements which have been left undetermined by the

first. For example, I wish quite arbitrarily to think of

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a number; but this is not possible; the number that

occurs to me is definitely and necessarily


determined by thoughts within me which may be


quite foreign to my momentary purpose.[3] The
modifications which the dream undergoes in its


revision by the waking mind are just as little
arbitrary. They preserve an associative connection


with the content, whose place they take, and serve
to show us the way to this content, which may itself


be a substitute for yet another content.
In analysing the dreams of patients I impose


the following test of this assertion, and never

without success. If the first report of a dream seems


not very comprehensible, I request the dreamer to



repeat it. This he rarely does in the same words. But

the passages in which the expression is modified are


thereby made known to me as the weak points of

the dream's disguise; they are what the
embroidered emblem on Siegfried's raiment was to



Hagen. These are the points from which the analysis

may start. The narrator has been admonished by my

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announcement that I intend to take special pains to

solve the dream, and immediately, obedient to the


urge of resistance, he protects the weak points of


the dream's disguise, replacing a treacherous
expression by a less relevant one. He thus calls my


attention to the expressions which he has discarded.
From the efforts made to guard against the solution


of the dream, I can also draw conclusions about the
care with which the raiment of the dream has been


woven.
The writers whom I have mentioned are,


however, less justified when they attribute so much

importance to the doubt with which our judgment


approaches the relation of the dream. For this doubt



is not intellectually warranted; our memory can give

no guarantees, but nevertheless we are compelled


to credit its statements far more frequently than is

objectively justifiable. Doubt concerning the
accurate reproduction of the dream, or of individual



data of the dream, is only another offshoot of the

dream-censorship, that is, of resistance to the

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emergence of the dream-thoughts into

consciousness. This resistance has not yet


exhausted itself by the displacements and


substitutions which it has effected, so that it still
clings, in the form of doubt, to what has been


allowed to emerge. We can recognize this doubt all
the more readily in that it is careful never to attack


the intensive elements of the dream, but only the
weak and indistinct ones. But we already know that


a transvaluation of all the psychic values has taken
place between the dream-thoughts and the dream.


The distortion has been made possible only by

devaluation; it constantly manifests itself in this way


and sometimes contents itself therewith. If doubt is



added to the indistinctness of an element of the

dream-content, we may, following this indication,


recognize in this element a direct offshoot of one of

the outlawed dream-thoughts. The state of affairs is
like that obtaining after a great revolution in one of



the republics of antiquity or the Renaissance. The

once powerful, ruling families of the nobility are now

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banished; all high posts are filled by upstarts; in the

city itself only the poorer and most powerless


citizens, or the remoter followers of the vanquished


party, are tolerated. Even the latter do not enjoy the
full rights of citizenship. They are watched with


suspicion. In our case, instead of suspicion we have
doubt. I must insist, therefore, that in the analysis


of a dream one must emancipate oneself from the
whole scale of standards of reliability; and if there is


the slightest possibility that this or that may have
occurred in the dream, it should be treated as an


absolute certainty. Until one has decided to reject all

respect for appearances in tracing the dream-


elements, the analysis will remain at a standstill.



Disregard of the element concerned has the psychic

effect, in the person analysed, that nothing in


connection with the unwished ideas behind this

element will occur to him. This effect is really not
self-evident; it would be quite reasonable to say,



"Whether this or that was contained in the dream I

do not know for certain; but the following ideas

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happen to occur to me." But no one ever does say

so; it is precisely the disturbing effect of doubt in


the analysis that permits it to be unmasked as an


offshoot and instrument of the psychic resistance.
Psycho- analysis is justifiably suspicions. One of its


rules runs: Whatever disturbs the progress of the
work is a resistance. [4] -


The forgetting of dreams, too, remains
inexplicible until we seek to explain it by the power


of the psychic censorship. The feeling that one has
dreamed a great deal during the night and has


retained only a little of it may have yet another

meaning in a number of cases: it may perhaps mean


that the dream-work has continued in a perceptible



manner throughout the night, but has left behind it

only one brief dream. There is, however, no possible


doubt that a dream is progressively forgotten on

waking. One often forgets it in spite of a painful
effort to recover it. I believe, however, that just as



one generally overestimates the extent of this

forgetting, so also one overestimates the lacunae in

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our knowledge of the dream due to the gaps

occurring in it. All the dream-content that has been


lost by forgetting can often be recovered by


analysis; in a number of cases, at all events, it is
possible to discover from a single remaining


fragment, not the dream, of course- which, after all,
is of no importance- but the whole of the dream-


thoughts. It requires a greater expenditure of
attention and self-suppression in the analysis; that


is all; but it shows that the forgetting of the dream
is not innocent of hostile intention.[5]


A convincing proof of the tendencious nature

of dream-forgetting- of the fact that it serves the


resistance- is obtained on analysis by investigating a



preliminary stage of forgetting.[6] It often happens

that, in the midst of an interpretation, an omitted


fragment of the dream suddenly emerges which is

described as having been previously forgotten. This
part of the dream that has been wrested from



forgetfulness is always the most important part. It

lies on the shortest path to the solution of the

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dream, and for that every reason it was most

exposed to the resistance. Among the examples of


dreams that I have included in the text of this


treatise, it once happened that I had subsequently
to interpolate a fragment of dream-content. The


dream is a dream of travel, which revenges itself on
two unamiable traveling companions; I have left it


almost entirely uninterpreted, as part of its content
is obscene. The part omitted reads: "I said, referring


to a book of Schiller's: 'It is from...' but corrected
myself, as I realized my mistake: 'It is by...'


Whereupon the man remarked to his sister, 'Yes, he

said it correctly.'"[7]


Self-correction in dreams, which to some



writers seems so wonderful, does not really call for

consideration. But I will draw from my own memory


an instance typical of verbal errors in dreams. I was

nineteen years of age when I visited England for the
first time, and I spent a day on the shore of the Irish



Sea. Naturally enough, I amused myself by picking

up the marine animals left on the beach by the tide,

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and I was just examining a starfish (the dream

begins with Hollthurn- Holothurian) when a pretty


little girl came up to me and asked me: "Is it a


starfish? Is it alive?" I replied, "Yes, he is alive," but
then felt ashamed of my mistake, and repeated the


sentence correctly. For the grammatical mistake
which I then made, the dream substitutes another


which is quite common among German people. "Das
Buch ist von Schiller" is not to be translated by "the


book is from," but by "the book is by." That the
dream-work accomplishes this substitution, because


the word from, owing to its consonance with the

German adjective fromm (pious, devout) makes a


remarkable condensation possible, should no longer



surprise us after all that we have heard of the

intentions of the dream-work and its unscrupulous


selection of means. But what relation has this

harmless recollection of the seashore to my dream?
It explains, by means of a very innocent example,



that I have used the word- the word denoting

gender, or sex or the sexual (he)- in the wrong

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place. This is surely one of the keys to the solution

of the dream. Those who have heard of the


derivation of the book-title Matter and Motion


(Moliere in Le Malade Imaginaire: La Matiere est-elle
laudable?- A Motion of the bowels) will readily be


able to supply the missing parts.
Moreover, I can prove conclusively, by a


demonstratio ad oculos, that the forgetting of the
dream is in a large measure the work of the


resistance. A patient tells me that he has dreamed,
but that the dream has vanished without leaving a


trace, as if nothing had happened. We set to work,

however; I come upon a resistance which I explain


to the patient; encouraging and urging him, I help



him to become reconciled to some disagreeable

thought; and I have hardly succeeded in doing so


when he exclaims: "Now I can recall what I

dreamed!" The same resistance which that day
disturbed him in the work of interpretation caused



him also to forget the dream. By overcoming this

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resistance I have brought back the dream to his

memory.


In the same way the patient, having reached


a certain part of the work, may recall a dream which
occurred three, four, or more days ago, and which


has hitherto remained in oblivion.[8]
Psycho-analytical experience has furnished


us with yet another proof of the fact that the
forgetting of dreams depends far more on the


resistance than on the mutually alien character of
the waking and sleeping states, as some writers


have believed it to depend. It often happens to me,

as well as to other analysts, and to patients under


treatment, that we are waked from sleep by a



dream, as we say, and that immediately thereafter,

while in full possession of our mental faculties, we


begin to interpret the dream. Often in such cases I

have not rested until I have achieved a full
understanding of the dream, and yet it has



happened that after waking I have forgotten the

interpretation- work as completely as I have

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forgotten the dream-content itself, though I have

been aware that I have dreamed and that I had


interpreted the dream. The dream has far more


frequently taken the result of the interpretation with
it into forgetfulness than the intellectual faculty has


succeeded in retaining the dream in the memory.
But between this work of interpretation and the


waking thoughts there is not that psychic abyss by
which other writers have sought to explain the


forgetting of dreams. When Morton Prince objects to
my explanation of the forgetting of dreams on the


ground that it is only a special case of the amnesia

of dissociated psychic states, and that the


impossibility of applying my explanation of this



special amnesia to other types of amnesia makes it

valueless even for its immediate purpose, he


reminds the reader that in all his descriptions of

such dissociated states he has never attempted to
discover the dynamic explanation underlying these



phenomena. For had he done so, he would surely

have discovered that repression (and the resistance

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produced thereby) is the cause not of these

dissociations merely, but also of the amnesia of their


psychic content.


That dreams are as little forgotten as other
psychic acts, that even in their power of impressing


themselves on the memory they may fairly be
compared with the other psychic performances, was


proved to me by an experiment which I was able to
make while preparing the manuscript of this book. I


had preserved in my notes a great many dreams of
my own which, for one reason or another, I could


not interpret, or, at the time of dreaming them,

could interpret only very imperfectly. In order to


obtain material to illustrate my assertion, I



attempted to interpret some of them a year or two

later. In this attempt I was invariably successful;


indeed, I may say that the interpretation was

effected more easily after all this time than when
the dreams were of recent occurrence. As a possible



explanation of this fact, I would suggest that I had

overcome many of the internal resistances which

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had disturbed me at the time of dreaming. In such

subsequent interpretations I have compared the old


yield of dream-thoughts with the present result,


which has usually been more abundant, and I have
invariably found the old dream-thoughts unaltered


among the present ones. However, I soon recovered
from my surprise when I reflected that I had long


been accustomed to interpret dreams of former
years that had occasionally been related to me by


my patients as though they had been dreams of the
night before; by the same method, and with the


same success. In the section on anxiety-dreams I

shall include two examples of such delayed dream-


interpretations. When I made this experiment for



the first time I expected, not unreasonably, that

dreams would behave in this connection merely like


neurotic symptoms. For when I treat a

psychoneurotic for instance, an hysterical patient, by
psychoanalysis, I am compelled to find explanations



for the first symptoms of the malady, which have

long since disappeared, as well as for those still

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existing symptoms which have brought the patient

to me; and I find the former problem easier to solve


than the more exigent one of today. In the Studies


in Hysteria,[9] published as early as 1895, I was
able to give the explanation of a first hysterical


attack which the patient, a woman over forty years
of age, had experienced in her fifteenth year.[10]


I will now make a few rather unsystematic
remarks relating to the interpretations of dreams,


which will perhaps serve as a guide to the reader
who wishes to test my assertions by the analysis of


his own dreams.

He must not expect that it will be a simple


and easy matter to interpret his own dreams. Even



the observation of endoptic phenomena, and other

sensations which are commonly immune from


attention, calls for practice, although this group of

observations is not opposed by any psychic motive.
It is very much more difficult to get hold of the



unwished ideas. He who seeks to do so must fulfil

the requirements laid down in this treatise, and

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while following the rules here given, he must

endeavour to restrain all criticism, all


preconceptions, and all affective or intellectual bias


in himself during the work of analysis. He must be
ever mindful of the precept which Claude Bernard


held up to the experimenter in the physiological
laboratory: "Travailler comme une bete"- that is, he


must be as enduring as an animal, and also as
disinterested in the results of his work. He who will


follow this advice will no longer find the task a
difficult one. The interpretation of a dream cannot


always be accomplished in one session; after

following up a chain of associations you will often


feel that your working capacity is exhausted; the



dream will not tell you anything more that day; it is

then best to break off, and to resume the work the


following day. Another portion of the dream-content

then solicits your attention, and you thus obtain
access to a fresh stratum of the dream-thoughts.



One might call this the fractional interpretation of

dreams.

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It is most difficult to induce the beginner in

dream- interpretation to recognize the fact that his


task is not finished when he is in possession of a


complete interpretation of the dream which is both
ingenious and coherent, and which gives particulars


of all the elements of the dream-content. Besides
this, another interpretation, an over-interpretation


of the same dream, one which has escaped him,
may be possible. It is really not easy to form an idea


of the wealth of trains of unconscious thought
striving for expression in our minds, or to credit the


adroitness displayed by the dream-work in killing- so

to speak- seven flies at one stroke, like the


journeyman tailor in the fairy-tale, by means of its



ambiguous modes of expression. The reader will

constantly be inclined to reproach the author for a


superfluous display of ingenuity, but anyone who

has had personal experience of dream-interpretation
will know better than to do so.



On the other hand, I cannot accept the

opinion, first expressed by H. Silberer, that every

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dream- or even that many dreams, and certain

groups of dreams- calls for two different


interpretations, between which there is even


supposed to be a fixed relation. One of these, which
Silberer calls the psycho- analytic interpretation,


attributes to the dream any meaning you please, but
in the main an infantile sexual one. The other, the


more important interpretation, which he calls the
anagogic interpretation, reveals the more serious


and often profound thoughts which the dream-work
has used as its material. Silberer does not prove this


assertion by citing a number of dreams which he has

analysed in these two directions. I am obliged to


object to this opinion on the ground that it is



contrary to facts. The majority of dreams require no

over-interpretation, and are especially insusceptible


of an anagogic interpretation. The influence of a

tendency which seeks to veil the fundamental
conditions of dream-formation and divert our



interest from its instinctual roots is as evident in

Silberer's theory as in other theoretical efforts of the

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last few years. In a number of cases I can confirm

Silberer's assertions; but in these the analysis shows


me that the dream-work was confronted with the


task of transforming a series of highly abstract
thoughts, incapable of direct representation, from


waking life into a dream. The dream- work
attempted to accomplish this task by seizing upon


another thought-material which stood in loose and
often allegorical relation to the abstract thoughts,


and thereby diminished the difficulty of representing
them. The abstract interpretation of a dream


originating in this manner will be given by the

dreamer immediately, but the correct interpretation


of the substituted material can be obtained only by



means of the familiar technique.

The question whether every dream can be


interpreted is to be answered in the negative. One

should not forget that in the work of interpretation
one is opposed by the psychic forces that are



responsible for the distortion of the dream. Whether

one can master the inner resistances by one's

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intellectual interest, one's capacity for self-control,

one's psychological knowledge, and one's experience


in dream-interpretation depends on the relative


strength of the opposing forces. It is always possible
to make some progress; one can at all events go far


enough to become convinced that a dream has
meaning, and generally far enough to gain some


idea of its meaning. It very often happens that a
second dream enables us to confirm and continue


the interpretation assumed for the first. A whole
series of dreams, continuing for weeks or months,


may have a common basis, and should therefore be

interpreted as a continuity. In dreams that follow


one another, we often observe that one dream takes



as its central point something that is only alluded to

in the periphery of the next dream, and conversely,


so that even in their interpretations the two

supplement each other. That different dreams of the
same night are always to be treated, in the work of



interpretation, as a whole, I have already shown by

examples.

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In the best interpreted dreams we often

have to leave one passage in obscurity because we


observe during the interpretation that we have here


a tangle of dream-thoughts which cannot be
unravelled, and which furnishes no fresh


contribution to the dream-content. This, then, is the
keystone of the dream, the point at which it ascends


into the unknown. For the dream-thoughts which we
encounter during the interpretation commonly have


no termination, but run in all directions into the net-
like entanglement of our intellectual world. It is from


some denser part of this fabric that the dream-wish

then arises, like the mushroom from its mycelium.


Let us now return to the facts of dream-



forgetting. So far, of course, we have failed to draw

any important conclusion from them. When our


waking life shows an unmistakable intention to

forget the dream which has been formed during the
night, either as a whole, immediately after waking,



or little by little in the course of the day, and when

we recognize as the chief factor in this process of

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forgetting the psychic resistance against the dream

which has already done its best to oppose the dream


at night, the question then arises: What actually has


made the dream- formation possible against this
resistance? Let us consider the most striking case, in


which the waking life has thrust the dream aside as
though it had never happened. If we take into


consideration the play of the psychic forces, we are
compelled to assert that the dream would never


have come into existence had the resistance
prevailed at night as it did by day. We conclude,


then, that the resistance loses some part of its force

during the night; we know that it has not been


discontinued, as we have demonstrated its share in



the formation of dreams- namely, the work of

distortion. We have therefore to consider the


possibility that at night the resistance is merely

diminished, and that dream- formation becomes
possible because of this slackening of the resistance;



and we shall readily understand that as it regains its

full power on waking it immediately thrusts aside

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what it was forced to admit while it was feeble.

Descriptive psychology teaches us that the chief


determinant of dream-formation is the dormant


state of the psyche; and we may now add the
following explanation: The state of sleep makes


dream-formation possible by reducing the
endopsychic censorship.


We are certainly tempted to look upon this
as the only possible conclusion to be drawn from the


facts of dream-forgetting, and to develop from this
conclusion further deductions as to the comparative


energy operative in the sleeping and waking states.

But we shall stop here for the present. When we


have penetrated a little farther into the psychology



of dreams we shall find that the origin of dream-

formation may be differently conceived. The


resistance which tends to prevent the dream-

thoughts from becoming conscious may perhaps be
evaded without suffering reduction. It is also



plausible that both the factors which favour dream-

formation, the reduction as well as the evasion of

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the resistance, may be simultaneously made

possible by the sleeping state. But we shall pause


here, and resume the subject a little later.


We must now consider another series of
objections against our procedure in dream-


interpretation. For we proceed by dropping all the
directing ideas which at other times control


reflection, directing our attention to a single element
of the dream, noting the involuntary thoughts that


associate themselves with this element. We then
take up the next component of the dream-content,


and repeat the operation with this; and, regardless

of the direction taken by the thoughts, we allow


ourselves to be led onwards by them, rambling from



one subject to another. At the same time, we

harbour the confident hope that we may in the end,


and without intervention on our part, come upon the

dream- thoughts from which the dream originated.
To this the critic may make the following objection:



That we arrive somewhere if we start from a single

element of the dream is not remarkable. Something

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can be associatively connected with every idea. The

only thing that is remarkable is that one should


succeed in hitting upon the dream-thoughts in this


arbitrary and aimless excursion. It is probably a self-
deception; the investigator follows the chain of


associations from the one element which is taken up
until he finds the chain breaking off, whereupon he


takes up a second element; it is thus only natural
that the originally unconfined associations should


now become narrowed down. He has the former
chain of associations still in mind, and will therefore


in the analysis of the second dream-idea hit all the

more readily upon single associations which have


something in common with the associations of the



first chain. He then imagines that he has found a

thought which represents a point of junction


between two of the dream-elements. As he allows

himself all possible freedom of thought-connection,
excepting only the transitions from one idea to



another which occur in normal thinking, it is not

difficult for him finally to concoct out of a series of

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intermediary thoughts, something which he calls the

dream-thoughts; and without any guarantee, since


they are otherwise unknown, he palms these off as


the psychic equivalent of the dream. But all this is a
purely arbitrary procedure, an ingenious-looking


exploitation of chance, and anyone who will go to
this useless trouble can in this way work out any


desired interpretation for any dream whatever.
If such objections are really advanced


against us, we may in defence refer to the
impression produced by our dream- interpretations,


the surprising connections with other dream-

elements which appear while we are following up the


individual ideas, and the improbability that anything



which so perfectly covers and explains the dream as

do our dream-interpretations could be achieved


otherwise than by following previously established

psychic connections. We might also point to the fact
that the procedure in dream-interpretation is



identical with the procedure followed in the

resolution of hysterical symptoms, where the

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correctness of the method is attested by the

emergence and disappearance of the symptoms-


that is, where the interpretation of the text is


confirmed by the interpolated illustrations. But we
have no reason to avoid this problem- namely, how


one can arrive at a pre-existent aim by following an
arbitrarily and aimlessly maundering chain of


thoughts- since we shall be able not to solve the
problem, it is true, but to get rid of it entirely.


For it is demonstrably incorrect to state that
we abandon ourselves to an aimless excursion of


thought when, as in the interpretation of dreams, we

renounce reflection and allow the involuntary ideas


to come to the surface. It can be shown that we are



able to reject only those directing ideas which are

known to us, and that with the cessation of these


the unknown- or, as we inexactly say, unconscious-

directing ideas immediately exert their influence,
and henceforth determine the flow of the involuntary



ideas. Thinking without directing ideas cannot be

ensured by any influence we ourselves exert on our

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own psychic life; neither do I know of any state of

psychic derangement in which such a mode of


thought establishes itself.[11] The psychiatrists have


here far too prematurely relinquished the idea of the
solidity of the psychic structure. I know that an


unregulated stream of thoughts, devoid of directing
ideas, can occur as little in the realm of hysteria and


paranoia as in the formation or solution of dreams.
Perhaps it does not occur at all in the endogenous


psychic affections, and, according to the ingenious
hypothesis of Lauret, even the deliria observed in


confused psychic states have meaning and are

incomprehensible to us only because of omissions. I


have had the same conviction whenever I have had



an opportunity of observing such states. The deliria

are the work of a censorship which no longer makes


any effort to conceal its sway, which, instead of

lending its support to a revision that is no longer
obnoxious to it, cancels regardlessly anything to



which it objects, thus causing the remnant to appear

disconnected. This censorship proceeds like the

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Russian censorship on the frontier, which allows only

those foreign journals which have had certain


passages blacked out to fall into the bands of the


readers to be protected.
The free play of ideas following any chain of


associations may perhaps occur in cases of
destructive organic affections of the brain. What,


however, is taken to be such in the psychoneuroses
may always be explained as the influence of the


censorship on a series of thoughts which have been
pushed into the foreground by the concealed


directing ideas.[12] It has been considered an

unmistakable sign of free association unencumbered


by directing ideas if the emerging ideas (or images)



appear to be connected by means of the so-called

superficial associations- that is, by assonance,


verbal ambiguity, and temporal coincidence, without

inner relationship of meaning; in other words, if they
are connected by all those associations which we



allow ourselves to exploit in wit and playing upon

words. This distinguishing mark holds good with

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associations which lead us from the elements of the

dream-content to the intermediary thoughts, and


from these to the dream-thoughts proper; in many


analyses of dreams we have found surprising
examples of this. In these no connection was too


loose and no witticism too objectionable to serve as
a bridge from one thought to another. But the


correct understanding of such surprising tolerance is
not far to seek. Whenever one psychic element is


connected with another by an obnoxious and
superficial association, there exists also a correct


and more profound connection between the two,

which succumbs to the resistance of the censorship.


The correct explanation for the



predominance of the superficial associations is the

pressure of the censorship, and not the suppression


of the directing ideas. Whenever the censorship

renders the normal connective paths impassable,
the superficial associations will replace the deeper



ones in the representation. It is as though in a

mountainous region a general interruption of traffic,

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for example an inundation, should render the broad

highways impassable: traffic would then have to be


maintained by steep and inconvenient tracks used at


other times only by the hunter.
We can here distinguish two cases which,


however, are essentially one. In the first case, the
censorship is directed only against the connection of


two thoughts which, being detached from one
another, escape its opposition. The two thoughts


then enter successively into consciousness; their
connection remains concealed; but in its place there


occurs to us a superficial connection between the

two which would not otherwise have occurred to us,


and which as a rule connects with another angle of



the conceptual complex instead of that from which

the suppressed but essential connection proceeds.


Or, in the second case, both thoughts, owing to their

content, succumb to the censorship; both then
appear not in their correct form but in a modified,



substituted form; and both substituted thoughts are

so selected as to represent, by a superficial

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association, the essential relation which existed

between those that they have replaced. Under the


pressure of the censorship, the displacement of a


normal and vital association by one superficial and
apparently absurd has thus occurred in both cases.


Because we know of these displacements,
we unhesitatingly rely upon even the superficial


associations which occur in the course of dream-
interpretation.[13]


The psycho-analysis of neurotics makes
abundant use of the two principles: that with the


abandonment of the conscious directing ideas the

control over the flow of ideas is transferred to the


concealed directing ideas; and that superficial



associations are only a displacement-substitute for

suppressed and more profound ones. Indeed,


psycho-analysis makes these two principles the

foundation-stones of its technique. When I request a
patient to dismiss all reflection, and to report to me



whatever comes into his mind, I firmly cling to the

assumption that he will not be able to drop the

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directing idea of the treatment, and I feel justified in

concluding that what he reports, even though it may


seem to be quite ingenuous and arbitrary, has some


connection with his morbid state. Another directing
idea of which the patient has no suspicion is my own


personality. The full appreciation, as well as the
detailed proof of both these explanations, belongs to


the description of the psycho-analytic technique as a
therapeutic method. We have here reached one of


the junctions, so to speak, at which we purposely
drop the subject of dream-interpretation.[14]


Of all the objections raised, only one is

justified and still remains to be met; namely, that


we ought not to ascribe all the associations of the



interpretation-work to the nocturnal dream- work.

By interpretation in the waking state we are actually


opening a path running back from the dream-

elements to the dream- thoughts. The dream-work
has followed the contrary direction, and it is not at



all probable that these paths are equally passable in

opposite directions. On the contrary, it appears that

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during the day, by means of new thought-

connections, we sink shafts that strike the


intermediary thoughts and the dream-thoughts now


in this place, now in that. We can see how the
recent thought- material of the day forces its way


into the interpretation- series, and how the
additional resistance which has appeared since the


night probably compels it to make new and further
detours. But the number and form of the collaterals


which we thus contrive during the day are,
psychologically speaking, indifferent, so long as they


point the way to the dream-thoughts which we are

seeking.


B. Regression


Now that we have defended ourselves

against the objections raised, or have at least


indicated our weapons of defence, we must no

longer delay entering upon the psychological
investigations for which we have so long been



preparing. Let us summarize the main results of our

recent investigations: The dream is a psychic act full

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of import; its motive power is invariably a wish

craving fulfilment; the fact that it is unrecognizable


as a wish, and its many peculiarities and absurdities,


are due to the influence of the psychic censorship to
which it has been subjected during its formation.


Besides the necessity of evading the censorship, the
following factors have played a part in its formation:


first, a need for condensing the psychic material;
second, regard for representability in sensory


images; and third (though not constantly), regard
for a rational and intelligible exterior of the dream-


structure. From each of these propositions a path

leads onward to psychological postulates and


assumptions. Thus, the reciprocal relation of the



wish-motives, and the four conditions. as well as the

mutual relations of these conditions, must now be


investigated; the dream must be inserted in the

context of the psychic life.
At the beginning of this section we cited a



certain dream in order that it might remind us of the

problems that are still unsolved. The interpretation

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of this dream (of the burning child) presented no

difficulties, although in the analytical sense it was


not given in full. We asked ourselves why, after all,


it was necessary that the father should dream
instead of waking, and we recognized the wish to


represent the child as living as a motive of the
dream. That there was yet another wish operative in


the dream we shall be able to show after further
discussion. For the present, however, we may say


that for the sake of the wish- fulfilment the thought-
process of sleep was transformed into a dream.


If the wish-fulfilment is cancelled out, only

one characteristic remains which distinguishes the


two kinds of psychic events. The dream-thought



would have been: "I see a glimmer coming from the

room in which the body is lying. Perhaps a candle


has fallen over, and the child is burning!" The dream

reproduces the result of this reflection unchanged,
but represents it in a situation which exists in the



present and is perceptible by the senses like an

experience of the waking state. This, however, is the

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most common and the most striking psychological

characteristic of the dream; a thought, usually the


one wished for, is objectified in the dream, and


represented as a scene, or- as we think-
experienced.


But how are we now to explain this
characteristic peculiarity of the dream-work, or- to


put it more modestly- how are we to bring it into
relation with the psychic processes?


On closer examination, it is plainly evident
that the manifest form of the dream is marked by


two characteristics which are almost independent of

each other. One is its representation as a present


situation with the omission of perhaps; the other is



the translation of the thought into visual images and

speech.


The transformation to which the dream-

thoughts are subjected because the expectation is
put into the present tense is, perhaps, in this



particular dream not so very striking. This is

probably due to the special and really subsidiary role

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of the wish-fulfilment in this dream. Let us take

another dream, in which the dream-wish does not


break away from the continuation of the waking


thoughts in sleep; for example, the dream of Irma's
injection. Here the dream-thought achieving


representation is in the conditional: "If only Otto
could be blamed for Irma's illness!" The dream


suppresses the conditional, and replaces it by a
simple present tense: "Yes, Otto is to blame for


Irma's illness." This, then, is the first of the
transformations which even the undistorted dream


imposes on the dream-thoughts. But we will not

linger over this first peculiarity of the dream. We


dispose of it by a reference to the conscious



phantasy, the day- dream, which behaves in a

similar fashion with its conceptual content. When


Daudet's M. Joyeuse wanders unemployed through

the streets of Paris while his daughter is led to
believe that he has a post and is sitting in his office,



he dreams, in the present tense, of circumstances

that might help him to obtain a recommendation

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and employment. The dream, then, employs the

present tense in the same manner and with the


same right as the day-dream. The present is the


tense in which the wish is represented as fulfilled.
The second quality peculiar to the dream


alone, as distinguished from the day-dream, is that
the conceptual content is not thought, but is


transformed into visual images, to which we give
credence, and which we believe that we experience.


Let us add. however, that not all dreams show this
transformation of ideas into visual images. There are


dreams which consist solely of thoughts, but we

cannot on that account deny that they are


substantially dreams. My dream Autodidasker- the



day-phantasy about Professor N is of this character;

it is almost as free of visual elements as though I


had thought its content during the day. Moreover,

every long dream contains elements which have not
undergone this transformation into the visual, and



which are simply thought or known as we are wont

to think or know in our waking state. And we must

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here reflect that this transformation of ideas into

visual images does not occur in dreams alone, but


also in hallucinations and visions, which may appear


spontaneously in health, or as symptoms in the
psychoneuroses. In brief, the relation which we are


here investigating is by no means an exclusive one;
the fact remains, however, that this characteristic of


the dream, whenever it occurs, seems to be its most
noteworthy characteristic, so that we cannot think of


the dream-life without it. To understand it, however,
requires a very exhaustive discussion.


Among all the observations relating to the

theory of dreams to be found in the literature of the


subject, I should like to lay stress upon one as being



particularly worthy of mention. The famous G. T. H.

Fechner makes the conjecture,[15] in a discussion


as to the nature of the dreams, that the dream is

staged elsewhere than in the waking ideation. No
other assumption enables us to comprehend the



special peculiarities of the dream- life.

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The idea which is thus put before us is one

of psychic locality. We shall wholly ignore the fact


that the psychic apparatus concerned is known to us


also as an anatomical preparation, and we shall
carefully avoid the temptation to determine the


psychic locality in any anatomical sense. We shall
remain on psychological ground, and we shall do no


more than accept the invitation to think of the
instrument which serves the psychic activities much


as we think of a compound microscope, a
photographic camera, or other apparatus. The


psychic locality, then, corresponds to a place within

such an apparatus in which one of the preliminary


phases of the image comes into existence. As is well



known, there are in the microscope and the

telescope such ideal localities or planes, in which no


tangible portion of the apparatus is located. I think it

superfluous to apologize for the imperfections of this
and all similar figures. These comparisons are



designed only to assist us in our attempt to make

intelligible the complication of the psychic

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performance by dissecting it and referring the

individual performances to the individual


components of the apparatus. So far as I am aware,


no attempt has yet been made to divine the
construction of the psychic instrument by means of


such dissection. I see no harm in such an attempt; I
think that we should give free rein to our


conjectures, provided we keep our heads and do not
mistake the scaffolding for the building. Since for


the first approach to any unknown subject we need
the help only of auxiliary ideas, we shall prefer the


crudest and most tangible hypothesis to all others.

Accordingly, we conceive the psychic


apparatus as a compound instrument, the



component parts of which we shall call instances, or,

for the sake of clearness, systems. We shall then


anticipate that these systems may perhaps maintain

a constant spatial orientation to one another, very
much as do the different and successive systems of



lenses of a telescope. Strictly speaking, there is no

need to assume an actual spatial arrangement of the

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psychic system. It will be enough for our purpose if

a definite sequence is established, so that in certain


psychic events the system will be traversed by the


excitation in a definite temporal order. This order
may be different in the case of other processes;


such a possibility is left open. For the sake of
brevity, we shall henceforth speak of the component


parts of the apparatus as Psi-systems.
The first thing that strikes us is the fact that


the apparatus composed of Psi-systems has a
direction. All our psychic activities proceed from


(inner or outer) stimuli and terminate in

innervations. We thus ascribe to the apparatus a


sensory and a motor end; at the sensory end we



find a system which receives the perceptions, ind at

the motor end another which opens the sluices of


motility. The psychic process generally runs from the

perceptive end to the motor end. The most general
scheme of the psychic apparatus has therefore the



following appearance as shown in Fig. 1. (See

illustration.) But this is only in compliance with the

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requirement, long familiar to us, that the psychic

apparatus must be constructed like a reflex


apparatus. The reflex act remains the type of every


psychic activity as well.
We now have reason to admit a first


differentiation at the sensory end. The percepts that
come to us leave in our psychic apparatus a trace,


which we may call a memory-trace. The function
related to this memory-trace we call the memory. If


we hold seriously to our resolution to connect the
psychic processes into systems, the memory-trace


can consist only of lasting changes in the elements

of the systems. But, as has already been shown


elsewhere, obvious difficulties arise when one and



the same system is faithfully to preserve changes in

its elements and still to remain fresh and receptive


in respect of new occasions of change. In

accordance with the principle which is directing our
attempt, we shall therefore ascribe these two



functions to two different systems. We assume that

an initial system of this apparatus receives the

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stimuli of perception but retains nothing of them-

that is, it has no memory; and that behind this there


lies a second system, which transforms the


momentary excitation of the first into lasting traces.
The following would then be the diagram of our


psychic apparatus: (See illustration.)
We know that of the percepts which act


upon the P-system, we retain permanently
something else as well as the content itself. Our


percepts prove also to be connected with one
another in the memory, and this is especially so if


they originally occurred simultaneously. We call this

the fact of association. It is now clear that, if the P-


system is entirely lacking in memory, it certainly



cannot preserve traces for the associations; the

individual P-elements would be intolerably hindered


in their functioning if a residue of a former

connection should make its influence felt against a
new perception. Hence we must rather assume that



the memory-system is the basis of association. The

fact of association, then, consists in this- that in

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consequence of a lessening of resistance and a

smoothing of the ways from one of the mem-


elements, the excitation transmits itself to a second


rather than to a third mem-element.
On further investigation we find it necessary


to assume not one but many such mem-systems, in
which the same excitation transmitted by the P-


elements undergoes a diversified fixation. The first
of these mem-systems will in any case contain the


fixation of the association through simultaneity,
while in those lying farther away the same material


of excitation will be arranged according to other

forms of combination; so that relationships of


similarity, etc., might perhaps be represented by



these later systems. It would, of course, be idle to

attempt to express in words the psychic significance


of such a system. Its characteristic would lie in the

intimacy of its relations to elements of raw material
of memory- that is (if we wish to hint at a more



comprehensive theory) in the gradations of the

conductive resistance on the way to these elements.

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An observation of a general nature, which

may possibly point to something of importance, may


here be interpolated. The P-system, which possesses


no capacity for preserving changes, and hence no
memory, furnishes to consciousness the complexity


and variety of the sensory qualities. Our memories,
on the other hand, are unconscious in themselves;


those that are most deeply impressed form no
exception. They can be made conscious, but there is


no doubt that they unfold all their activities in the
unconscious state. What we term our character is


based, indeed, on the memory- traces of our

impressions, and it is precisely those impressions


that have affected us most strongly, those of our



early youth, which hardly ever become conscious.

But when memories become conscious again they


show no sensory quality, or a very negligible one in

comparison with the perceptions. If, now, it can be
confirmed that for consciousness memory and



quality are mutually exclusive in the Psi-systems, we

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have gained a most promising insight into the

determinations of the neuron excitations.[16]


What we have so far assumed concerning


the composition of the psychic apparatus at the
sensible end has been assumed regardless of


dreams and of the psychological explanations which
we have hitherto derived from them. Dreams,


however, will serve as a source of evidence for our
knowledge of another part of the apparatus. We


have seen that it was impossible to explain dream-
formation unless we ventured to assume two psychic


instances, one of which subjected the activities of

the other to criticism, the result of which was


exclusion from consciousness.



We have concluded that the criticizing

instance maintains closer relations with the


consciousness than the instance criticized. It stands

between the latter and the consciousness like a
screen. Further, we have found that there is reason



to identify the criticizing instance with that which

directs our waking life and determines our voluntary

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conscious activities. If, in accordance with our

assumptions, we now replace these instances by


systems, the criticizing system will therefore be


moved to the motor end. We now enter both
systems in our diagram, expressing, by the names


given them, their relation to consciousness. (See
illustration.)


The last of the systems at the motor end we
call the preconscious (Pcs.) to denote that the


exciting processes in this system can reach
consciousness without any further detention,


provided certain other conditions are fulfilled, e.g.,

the attainment of a definite degree of intensity, a


certain apportionment of that function which we



must call attention, etc. This is at the same time the

system which holds the keys of voluntary motility.


The system behind it we call the unconscious (Ucs),

because it has no access to consciousness except
through the preconscious, in the passage through



which the excitation-process must submit to certain

changes.[17]

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In which of these systems, then, do we

localize the impetus to dream-formation? For the


sake of simplicity, let us say in the system Ucs. We


shall find, it is true, in subsequent discussions, that
this is not altogether correct; that dream-formation


is obliged to make connection with dream-thoughts
which belong to the system of the preconscious. But


we shall learn elsewhere, when we come to deal
with the dream-wish, that the motive-power of the


dream is furnished by the Ucs, and on account of
this factor we shall assume the unconscious system


as the starting- point for dream-formation. This

dream-excitation, like all the other thought-


structures, will now strive to continue itself in the



Pcs, and thence to gain admission to the

consciousness.


Experience teaches us that the path leading

through the preconscious to consciousness is closed
to the dream-thoughts during the day by the



resisting censorship. At night they gain admission to

consciousness; the question arises: In what way and

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because of what changes? If this admission were

rendered possible to the dream-thoughts by the


weakening, during the night, of the resistance


watching on the boundary between the unconscious
and the preconscious, we should then have dreams


in the material of our ideas, which would not display
the hallucinatory character that interests us at


present.
The weakening of the censorship between


the two systems, Ucs and Pcs, can explain to us only
such dreams as the Autodidasker dream but not


dreams like that of the burning child, which- as will

be remembered- we stated as a problem at the


outset in our present investigations.



What takes place in the hallucinatory dream

we can describe in no other way than by saying that


the excitation follows a retrogressive course. It

communicates itself not to the motor end of the
apparatus, but to the sensory end, and finally



reaches the system of perception. If we call the

direction which the psychic process follows from the

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unconscious into the waking state progressive, we

may then speak of the dream as having a regressive


character.[18]


This regression is therefore assuredly one of
the most important psychological peculiarities of the


dream-process; but we must not forget that it is not
characteristic of the dream alone. Intentional


recollection and other component processes of our
normal thinking likewise necessitate a retrogression


in the psychic apparatus from some complex act of
ideation to the raw material of the memory-traces


which underlie it. But during the waking state this

turning backwards does not reach beyond the


memory-images; it is incapable of producing the



hallucinatory revival of the perceptual images. Why

is it otherwise in dreams? When we spoke of the


condensation-work of the dream we could not avoid

the assumption that by the dream-work the
intensities adhering to the ideas are completely



transferred from one to another. It is probably this

modification of the usual psychic process which

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makes possible the cathexis[19] of the system of P

to its full sensory vividness in the reverse direction


to thinking. -


I hope that we are not deluding ourselves as
regards the importance of this present discussion.


We have done nothing more than give a name to an
inexplicable phenomenon. We call it regression if the


idea in the dream is changed back into the visual
image from which it once originated. But even this


step requires justification. Why this definition if it
does not teach us anything new? Well, I believe that


the word regression is of service to us, inasmuch as

it connects a fact familiar to us with the scheme of


the psychic apparatus endowed with direction. At



this point, and for the first time, we shall profit by

the fact that we have constructed such a scheme.


For with the help of this scheme we shall perceive,

without further reflection, another peculiarity of
dream-formation. If we look upon the dream as a



process of regression within the hypothetical psychic

apparatus, we have at once an explanation of the

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empirically proven fact that all thought-relations of

the dream-thoughts are either lost in the dream-


work or have difficulty in achieving expression.


According to our scheme, these thought-relations
are contained not in the first mem-systems, but in


those lying farther to the front, and in the regression
to the perceptual images they must forfeit


expression. In regression, the structure of the
dream- thoughts breaks up into its raw material.


But what change renders possible this
regression which is impossible during the day? Let


us here be content with an assumption. There must

evidently be changes in the cathexis of the individual


systems, causing the latter to become more



accessible or inaccessible to the discharge of the

excitation; but in any such apparatus the same


effect upon the course of the excitation might be

produced by more than one kind of change. We
naturally think of the. sleeping state, and of the



many cathectic changes which this evokes at the

sensory end of the apparatus. During the day there

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is a continuous stream flowing from the Psi- system

of the P toward the motility end; this current ceases


at night, and can no longer block the flow of the


current of excitation in the opposite direction. This
would appear to be that seclusion from the outer


world which, according to the theory of some
writers, is supposed to explain the psychological


character of the dream. In the explanation of the
regression of the dream we shall, however, have to


take into account those other regressions which
occur during morbid waking states. In these other


forms of regression the explanation just given

plainly leaves us in the lurch. Regression occurs in


spite of the uninterrupted sensory current in a



progressive direction.
The hallucinations of hysteria and paranoia,


as well as the visions of mentally normal persons, I

would explain as corresponding, in fact, to
regressions, i.e., to thoughts transformed into



images; and would assert that only such thoughts

undergo this transformation as are in intimate

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connection with suppressed memories, or with

memories which have remained unconscious. As an


example, I will cite the case of one of my youngest


hysterical patients- a boy of twelve, who was
prevented from falling asleep by "green faces with


red eyes," which terrified him. The source of this
manifestation was the suppressed, but once


conscious memory of a boy whom he had often seen
four years earlier, and who offered a warning


example of many bad habits, including
masturbation, for which he was now reproaching


himself. At that time his mother had noticed that the

complexion of this ill-mannered boy was greenish


and that he had red (i.e., red-rimmed) eyes. Hence



his terrifying vision, which merely determined his

recollection of another saying of his mother's, to the


effect that such boys become demented, are unable

to learn anything at school, and are doomed to an
early death. A part of this prediction came true in



the case of my little patient; he could not get on at

school, and, as appeared from his involuntary

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associations, he was in terrible dread of the

remainder of the prophecy. However, after a brief


period of successful treatment his sleep was


restored, his anxiety removed, and he finished his
scholastic year with an excellent record.


Here I may add the interpretation of a vision
described to me by an hysterical woman of forty, as


having occurred when she was in normal health.
One morning she opened her eyes and saw her


brother in the room, although she knew him to be
confined in an insane asylum. Her little son was


asleep by her side. Lest the child should be

frightened on seeing his uncle, and fall into


convulsions, she pulled the sheet over his face. This



done, the phantom disappeared. This apparition was

the revision of one of her childish memories, which,


although conscious, was most intimately connected

with all the unconscious material in her mind. Her
nurserymaid had told her that her mother, who had



died young (my patient was then only eighteen

months old), had suffered from epileptic or

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hysterical convulsions, which dated back to a fright

caused by her brother (the patient's uncle) who


appeared to her disguised as a spectre with a sheet


over his head. The vision contains the same
elements as the reminiscence, viz., the appearance


of the brother, the sheet, the fright, and its effect.
These elements, however, are arranged in a fresh


context, and are transferred to other persons. The
obvious motive of the vision, and the thought which


it replaced, was her solicitude lest her little son, who
bore a striking resemblance to his uncle, should


share the latter's fate.

Both examples here cited are not entirely


unrelated to the state of sleep, and may for that



reason be unfitted to afford the evidence for the

sake of which I have cited them. I will, therefore,


refer to my analysis of an hallucinatory paranoic

woman patient[20] and to the results of my hitherto
unpublished studies on the psychology of the



psychoneuroses, in order to emphasize the fact that

in these cases of regressive thought- transformation

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one must not overlook the influence of a suppressed

memory, or one that has remained unconscious, this


being usually of an infantile character. This memory


draws into the regression, as it were, the thoughts
with which it is connected, and which are kept from


expression by the censorship- that is, into that form
of representation in which the memory itself is


psychically existent. And here I may add, as a result
of my studies of hysteria, that if one succeeds in


bringing to consciousness infantile scenes (whether
they are recollections or phantasies) they appear as


hallucinations, and are divested of this character

only when they are communicated. It is known also


that even in persons whose memories are not



otherwise visual, the earliest infantile memories

remain vividly visual until late in life.


If, now, we bear in mind the part played in

the dream-thoughts by the infantile experiences, or
by the phantasies based upon them, and recollect



how often fragments of these re-emerge in the

dream- content, and how even the dream-wishes

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often proceed from them, we cannot deny the

probability that in dreams, too, the transformation


of thoughts into visual images may be the result of


the attraction exercised by the visually represented
memory, striving for resuscitation, upon the


thoughts severed from the consciousness and
struggling for expression. Pursuing this conception.


we may further describe the dream as the substitute
for the infantile scene modified by transference to


recent material. The infantile scene cannot enforce
its own revival, and must therefore be satisfied to


return as a dream.
This reference to the significance of the


infantile scenes (or of their phantastic repetitions) as



in a certain degree furnishing the pattern for the

dream-content renders superfluous the assumption


made by Scherner and his pupils concerning inner

sources of stimuli. Scherner assumes a state of
visual excitation, of internal excitation in the organ



of sight, when the dreams manifest a special

vividness or an extraordinary abundance of visual

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elements. We need raise no objection to this

assumption; we may perhaps content ourselves with


assuming such a state of excitation only for the


psychic perceptive system of the organ of vision; we
shall, however, insist that this state of excitation is a


reanimation by the memory of a former actual visual
excitation. I cannot, from my own experience, give a


good example showing such an influence of an
infantile memory; my own dreams are altogether


less rich in perceptual elements than I imagine those
of others to be; but in my most beautiful and most


vivid dream of late years I can easily trace the

hallucinatory distinctness of the dream-contents to


the visual qualities of recently received impressions.



In chapter VI., H, I mentioned a dream in which the

dark blue of the water, the brown of the smoke


issuing from the ship's funnels, and the sombre

brown and red of the buildings which I saw made a
profound and lasting impression upon my mind. This



dream, if any, must be attributed to visual

excitation, but what was it that had brought my

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organ of vision into this excitable state? It was a

recent impression which had joined itself to a series


of former impressions. The colours I beheld were in


the first place those of the toy blocks with which my
children had erected a magnificent building for my


admiration, on the day preceding the dream. There
was the sombre red on the large blocks, the blue


and brown on the small ones. Joined to these were
the colour impressions of my last journey in Italy:


the beautiful blue of the Isonzo and the lagoons, the
brown hue of the Alps. The beautiful colours seen in


the dream were but a repetition of those seen in

memory.


Let us summarize what we have learned



about this peculiarity of dreams: their power of

recasting their idea-content in visual images. We


may not have explained this character of the dream-

work by referring it to the known laws of
psychology, but we have singled it out as pointing to



unknown relations, and have given it the name of

the regressive character. Wherever such regression

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has occurred, we have regarded it as an effect of the

resistance which opposes the progress of thought on


its normal way to consciousness, and of the


simultaneous attraction exerted upon it by vivid
memories.[21] The regression in dreams is perhaps


facilitated by the cessation of the progressive stream
flowing from the sense-organs during the day; for


which auxiliary factor there must be some
compensation, in the other forms of regression, by


the strengthening of the other regressive motives.
We must also bear in mind that in pathological cases


of regression, just as in dreams, the process of

energy-transference must be different from that


occurring in the regressions of normal psychic life,



since it renders possible a full hallucinatory cathexis

of the perceptive system. What we have described in


the analysis of the dream-work as regard for

representability may be referred to the selective
attraction of visually remembered scenes touched by



the dream-thoughts.

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As to the regression, we may further

observe that it plays a no less important part in the


theory of neurotic symptom-formation than in the


theory of dreams. We may therefore distinguish a
threefold species of regression: (a) a topical one, in


the sense of the scheme of the Psi-systems here
exponded; (b) a temporal one, in so far as it is a


regression to older psychic formations; and (c) a
formal one, when primitive modes of expression and


representation take the place of the customary
modes. These three forms of regression are,


however, basically one, and in the majority of cases

they coincide, for that which is older in point of time


is at the same time formally primitive and, in the



psychic topography, nearer to the perception-end.

We cannot leave the theme of regression in


dreams without giving utterance to an impression

which has already and repeatedly forced itself upon
us, and which will return to us reinforced after a



deeper study of the psychoneuroses: namely, that

dreaming is on the whole an act of regression to the

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earliest relationships of the dreamer, a resuscitation

of his childhood, of the impulses which were then


dominant and the modes of expression which were


then available. Behind this childhood of the
individual we are then promised an insight into the


phylogenetic childhood, into the evolution of the
human race, of which the development of the


individual is only an abridged repetition influenced
by the fortuitous circumstances of life. We begin to


suspect that Friedrich Nietzsche was right when he
said that in a dream "there persists a primordial part


of humanity which we can no longer reach by a

direct path," and we are encouraged to expect, from


the analysis of dreams, a knowledge of the archaic



inheritance of man, a knowledge of psychical things

in him that are innate. It would seem that dreams


and neuroses have preserved for us more of the

psychical antiquities than we suspected; so that
psycho-analysis may claim a high rank among those



sciences which endeavour to reconstruct the oldest

and darkest phases of the beginnings of mankind.

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It is quite possible that we shall not find this

first part of our psychological evaluation of dreams


particularly satisfying. We must, however, console


ourselves with the thought that we are, after all,
compelled to build out into the dark. If we have not


gone altogether astray, we shall surely reach
approximately the same place from another


starting-point, and then, perhaps, we shall be better
able to find our bearings.


C. The Wish-Fulfilment

The dream of the burning child (cited above)



affords us a welcome opportunity for appreciating



the difficulties confronting the theory of wish-

fulfilment. That a dream should be nothing but a


wish-fulfilment must undoubtedly seem strange to

us all- and not only because of the contradiction


offered by the anxiety-dream. Once our first

analyses had given us the enlightenment that
meaning and psychic value are concealed behind our



dreams, we could hardly have expected so unitary a

determination of this meaning. According to the

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correct but summary definition of Aristotle, the

dream is a continuation of thinking in sleep. Now if,


during the day, our thoughts perform such a


diversity of psychic acts- judgments, conclusions,
the answering of objections, expectations,


intentions, etc.- why should they be forced at night
to confine themselves to the production of wishes


only? Are there not, on the contrary, many dreams
that present an altogether different psychic act in


dream-form- for example, anxious care- and is not
the father's unusually transparent dream of the


burning child such a dream? From the gleam of light

that falls upon his eyes while he is asleep the father


draws the apprehensive conclusion that a candle has



fallen over and may be burning the body; he

transforms this conclusion into a dream by


embodying it in an obvious situation enacted in the

present tense. What part is played in this dream by
the wish-fulfilment? And how can we possibly



mistake the predominance of the thought continued

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from the waking state or evoked by the new sensory

impression?


All these considerations are justified, and


force us to look more closely into the role of the
wish-fulfilment in dreams, and the significance of


the waking thoughts continued in sleep.
It is precisely the wish-fulfilment that has


already caused us to divide all dreams into two
groups. We have found dreams which were plainly


wish-fulfilments; and others in which the wish-
fulfilment was unrecognizable and was often


concealed by every available means. In this latter

class of dreams we recognized the influence of the


dream-censorship. The undisguised wish-dreams



were found chiefly in children; short, frank wish-

dreams seemed (I purposely emphasize this word)


to occur also in adults.

We may now ask whence in each case does
the wish that is realized in the dream originate? But



to what opposition or to what diversity do we relate

this whence? I think to the opposition between

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conscious daily life and an unconscious psychic

activity which is able to make itself perceptible only


at night. I thus, find a threefold possibility for the


origin of a wish. Firstly, it may have been excited
during the day, and owing to external circumstances


may have remained unsatisfied; there is thus left for
the night an acknowledged and unsatisfied wish.


Secondly, it may have emerged during the day, only
to be rejected; there is thus left for the night an


unsatisfied but suppressed wish. Thirdly, it may
have no relation to daily life, but may belong to


those wishes which awake only at night out of the

suppressed material in us. If we turn to our scheme


of the psychic apparatus, we can localize a wish of



the first order in the system Pcs. We may assume

that a wish of the second order has been forced


back from the Pcs system into the Ucs system,

where alone, if anywhere, can it maintain itself; as
for the wish- impulse of the third order, we believe



that it is wholly incapable of leaving the Ucs system.

Now, have the wishes arising from these different

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sources the same value for the dream, the same

power to incite a dream?


On surveying the dreams at our disposal


with a view to answering this question, we are at
once moved to add as a fourth source of the dream-


wish the actual wish-impetus which arises during the
night (for example, the stimulus of thirst, and sexual


desire). It then seems to us probable that the source
of the dream-wish does not affect its capacity to


incite a dream. I have in mind the dream of the child
who continued the voyage that had been interrupted


during the day, and the other children's dreams

cited in the same chapter; they are explained by an


unfulfilled but unsuppressed wish of the daytime.



That wishes suppressed during the day assert

themselves in dreams is shown by a great many


examples. I will mention a very simple dream of this

kind. A rather sarcastic lady, whose younger friend
has become engaged to be married, is asked in the



daytime by her acquaintances whether she knows

her friend's fiance, and what she thinks of him. She

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replies with unqualified praise, imposing silence on

her own judgment, although she would have liked to


tell the truth, namely, that he is a commonplace


fellow- one meets such by the dozen
(Dutzendmensch). The following night she dreams


that the same question is put to her, and that she
replies with the formula: "In case of subsequent


orders, it will suffice to mention the reference
number." Finally, as the result of numerous


analyses, we learn that the wish in all dreams that
have been subject to distortion has its origin in the


unconscious, and could not become perceptible by

day. At first sight, then, it seems that in respect of


dream-formation all wishes are of equal value and



equal power.
I cannot prove here that this is not really the


true state of affairs, but I am strongly inclined to

assume a stricter determination of the dream-wish.
Children's dreams leave us in no doubt that a wish



unfulfilled during the day may instigate a dream. But

we must not forget that this is, after all, the wish of

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a child; that it is a wish-impulse of the strength

peculiar to childhood. I very much doubt whether a


wish unfulfilled in the daytime would suffice to


create a dream in an adult. It would rather seem
that, as we learn to control our instinctual life by


intellection, we more and more renounce as
unprofitable the formation or retention of such


intense wishes as are natural to childhood. In this,
indeed, there may be individual variations; some


retain the infantile type of the psychic processes
longer than others; just as we find such differences


in the gradual decline of the originally vivid visual

imagination. In general, however, I am of the


opinion that unfulfilled wishes of the day are



insufficient to produce a dream in adults. I will

readily admit that the wish-impulses originating in


consciousness contribute to the instigation of

dreams, but they probably do no more. The dream
would not occur if the preconscious wish were not



reinforced from another source.

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That source is the unconscious. I believe

that the conscious wish becomes effective in exciting


a dream only when it succeeds in arousing a similar


unconscious wish which reinforces it. From the
indications obtained in the psychoanalysis of the


neuroses, I believe that these unconscious wishes
are always active and ready to express themselves


whenever they find an opportunity of allying
themselves with an impulse from consciousness, and


transferring their own greater intensity to the lesser
intensity of the latter.[22] It must, therefore, seem


that the conscious wish alone has been realized in

the dream; but a slight peculiarity in the form of the


dream will put us on the track of the powerful ally



from the unconscious. These ever-active and, as it

were, immortal wishes of our unconscious recall the


legendary Titans who, from time immemorial, have

been buried under the mountains which were once
hurled upon them by the victorious gods, and even



now quiver from time to time at the convulsions of

their mighty limbs. These wishes, existing in

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repression, are themselves of infantile origin, as we

learn from the psychological investigation of the


neuroses. Let me, therefore, set aside the view


previously expressed, that it matters little whence
the dream-wish originates, and replace it by


another, namely: the wish manifested in the dream
must be an infantile wish. In the adult it originates


in the Ucs, while in the child, in whom no division
and censorship exist as yet between the Pcs and


Ucs, or in whom these are only in process of
formation, it is an unfulfilled and unrepressed wish


from the waking state. I am aware that this

conception cannot be generally demonstrated, but I


maintain that it can often be demonstrated even



where one would not have suspected it, and that it

cannot be generally refuted. -


In dream-formation, the wish-impulses

which are left over from the conscious waking life
are, therefore, to be relegated to the background. I



cannot admit that they play any part except that

attributed to the material of actual sensations during

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sleep in relation to the dream-content. If I now take

into account those other psychic instigations left


over from the waking life of the day, which are not


wishes, I shall merely be adhering to the course
mapped out for me by this line of thought. We may


succeed in provisionally disposing of the energetic
cathexis of our waking thoughts by deciding to go to


sleep. He is a good sleeper who can do this;
Napoleon I is reputed to have been a model of this


kind. But we do not always succeed in doing it, or in
doing it completely. Unsolved problems, harassing


cares, overwhelming impressions, continue the

activity of our thought even during sleep,


maintaining psychic processes in the system which



we have termed the preconscious. The thought-

impulses continued into sleep may be divided into


the following groups:

1. Those which have not been completed
during the day, owing to some accidental cause.



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2. Those which have been left uncompleted

because our mental powers have failed us, i.e.,


unsolved problems.


3. Those which have been turned back and
suppressed during the day. This is reinforced by a


powerful fourth group:
4. Those which have been excited in our Ucs


during the day by the workings of the Pcs; and
finally we may add a fifth, consisting of:


5. The indifferent impressions of the day,
which have therefore been left unsettled.


We need not underrate the psychic

intensities introduced into sleep by these residues of


the day's waking life, especially those emanating



from the group of the unsolved issues. It is certain

that these excitations continue to strive for


expression during the night, and we may assume

with equal certainty that the state of sleep renders
impossible the usual continuance of the process of



excitation in the preconscious and its termination in

becoming conscious. In so far as we can become

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conscious of our mental processes in the ordinary

way, even during the night, to that extent we are


simply not asleep. I cannot say what change is


produced in the Pcs system by the state of
sleep,[23] but there is no doubt that the


psychological characteristics of sleep are to be
sought mainly in the cathectic changes occurring


just in this system, which dominates, moreover, the
approach to motility, paralysed during sleep. On the


other hand, I have found nothing in the psychology
of dreams to warrant the assumption that sleep


produces any but secondary changes in the

conditions of the Ucs system. Hence, for the


nocturnal excitations in the Pcs there remains no



other path than that taken by the wish-excitations

from the Ucs; they must seek reinforcement from


the Ucs, and follow the detours of the unconscious

excitations. But what is the relation of the
preconscious day-residues to the dream? There is no



doubt that they penetrate abundantly into the

dream; that they utilize the dream-content to

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obtrude themselves upon consciousness even during

the night; indeed, they sometimes even dominate


the dream-content, and impel it to continue the


work of the day; it is also certain that the day-
residues may just as well have any other character


as that of wishes. But it is highly instructive, and for
the theory of wish-fulfilment of quite decisive


importance, to see what conditions they must
comply with in order to be received into the dream.


Let us pick out one of the dreams cited
above, e.g., the dream in which my friend Otto


seems to show the symptoms of Basedow's disease

(chapter V., D). Otto's appearance gave me some


concern during the day, and this worry, like



everything else relating to him, greatly affected me.

I may assume that this concern followed me into


sleep. I was probably bent on finding out what was

the matter with him. During the night my concern
found expression in the dream which I have



recorded. Not only was its content senseless, but it

failed to show any wish-fulfilment. But I began to

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search for the source of this incongruous expression

of the solicitude felt during the day, and analysis


revealed a connection. I identified my friend Otto


with a certain Baron L and myself with a Professor
R. There was only one explanation of my being


impelled to select just this substitute for the day-
thought. I must always have been ready in the Ucs


to identify myself with Professor R, as this meant
the realization of one of the immortal infantile


wishes, viz., the wish to become great. Repulsive
ideas respecting my friend, ideas that would


certainly have been repudiated in a waking state,

took advantage of the opportunity to creep into the


dream; but the worry of the day had likewise found



some sort of expression by means of a substitute in

the dream-content. The day-thought, which was in


itself not a wish, but on the contrary a worry, had in

some way to find a connection with some infantile
wish, now unconscious and suppressed, which then



allowed it- duly dressed up- to arise for

consciousness. The more domineering the worry the

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more forced could be the connection to be

established; between the content of the wish and


that of the worry there need be no connection, nor


was there one in our example.
It would perhaps be appropriate, in dealing


with this problem, to inquire how a dream behaves
when material is offered to it in the dream-thoughts


which flatly opposes a wish-fulfilment; such as
justified worries, painful reflections and distressing


realizations. The many possible results may be
classified as follows: (a) The dream-work succeeds


in replacing all painful ideas by contrary ideas. and

suppressing the painful affect belonging to them.


This, then, results in a pure and simple satisfaction-



dream, a palpable wish-fulfilment, concerning which

there is nothing more to be said. (b) The painful


ideas find their way into the manifest dream-

content, more or less modified, but nevertheless
quite recognizable. This is the case which raises



doughts about the wish-theory of dreams, and thus

calls for further investigation. Such dreams with a

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painful content may either be indifferent in feeling,

or they may convey the whole painful affect, which


the ideas contained in them seem to justify, or they


may even lead to the development of anxiety to the
point of waking.


Analysis then shows that even these painful
dreams are wish- fulfilments. An unconscious and


repressed wish, whose fulfilment could only be felt
as painful by the dreamer's ego, has seized the


opportunity offered by the continued cathexis of
painful day- residues, has lent them its support, and


has thus made them capable of being dreamed. But

whereas in case (a) the unconscious wish coincided


with the conscious one, in case (b) the discord



between the unconscious and the conscious- the

repressed material and the ego- is revealed, and the


situation in the fairy-tale, of the three wishes which

the fairy offers to the married couple, is realized
(see p. 534 below). The gratification in respect of



the fulfilment of the repressed wish may prove to be

so great that it balances the painful affects adhering

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to the day-residues; the dream is then indifferent in

its affective tone, although it is on the one hand the


fulfilment of a wish, and on the other the fulfilment


of a fear. Or it may happen that the sleeper's ego
plays an even more extensive part in the dream-


formation, that it reacts with violent resentment to
the accomplished satisfaction of the repressed wish,


and even goes so far as to make an end of the
dream by means of anxiety. It is thus not difficult to


recognize that dreams of pain and anxiety are, in
accordance with our theory, just as much wish-


fulfilments as are the straightforward dreams of

gratification.


Painful dreams may also be punishment



dreams. It must be admitted that the recognition of

these dreams adds something that is, in a certain


sense, new to the theory of dreams. What is fulfilled

by them is once more an unconscious wish- the wish
for the punishment of the dreamer for a repressed,



prohibited wish- impulse. To this extent, these

dreams comply with the requirement here laid

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down: that the motive-power behind the dream-

formation must be furnished by a wish belonging to


the unconscious. But a finer psychological dissection


allows us to recognize the difference between this
and the other wish-dreams. In the dreams of group


(b) the unconscious dream-forming wish belonged to
the repressed material. In the punishment-dreams it


is likewise an unconscious wish, but one which we
must attribute not to the repressed material but to


the ego.
Punishment-dreams point, therefore, to the


possibility of a still more extensive participation of

the ego in dream-formation. The mechanism of


dream-formation becomes indeed in every way more



transparent if in place of the antithesis conscious

and unconscious, we put the antithesis: ego and


repressed. This, however, cannot be done without

taking into account what happens in the
psychoneuroses, and for this reason it has not been



done in this book. Here I need only remark that the

occurrence of punishment-dreams is not generally

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subject to the presence of painful day-residues.

They originate, indeed, most readily if the contrary


is true, if the thoughts which are day-residues are of


a gratifying nature, but express illicit gratifications.
Of these thoughts nothing, then, finds its way into


the manifest dream except their contrary, just as
was the case in the dreams of group (a). Thus it


would be the essential characteristic of punishment-
dreams that in them it is not the unconscious wish


from the repressed material (from the system Ucs)
that is responsible for dream-formation but the


punitive wish reacting against it, a wish pertaining to

the ego, even though it is unconscious (i.e.,


preconscious).[24]


I will elucidate some of the foregoing

observations by means of a dream of my own, and


above all I will try to show how the dream- work

deals with a day-residue involving painful
expectation:



Indistinct beginning. I tell my wife I have

some news for her, something very special. She

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becomes frightened, and does not wish to hear it. I

assure her that on the contrary it is something


which will please her greatly, and I begin to tell her


that our son's Officers' Corps has sent a sum of
money (5,000 k.?)... something about honourable


mention... distribution... at the same time I have
gone with her into a sitting room, like a store-room,


in order to fetch something from it. Suddenly I see
my son appear; he is not in uniform but rather in a


tight-fitting sports suit (like a seal?) with a small
cap. He climbs on to a basket which stands to one


side near a chest, in order to put something on this

chest. I address him; no answer. It seems to me


that his face or forehead is bandaged, he arranges



something in his mouth, pushing something into it.

Also his hair shows a glint of grey. I reflect: Can he


be so exhausted? And has he false teeth? Before I

can address him again I awake without anxiety, but
with palpitations. My clock points to 2.30 a.m.



To give a full analysis is once more

impossible. I shall therefore confine myself to

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emphasizing some decisive points. Painful

expectations of the day had given occasion for this


dream; once again there had been no news for over


a week from my son, who was fighting at the Front.
It is easy to see that in the dream-content the


conviction that he has been killed or wounded finds
expression. At the beginning of the dream one can


observe an energetic effort to replace the painful
thoughts by their contrary. I have to impart


something very pleasing, something about sending
money, honourable mention, and distribution. (The


sum of money originates in a gratifying incident of

my medical practice; it is therefore trying to lead the


dream away altogether from its theme.) But this



effort fails. The boy's mother has a presentiment of

something terrible and does not wish to listen. The


disguises are too thin; the reference to the material

to be suppressed shows through everywhere. If my
son is killed, then his comrades will send back his



property; I shall have to distribute whatever he has

left among his sisters, brothers and other people.

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Honourable mention is frequently awarded to an

officer after he has died the "hero's death." The


dream thus strives to give direct expression to what


it at first wished to deny, whilst at the same time
the wish-fulfilling tendency reveals itself by


distortion. (The change of locality in the dream is no
doubt to be understood as threshold symbolism, in


line with Silberer's view.) We have indeed no idea
what lends it the requisite motive-power. But my


son does not appear as failing (on the field of battle)
but climbing.- He was, in fact, a daring


mountaineer.- He is not in uniform, but in a sports

suit; that is, the place of the fatality now dreaded


has been taken by an accident which happened to



him at one time when he was ski- running, when he

fell and fractured his thigh. But the nature of his


costume, which makes him look like a seal, recalls

immediately a younger person, our comical little
grandson; the grey hair recalls his father, our son-



in-law, who has had a bad time in the War. What

does this signify? But let us leave this: the locality, a

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pantry, the chest, from which he wants to take

something (in the dream, to put something on it),


are unmistakable allusions to an accident of my


own, brought upon myself when I was between two
and three years of age. I climbed on a foot-stool in


the pantry, in order to get something nice which was
on a chest or table. The footstool tumbled over and


its edge struck me behind the lower jaw. I might
very well have knocked all my teeth out. At this


point, an admonition presents itself: it serves you
right- like a hostile impulse against the valiant


warrior. A profounder analysis enables me to detect

the hidden impulse, which would be able to find


satisfaction in the dreaded mishap to my son. It is



the envy of youth which the elderly man believes

that he has thoroughly stifled in actual life. There is


no mistaking the fact that it was the very intensity

of the painful apprehension lest such a misfortune
should really happen that searched out for its



alleviation such a repressed wish-fulfilment.

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I can now clearly define what the

unconscious wish means for the dream. I will admit


that there is a whole class of dreams in which the


incitement originates mainly or even exclusively
from the residues of the day; and returning to the


dream about my friend Otto, I believe that even my
desire to become at last a professor extraordinarius


would have allowed me to sleep in peace that night,
had not the day's concern for my friend's health


continued active. But this worry alone would not
have produced a dream; the motive-power needed


by the dream had to be contributed by a wish, and it

was the business of my concern to find such a wish


for itself, as the motive power of the dream. To put



it figuratively, it is quite possible that a day-thought

plays the part of the entrepreneur in the dream; but


the entrepreneur, who, as we say, has the idea, and

feels impelled to realize it, can do nothing without
capital; he needs a capitalist who will defray the



expense, and this capitalist, who contributes the

psychic expenditure for the dream, is invariably and

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indisputably, whatever the nature of the waking

thoughts, a wish from the unconscious.


In other cases the capitalist himself is the


entrepreneur; this, indeed, seems to be the more
usual case. An unconscious wish is excited by the


day's work, and this now creates the dream. And the
dream-processes provide a parallel for all the other


possibilities of the economic relationship here used
as an illustration. Thus the entrepreneur may


himself contribute a little of the capital, or several
entrepreneurs may seek the aid of the same


capitalist, or several capitalists may jointly supply

the capital required by the entrepreneurs. Thus


there are dreams sustained by more than one



dream-wish, and many similar variations, which may

be readily imagined, and which are of no further


interest to us. What is still lacking to our discussion

of the dream-wish we shall only be able to complete
later on.



The tertium comparationis in the analogies

here employed, the quantitative element of which an

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allotted amount is placed at the free disposal of the

dream, admits of a still closer application to the


elucidation of the dream-structure. As shown in


chapter VI., B., we can recognize in most dreams a
centre supplied with a special sensory intensity. This


is, as a rule, the direct representation of the wish-
fulfilment; for, if we reverse the displacements of


the dream-work, we find that the psychic intensity
of the elements in the dream-thoughts is replaced


by the sensory intensity of the elements in the
dream-content. The elements in the neighbourhood


of the wish-fulfilment have often nothing to do with

its meaning, but prove to be the offshoots of painful


thoughts which are opposed to the wish. But owing



to their connection with the central element, often

artificially established, they secure so large a share


of its intensity as to become capable of

representation. Thus, the representative energy of
the wish-fulfilment diffuses itself over a certain



sphere of association, within which all elements are

raised to representation, including even those that

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are in themselves without resources. In dreams

containing several dynamic wishes we can easily


separate and delimit the spheres of the individual


wish-fulfilments, and we shall find that the gaps in
the dream are often of the nature of boundary-


zones.
Although the foregoing remarks have


restricted the significance of the day-residues for the
dream, they are none the less deserving of some


further attention. For they must be a necessary
ingredient in dream-formation, inasmuch as


experience reveals the surprising fact that every

dream shows in its content a connection with a


recent waking impression, often of the most



indifferent kind. So far we have failed to understand

the necessity for this addition to the dream-mixture


(chapter V., A.). This necessity becomes apparent

only when we bear in mind the part played by the
unconscious wish, and seek further information in



the psychology of the neuroses. We shall then learn

that an unconscious idea, as such, is quite incapable

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of entering into the preconscious, and that it can

exert an influence there only by establishing touch


with a harmless idea already belonging to the


preconscious, to which it transfers its intensity, and
by which it allows itself to be screened. This is the


fact of transference, which furnishes the explanation
of so many surprising occurrences in the psychic life


of neurotics. The transference may leave the idea
from the preconscious unaltered, though the latter


will thus acquire an unmerited intensity, or it may
force upon this some modification derived from the


content of the transferred idea. I trust the reader

will pardon my fondness for comparisons with daily


life, but I feel tempted to say that the situation for



the repressed idea is like that of the American

dentist in Austria, who may not carry on his practice


unless he can get a duly installed doctor of medicine

to serve him as a signboard and legal "cover."
Further, just as it is not exactly the busiest



physicians who form such alliances with dental

practitioners, so in the psychic life the choice as

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regards covers for repressed ideas does not fall

upon such preconscious or conscious ideas as have


themselves attracted enough of the attention active


in the preconscious. The unconscious prefers to
entangle with its connections either those


impressions and ideas of the preconscious which
have remained unnoticed as being indifferent or


those which have immediately had attention
withdrawn from them again (by rejection). it is a


well-known proposition of the theory of associations,
confirmed by all experience, that ideas which have


formed a very intimate connection in one direction

assume a negative type of attitude towards whole


groups of new connections. I have even attempted



at one time to base a theory of hysterical paralysis

on this principle.


If we assume that the same need of

transference on the part of the repressed ideas, of
which we have become aware through the analysis



of the neurosis, makes itself felt in dreams also, we

can at once explain two of the problems of the

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dream: namely, that every dream-analysis reveals

an interweaving of a recent impression, and that this


recent element is often of the most indifferent


character. We may add what we have already
learned elsewhere, that the reason why these recent


and indifferent elements so frequently find their way
into the dream-content as substitutes for the very


oldest elements of the dream-thoughts is that they
have the least to fear from the resisting censorship.


But while this freedom from censorship explains only
the preference shown to the trivial elements, the


constant presence of recent elements points to the

necessity for transference. Both groups of


impressions satisfy the demand of the repressed



ideas for material still free from associations, the

indifferent ones because they have offered no


occasion for extensive associations, and the recent

ones because they have not had sufficient time to
form such associations.



We thus see that the day-residues, among

which we may now include the indifferent

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impressions, not only borrow something from the

Ucs when they secure a share in dream-formation-


namely, the motive-power at the disposal of the


repressed wish- but they also offer to the
unconscious something that is indispensable to it,


namely, the points of attachment necessary for
transference. If we wished to penetrate more deeply


into the psychic processes, we should have to throw
a clearer light on the play of excitations between the


preconscious and the unconscious, and indeed the
study of the psychoneuroses would impel us to do


so; but dreams, as it happens, give us no help in

this respect.


Just one further remark as to the day-



residues. There is no doubt that it is really these

that disturb our sleep, and not our dreams which, on


the contrary, strive to guard our sleep. But we shall

return to this point later.
So far we have discussed the dream-wish;



we have traced it back to the sphere of the Ucs, and

have analysed its relation to the day-residues,

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which, in their turn, may be either wishes, or

psychic impulses of any other kind, or simply recent


impressions. We have thus found room for the


claims that can be made for the dream-forming
significance of our waking mental activity in all its


multifariousness. It might even prove possible to
explain, on the basis of our train of thought, those


extreme cases in which the dream, continuing the
work of the day, brings to a happy issue an unsolved


problem of waking life. We merely lack a suitable
example to analyse, in order to uncover the infantile


or repressed source of wishes, the tapping of which

has so successfully reinforced the efforts of the


preconscious activity. But we are not a step nearer



to answering the question: Why is it that the

unconscious can furnish in sleep nothing more than


the motive-power for a wish-fulfilment? The answer

to this question must elucidate the psychic nature of
the state of wishing: and it will be given with the aid



of the notion of the psychic apparatus.

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We do not doubt that this apparatus, too,

has only arrived at its present perfection by a long


process of evolution. Let us attempt to restore it as


it existed in an earlier stage of capacity. From
postulates to be confirmed in other ways, we know


that at first the apparatus strove to keep itself as
free from stimulation as possible, and therefore, in


its early structure, adopted the arrangement of a
reflex apparatus, which enabled it promptly to


discharge by the motor paths any sensory excitation
reaching it from without. But this simple function


was disturbed by the exigencies of life, to which the

apparatus owes the impetus toward further


development. The exigencies of life first confronted



it in the form of the great physical needs. The

excitation aroused by the inner need seeks an outlet


in motility, which we may describe as internal

change or expression of the emotions. The hungry
child cries or struggles helplessly. But its situation



remains unchanged; for the excitation proceeding

from the inner need has not the character of a

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momentary impact, but of a continuing pressure. A

change can occur only if, in some way (in the case


of the child by external assistance), there is an


experience of satisfaction, which puts an end to the
internal excitation. An essential constituent of this


experience is the appearance of a certain percept (of
food in our example), the memory-image of which is


henceforth associated with the memory- trace of the
excitation arising from the need. Thanks to the


established connection, there results, at the next
occurrence of this need, a psychic impulse which


seeks to revive the memory- image of the former

percept, and to re-evoke the former percept itself;


that is, it actually seeks to re-establish the situation



of the first satisfaction. Such an impulse is what we

call a wish; the reappearance of the perception


constitutes the wish- fulfilment, and the full cathexis

of the perception, by the excitation springing from
the need, constitutes the shortest path to the wish-



fulfilment. We may assume a primitive state of the

psychic apparatus in which this path is actually

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followed, i.e., in which the wish ends in

hallucination. This first psychic activity therefore


aims at an identity of perception: that is, at a


repetition of that perception which is connected with
the satisfaction of the need.


This primitive mental activity must have
been modified by bitter practical experience into a


secondary and more appropriate activity. The
establishment of identity of perception by the short


regressive path within the apparatus does not
produce the same result in another respect as


follows upon cathexis of the same perception coming

from without. The satisfaction does not occur, and


the need continues. In order to make the internal



cathexis equivalent to the external one, the former

would have to be continuously sustained, just as


actually happens in the hallucinatory psychoses and

in hunger-phantasies, which exhaust their
performance in maintaining their hold on the object



desired. In order to attain to more appropriate use

of the psychic energy, it becomes necessary to

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suspend the full regression, so that it does not

proceed beyond the memory-image, and thence can


seek other paths, leading ultimately to the


production of the desired identity from the side of
the outer world.[25] This inhibition, as well as the


subsequent deflection of the excitation, becomes the
task of a second system, which controls voluntary


motility, i.e., a system whose activity first leads on
to the use of motility for purposes remembered in


advance. But all this complicated mental activity,
which works its way from the memory-image to the


production of identity of perception via the outer

world, merely represents a roundabout way to wish-


fulfilment made necessary by experience.[26]



Thinking is indeed nothing but a substitute for the

hallucinatory wish; and if the dream is called a wish-


fulfilment, this becomes something self-evident,

since nothing but a wish can impel our psychic
apparatus to activity. The dream, which fulfils its



wishes by following the short regressive path, has

thereby simply preserved for us a specimen of the

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primary method of operation of the psychic

apparatus, which has been abandoned as


inappropriate. What once prevailed in the waking


state, when our psychic life was still young and
inefficient, seems to have been banished into our


nocturnal life; just as we still find in the nursery
those discarded primitive weapons of adult


humanity, the bow and arrow. Dreaming is a
fragment of the superseded psychic life of the child.


In the psychoses, those modes of operation of the
psychic apparatus which are normally suppressed in


the waking state reassert themselves, and

thereupon betray their inability to satisfy our


demands in the outer world.[27]



The unconscious wish-impulses evidently

strive to assert themselves even during the day, and


the fact of transference, as well as the psychoses,

tells us that they endeavour to force their way
through the preconscious system to consciousness



and the command of motility. Thus, in the

censorship between Ucs and Pcs, which the dream

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forces us to assume, we must recognize and respect

the guardian of our psychic health. But is it not


carelessness on the part of this guardian to diminish


his vigilance at night, and to allow the suppressed
impulses of the Ucs to achieve expression, thus


again making possible the process of hallucinatory
regression? I think not, for when the critical


guardian goes to rest- and we have proof that his
slumber is not profound- he takes care to close the


gate to motility. No matter what impulses from the
usually inhibited Ucs may bustle about the stage,


there is no need to interfere with them; they remain

harmless, because they are not in a position to set


in motion the motor apparatus which alone can



operate to produce any change in the outer world.

Sleep guarantees the security of the fortress which


has to be guarded. The state of affairs is less

harmless when a displacement of energies is
produced, not by the decline at night in the energy



put forth by the critical censorship, but by the

pathological enfeeblement of the latter, or the

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pathological reinforcement of the unconscious

excitations, and this while the preconscious is


cathected and the gates of motility are open. The


guardian is then overpowered; the unconscious
excitations subdue the Pcs, and from the Pcs they


dominate our speech and action, or they enforce
hallucinatory regressions, thus directing an


apparatus not designed for them by virtue of the
attraction exerted by perceptions on the distribution


of our psychic energy. We call this condition
psychosis.


We now find ourselves in the most

favourable position for continuing the construction of


our psychological scaffolding, which we left after



inserting the two systems, Ucs and Pcs. However,

we still have reason to give further consideration to


the wish as the sole psychic motive-power in the

dream. We have accepted the explanation that the
reason why the dream is in every case a wish-



fulfilment is that it is a function of the system Ucs,

which knows no other aim than wish-fulfilment, and

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which has at its disposal no forces other than the

wish-impulses. Now if we want to continue for a


single moment longer to maintain our right to


develop such far-reaching psychological speculations
from the facts of dream-interpretation, we are in


duty bound to show that they insert the dream into
a context which can also embrace other psychic


structures. If there exists a system of the Ucs- or
something sufficiently analogous for the purposes of


our discussion- the dream cannot be its sole
manifestation; every dream may be a wish-


fulfilment, but there must be other forms of

abnormal wish-fulfilment as well as dreams. And in


fact the theory of all psychoneurotic symptoms



culminates in the one proposition that they, too,

must be conceived as wish-fulfilments of the


unconscious.[28] Our explanation makes the dream

only the first member of a series of the greatest
importance for the psychiatrist, the understanding of



which means the solution of the purely psychological

part of the psychiatric problem.[29] But in other

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members of this group of wish-fulfilments- for

example, in the hysterical symptoms- I know of one


essential characteristic which I have so far failed to


find in the dream. Thus, from the investigations
often alluded to in this treatise, I know that the


formation of an hysterical symptom needs a junction
of both the currents of our psychic life. The


symptom is not merely the expression of a realized
unconscious wish; the latter must be joined by


another wish from the preconscious, which is fulfilled
by the same symptom; so that the symptom is at


least doubly determined, once by each of the

conflicting systems. Just as in dreams, there is no


limit to further over- determination. The



determination which does not derive from the Ucs is,

as far as I can see, invariably a thought-stream of


reaction against the unconscious wish; for example,

a self- punishment. Hence I can say, quite generally,
that an hysterical symptom originates only where



two contrary wish-fulfilments, having their source in

different psychic systems, are able to meet in a

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single expression.[30] Examples would help us but

little here, as nothing but a complete unveiling of


the complications in question can carry conviction. I


will therefore content myself with the bare assertion,
and will cite one example, not because it proves


anything, but simply as an illustration. The
hysterical vomiting of a female patient proved, on


the one hand, to be the fulfilment of an unconscious
phantasy from the years of puberty- namely, the


wish that she might be continually pregnant, and
have a multitude of children; and this was


subsequently supplemented by the wish that she

might have them by as many fathers as possible.


Against this immoderate wish there arose a powerful



defensive reaction. But as by the vomiting the

patient might have spoilt her figure and her beauty,


so that she would no longer find favour in any man's

eyes, the symptom was also in keeping with the
punitive trend of thought, and so, being admissible



on both sides, it was allowed to become a reality.

This is the same way of acceding to a wish-fulfilment

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as the queen of the Parthians was pleased to adopt

in the case of the triumvir Crassus. Believing that he


had undertaken his campaign out of greed for gold,


she caused molten gold to be poured into the throat
of the corpse. "Here thou hast what thou hast


longed for!"
Of the dream we know as yet only that it


expresses a wish- fulfilment of the unconscious; and
apparently the dominant preconscious system


permits this fulfilment when it has compelled the
wish to undergo certain distortions. We are,


moreover, not in fact in a position to demonstrate

regularly the presence of a train of thought opposed


to the dream-wish, which is realized in the dream as



well as its antagonist. Only now and then have we

found in dream-analyses signs of reaction-products


as, for instance, my affection for my friend R in the

dream of my uncle (chapter IV.). But the
contribution from the preconscious which is missing



here may be found in another place. The dream can

provide expression for a wish from the Ucs by

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means of all sorts of distortions, once the dominant

system has withdrawn itself into the wish to sleep,


and has realized this wish by producing the changes


of cathexis within the psychic apparatus which are
within its power; thereupon holding on to the wish in


question for the whole duration of sleep.[31]
Now this persistent wish to sleep on the part


of the preconscious has a quite general facilitating
effect on the formation of dreams. Let us recall the


dream of the father who, by the gleam of light from
the death-chamber, was led to conclude that his


child's body might have caught fire. We have shown

that one of the psychic forces decisive in causing the


father to draw this conclusion in the dream instead



of allowing himself to be awakened by the gleam of

light was the wish to prolong the life of the child


seen in the dream by one moment. Other wishes

originating in the repressed have probably escaped
us, for we are unable to analyse this dream. But as



a second source of motive- power in this dream we

may add the father's desire to sleep, for, like the life

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of the child, the father's sleep is prolonged for a

moment by the dream. The underlying motive is:


"Let the dream go on, or I must wake up." As in this


dream, so in all others, the wish to sleep lends its
support to the unconscious wish. In chapter III. we


cited dreams which were manifestly dreams of
convenience. But in truth all dreams may claim this


designation. The efficacy of the wish to go on
sleeping is most easily recognized in the awakening


dreams, which so elaborate the external sensory
stimulus that it becomes compatible with the


continuance of sleep; they weave it into a dream in

order to rob it of any claims it might make as a


reminder of the outer world. But this wish to go on



sleeping must also play its part in permitting all

other dreams, which can only act as disturbers of


the state of sleep from within. "Don't worry; sleep

on; it's only a dream," is in many cases the
suggestion of the Pcs to consciousness when the



dream gets too bad; and this describes in a quite

general way the attitude of our dominant psychic

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activity towards dreaming, even though the thought

remains unuttered. I must draw the conclusion that


throughout the whole of our sleep we are just as


certain that we are dreaming as we are certain that
we are sleeping. It is imperative to disregard the


objection that our consciousness is never directed to
the latter knowledge, and that it is directed to the


former knowledge only on special occasions, when
the censorship feels, as it were, taken by surprise.


On the contrary, there are persons in whom the
retention at night of the knowledge that they are


sleeping and dreaming becomes quite manifest, and

who are thus apparently endowed with the conscious


faculty of guiding their dream-life. Such a dreamer,



for example, is dissatisfied with the turn taken by a

dream; he breaks it off without waking, and begins


it afresh, in order to continue it along different lines,

just like a popular author who, upon request, gives a
happier ending to his play. Or on another occasion,



when the dream places him in a sexually exciting

situation, he thinks in his sleep: "I don't want to

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continue this dream and exhaust myself by an

emission; I would rather save it for a real situation."


The Marquis Hervey (Vaschide) declared that


he had gained such power over his dreams that he
could accelerate their course at will, and turn them


in any direction he wished. It seems that in him the
wish to sleep had accorded a place to another, a


preconscious wish, the wish to observe his dreams
and to derive pleasure from them. Sleep is just as


compatible with such a wish- resolve as it is with
some proviso as a condition of waking up (wet-


nurse's sleep), We know, too, that in all persons an

interest in dreams greatly increases the number of


dreams remembered after waking.



Concerning other observations as to the

guidance of dreams, Ferenczi states: "The dream


takes the thought that happens to occupy our

psychic life at the moment, and elaborates it from all
sides. It lets any given dream-picture drop when



there is a danger that the wish-fulfilment will

miscarry, and attempts a new kind of solution, until

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it finally succeeds in creating a wish- fulfilment that

satisfies in one compromise both instances of the


psychic life."


Footnotes


[1] Similar views are expressed by Foucault
and Tannery.


[2] Seldom have you understood me,
Seldom have I understood you,


But when we found ourselves in the mire,
We at once understood each other!


[3] Cf. The Psycho-pathology of Everday

Life.


[4] This peremptory statement: "Whatever



disturbs the progress of the work is a resistance"

might easily be misunderstood. It has, of course, the


significance merely of a technical rule, a warning for

the analyst. It is not denied that during an analysis
events may occur which cannot be ascribed to the



intention of the person analysed. The patient's

father may die in other ways than by being

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murdered by the patient, or a war may break out

and interrupt the analysis. But despite the obvious


exaggeration of the above statement there is still


something new and useful in it. Even if the
disturbing event is real and independent of the


patient, the extent of the disturbing influence does
often depend only on him, and the resistance


reveals itself unmistakably in the ready and
immoderate exploitation of such an opportunity. -


[5] As an example of the significance of
doubt and uncertainty in a dream with a


simultaneous shrinking of the dream-content to a

single element, see my General Introduction to


Psycho-Analysis the dream of the sceptical lady



patient, p. 492 below, the analysis of which was

successful, despite a short postponement. -


[6] Concerning the intention of forgetting in

general, see my The Psycho-pathology of Everyday
Life.



[7] Such corrections in the use of foreign

languages are not rare in dreams, but they are

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usually attributed to foreigners. Maury (p. 143),

while he was studying English, once dreamed that


he informed someone that he had called on him the


day before in the following words: "I called for you
yesterday." The other answered correctly: "You


mean: I called on you yesterday."
[8] Ernest Jones describes an analogous


case of frequent occurrence; during the analysis of
one dream another dream of the same night is often


recalled which until then was not merely forgotten,
but was not even suspected.


[9] Studien uber Hysterie, Case II.

[10] Dreams which have occurred during the


first years of childhood, and which have sometimes



been retained in the memory for decades with

perfect sensorial freshness, are almost always of


great importance for the understanding of the

development and the neurosis of the dreamer. The
analysis of them protects the physician from errors



and uncertainties which might confuse him even

theoretically.

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[11] Only recently has my attention been

called to the fact that Ed. von Hartmann took the


same view with regard to this psychologically


important point: Incidental to the discussion of the
role of the unconscious in artistic creation (Philos. d.


Unbew., Vol. i, Sect. B., Chap. V) Eduard von
Hartmann clearly enunciated the law of association


of ideas which is directed by unconscious directing
ideas, without however realizing the scope of this


law. With him it was a question of demonstrating
that "every combination of a sensuous idea when it


is not left entirely to chance, but is directed to a

definite end, is in need of help from the


unconscious," and that the conscious interest in any



particular thought-association is a stimulus for the

unconscious to discover from among the numberless


possible ideas the one which corresponds to the

directing idea. "It is the unconscious that selects,
and appropriately, in accordance with the aims of



the interest: and this holds true for the associations

in abstract thinking (as sensible representations and

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artistic combinations as well as for flashes of wit)."

Hence, a limiting of the association of ideas to ideas


that evoke and are evoked in the sense of pure


association-psychology is untenable. Such a
restriction "would be justified only if there were


states in human life in which man was free not only
from any conscious purpose, but also from the


domination or cooperation of any unconscious
interest, any passing mood. But such a state hardly


ever comes to pass, for even if one leaves one's
train of thought seemingly altogether to chance, or if


one surrenders oneself entirely to the involuntary

dreams of phantasy, yet always other leading


interests, dominant feelings and moods prevail at



one time rather than another, and these will always

exert an influence on the association of ideas."


(Philos. d. Unbew., IIe, Aufl. i. 246). In semi-

conscious dreams there always appear only such
ideas as correspond to the (unconscious)



momentary main interest. By rendering prominent

the feelings and moods over the free thought-series,

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the methodical procedure of psycho-analysis is

thoroughly justified even from the standpoint of


Hartmann's Psychology (N. E. Pohorilles, Internat.


Zeitschrift. f. Ps. A., I, [1913], p. 605). Du Prel
concludes from the fact that a name which we vainly


try to recall suddenly occurs to the mind that there
is an unconscious but none the less purposeful


thinking, whose result then appears in
consciousness (Philos. d. Mystik, p. 107).


[12] Jung has brilliantly corroborated this
statement by analyses of dementia praecox. (Cf.


The Psychology of Dementia Praecox, translated by

A. A. Brill. Monograph Series, [Journal of Nervous


and Mental Diseases Publishing Co., New York].)



[13] The same considerations naturally hold

good of the case in which superficial associations are


exposed in the dream-content, as, for example, in

both the dreams reported by Maury (p. 50,
pelerinage- pelletier- pelle, kilometer- kilograms-



gilolo, Lobelia- Lopez- Lotto). I know from my work

with neurotics what kind of reminiscence is prone to

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represent itself in this manner. It is the consultation

of encyclopedias by which most people have


satisfied their need of an explanation of the sexual


mystery when obsessed by the curiosity of puberty.
[14] The above statements, which when


written sounded very improbable, have since been
corroborated and applied experimentally by Jung


and his pupils in the Diagnostiche
Assoziationsstudien.


[15] Psychophysik, Part. II, p. 520.
[16] Since writing this, I have thought that


consciousness occurs actually in the locality of the

memory-trace.


[17] The further elaboration of this linear



diagram will have to reckon with the assumption

that the system following the Pcs represents the one


to which we must attribute consciousness (Cs), so

that P = Cs.
[18] The first indication of the element of



regression is already encountered in the writings of

Albertus Magnus. According to him the imaginatio

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constructs the dream out of the tangible objects

which it has retained. The process is the converse of


that operating in the waking state. Hobbes states


(Leviathan, ch. 2): "In sum our dreams are the
reverse of our imagination, the motion, when we are


awake, beginning at one end, and when we dream
at another" (quoted by Havelock Ellis, loc. cit., p.


112). -
[19] From the Greek Kathexo, to occupy,


used here in place of the author's term Besetzung,
to signify a charge or investment of energy.- TR.


[20] Selected Papers on Hysteria, "Further

Observations on the Defence-Neuro-Psychoses," p.


97 above.


[21] In a statement of the theory of

repression it should be explained that a thought


passes into repression owing to the co- operation of

two of the factors which influence it. On the one side
(the censorship of Cs) it is pushed, and from the



other side (the Ucs) it is pulled, much as one is

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helped to the top of the Great Pyramid. (Compare

the paper Repression, p. 422 below.)


[22] They share this character of


indestructibility with all other psychic acts that are
really unconscious- that is, with psychic acts


belonging solely to the system Ucs. These paths are
opened once and for all; they never fall into disease;


they conduct the excitation process to discharge as
often as they are charged again with unconscious


excitation. To speak metaphorically, they suffer no
other form of annihilation than did the shades of the


lower regions in the Odyssey, who awoke to new life

the moment they drank blood. The processes


depending on the preconscious system are



destructible in quite another sense. The

psychotherapy of the neuroses is based on this


difference.
[23] I have endeavoured to penetrate
farther into the relations of the sleeping state and



the conditions of hallucination in my essay,

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"Metapsychological Supplement to the Theory of

Dreams," Collected Papers, IV, p. 137.


[24] Here one may consider the idea of the


super-ego which was later recognized by psycho-
analysis.


[25] In other words: the introduction of a
test of reality is recognized as necessary.


[26] Le Lorrain justly extols the wish-
fulfilments of dreams: "Sans fatigue serieuse, sans


etre oblige de recourir a cette lutte opiniatre et
longue qui use et corrode les jouissances


poursuivies." [Without serious fatigue, without being

obliged to have recourse to that long and stubborn


struggle which exhausts and wears away pleasures



sought.]
[27] I have further elaborated this train of


thought elsewhere, where I have distinguished the

two principles involved as the pleasure-principle and
the reality-principle. Formulations regarding the Two



Principles in Mental Functioning, in Collected Papers,

Vol. iv. p. 13.

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[28] Expressed more exactly: One portion of

the symptom corresponds to the unconscious wish-


fulfilment, while the other corresponds to the


reaction-formation opposed to it.
[29] Hughlings Jackson has expressed


himself as follows: "Find out all about dreams, and
you will have found out all about insanity."


[30] Cf. my latest formulation (in Zeitschrift
fur Sexual- wissenschaft, Bd. I) of the origin of


hysterical symptoms in the treatise on "Hysterical
Phantasies and their Relation to Bisexuality,"


Collected Papers, II, p. 51. This forms chapter X of

Selected Papers on Hysteria, p. 115 above.


[31] This idea has been borrowed from the



theory of sleep of Liebault, who revived hypnotic

research in modern times (Du Sommeil provoque,


etc., Paris [1889]).



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CHAPTER 7 (Part 2)
THE PSYCHOLOGY OF THE DREAM PROCESSES


D. Waking Caused by Dreams -- The


Function of Dreams -- The Anxiety Dream

Now that we know that throughout the night


the preconscious is orientated to the wish to sleep,


we can follow the dream-process with proper
understanding. But let us first summarize what we


already know about this process. We have seen that
day-residues are left over from the waking activity

of the mind, residues from which it has not been
possible to withdraw all cathexis. Either one of the


unconscious wishes has been aroused through the

waking activity during the day or it so happens that


the two coincide; we have already discussed the

multifarious possibilities. Either already during the


day or only on the establishment of the state of

sleep the unconscious wish has made its way to the
day- residues, and has effected a transference to



them. Thus there arises a wish transferred to recent

material; or the suppressed recent wish is revived

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by a reinforcement from the unconscious. This wish

now endeavours to make its way to consciousness


along the normal path of the thought processes,


through the preconscious, to which indeed it belongs
by virtue of one of its constituent elements. It is,


however, confronted by the censorship which still
subsists, and to whose influence it soon succumbs.


It now takes on the distortion for which the way has
already been paved by the transference to recent


material. So far it is on the way to becoming
something resembling an obsession, a delusion, or


the like, i.e., a thought reinforced by a transference,

and distorted in expression owing to the censorship.


But its further progress is now checked by the state



of sleep of the preconscious; this system has

presumably protected itself against invasion by


diminishing its excitations. The dream-process,

therefore, takes the regressive course, which is just
opened up by the peculiarity of the sleeping state,



and in so doing follows the attraction exerted on it

by memory- groups, which are, in part only,

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themselves present as visual cathexis, not as

translations into the symbols of the later systems.


On its way to regression it acquires representability.


The subject of compression will be discussed later.
The dream- process has by this time covered the


second part of its contorted course. The first part
threads its way progressively from the unconscious


scenes or phantasies to the preconscious, while the
second part struggles back from the boundary of the


censorship to the tract of the perceptions. But when
the dream-process becomes a perception-content, it


has, so to speak, eluded the obstacle set up in the

Pcs by the censorship and the sleeping state. It


succeeds in drawing attention to itself, and in being



remarked by consciousness. For consciousness,

which for us means a sense- organ for the


apprehension of psychic qualities, can be excited in

waking life from two sources: firstly, from the
periphery of the whole apparatus, the perceptive



system; and secondly, from the excitations of

pleasure and pain which emerge as the sole psychic

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qualities yielded by the transpositions of energy in

the interior of the apparatus. All other processes in


the Psi- systems, even those in the preconscious,


are devoid of all psychic quality, and are therefore
not objects of consciousness, inasmuch as they do


not provide either pleasure or pain for its perception.
We shall have to assume that these releases of


pleasure and pain automatically regulate the course
of the cathectic processes. But in order to make


possible more delicate performances, it
subsequently proved necessary to render the flow of


ideas more independent of pain-signals. To

accomplish this, the Pcs system needed qualities of


its own which could attract consciousness, and most



probably received them through the connection of

the preconscious processes with the memory-system


of speech-symbols, which was not devoid of quality.

Through the qualities of this system, consciousness,
hitherto only a sense- organ for perceptions, now



becomes also a sense-organ for a part of our

thought-processes. There are now, as it were, two

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sensory surfaces, one turned toward perception and

the other toward the preconscious thought-


processes.


I must assume that the sensory surface of
consciousness which is turned to the preconscious is


rendered far more unexcitable by sleep than the
surface turned toward the P-system. The giving up


of interest in the nocturnal thought-process is, of
course, an appropriate procedure. Nothing is to


happen in thought; the preconscious wants to sleep.
But once the dream becomes perception, it is


capable of exciting consciousness through the

qualities now gained. The sensory excitation


performs what is in fact its function; namely, it



directs a part of the cathectic energy available in the

Pcs to the exciting cause in the form of attention.


We must therefore admit that the dream always has

a waking effect- that is, it calls into activity part of
the quiescent energy of the Pcs. Under the influence



of this energy, it now undergoes the process which

we have described as secondary elaboration with a

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view to coherence and comprehensibility. This

means that the dream is treated by this energy like


any other perception-content; it is subjected to the


same anticipatory ideas as far, at least, as the
material allows. As far as this third part of the


dream-process has any direction, this is once more
progressive.


To avoid misunderstanding, it will not be
amiss to say a few words as to the temporal


characteristics of these dream- processes. In a very
interesting discussion, evidently suggested by


Maury's puzzling guillotine dream, Goblot tries to

demonstrate that a dream takes up no other time


than the transition period between sleeping and



waking. The process of waking up requires time;

during this time the dream occurs. It is supposed


that the final picture of the dream is so vivid that it

forces the dreamer to wake; in reality it is so vivid
only because when it appears the dreamer is already



very near waking. "Un reve, c'est un reveil qui

commence."[32]

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It has already been pointed out by Dugas

that Goblot, in order to generalize his theory, was


forced to ignore a great many facts. There are also


dreams from which we do not awaken; for example,
many dreams in which we dream that we dream.


From our knowledge of the dream-work, we can by
no means admit that it extends only over the period


of waking. On the contrary, we must consider it
probable that the first part of the dream-work is


already begun during the day, when we are still
under the domination of the preconscious. The


second phase of the dream-work, viz., the alteration

by the censorship, the attraction exercised by


unconscious scenes, and the penetration to



perception, continues probably all through the night,

and accordingly we may always be correct when we


report a feeling that we have been dreaming all

night, even although we cannot say what we have
dreamed. I do not however, think that it is



necessary to assume that up to the time of

becoming conscious the dream-processes really

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follow the temporal sequence which we have

described; viz., that there is first the transferred


dream-wish, then the process of distortion due to


the censorship, and then the change of direction to
regression, etc. We were obliged to construct such a


sequence for the sake of description; in reality,
however, it is probably rather a question of


simultaneously trying this path and that, and of the
excitation fluctuating to and fro, until finally,


because it has attained the most apposite
concentration, one particular grouping remains in


the field. Certain personal experiences even incline

me to believe that the dream-work often requires


more than one day and one night to produce its



result, in which case the extraordinary art

manifested in the construction of the dream is shorn


of its miraculous character. In my opinion, even the

regard for the comprehensibility of the dream as a
perceptual event may exert its influence before the



dream attracts consciousness to itself. From this

point, however, the process is accelerated, since the

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dream is henceforth subjected to the same

treatment as any other perception. It is like fire


works, which require hours for their preparation and


then flare up in a moment.
Through the dream-work, the dream-


process now either gains sufficient intensity to
attract consciousness to itself and to arouse the


preconscious (quite independently of the time or
profundity of sleep), or its intensity is insufficient,


and it must wait in readiness until attion, becoming
more alert immediately before waking, meets it half-


way. Most dreams seem to operate with relatively

slight psychic intensities, for they wait for the


process of waking. This, then, explains the fact that



as a rule we perceive something dreamed if we are

suddenly roused from a deep sleep. Here, as well as


in spontaneous waking, our first glance lights upon

the perception-content created by the dream-work,
while the next falls on that provided by the outer



world.

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But of greater theoretical interest are those

dreams which are capable of waking us in the midst


of our sleep. We may bear in mind the


purposefulness which can be demonstrated in all
other cases, and ask ourselves why the dream, that


is, the unconscious wish, is granted the power to
disturb our sleep, i.e., the fulfilment of the


preconscious wish. The explanation is probably to be
found in certain relations of energy which we do not


yet understand. If we did so, we should probably
find that the freedom given to the dream and the


expenditure upon it of a certain detached attention

represent a saving of energy as against the


alternative case of the unconscious having to be



held in check at night just as it is during the day. As

experience shows, dreaming, even if it interrupts


our sleep several times a night, still remains

compatible with sleep. We wake up for a moment,
and immediately fall asleep again. It is like driving



off a fly in our sleep; we awake ad hoc. When we fall

asleep again we have removed the cause of

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disturbance. The familiar examples of the sleep of

wet-nurses, etc., show that the fulfilment of the


wish to sleep is quite compatible with the


maintenance of a certain amount of attention in a
given direction.


But we must here take note of an objection
which is based on a greater knowledge of the


unconscious processes. We have ourselves described
the unconscious wishes as always active, whilst


nevertheless asserting that in the daytime they are
not strong enough to make themselves perceptible.


But when the state of sleep supervenes, and the

unconscious wish has shown its power to form a


dream, and with it to awaken the preconscious, why



does this power lapse after cognizance has been

taken of the dream? Would it not seem more


probable that the dream should continually renew

itself, like the disturbing fly which, when driven
away, takes pleasure in returning again and again?



What justification have we for our assertion that the

dream removes the disturbance to sleep?

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It is quite true that the unconscious wishes

are always active. They represent paths which are


always practicable, whenever a quantum of


excitation makes use of them. It is indeed an
outstanding peculiarity of the unconscious processes


that they are indestructible. Nothing can be brought
to an end in the unconscious; nothing is past or


forgotten. This is impressed upon us emphatically in
the study of the neuroses, and especially of hysteria.


The unconscious path of thought which leads to the
discharge through an attack is forthwith passable


again when there is a sufficient accumulation of

excitation. The mortification suffered thirty years


ago operates, after having gained access to the



unconscious sources of affect, during all these thirty

years as though it were a recent experience.


Whenever its memory is touched, it revives, and

shows itself to be cathected with excitation which
procures a motor discharge for itself in an attack. It



is precisely here that psychotherapy must intervene,

its task being to ensure that the unconscious

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processes are settled and forgotten. Indeed, the

fading of memories and the weak affect of


impressions which are no longer recent, which we


are apt to take as self-evident, and to explain as a
primary effect of time on our psychic memory-


residues, are in reality secondary changes brought
about by laborious work. It is the preconscious that


accomplishes this work; and the only course which
psychotherapy can pursue is to bring the Ucs under


the dominion of the Pcs.
There are, therefore, two possible issues for


any single unconscious excitation-process. Either it

is left to itself, in which case it ultimately breaks


through somewhere and secures, on this one



occasion, a discharge for its excitation into motility,

or it succumbs to the influence of the preconscious,


and through this its excitation becomes bound

instead of being discharged. It is the latter case that
occurs in the dream-process. The cathexis from the



Pcs which goes to meet the dream once this has

attained to perception, because it has been drawn

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thither by the excitation of consciousness, binds the

unconscious excitation of the dream and renders it


harmless as a disturber of sleep. When the dreamer


wakes up for a moment, he has really chased away
the fly that threatened to disturb his sleep. We may


now begin to suspect that it is really more expedient
and economical to give way to the unconscious wish,


to leave clear its path to regression so that and it
may form a dream, and then to bind and dispose of


this dream by means of a small outlay of
preconscious work, than to hold the unconscious in


check throughout the whole period of sleep. It was,

indeed, to be expected that the dream, even if


originally it was not a purposeful process, would



have seized upon some definite function in the play

of forces of the psychic life. We now see what this


function is. The dream has taken over the task of

bringing the excitation of the Ucs, which had been
left free, back under the domination of the



preconscious; it thus discharges the excitation of the

Ucs, acts as a safety-valve for the latter, and at the

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same time, by a slight outlay of waking activity,

secures the sleep of the preconscious. Thus, like the


other psychic formations of its group, the dream


offers itself as a compromise, serving both systems
simultaneously, by fulfilling the wishes of both, in so


far as they are mutually compatible. A glance at
Robert's "elimination theory" will show that we must


agree with this author on his main point, namely,
the determination of the function of dreams, though


we differ from him in our general presuppositions
and in our estimation of the dream-process.[33] -


But an obvious reflection must show us that

this secondary function of the dream has no claim to


recognition within the framework of any dream-



interpretation. Thinking ahead, making resolutions,

sketching out attempted solutions which can then


perhaps be realized in waking life- these and many

more performances are functions of the unconscious
and preconscious activities of the mind which



continue as day-residues in the sleeping state, and

can then combine with an unconscious wish to form

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a dream (chapter VII., C.). The function of thinking

ahead in the dream is thus rather a function of


preconscious waking thought, the result of which


may be disclosed to us by the analysis of dreams or
other phenomena. After the dream has so long been


fused with its manifest content, one must now guard
against confusing it with the latent dream-thoughts.


The above qualification- in so far as the two
wishes are mutually compatible- contains a


suggestion that there may be cases in which the
function of the dream fails. The dream-process is, to


begin with, admitted as a wish-fulfilment of the

unconscious, but if this attempted wish-fulfilment


disturbs the preconscious so profoundly that the



latter can no longer maintain its state of rest, the

dream has broken the compromise, and has failed to


perform the second part of its task. It is then at

once broken off, and replaced by complete
awakening. But even here it is not really the fault of



the dream if, though at other times the guardian, it

has now to appear as the disturber of sleep, nor

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need this prejudice us against its averred purposive

character. This is not the only instance in the


organism in which a contrivance that is usually to


the purpose becomes inappropriate and disturbing
so soon as something is altered in the conditions


which engender it; the disturbance, then, at all
events serves the new purpose of indicating the


change, and of bringing into play against it the
means of adjustment of the organism. Here, of


course, I am thinking of the anxiety-dream, and lest
it should seem that I try to evade this witness


against the theory of wish- fulfilment whenever I

encounter it, I will at least give some indications as


to the explanation of the anxiety-dream.



That a psychic process which develops

anxiety may still be a wish- fulfilment has long


ceased to imply any contradiction for us. We may

explain this occurrence by the fact that the wish
belongs to one system (the Ucs), whereas the other



system (the Pcs) has rejected and suppressed

it.[34] The subjection of the Ucs by the Pcs is not

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thoroughgoing even in perfect psychic health; the

extent of this suppression indicates the degree of


our psychic normality. Neurotic symptoms indicate


to us that the two systems are in mutual conflict;
the symptoms are the result of a compromise in this


conflict, and they temporarily put an end to it. On
the one hand, they afford the Ucs a way out for the


discharge of its excitation- they serve it as a kind of
sally- gate- while, on the other hand, they give the


Pcs the possibility of dominating the Ucs in some
degree. It is instructive to consider, for example, the


significance of a hysterical phobia, or of

agoraphobia. A neurotic is said to be incapable of


crossing the street alone, and this we should rightly



call a symptom. Let someone now remove this

symptom by constraining him to this action which he


deems himself incapable of performing. The result

will be an attack of anxiety, just as an attack of
anxiety in the street has often been the exciting



cause of the establishment of an agoraphobia. We

thus learn that the symptom has been constituted in

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order to prevent the anxiety from breaking out. The

phobia is thrown up before the anxiety like a frontier


fortress.


We cannot enlarge further on this subject
unless we examine the role of the affects in these


processes, which can only be done here imperfectly.
We will therefore affirm the proposition that the


principal reason why the suppression of the Ucs
becomes necessary is that, if the movement of ideas


in the Ucs were allowed to run its course, it would
develop an affect which originally had the character


of pleasure, but which, since the process of

repression, bears the character of pain. The aim, as


well as the result, of the suppression is to prevent



the development of this pain. The suppression

extends to the idea- content of the Ucs, because the


liberation of pain might emanate from this idea-

content. We here take as our basis a quite definite
assumption as to the nature of the development of



affect. This is regarded as a motor or secretory

function, the key to the innervation of which is to be

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found in the ideas of the Ucs. Through the

domination of the Pcs these ideas are as it were


strangled, that is, inhibited from sending out the


impulse that would develop the affect. The danger
which arises, if cathexis by the Pcs ceases, thus


consists in the fact that the unconscious excitations
would liberate an affect that- in consequence of the


repression that has previously occurred- could only
be felt as pain or anxiety.


This danger is released if the dream-process
is allowed to have its own way. The conditions for its


realization are that repressions shall have occurred,

and that the suppressed wish- impulses can become


sufficiently strong. They, therefore, fall entirely



outside the psychological framework of dream-

formation. Were it not for the fact that our theme is


connected by just one factor with the theme of the

development of anxiety, namely, by the setting free
of the Ucs during sleep, I could refrain from the



discussion of the anxiety-dream altogether, and thus

avoid all the obscurities involved in it.

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The theory of the anxiety-dream belongs, as

I have already repeatedly stated, to the psychology


of the neuroses. I might further add that anxiety in


dreams is an anxiety-problem and not a dream-
problem. Having once exhibited the point of contact


of the psychology of the neuroses with the theme of
the dream- process, we have nothing further to do


with it. There is only one thing left which I can do.
Since I have asserted that neurotic anxiety has its


origin in sexual sources, I can subject anxiety-
dreams to analysis in order to demonstrate the


sexual material in their dream-thoughts.

For good reasons, I refrain from citing any of


the examples so abundantly placed at my disposal



by neurotic patients, and prefer to give some

anxiety-dreams of children.


Personally, I have had no real anxiety-

dream for decades, but I do recall one from my
seventh or eighth year which I subjected to



interpretation some thirty years later. The dream

was very vivid, and showed me my beloved mother,

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with a peculiarly calm, sleeping countenance, carried

into the room and laid on the bed by two (or three)


persons with birds' beaks. I awoke crying and


screaming, and disturbed my parents' sleep. The
peculiarly draped, excessively tall figures with beaks


I had taken from the illustrations of Philippson's
Bible; I believe they represented deities with the


heads of sparrowhawks from an Egyptian tomb-
relief. The analysis yielded, however, also the


recollection of a house-porter's boy, who used to
play with us children on a meadow in front of the


house; I might add that his name was Philip. It

seemed to me then that I first heard from this boy


the vulgar word signifying sexual intercourse, which



is replaced among educated persons by the Latin

word coitus, but which the dream plainly enough


indicates by the choice of the birds' heads. I must

have guessed the sexual significance of the word
from the look of my worldly-wise teacher. My



mother's expression in the dream was copied from

the countenance of my grandfather, whom I had

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seen a few days before his death snoring in a state

of coma. The interpretation of the secondary


elaboration in the dream must therefore have been


that my mother was dying; the tomb-relief, too,
agrees with this. I awoke with this anxiety, and


could not calm myself until I had waked my parents.
I remember that I suddenly became calm when I


saw my mother; it was as though I had needed the
assurance: then she was not dead. But this


secondary interpretation of the dream had only
taken place when the influence of the developed


anxiety was already at work. I was not in a state of

anxiety because I had dreamt that my mother was


dying; I interpreted the dream in this manner in the



preconscious elaboration because I was already

under the domination of the anxiety. The latter,


however, could be traced back, through the

repression to a dark, plainly sexual craving, which
had found appropriate expression in the visual



content of the dream.

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A man twenty-seven years of age, who had

been seriously ill for a year, had repeatedly


dreamed, between the ages of eleven and thirteen,


dreams attended with great anxiety, to the effect
that a man with a hatchet was running after him; he


wanted to run away, but seemed to be paralysed,
and could not move from the spot. This may be


taken as a good and typical example of a very
common anxiety-dream, free from any suspicion of


a sexual meaning. In the analysis, the dreamer first
thought of a story told him by his uncle


(chronologically later than the dream), viz., that he

was attacked at night in the street by a suspicious-


looking individual; and he concluded from this



association that he might have heard of a similar

episode at the time of the dream. In association with


the hatchet, he recalled that during this period of his

life he once hurt his hand with a hatchet while
chopping wood. This immediately reminded him of



his relations with his younger brother, whom he

used to maltreat and knock down. He recalled, in

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particular, one occasion when he hit his brother's

head with his boot and made it bleed, and his


mother said: "I'm afraid he will kill him one day."


While he seemed to be thus held by the theme of
violence, a memory from his ninth year suddenly


emerged. His parents had come home late and had
gone to bed, whilst he was pretending to be asleep.


He soon heard panting, and other sounds that
seemed to him mysterious, and he could also guess


the position of his parents in bed. His further
thoughts showed that he had established an analogy


between this relation between his parents and his

own relation to his younger brother. He subsumed


what was happening between his parents under the



notion of "an act of violence and a fight." The fact

that he had frequently noticed blood in his mother's


bed corroborated this conception.

That the sexual intercourse of adults
appears strange and alarming to children who



observe it, and arouses anxiety in them, is, I may

say, a fact established by everyday experience. I

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have explained this anxiety on the ground that we

have here a sexual excitation which is not mastered


by the child's understanding, and which probably


also encounters repulsion because their parents are
involved, and is therefore transformed into anxiety.


At a still earlier period of life the sexual impulse
towards the parent of opposite sex does not yet


suffer repression, but as we have seen (chapter V.,
D.) expresses itself freely.


For the night terrors with hallucinations
(pavor nocturnus) so frequent in children I should


without hesitation offer the same explanation.

These, too, can only be due to misunderstood and


rejected sexual impulses which, if recorded, would



probably show a temporal periodicity, since an

intensification of sexual libido may equally be


produced by accidentally exciting impressions and

by spontaneous periodic processes of development.
I have not the necessary observational



material for the full demonstration of this

explanation.[35] On the other hand, pediatrists

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seem to lack the point of view which alone makes

intelligible the whole series of phenomena, both


from the somatic and from the psychic side. To


illustrate by a comical example how closely, if one is
made blind by the blinkers of medical mythology,


one may pass by the understanding of such cases, I
will cite a case which I found in a thesis on pavor


nocturnus (Debacker, 1881, p. 66).
A boy of thirteen, in delicate health, began


to be anxious and dreamy; his sleep became
uneasy, and once almost every week it was


interrupted by an acute attack of anxiety with

hallucinations. The memory of these dreams was


always very distinct. Thus he was able to relate that



the devil had shouted at him: "Now we have you,

now we have you!" and then there was a smell of


pitch and brimstone, and the fire burned his skin.

From this dream he woke in terror; at first he could
not cry out; then his voice came back to him, and he



was distinctly heard to say: "No, no, not me; I

haven't done anything," or: "Please, don't; I will

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never do it again!" At other times he said: "Albert

has never done that!" Later he avoided undressing,


"because the fire attacked him only when he was


undressed." In the midst of these evil dreams, which
were endangering his health, he was sent into the


country, where he recovered in the course of
eighteen months. At the age of fifteen he confessed


one day: "Je n'osais pas l'avouer, mais j'eprouvais
continuellement des picotements et des


surexcitations aux parties;[36] a la fin, cela
m'enervait tant que plusieurs fois j'ai pense me jeter


par la fenetre du dortoir."[37]

It is, of course, not difficult to guess: 1. That


the boy had practised masturbation in former years,



that he had probably denied it, and was threatened

with severe punishment for his bad habit (His


confession: Je ne le ferai plus;[38] his denial: Albert

n'a jamais fait ca.)[39] 2. That, under the advancing
pressure of puberty, the temptation to masturbate



was re-awakened through the titillation of the

genitals. 3. That now, however, there arose within

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him a struggle for repression, which suppressed the

libido and transformed it into anxiety, and that this


anxiety now gathered up the punishments with


which he was originally threatened.
Let us, on the other hand, see what


conclusions were drawn by the author (p. 69):
"1. It is clear from this observation that the


influence of puberty may produce in a boy of
delicate health a condition of extreme weakness,


and that this may lead to a very marked cerebral
anaemia.[40]


"2. This cerebral anaemia produces an

alteration of character, demono-maniacal


hallucinations, and very violent nocturnal, and



perhaps also diurnal, states of anxiety.

"3. The demonomania and the self-


reproaches of the boy can be traced to the

influences of a religious education which had acted
upon him as a child.



"4. All manifestations disappeared as a

result of a lengthy sojourn in the country, bodily

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exercise, and the return of physical strength after

the termination of puberty.


"5. Possibly an influence predisposing to the


development of the boy's cerebral state may be
attributed to heredity and to the father's former


syphilis."
Then finally come the concluding remarks:


"Nous avons fait entrer cette observation dans le
cadre delires apyretiques d'inanition, car c'est a


l'ischemie cerebrale que nous rattachons cet etat
particulier."[41]


E. The Primary and Secondary



Processes. Repression

In attempting to penetrate more profoundly



into the psychology of the dream-processes, I have

undertaken a difficult task, to which, indeed, my


powers of exposition are hardly adequate. To

reproduce the simultaneity of so complicated a
scheme in terms of a successive description, and at



the same time to make each part appear free from

all assumptions, goes fairly beyond my powers. I

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have now to atone for the fact that in my exposition

of the psychology of dreams I have been unable to


follow the historic development of my own insight.


The lines of approach to the comprehension of the
dream were laid down for me by previous


investigations into the psychology of the neuroses,
to which I should not refer here, although I am


constantly obliged to do so; whereas I should like to
work in the opposite direction, starting from the


dream, and then proceeding to establish its junction
with the psychology of the neuroses. I am conscious


of all the difficulties which this involves for the

reader, but I know of no way to avoid them.


Since I am dissatisfied with this state of



affairs, I am glad to dwell upon another point of

view, which would seem to enhance the value of my


efforts. As was shown in the introductory section, I

found myself confronted with a theme which had
been marked by the sharpest contradictions on the



part of those who had written on it. In the course of

our treatment of the problems of the dream, room

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has been found for most of these contradictory

views. We have been compelled to take decided


exception to two only of the views expressed:


namely, that the dream is a meaningless process,
and that it is a somatic process. Apart from these,


we have been able to find a place for the truth of all
the contradictory opinions at one point or another of


the complicated tissue of the facts, and we have
been able to show that each expressed something


genuine and correct. That our dreams continue the
impulses and interests of waking life has been


generally confirmed by the discovery of the hidden

dream-thoughts. These concern themselves only


with things that seem to us important and of great



interest. Dreams never occupy themselves with

trifles. But we have accepted also the opposite view,


namely, that the dream gathers up the indifferent

residues of the day, and cannot seize upon any
important interest of the day until it has in some



measure withdrawn itself from waking activity. We

have found that this holds true of the dream-

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content, which by means of distortion gives the

dream-thought an altered expression. We have said


that the dream-process, owing to the nature of the


mechanism of association, finds it easier to obtain
possession of recent or indifferent material, which


has not yet been put under an embargo by our
waking mental activity; and that, on account of the


censorship, it transfers the psychic intensity of the
significant but also objectionable material to the


indifferent. The hypermnesia of the dream and its
ability to dispose of infantile material have become


the main foundations of our doctrine; in our theory

of dreams we have assigned to a wish of infantile


origin the part of the indispensable motive-power of



dream-formation. It has not, of course, occurred to

us to doubt the experimentally demonstrated


significance of external sensory stimuli during sleep;

but we have placed this material in the same
relation to the dream-wish as the thought-residues



left over from our waking activity. We need not

dispute the fact that the dream interprets objective

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sensory stimuli after the manner of an illusion; but

we have supplied the motive for this interpretation,


which has been left indeterminate by other writers.


The interpretation proceeds in such a way that the
perceived object is rendered harmless as a source of


disturbance of sleep, whilst it is made usable for the
wish-fulfilment. Though we do not admit as a special


source of dreams the subjective state of excitation
of the sensory organs during sleep (which seems to


have been demonstrated by Trumbull Ladd), we are,
nevertheless, able to explain this state of excitation


by the regressive revival of the memories active

behind the dream. As to the internal organic


sensations, which are wont to be taken as the



cardinal point of the explanation of dreams, these,

too, find a place in our conception, though indeed a


more modest one. These sensations- the sensations

of falling, of soaring, or of being inhibited- represent
an ever-ready material, which the dream-work can



employ to express the dream- thought as often as

need arises.

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That the dream-process is a rapid and

momentary one is, we believe, true as regards the


perception by consciousness of the preformed


dream-content; but we have found that the
preceding portions of the dream-process probably


follow a slow, fluctuating course. As for the riddle of
the superabundant dream-content compressed into


the briefest moment of time, we have been able to
contribute the explanation that the dream seizes


upon ready-made formations of the psychic life. We
have found that it is true that dreams are distorted


and mutilated by the memory, but that this fact

presents no difficulties, as it is only the last manifest


portion of a process of distortion which has been



going on from the very beginning of the dream-

work. In the embittered controversy, which has


seemed irreconcilable, whether the psychic life is

asleep at night, or can make the same use of all its
faculties as during the day, we have been able to



conclude that both sides are right, but that neither is

entirely so. In the dream-thoughts we found

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evidence of a highly complicated intellectual activity,

operating with almost all the resources of the


psychic apparatus; yet it cannot be denied that


these dream- thoughts have originated during the
day, and it is indispensable to assume that there is a


sleeping state of the psychic life. Thus, even the
doctrine of partial sleep received its due, but we


have found the characteristic feature of the sleeping
state not in the disintegration of the psychic system


of connections, but in the special attitude adopted
by the psychic system which is dominant during the


day- the attitude of the wish to sleep. The deflection

from the outer world retains its significance for our


view, too; though not the only factor at work, it



helps to make possible the regressive course of the

dream-representation. The abandonment of


voluntary guidance of the flow of ideas is

incontestable; but psychic life does not thereby
become aimless, for we have seen that upon



relinquishment of the voluntary directing ideas,

involuntary ones take charge. On the other hand, we

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have not only recognized the loose associative

connection of the dream, but have brought a far


greater area within the scope of this kind of


connection than could have been suspected; we
have, however, found it merely an enforced


substitute for another, a correct and significant type
of association. To be sure, we too have called the


dream absurd, but examples have shown us how
wise the dream is when it simulates absurdity. As


regards the functions that have been attributed to
the dream, we are able to accept them all. That the


dream relieves the mind, like a safety-valve, and

that, as Robert has put it, all kinds of harmful


material are rendered harmless by representation in



the dream, not only coincides exactly with our own

theory of the twofold wish-fulfilment in the dream,


but in its very wording becomes more intelligible for

us than it is for Robert himself. The free indulgence
of the psyche in the play of its faculties is



reproduced in our theory as the non-interference of

the preconscious activity with the dream. The return

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of the embryonal standpoint of psychic life in the

dream, and Havelock Ellis's remark that the dream


is "an archaic world of vast emotions and imperfect


thoughts," appear to us as happy anticipations of
our own exposition, which asserts that primitive


modes of operations that are suppressed during the
day play a part in the formation of dreams. We can


fully identify ourselves with Sully's statement, that
"our dreams bring back again our earlier and


successively developed personalities, our old ways of
regarding things, with impulses and modes of


reaction which ruled us long ago"; and for us, as for

Delage, the suppressed material becomes the


mainspring of the dream.



We have fully accepted the role that

Scherner ascribes to the dream-phantasy, and his


own interpretations, but we have been obliged to

transpose them, as it were, to another part of the
problem. It is not the dream that creates the



phantasy, but the activity of unconscious phantasy

that plays the leading part in the formation of the

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dream-thoughts. We remain indebted to Scherner

for directing us to the source of the dream-thoughts,


but almost everything that he ascribes to the


dream-work is attributable to the activity of the
unconscious during the day, which instigates dreams


no less than neurotic symptoms. The dream- work
we had to separate from this activity as something


quite different and far more closely controlled.
Finally, we have by no means renounced the relation


of the dream to psychic disturbances, but have
given it, on new ground, a more solid foundation.


Held together by the new features in our

theory as by a superior unity, we find the most


varied and most contradictory conclusions of other



writers fitting into our structure; many of them are

given a different turn, but only a few of them are


wholly rejected. But our own structure is still

unfinished. For apart from the many obscure
questions in which we have involved ourselves by



our advance into the dark regions of psychology, we

are now, it would seem, embarrassed by a new

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contradiction. On the one hand, we have made it

appear that the dream-thoughts proceed from


perfectly normal psychic activities, but on the other


hand we have found among the dream-thoughts a
number of entirely abnormal mental processes,


which extend also to the dream-content, and which
we reproduce in the interpretation of the dream. All


that we have termed the dream-work seems to
depart so completely from the psychic processes


which we recognize as correct and appropriate that
the severest judgments expressed by the writers


mentioned as to the low level of psychic

achievement of dreams must appear well founded.


Here, perhaps, only further investigations



can provide an explanation and set us on the right

path. Let me pick out for renewed attention one of


the constellations which lead to dream- formation.

We have learned that the dream serves as a
substitute for a number of thoughts derived from



our daily life, and which fit together with perfect

logic. We cannot, therefore, doubt that these

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thoughts have their own origin in our normal mental

life. All the qualities which we value in our thought-


processes, and which mark them out as complicated


performances of a high order, we shall find repeated
in the dream-thoughts. There is, however, no need


to assume that this mental work is performed during
sleep; such an assumption would badly confuse the


conception of the psychic state of sleep to which we
have hitherto adhered. On the contrary, these


thoughts may very well have their origin in the
daytime, and, unremarked by our consciousness,


may have gone on from their first stimulus until, at

the onset of sleep, they have reached completion. If


we are to conclude anything from this state of



affairs, it can only be that it proves that the most

complex mental operations are possible without the


cooperation of consciousness- a truth which we have

had to learn anyhow from every psycho-analysis of a
patient suffering from hysteria or obsessions. These



dream-thoughts are certainly not in themselves

incapable of consciousness; if we have not become

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conscious of them during the day, this may have

been due to various reasons. The act of becoming


conscious depends upon a definite psychic function-


attention- being brought to bear. This seems to be
available only in a determinate quantity, which may


have been diverted from the train of thought in
question by other aims. Another way in which such


trains of thought may be withheld from
consciousness is the following: From our conscious


reflection we know that, when applying our
attention, we follow a particular course. But if that


course leads us to an idea which cannot withstand

criticism, we break off and allow the cathexis of


attention to drop. Now, it would seem that the train



of thought thus started and abandoned may

continue to develop without our attention returning


to it, unless at some point it attains a specially high

intensity which compels attention. An initial
conscious rejection by our judgment, on the ground



of incorrectness or uselessness for the immediate

purpose of the act of thought, may, therefore, be

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the cause of a thought-process going on unnoticed

by consciousness until the onset of sleep.


Let us now recapitulate: We call such a train


of thought a preconscious train, and we believe it to
be perfectly correct, and that it may equally well be


a merely neglected train or one that has been
interrupted and suppressed. Let us also state in


plain terms how we visualize the movement of our
thought. We believe that a certain quantity of


excitation, which we call cathectic energy, is
displaced from a purposive idea along the


association paths selected by this directing idea. A

neglected train of thought has received no such


cathexis, and the cathexis has been withdrawn from



one that was suppressed or rejected; both have thus

been left to their own excitations. The train of


thought cathected by some aim becomes able under

certain conditions to attract the attention of
consciousness, and by the mediation of



consciousness it then receives hyper-cathexis. We

shall be obliged presently to elucidate our

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assumptions as to the nature and function of

consciousness.


A train of thought thus incited in the Pcs


may either disappear spontaneously, or it may
continue. The former eventuality we conceive as


follows: it diffuses its energy through all the
association paths emanating from it, and throws the


entire chain of thoughts into a state of excitation,
which continues for a while, and then subsides,


through the excitation which had called for discharge
being transformed into dormant cathexis. If this first


eventuality occurs, the process has no further

significance for dream-formation. But other directing


ideas are lurking in our preconscious, which have



their source in our unconscious and ever- active

wishes. These may gain control of the excitation in


the circle of thoughts thus left to itself, establish a

connection between it and the unconscious wish,
and transfer to it the energy inherent in the



unconscious wish. Henceforth the neglected or

suppressed train of thought is in a position to

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maintain itself, although this reinforcement gives it

no claim to access to consciousness. We may say,


then, that the hitherto preconscious train of thought


has been drawn into the unconscious.
Other constellations leading to dream-


formation might be as follows: The preconscious
train of thought might have been connected from


the beginning with the unconscious wish, and for
that reason might have met with rejection by the


dominating aim- cathexis. Or an unconscious wish
might become active for other (possibly somatic)


reasons, and of its own accord seek a transference

to the psychic residues not cathected by the Pcs. All


three cases have the same result: there is



established in the preconscious a train of thought

which, having been abandoned by the preconscious


cathexis, has acquired cathexis from the

unconscious wish.
From this point onward the train of thought



is subjected to a series of transformations which we

no longer recognize as normal psychic processes,

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and which give a result that we find strange, a

psychopathological formation. Let us now emphasize


and bring together these transformations:


1. The intensities of the individual ideas
become capable of discharge in their entirety, and


pass from one idea to another, so that individual
ideas are formed which are endowed with great


intensity. Through the repeated occurrence of this
process, the intensity of an entire train of thought


may ultimately be concentrated in a single
conceptual unit. This is the fact of compression or


condensation with which we become acquainted

when investigating the dream-work. It is


condensation that is mainly responsible for the



strange impression produced by dreams, for we

know of nothing analogous to it in the normal


psychic life that is accessible to consciousness. We

get here, too, ideas which are of great psychic
significance as nodal points or as end-results of



whole chains of thought, but this value is not

expressed by any character actually manifest for our

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internal perception; what is represented in it is not

in any way made more intensive. In the process of


condensation the whole set of psychic connections


becomes transformed into the intensity of the idea-
content. The situation is the same as when, in the


case of a book, I italicize or print in heavy type any
word to which I attach outstanding value for the


understanding of the text. In speech, I should
pronounce the same word loudly, and deliberately,


and with emphasis. The first simile points
immediately to one of the examples which were


given of the dream-work (trimethylamine in the

dream of Irma's injection). Historians of art call our


attention to the fact that the most ancient sculptures



known to history follow a similar principle, in

expressing the rank of the persons represented by


the size of the statues. The king is made two or

three times as tall as his retinue or his vanquished
enemies. But a work of art of the Roman period



makes use of more subtle means to accomplish the

same end. The figure of the Emperor is placed in the

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centre, erect and in his full height, and special care

is bestowed on the modelling of this figure; his


enemies are seen cowering at his feet; but he is no


longer made to seem a giant among dwarfs. At the
same time, in the bowing of the subordinate to his


superior, even in our own day, we have an echo of
this ancient principle of representation.


The direction followed by the condensations
of the dream is prescribed on the one hand by the


true preconscious relations of the dream-thoughts,
and, on the other hand, by the attraction of the


visual memories in the unconscious. The success of

the condensation-work produces those intensities


which are required for penetration to the perception-



system.
2. By the free transference of intensities,


and in the service of the condensation, intermediary

ideas- compromises, as it were- are formed (cf. the
numerous examples). This, also, is something



unheard of in the normal movement of our ideas,

where what is of most importance is the selection

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and the retention of the right conceptual material.

On the other hand, composite and compromise


formations occur with extraordinary frequency when


we are trying to find verbal expression for
preconscious thoughts; these are considered slips of


the tongue.
3. The ideas which transfer their intensities


to one another are very loosely connected, and are
joined together by such forms of association as are


disdained by our serious thinking, and left to be
exploited solely by wit. In particular, assonances and


punning associations are treated as equal in value to

any other associations.


4. Contradictory thoughts do not try to



eliminate one another, but continue side by side,

and often combine to form condensation- products,


as though no contradiction existed; or they form

compromises for which we should never forgive our
thought, but which we frequently sanction in our



action.

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These are some of the most conspicuous

abnormal processes to which the dream-thoughts


which have previously been rationally formed are


subjected in the course of the dream-work. As the
main feature of these processes, we may see that


the greatest importance is attached to rendering the
cathecting energy mobile and capable of discharge;


the content and the intrinsic significance of the
psychic elements to which these cathexes adhere


become matters of secondary importance. One
might perhaps assume that condensation and


compromise-formation are effected only in the

service of regression, when the occasion arises for


changing thoughts into images. But the analysis-



and still more plainly the synthesis- of such dreams

as show no regression towards images, e.g., the


dream Autodidasker: Conversation with Professor N,

reveals the same processes of displacement and
condensation as do the rest.



We cannot, therefore, avoid the conclusion

that two kinds of essentially different psychic

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processes participate in dream- formation; one

forms perfectly correct and fitting dream- thoughts,


equivalent to the results of normal thinking, while


the other deals with these thoughts in a most
astonishing and, as it seems, incorrect way. The


latter process we have already set apart in chapter
VI as the dream-work proper. What can we say now


as to the derivation of this psychic process?
It would be impossible to answer this


question here if we had not penetrated a
considerable way into the psychology of the


neuroses, and especially of hysteria. From this,

however, we learn that the same "incorrect" psychic


processes- as well as others not enumerated-



control the production of hysterical symptoms. In

hysteria, too, we find at first a series of perfectly


correct and fitting thoughts, equivalent to our

conscious ones, of whose existence in this form we
can, however, learn nothing, i.e., which we can only



subsequently reconstruct. If they have forced their

way anywhere to perception, we discover from the

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analysis of the symptom formed that these normal

thoughts have been subjected to abnormal


treatment, and that by means of condensation and


compromise-formation, through superficial
associations which cover up contradictions, and


eventually along the path of regression, they have
been conveyed into the symptom. In view of the


complete identity between the peculiarities of the
dream-work and those of the psychic activity which


issues in psychoneurotic symptoms, we shall feel
justified in transferring to the dream the conclusions


urged upon us by hysteria.

From the theory of hysteria we borrow the


proposition that such an abnormal psychic



elaboration of a normal train of thought takes place

only when the latter has been used for the


transference of an unconscious wish which dares

from the infantile life and is in a state of repression.
Complying with this proposition, we have built up



the theory of the dream on the assumption that the

actuating dream-wish invariably originates in the

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unconscious; which, as we have ourselves admitted,

cannot be universally demonstrated, even though it


cannot be refuted. But in order to enable us to say


just what repression is, after employing this term so
freely, we shall be obliged to make a further addition


to our psychological scaffolding.
We had elaborated the fiction of a primitive


psychic apparatus, the work of which is regulated by
the effort to avoid accumulation of excitation, and as


far as possible to maintain itself free from excitation.
For this reason it was constructed after the plan of a


reflex apparatus; motility, in the first place as the

path to changes within the body, was the channel of


discharge at its disposal. We then discussed the



psychic results of experiences of gratification, and

were able at this point to introduce a second


assumption, namely, that the accumulation of

excitation- by processes that do not concern us
here- is felt as pain, and sets the apparatus in



operation in order to bring about again a state of

gratification, in which the diminution of excitation is

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perceived as pleasure. Such a current in the

apparatus, issuing from pain and striving for


pleasure, we call a wish. We have said that nothing


but a wish is capable of setting the apparatus in
motion and that the course of any excitation in the


apparatus is regulated automatically by the
perception of pleasure and pain. The first occurrence


of wishing may well have taken the form of a
hallucinatory cathexis of the memory of gratification.


But this hallucination, unless it could be maintained
to the point of exhaustion, proved incapable of


bringing about a cessation of the need, and

consequently of securing the pleasure connected


with gratification.


Thus, there was required a second activity-

in our terminology the activity of a second system-


which would not allow the memory- cathexis to force

its way to perception and thence to bind the psychic
forces, but would lead the excitation emanating from



the need-stimulus by a detour, which by means of

voluntary motility would ultimately so change the

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outer world as to permit the real perception of the

gratifying object. Thus far we have already


elaborated the scheme of the psychic apparatus;


these two systems are the germ of what we set up
in the fully developed apparatus as the Ucs and Pcs.


To change the outer world appropriately by
means of motility requires the accumulation of a


large total of experiences in the memory-systems,
as well as a manifold consolidation of the relations


which are evoked in this memory-material by
various directing ideas. We will now proceed further


with our assumptions. The activity of the second

system, groping in many directions, tentatively


sending forth cathexes and retracting them, needs



on the one hand full command over all memory-

material, but on the other hand it would be a


superfluous expenditure of energy were it to send

along the individual thought-paths large quantities
of cathexis, which would then flow away to no



purpose and thus diminish the quantity needed for

changing the outer world. Out of a regard for

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purposiveness, therefore, I postulate that the

second system succeeds in maintaining the greater


part of the energic cathexes in a state of rest, and in


using only a small portion for its operations of
displacement. The mechanics of these processes is


entirely unknown to me; anyone who seriously
wishes to follow up these ideas must address himself


to the physical analogies, and find some way of
getting a picture of the sequence of motions which


ensues on the excitation of the neurones. Here I do
no more than hold fast to the idea that the activity


of the first Psi-system aims at the free outflow of the

quantities of excitation, and that the second system,


by means of the cathexes emanating from it, effects



an inhibition of this outflow, a transformation into

dormant cathexis, probably with a rise of potential. I


therefore assume that the course taken by any

excitation under the control of the second system is
bound to quite different mechanical conditions from



those which obtain under the control of the first

system. After the second system has completed its

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work of experimental thought, it removes the

inhibition and damming up of the excitations and


allows them to flow off into motility.


An interesting train of thought now presents
itself if we consider the relations of this inhibition of


discharge by the second system to the process of
regulation by the pain-principle. Let us now seek out


the counterpart of the primary experience of
gratification, namely, the objective experience of


fear. Let a perception-stimulus act on the primitive
apparatus and be the source of a pain-excitation.


There will then ensue uncoordinated motor

manifestations, which will go on until one of these


withdraws the apparatus from perception, and at the



same time from the pain. On the reappearance of

the percept this manifestation will immediately be


repeated (perhaps as a movement of flight), until

the percept has again disappeared. But in this case
no tendency will remain to recathect the perception



of the source of pain by hallucination or otherwise.

On the contrary, there will be a tendency in the

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primary apparatus to turn away again from this

painful memory-image immediately if it is in any


way awakened, since the overflow of its excitation


into perception would, of course, evoke (or more
precisely, begin to evoke) pain. This turning away


from a recollection, which is merely a repetition of
the former flight from perception, is also facilitated


by the fact that, unlike the perception, the
recollection has not enough quality to arouse


consciousness, and thereby to attract fresh cathexis.
This effortless and regular turning away of the


psychic process from the memory of anything that

had once been painful gives us the prototype and


the first example of psychic repression. We all know



how much of this turning away from the painful, the

tactics of the ostrich, may still be shown as present


even in the normal psychic life of adults.

In obedience to the pain-principle, therefore,
the first Psi- system is quite incapable of introducing



anything unpleasant into the thought-nexus. The

system cannot do anything but wish. If this were to

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remain so, the activity of thought of the second

system, which needs to have at its disposal all the


memories stored up by experience, would be


obstructed. But two paths are now open: either the
work of the second system frees itself completely


from the pain-principle, and continues its course,
paying no heed to the pain attached to given


memories, or it contrives to cathect the memory of
the pain in such a manner as to preclude the


liberation of pain. We can reject the first possibility,
as the pain-principle also proves to act as a


regulator of the cycle of excitation in the second

system; we are therefore thrown back upon the


second possibility, namely, that this system cathects



a memory in such a manner as to inhibit any outflow

of excitation from it, and hence, also, the outflow,


comparable to a motor-innervation, needed for the

development of pain. And thus, setting out from two
different starting-points, i.e., from regard for the



pain-principle, and from the principle of the least

expenditure of innervation, we are led to the

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hypothesis that cathexis through the second system

is at the same time an inhibition of the discharge of


excitation. Let us, however, keep a close hold on the


fact- for this is the key to the theory of repression-
that the second system can only cathect an idea


when it is in a position to inhibit any pain emanating
from this idea. Anything that withdrew itself from


this inhibition would also remain inaccessible for the
second system, i.e., would immediately be given up


by virtue of the pain- principle. The inhibition of
pain, however, need not be complete; it must be


permitted to begin, since this indicates to the second

system the nature of the memory, and possibly its


lack of fitness for the purpose sought by the process



of thought.
The psychic process which is alone tolerated


by the first system I shall now call the primary

process; and that which results under the inhibiting
action of the second system I shall call the



secondary process. I can also show at another point

for what purpose the second system is obliged to

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correct the primary process. The primary process

strives for discharge of the excitation in order to


establish with the quantity of excitation thus


collected an identity of perception; the secondary
process has abandoned this intention, and has


adopted instead the aim of an identity of thought.
All thinking is merely a detour from the memory of


gratification (taken as a purposive idea) to the
identical cathexis of the same memory, which is to


be reached once more by the path of motor
experiences. Thought must concern itself with the


connecting-paths between ideas without allowing

itself to be misled by their intensities. But it is


obvious that condensations of ideas and



intermediate or compromise-formations are

obstacles to the attainment of the identity which is


aimed at; by substituting one idea for another they

swerve away from the path which would have led
onward from the first idea. Such procedures are,



therefore, carefully avoided in our secondary

thinking. It will readily be seen, moreover, that the

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pain- principle, although at other times it provides

the thought- process with its most important clues,


may also put difficulties in its way in the pursuit of


identity of thought. Hence, the tendency of the
thinking process must always be to free itself more


and more from exclusive regulation by the pain-
principle, and to restrict the development of affect


through the work of thought to the very minimum
which remains effective as a signal. This refinement


in functioning is to be achieved by a fresh hyper-
cathexis, effected with the help of consciousness.


But we are aware that this refinement is seldom

successful, even in normal psychic life, and that our


thinking always remains liable to falsification by the



intervention of the pain-principle.

This, however, is not the breach in the


functional efficiency of our psychic apparatus which

makes it possible for thoughts representing the
result of the secondary thought-work to fall into the



power of the primary psychic process; by which

formula we may now describe the operations

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resulting in dreams and the symptoms of hysteria.

This inadequacy results from the converging of two


factors in our development, one of which pertains


solely to the psychic apparatus, and has exercised a
determining influence on the relation of the two


systems, while the other operates fluctuatingly, and
introduces motive forces of organic origin into the


psychic life. Both originate in the infantile life, and
are a precipitate of the alteration which our psychic


and somatic organism has undergone since our
infantile years.


When I termed one of the psychic processes

in the psychic apparatus the primary process, I did


so not only in consideration of its status and



function, but was also able to take account of the

temporal relationship actually involved. So far as we


know, a psychic apparatus possessing only the

primary process does not exist, and is to that extent
a theoretical fiction but this at least is a fact: that



the primary processes are present in the apparatus

from the beginning, while the secondary processes

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only take shape gradually during the course of life,

inhibiting and overlaying the primary, whilst gaining


complete control over them perhaps only in the


prime of life. Owing to this belated arrival of the
secondary processes, the essence of our being,


consisting of unconscious wish-impulses, remains
something which cannot be grasped or inhibited by


the preconscious; and its part is once and for all
restricted to indicating the most appropriate paths


for the wish-impulses originating in the unconscious.
These unconscious wishes represent for all


subsequent psychic strivings a compulsion to which

they Must submit themselves, although they may


perhaps endeavour to divert them and to guide



them to superior aims. In consequence of this

retardation, an extensive region of the memory-


material remains in fact inaccessible to preconscious

cathexis.
Now among these wish-impulses originating



in the infantile life. indestructible and incapable of

inhibition, there are some the fulfilments of which

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have come to be in contradiction with the purposive

ideas of our secondary thinking. The fulfilment of


these wishes would no longer produce an affect of


pleasure, but one of pain; and it is just this
conversion of affect that constitutes the essence of


what we call repression. In what manner and by
what motive forces such a conversion can take place


constitutes the problem of repression, which we
need here only to touch upon in passing. It will


suffice to note the fact that such a conversion of
affect occurs in the course of development (one


need only think of the emergence of disgust,

originally absent in infantile life), and that it is


connected with the activity of the secondary system.



The memories from which the unconscious wish

evokes a liberation of affect have never been


accessible to the Pcs, and for that reason this

liberation cannot be inhibited. It is precisely on
account of this generation of affect that these ideas



are not now accessible even by way of the

preconscious thoughts to which they have

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transferred the energy of the wishes connected with

them. On the contrary, the pain- principle comes


into play, and causes the Pcs to turn away from


these transference-thoughts. These latter are left to
themselves, are repressed, and thus, the existence


of a store of infantile memories, withdrawn from the
beginning from the Pcs, becomes the preliminary


condition of repression.
In the most favourable case, the generation


of pain terminates so soon as the cathexis is
withdrawn from the transference-thoughts in the


Pcs, and this result shows that the intervention of

the pain-principle is appropriate. It is otherwise,


however, if the repressed unconscious wish receives



an organic reinforcement which it can put at the

service of its transference-thoughts, and by which it


can enable them to attempt to break through with

their excitation, even if the cathexis of the Pcs has
been taken away from them. A defensive struggle



then ensues, inasmuch as the Pcs reinforces the

opposite to the repressed thoughts (counter-

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cathexis), and the eventual outcome is that the

transference- thoughts (the carriers of the


unconscious wish) break through in some form of


compromise through symptom-formation. But from
the moment that the repressed thoughts are


powerfully cathected by the unconscious wish-
impulse, but forsaken by the preconscious cathexis,


they succumb to the primary psychic process, and
aim only at motor discharge; or, if the way is clear,


at hallucinatory revival of the desired identity of
perception. We have already found, empirically, that


the incorrect processes described are enacted only

with thoughts which are in a state of repression. We


are now in a position to grasp yet another part of



the total scheme of the facts. These incorrect

Processes are the primary processes of the psychic


apparatus; they occur wherever ideas abandoned by

the preconscious cathexis are left to themselves and
can become filled with the uninhibited energy which



flows from the unconscious and strives for

discharge. There are further facts which go to show

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that the processes described as incorrect are not

really falsifications of our normal procedure, or


defective thinking. but the modes of operation of the


psychic apparatus when freed from inhibition. Thus
we see that the process of the conveyance of the


preconscious excitation to motility occurs in
accordance with the same procedure, and that in the


linkage of preconscious ideas with words we may
easily find manifested the same displacements and


confusions (which we ascribe to inattention). Finally,
a proof of the increased work made necessary by


the inhibition of these primary modes of procedure

might be found in the fact that we achieve a comical


effect, a surplus to be discharged through laughter,



if we allow these modes of thought to come to

consciousness.


The theory of the psychoneuroses asserts

with absolute certainty that it can only be sexual
wish-impulses from the infantile life, which have



undergone repression (affect-conversion) during the

developmental period of childhood, which are

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capable of renewal at later periods of development

(whether as a result of our sexual constitution,


which has, of course, grown out of an original bi-


sexuality, or in consequence of unfavourable
influences in our sexual life); and which therefore


supply the motive-power for all psychoneurotic
symptom-formation. It is only by the introduction of


these sexual forces that the gaps still demonstrable
in the theory of repression can be filled. Here, I will


leave it undecided whether the postulate of the
sexual and infantile holds good for the theory of


dreams as well; I am not completing the latter,

because in assuming that the dream-wish invariably


originates in the unconscious I have already gone a



step beyond the demonstrable.[42] Nor will I inquire

further into the nature of the difference between the


play of psychic forces in dream-formation and in the

formation of hysterical symptoms, since there is
missing here the needed fuller knowledge of one of



the two things to be compared. But there is another

point which I regard as important, and I will confess

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at once that it was only on account of this point that

I entered upon all the discussions concerning the


two psychic systems, their modes of operation, and


the fact of repression. It does not greatly matter
whether I have conceived the psychological relations


at issue with approximate correctness, or, as is
easily possible in such a difficult matter, wrongly


and imperfectly. However our views may change
about the interpretation of the psychic censorship or


the correct and the abnormal elaboration of the
dream-content. it remains certain that such


processes are active in dream-formation, and that in

their essentials they reveal the closest analogy with


the processes observed in the formation of



hysterical symptoms. Now the dream is not a

pathological phenomenon; it does not presuppose


any disturbance of our psychic equilibrium; and it

does not leave behind it any weakening of our
efficiency or capacities. The objection that no



conclusions can be drawn about the dreams of

healthy persons from my own dreams and from

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those of my neurotic patients may be rejected

without comment. If, then, from the nature of the


given phenomena we infer the nature of their motive


forces, we find that the psychic mechanism utilized
by the neuroses is not newly-created by a morbid


disturbance that lays hold of the psychic life, but lies
in readiness in the normal structure of our psychic


apparatus. The two psychic systems, the frontier-
censorship between them, the inhibition and


overlaying of the one activity by the other, the
relations of both to consciousness- or whatever may


take place of these concepts on a juster

interpretation of the actual relations- all these


belong to the normal structure of our psychic



instrument, and the dream shows us one of the

paths which lead to a knowledge of this structure. If


we wish to be content with a minimum of perfectly

assured additions to our knowledge, we shall say
that the dream affords proof that the suppressed



material continues to exist even in the normal

person and remains capable of psychic activity.

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Dreams are one of the manifestations of this

suppressed material; theoretically, this is true in all


cases; and in tangible experience, it has been found


true in at least a great number of cases, which
happen to display most plainly the more striking


features of the dream-life. The suppressed psychic
material, which in the waking state has been


prevented from expression and cut off from internal
perception by the mutual neutralization of


contradictory attitudes, finds ways and means,
under the sway of compromise-formations, of


obtruding itself on consciousness during the night.

Flectere si nequeo superos, Acheronta


movebo. [43] At any rate, the interpretation of



dreams is the via regia to a knowledge of the

unconscious element in our psychic life.


By the analysis of dreams we obtain some

insight into the composition of this most marvellous
and most mysterious of instruments; it is true that



this only takes us a little way, but it gives us a start

which enables us, setting out from the angle of

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other (properly pathological) formations, to

penetrate further in our disjoining of the instrument.


For disease- at all events that which is rightly called


functional- does not necessarily presuppose the
destruction of this apparatus, or the establishment


of new cleavages in its interior: it can be explained
dynamically by the strengthening and weakening of


the components of the play of forces, so many of the
activities of which are covered up in normal


functioning. It might be shown elsewhere how the
fact that the apparatus is a combination of two


instances also permits of a refinement of its normal

functioning which would have been impossible to a


single system.[44]


F. The Unconscious and Consciousness.

Reality.


If we look more closely, we may observe

that the psychological considerations examined in
the foregoing chapter require us to assume, not the



existence of two systems near the motor end of the

psychic apparatus, but two kinds of processes or

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courses taken by excitation. But this does not

disturb us; for we must always be ready to drop our


auxiliary ideas, when we think we are in a position


to replace them by something which comes closer to
the unknown reality. Let us now try to correct


certain views which may have taken a misconceived
form as long as we regarded the two systems, in the


crudest and most obvious sense, as two localities
within the psychic apparatus- views which have left


a precipitate in the terms repression and
penetration. Thus, when we say that an unconscious


thought strives for translation into the preconscious

in order subsequently to penetrate through to


consciousness, we do not mean that a second idea



has to be formed, in a new locality, like a

paraphrase, as it were, whilst the original persists by


its side; and similarly, when we speak of penetration

into consciousness, we wish carefully to detach from
this notion any idea of a change of locality. When we



say that a preconscious idea is repressed and

subsequently absorbed by the unconscious, we

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might be tempted by these images, borrowed from

the idea of a struggle for a particular territory, to


assume that an arrangement is really broken up in


the one psychic locality and replaced by a new one
in the other locality. For these comparisons we will


substitute a description which would seem to
correspond more closely to the real state of affairs;


we will say that an energic cathexis is shifted to or
withdrawn from a certain arrangement, so that the


psychic formation falls under the domination of a
given instance or is withdrawn from it. Here again


we replace a topographical mode of representation

by a dynamic one; it is not the psychic formation


that appears to us as the mobile element, but its



innervation.[45]
Nevertheless, I think it expedient and


justifiable to continue to use the illustrative idea of

the two systems. We shall avoid any abuse of this
mode of representation if we remember that ideas,



thoughts, and psychic formations in general must

not in any case be localized in organic elements of

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the nervous system but, so to speak, between them,

where resistances and association-tracks form the


correlate corresponding to them. Everything that


can become an object of internal perception is
virtual, like the image in the telescope produced by


the crossing of light-rays. But we are justified in
thinking of the systems- which have nothing psychic


in themselves, and which never become accessible
to our psychic perception- as something similar to


the lenses of the telescope, which project the image.
If we continue this comparison, we might say that


the censorship between the two systems

corresponds to the refraction of rays on passing into


a new medium.


Thus far, we have developed our psychology

on our own responsibility; it is now time to turn and


look at the doctrines prevailing in modern

psychology, and to examine the relation of these to
our theories. The problem of the unconscious in



psychology is, according to the forcible statement of

Lipps,[46] less a psychological problem than the

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problem of psychology. As long as psychology

disposed of this problem by the verbal explanation


that the psychic is the conscious, and that


unconscious psychic occurrences are an obvious
contradiction, there was no possibility of a


physician's observations of abnormal mental states
being turned to any psychological account. The


physician and the philosopher can meet only when
both acknowledge that unconscious psychic


processes is the appropriate and justified expression
for all established fact. The physician cannot but


reject, with a shrug of his shoulders, the assertion

that consciousness is the indispensable quality of the


psychic; if his respect for the utterances of the



philosophers is still great enough, he may perhaps

assume that he and they do not deal with the same


thing and do not pursue the same science. For a

single intelligent observation of the psychic life of a
neurotic, a single analysis of a dream, must force



upon him the unshakable conviction that the most

complicated and the most accurate operations of

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thought, to which the name of psychic occurrences

can surely not be refused, may take place without


arousing consciousness.[47] The physician, it is


true, does not learn of these unconscious processes
until they have produced an effect on consciousness


which admits of communication or observation. But
this effect on consciousness may show a psychic


character which differs completely from the
unconscious process, so that internal perception


cannot possibly recognize in the first a substitute for
the second. The physician must reserve himself the


right to penetrate, by a Process of deduction, from

the effect on consciousness to the unconscious


psychic process; he learns in this way that the effect



on consciousness is only a remote psychic product of

the unconscious process, and that the latter has not


become conscious as such, and has, moreover,

existed and operated without in any way betraying
itself to consciousness. -



Du Prel says: "The problem: what is the

psyche, manifestly requires a preliminary

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examination as to whether consciousness and

psyche are identical. But it is just this preliminary


question which is answered in the negative by the


dream, which shows that the concept of the psyche
extends beyond that of consciousness, much as the


gravitational force of a star extends beyond its
sphere of luminosity" (Philos. d. Mystik, p. 47).


"It is a truth which cannot be sufficiently
emphasized that the concepts of consciousness and


of the psyche are not co-extensive" (p. 306).
A return from the over-estimation of the


property of consciousness is the indispensable

preliminary to any genuine insight into the course of


psychic events. As Lipps has said, the unconscious



must be accepted as the general basis of the psychic

life. The unconscious is the larger circle which


includes the smaller circle of the conscious;

everything conscious has a preliminary unconscious
stage, whereas the unconscious can stop at this



stage, and yet claim to be considered a full psychic

function. The unconscious is the true psychic reality;

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in its inner nature it is just as much unknown to us

as the reality of the external world, and it is just as


imperfectly communicated to us by the data of


consciousness as is the external world by the reports
of our sense-organs.


We get rid of a series of dream-problems
which have claimed much attention from earlier


writers on the subject when the old antithesis
between conscious life and dream-life is discarded,


and the unconscious psychic assigned to its proper
place. Thus, many of the achievements which are a


matter for wonder in a dream are now no longer to

be attributed to dreaming, but to unconscious


thinking, which is active also during the day. If the



dream seems to make play with a symbolical

representation of the body, as Scherner has said, we


know that this is the work of certain unconscious

phantasies, which are probably under the sway of
sexual impulses and find expression not only in



dreams, but also in hysterical phobias and other

symptoms. If the dream continues and completes

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mental work begun during the day, and even brings

valuable new ideas to light, we have only to strip off


the dream-disguise from this, as the contribution of


the dream-work, and a mark of the assistance of
dark powers in the depths of the psyche (cf. the


devil in Tartini's sonata-dream). The intellectual
achievement as such belongs to the same psychic


forces as are responsible for all such achievements
during the day. We are probably much too inclined


to over-estimate the conscious character even of
intellectual and artistic production. From the reports


of certain writers who have been highly productive,

such as Goethe and Helmholtz, we learn, rather,


that the most essential and original part of their



creations came to them in the form of inspirations,

and offered itself to their awareness in an almost


completed state. In other cases, where there is a

concerted effort of all the psychic forces, there is
nothing strange in the fact that conscious activity,



too, lends its aid. But it is the much-abused privilege

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of conscious activity to hide from us all other

activities wherever it participates.


It hardly seems worth while to take up the


historical significance of dreams as a separate
theme. Where, for instance, a leader has been


impelled by a dream to engage in a bold
undertaking, the success of which has had the effect


of changing history, a new problem arises only so
long as the dream is regarded as a mysterious


power and contrasted with other more familiar
psychic forces. The problem disappears as soon as


we regard the dream as a form of expression for

impulses to which a resistance was attached during


the day, whilst at night they were able to draw



reinforcement from deep-lying sources of

excitation.[48] But the great respect with which the


ancient peoples regarded dreams is based on a just

piece of psychological divination. It is a homage paid
to the unsubdued and indestructible element in the



human soul, to the demonic power which furnishes

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the dream- wish, and which we have found again in

our unconscious.


It is not without purpose that I use the


expression in our unconscious, for what we so call
does not coincide with the unconscious of the


philosophers, nor with the unconscious of Lipps. As
they use the term, it merely means the opposite of


the conscious. That there exist not only conscious
but also unconscious psychic processes is the


opinion at issue, which is so hotly contested and so
energetically defended. Lipps enunciates the more


comprehensive doctrine that everything psychic

exists as unconscious, but that some of it may exist


also as conscious. But it is not to prove this doctrine



that we have adduced the phenomena of dreams

and hysterical symptom-formation; the observation


of normal life alone suffices to establish its

correctness beyond a doubt. The novel fact that we
have learned from the analysis of psycho-



pathological formations, and indeed from the first

member of the group, from dreams, is that the

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unconscious- and hence all that is psychic- occurs as

a function of two separate systems, and that as such


it occurs even in normal psychic life. There are


consequently two kinds of unconscious, which have
not as yet been distinguished by psychologists. Both


are unconscious in the psychological sense; but in
our sense the first, which we call Ucs, is likewise


incapable of consciousness; whereas the second we
call Pcs because its excitations, after the observance


of certain rules, are capable of reaching
consciousness; perhaps not before they have again


undergone censorship, but nevertheless regardless

of the Ucs system. The fact that in order to attain


consciousness the excitations must pass through an



unalterable series, a succession of instances, as is

betrayed by the changes produced in them by the


censorship, has enabled us to describe them by

analogy in spatial terms. We described the relations
of the two systems to each other and to



consciousness by saying that the system Pcs is like a

screen between the system Ucs and consciousness.

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The system Pcs not only bars access to

consciousness, but also controls the access to


voluntary motility, and has control of the emission of


a mobile cathectic energy, a portion of which is
familiar to us as attention.[49]


We must also steer clear of the distinction
between the super- conscious and the subconscious,


which has found such favour in the more recent
literature on the psychoneuroses, for just such a


distinction seems to emphasize the equivalence of
what is psychic and what is conscious.


What role is now left, in our representation

of things, to the phenomenon of consciousness,


once so all-powerful and over- shadowing all else?



None other than that of a sense-organ for the

perception of psychic qualities. According to the


fundamental idea of our schematic attempt we can

regard conscious perception only as the function
proper to a special system for which the abbreviated



designation Cs commends itself. This system we

conceive to be similar in its mechanical

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characteristics to the perception-system P, and

hence excitable by qualities, and incapable of


retaining the trace of changes: i.e., devoid of


memory. The psychic apparatus which, with the
sense-organ of the P-systems, is turned to the outer


world, is itself the outer world for the sense-organ of
Cs, whose teleological justification depends on this


relationship. We are here once more confronted with
the principle of the succession of instances which


seems to dominate the structure of the apparatus.
The material of excitation flows to the sense-organ


Cs from two sides: first from the P-system, whose

excitation, qualitatively conditioned, probably


undergoes a new elaboration until it attains



conscious perception; and, secondly, from the

interior of the apparatus itself, whose quantitative


processes are perceived as a qualitative series of

pleasures and pains once they have reached
consciousness after undergoing certain changes.



The philosophers, who became aware that

accurate and highly complicated thought-structures

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are possible even without the co- operation of

consciousness, thus found it difficult to ascribe any


function to consciousness; it appeared to them a


superfluous mirroring of the completed psychic
process. The analogy of our Cs system with the


perception-systems relieves us of this
embarrassment. We see that perception through our


sense-organs results in directing an attention-
cathexis to the paths along which the incoming


sensory excitation diffuses itself; the qualitative
excitation of the P-system serves the mobile


quantity in the psychic apparatus as a regulator of

its discharge. We may claim the same function for


the overlying sense-organ of the Cs system. By



perceiving new qualities, it furnishes a new

contribution for the guidance and suitable


distribution of the mobile cathexis-quantities. By

means of perceptions of pleasure and pain, it
influences the course of the cathexes within the



psychic apparatus, which otherwise operates

unconsciously and by the displacement of quantities.

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It is probable that the pain- principle first of all

regulates the displacements of cathexis


automatically, but it is quite possible that


consciousness contributes a second and more subtle
regulation of these qualities, which may even


oppose the first, and perfect the functional capacity
of the apparatus, by placing it in a position contrary


to its original design, subjecting even that which
induces pain to cathexis and to elaboration. We


learn from neuro- psychology that an important part
in the functional activity of the apparatus is ascribed


to these regulations by the qualitative excitations of

the sense-organs. The automatic rule of the primary


pain-principle, together with the limitation of



functional capacity bound up with it, is broken by

the sensory regulations, which are themselves again


automatisms. We find that repression, which,

though originally expedient, nevertheless finally
brings about a harmful lack of inhibition and of



psychic control, overtakes memories much more

easily than it does perceptions, because in the

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former there is no additional cathexis from the

excitation of the psychic sense-organs. Whilst an


idea which is to be warded off may fail to become


conscious because it has succumbed to repression, it
may on other occasions come to be repressed


simply because it has been withdrawn from
conscious perception on other grounds. These are


clues which we make use of in therapy in order to
undo accomplished repressions.


The value of the hyper-cathexis which is
produced by the regulating influence of the Cs


sense-organs on the mobile quantity is

demonstrated in a teleological context by nothing


more clearly than by the creation of a new series of



qualities, and consequently a new regulation, which

constitutes the prerogative of man over animals. For


the mental processes are in themselves

unqualitative except for the excitations of pleasure
and pain which accompany them: which, as we



know, must be kept within limits as possible

disturbers of thought. In order to endow them with

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quality, they are associated in man with verbal

memories, the qualitative residues of which suffice


to draw upon them the attention of consciousness,


which in turn endows thought with a new mobile
cathexis.


It is only on a dissection of hysterical mental
processes that the manifold nature of the problems


of consciousness becomes apparent. One then
receives the impression that the transition from the


preconscious to the conscious cathexis is associated
with a censorship similar to that between Ucs and


Pcs. This censorship, too, begins to act only when a

certain quantitative limit is reached, so that thought-


formations which are not very intense escape it. All



possible cases of detention from consciousness and

of penetration into consciousness under certain


restrictions are included within the range of

psychoneurotic phenomena; all point to the intimate
and twofold connection between the censorship and



consciousness. I shall conclude these psychological

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considerations with the record of two such

occurrences.


On the occasion of a consultation a few


years ago, the patient was an intelligent-looking girl
with a simple, unaffected manner. She was


strangely attired; for whereas a woman's dress is
usually carefully thought out to the last pleat, one of


her stockings was hanging down and two of the
buttons of her blouse were undone. She complained


of pains in one of her legs, and exposed her calf
without being asked to do so. Her chief complaint,


however, was as follows: She had a feeling in her

body as though something were sticking into it


which moved to and fro and shook her through and



through. This sometimes seemed to make her whole

body stiff. On hearing this, my colleague in


consultation looked at me: the trouble was quite

obvious to him. To both of us it seemed peculiar that
this suggested nothing to the patient's mother,



though she herself must repeatedly have been in the

situation described by her child. As for the girl, she

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had no idea of the import of her words, or she would

never have allowed them to pass her lips. Here the


censorship had been hoodwinked so successfully


that under the mask of an innocent complaint a
phantasy was admitted to consciousness which


otherwise would have remained in the preconscious.
Another example: I began the psycho-


analytic treatment of a boy fourteen who was
suffering from tic convulsif, hysterical vomiting,


headache, etc., by assuring him that after closing
his eyes he would see pictures or that ideas would


occur to him, which he was to communicate to me.

He replied by describing pictures. The last


impression he had received before coming to me



was revived visually in his memory. He had been

playing a game of checkers with his uncle, and now


he saw the checkerboard before him. He commented

on various positions that were favourable or
unfavourable, on moves that were not safe to make.



He then saw a dagger lying on the checker-board-

an object belonging to his father, but which his

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phantasy laid on the checker-board. Then a sickle

was lying on the board; a scythe was added; and


finally, he saw the image of an old peasant mowing


the grass in front of his father's house far away. A
few days later I discovered the meaning of this


series of pictures. Disagreeable family circumstances
had made the boy excited and nervous. Here was a


case of a harsh, irascible father, who had lived
unhappily with the boy's mother, and whose


educational methods consisted of threats; he had
divorced his gentle and delicate wife, and remarried;


one day he brought home a young woman as the

boy's new mother. The illness of the fourteen-year-


old boy developed a few days later. It was the



suppressed rage against his father that had

combined these images into intelligible allusions.


The material was furnished by a mythological

reminiscence. The sickle was that with which Zeus
castrated his father; the scythe and the image of the



peasant represented Kronos, the violent old man

who devours his children, and upon whom Zeus

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wreaks his vengeance in so unfilial a manner. The

father's marriage gave the boy an opportunity of


returning the reproaches and threats which the child


had once heard his father utter because he played
with his genitals (the draught-board; the prohibited


moves; the dagger with which one could kill). We
have here long-impressed memories and their


unconscious derivatives which, under the guise of
meaningless pictures, have slipped into


consciousness by the devious paths opened to them.
If I were asked what is the theoretical value


of the study of dreams, I should reply that it lies in

the additions to psychological knowledge and the


beginnings of an understanding of the neuroses



which we thereby obtain. Who can foresee the

importance a thorough knowledge of the structure


and functions of the psychic apparatus may attain,

when even our present state of knowledge permits
of successful therapeutic intervention in the curable



forms of psychoneuroses? But, it may be asked,

what of the practical value of this study in regard to

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a knowledge of the psyche and discovery of the

hidden peculiarities of individual character? Have not


the unconscious impulses revealed by dreams the


value of real forces in the psychic life? Is the ethical
significance of the suppressed wishes to be lightly


disregarded, since, just as they now create dreams,
they may some day create other things?


I do not feel justified in answering these
questions. I have not followed up this aspect of the


problem of dreams. In any case, however, I believe
that the Roman Emperor was in the wrong in


ordering one of his subjects to be executed because

the latter had dreamt that he had killed the


Emperor. He should first of all have endeavoured to



discover the significance of the man's dreams; most

probably it was not what it seemed to be. And even


if a dream of a different content had actually had

this treasonable meaning, it would still have been
well to recall the words of Plato- that the virtuous



man contents himself with dreaming of that which

the wicked man does in actual life. I am therefore of

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the opinion that dreams should be acquitted of evil.

Whether any reality is to be attributed to the


unconscious wishes, I cannot say. Reality must, of


course, be denied to all transitory and intermediate
thoughts. If we had before us the unconscious


wishes, brought to their final and truest expression,
we should still do well to remember that psychic


reality is a special form of existence which must not
be confounded with material reality. It seems,


therefore, unnecessary that people should refuse to
accept the responsibility for the immorality of their


dreams. With an appreciation of the mode of

functioning of the psychic apparatus, and an insight


into the relations between conscious and



unconscious, all that is ethically offensive in our

dream-life and the life of phantasy for the most part


disappears.
"What a dream has told us of our relations
to the present (reality) we will then seek also in our



consciousness and we must not be surprised if we

discover that the monster we saw under the

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magnifying-glass of the analysis is a tiny little

infusorian" (H. Sachs).


For all practical purposes in judging human


character, a man's actions and conscious
expressions of thought are in most cases sufficient.


Actions, above all, deserve to be placed in the front
rank; for many impulses which penetrate into


consciousness are neutralized by real forces in the
psychic life before they find issue in action; indeed,


the reason why they frequently do not encounter
any psychic obstacle on their path is because the


unconscious is certain of their meeting with

resistances later. In any case, it is highly instructive


to learn something of the intensively tilled soil from



which our virtues proudly emerge. For the

complexity of human character, dynamically moved


in all directions, very rarely accommodates itself to

the arbitrament of a simple alternative, as our
antiquated moral philosophy would have it.



And what of the value of dreams in regard to

our knowledge of the future? That, of course, is

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quite out of the question. One would like to

substitute the words: in regard to our knowledge of


the past. For in every sense a dream has its origin in


the past. The ancient belief that dreams reveal the
future is not indeed entirely devoid of the truth. By


representing a wish as fulfilled the dream certainly
leads us into the future; but this future, which the


dreamer accepts as his present, has been shaped in
the likeness of the past by the indestructible wish.


Footnotes


[32] A dream is the beginning of wakening.

[33] Is this the only function which we can


attribute to dreams? I know of no other. A. Maeder,



to be sure, has endeavoured to claim for the dream

yet other secondary functions. He started from the


just observation that many dreams contain attempts

to provide solutions of conflicts, which are
afterwards actually carried through. They thus



behave like preparatory practice for waking

activities. He therefore drew a parallel between

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dreaming and the play of animals and children,

which is to be conceived as a training of the


inherited instincts, and a preparation for their later


serious activity, thus setting up a fonction ludique
for the dream. A little while before Maeder, Alfred


Adler likewise emphasized the function of thinking
ahead in the dream. (An analysis which I published


in 1905 contained a dream which may be conceived
as a resolution-dream, which was repeated night


after night until it was realized.)
[34] General Introduction to Psycho-


Analysis, p. 534 below.

[35] This material has since been provided


in abundance by the literature of psycho-analysis.



[36] The emphasis [on 'parties'] is my own,

though the meaning is plain enough without it.


[37] I did not dare admit it, but I continually

felt tinglings and overexcitements of the parts; at
the end, it wearied me so much that several times I



thought to throw myself from the dormitory window.

[38] I will not do it again.

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[39] Albert never did that.

[40] The italics ['very marked cerebral


anaemia.'] are mine.


[41] We put this case in the file of apyretic
delirias of inanition, for it is to cerebral anaemia that


we attach this particular state.
[42] Here, as elsewhere, there are gaps in


the treatment of the subject, which I have
deliberately left, because to fill them up would, on


the one hand, require excessive labour, and, on the
other hand, I should have to depend on material


which is foreign to the dream. Thus, for example, I

have avoided stating whether I give the word


suppressed a different meaning from that of the



word repressed. No doubt, however, it will have

become clear that the latter emphasizes more than


the former the relation to the unconscious. I have

not gone into the problem, which obviously arises,
of why the dream-thoughts undergo distortion by



the censorship even when they abandon the

progressive path to consciousness, and choose the

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path of regression. And so with other similar

omissions. I have, above all, sought to give some


idea of the problems to which the further dissection


of the dream- work leads, and to indicate the other
themes with which these are connected. It was,


however, not always easy to decide just where the
pursuit should be discontinued. That I have not


treated exhaustively the part which the psycho-
sexual life plays in the dream, and have avoided the


interpretation of dreams of an obviously sexual
content, is due to a special reason- which may not


perhaps be that which the reader would expect. It is

absolutely alien to my views and my


neuropathological doctrines to regard the sexual life



as a pudendum with which neither the physician nor

the scientific investigator should concern himself. To


me, the moral indignation which prompted the

translator of Artemidorus of Daldis to keep from the
reader's knowledge the chapter on sexual dreams



contained in the Symbolism of Dreams is merely

ludicrous. For my own part, what decided my

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procedure was solely the knowledge that in the

explanation of sexual dreams I should be bound to


get deeply involved in the still unexplained problems


of perversion and bisexuality; it was for this reason
that I reserved this material for treatment


elsewhere.
[43] If I cannot influence the gods, I will stir


up Acheron.
[44] The dream is not the only phenomenon


that permits us to base our psycho-pathology on
psychology. In a short unfinished series of articles in


the Monatsschrift fur Psychiatrie und Neurologie

("uber den psychischen Mechanismus der


Vergesslichkeit," 1898, and "uber



Deckerinnerungen," 1899) I attempted to interpret a

number of psychic manifestations from everyday life


in support of the same conception. (These and other

articles on "Forgetting," "Lapses of Speech," etc.,
have now been published in the Psycho- pathology



of Everyday Life.)

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[45] This conception underwent elaboration

and modification when it was recognized that the


essential character of a preconscious idea was its


connection with the residues of verbal ideas. See
The Unconscious, p. 428 below.


[46] Der Begriff des Unbewussten in der
Psychologie. Lecture delivered at the Third


International Psychological Congress at Munich,
1897.


[47] I am happy to be able to point to an
author who has drawn from the study of dreams the


same conclusion as regards the relation between

consciousness and the unconscious.


[48] Cf. (chapter II.), the dream (Sa-Turos)



of Alexander the Great at the siege of Tyre.

[49] Cf. here my remarks in the Proceedings


of the Society for Psychical Research, vol. xxvi, in

which the descriptive, dynamic and systematic
meanings of the ambiguous word Unconscious are



distinguished from one another.

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