I. THE SCIENTIFIC LITERATURE DEALING WITH THE PROBLEMS OF DREAMS
Freud discusses earlier writers and their contributions, and looks at the fundamental reasons why dreams are interesting and what can be gained from studying them.
Antiquity Dreams were representations of supernatural messages from gods and demons. They were generally seen as predictions of the future. It was acknowledged that there was huge variety in both the content of dreams and impressions made on the dreamer hence the problem of interpretation and dream classification developed.
Aristotle Dreams are demonic, not divine in origin. They are defined as the psychic activity of the sleeper. He noted that dreams convert slight bodily sensations perceived in sleep into intense situations in the dream therefore do dreams betray subtle physical changes otherwise unobserved during the day?
Gruppe Classifies dreams into two classes: (a) vain, dishonest and void, influenced by the present (and past), with no bearing on the future. Inclusive in this class were (i) Enuknia (insomnia) which directly reproduce an idea or its opposite e.g. hunger or thirst satiation. (ii) Phantasmata, which elaborate the given idea phantastically - e.g. nightmares. (b) Valid and authentic dreams, indicative of future events. Inclusive in this class were (i) Chrematismos, oraculum - explicit prophecies (ii) Orama, visio - informative of a future event (iii) Oneiros, somnium - symbolic (implicit) prophecies.
Freud acknowledges that he is unique in his theory, is assuming that all dreams can be interpreted.
Artimedorus of Daldis - The greatest authority on dream interpretation in late antiquitiy. His theory of supernatural origin of the dream (either demonic or divine), accounts for the 'alien' or 'foreign' perception of a dream on waking.
Still today the weight of material in favour of the divinity of dreams is greater than the explanation offered by psychology, yet to go into all of the literature in this area would be too time consuming so Freud leaves further detailed investigations here.
A. The relation of the dream to the waking state
Freud looks at two conflicting views: (A) The dream content is dependent on life experiences, either objective or subjective (as advocated by Haffner, Maas, Radestock, Lucretius, and Hildebrandt) (B) The dream content is aimed at relieving the emotions and trials of everyday life - which it is argued are never to be repeated. Thus dreams and their content are designed to heal and benefit the psyche as opposed to relating to life experiences.(advocates cited are Burdach, Fichte and Strumpell).
B. The Material of Dreams - Memory in Dreams
Freud recognises the phenomena defying the life-experience dependent view of dream content, namely that we frequently dream of subjects and themes, which on waking cannot be recognised as a part of one's knowledge or life experiences
Freud cites examples, and concludes that these are 'hypermnesic dreams' and as such, have access to recollections which are inaccessible to the waking state (examples cited from Delboef and Maury).
Thus dream material comes from experiences of which we accumulate almost subliminally, implicitly - for example, recognising an otherwise unfamiliar word in a dream, as being that from a poster, past which one has walked daily for some time.
Freud then discusses the role of our childhood as a source of material for dreams - some part of which is inaccessible to the waking state. Examples are given by Hildebrandt, Strumpell, and Volkelt.
Against this view is that of Robert, who argues that dreams only contain material from experiences (some being very slight and implicit) of the last few days.
Having established these two arguments, Freud asks a more fundamental question. What determines the experiences (from the last few days or childhood) to be represented in the dream?
(a) Delage - Impressions which have been intense in the waking state are nor represented, only weaker impression enter dreams, i.e. when they are less significant in the waking state than they will be in the dream state (advocates are Hidebrandt, Strumpell, Havelock Ellis). Versus (b) Hallam - argues for the contrary criteria of material selection.
There are problems though in proving the dependence of dream-content on life experiences. To trace the material of all dreams to their origin is a time consuming job, with no discrete limit to data source.
So, in summary, Delboeuf - claims "that every impression, even the most insignificant, leaves an ineradicable mark, indefinitely capable of reappearing by day." So is the phenomena of dreaming solely concerned with remembering?
C. Dream- Stimuli and Sources
Here Freud addresses the theory that dreams are reactions against some disturbance during sleep - without which we should not dream.
Ancients - in advocating the divinity of dreams had no need for external stimuli - since if a divine or demonic will was the driving force, the content was simply their special information or instruction.
Science - Are there single or multiple stimuli for dreams? Is the causal explanation of dreams psychological or physiological? Both could provide stimuli. Freud lists the factors cited as causal, and explains how opinions of their order of importance differ.
(1) External (objective) stimuli - e.g. alarm clock dreams, where for example ringing bells, incorporated into the dream, are assimilated into the ringing of an alarm clock on waking. (2) Internal (subjective) sensory stimuli - e.g. retinal sensations - 'hallucinations' (independent of external stimulation) often correlate with dreams of abstract animal forms as our brain tries to accommodate them. (3) Internal (organic) physical stimuli - e.g. anxiety dreams in diseases of the heart and lungs. These dreams can be stimulated by two classes of sensation - general and specific. The latter being subdivided into muscular; pneumatic; gastric; sexual; and peripheral sensations. (4) Purely psychical sources of excitation - e.g. dreams of activities from the waking day, especially things that have been of interest in the waking state.
Freud argues these are insufficient to explain the entire aetiology of dreams and that many components of a dream will still remain whose sources are untraceable. Hence, Freud argues for another source of psychic excitation.
D. Why Dreams are forgotten after waking
Freud discusses the phenomena of dreams and the remarkable ability of remembering them both over many years, and of forgetting them, despite an awareness of having been dreaming.
Strumpell examines the reasons for forgetting dreams in detail. (a) Their images are too weak (b) They only occur once (recurring dreams are better remembered). (c) Confused and disorderly sequences of events, as those found in dreams are recalled with more difficulty than associated, coherent sequences. (d) Interference of our attention on waking with external sensations, would hinder any attempts to recall dreams. (e) People normally take little interest in and assign little importance to their dreams, and this reflects itself in their ability to recall them.
Freud then discusses, given how much we are prone to forget, how can we be sure that our memory does not falsify what it retains? Yet since the only source is our memory, no objective test of our accuracy of recall is possible, therefore what value can these recollections possess in the first place?
E. The Distinguishing Psychological Characteristics of Dreams
Freud discusses our perceptions of the concept of dreams. They seem to have 'come' to us from some alien source, yet we assume that they are a phenomena of our own mental activity. Dreams transform ideas into hallucinations, which we accept as not just a thought, but as objective perceptions, despite the passivity induced by sleep.
Within dreams, time and space are abolished. During sleep the psyche isolates itself from he outside world - yet not completely, or else one would never awaken. Is this annihilation of psychic values, responsible for the impression of 'alienation' and strangeness that accompanies memories of dreams? The suspension (or at least reduction) of psychic activity and higher intellectual activities, but constant functioning of the memory, also contribute to the distinctions between one's behaviour and speech in a dream with one's behaviour and speech in everyday life. Others see the peculiarities of dreams as representative of primitive stages of development in mental life (Havelock Ellis). Can we explain the random connections between idea on dreams in terms of these connections happening so obscurely in the soul that we observe a leap of the imagination when in fact there is a connection in our train of mental processes.
These views contrast those of philosophers from the previous centuries, who preferred the romantic interpretation of dreams as 'freeing the mind to fulfill its creative potential' and inspire, yet Freud argues that in their day, scientific methods have shown that dreams may resolve doubts and problems and carry intellectual activities of the day to a novel point, however the interpretations of them remain disputed.
F. The Moral sense in Dreams
Here Freud examines the extent to which moral dispositions and feelings from everyday, waking life extend into one's dreams. Again writers are shown to be divided into those that assert that dreams include no input from our moral thought, against those who claim that the moral nature of an individual persists into his dreams.
Freud, argues that our ordinary experience of dreams is enough to confirm the former argument, with most literature supporting him, citing example of weak judgment, uninhibited sexual behaviour, and ethical indifference. However the critics of this (Hildebrandt, Schopenhauer and Fischer) argue that, as alarming as it may seem, one's subjective desires, feelings and affects are mirrored in one's dreams.
In spite of these two groups' conflicting views of dream-morality, the question remains of explaining the origin of immoral dreams. Two sources have been proposed - (i) the normal functions of psychic life (ii) the somatic influences on this life. Both groups argue for a special psychic source for immorality in dreams, and therefore one can disown full responsibility for dreams.
Freud contends that obtrusive, unacceptable thoughts are regular occurrences amongst all men, and those that are suppressed by day, are expressed in dreams by night. Thus Freud concludes that whilst the contents of a dream may be phantastical, one's feelings towards these events are representative of our true, undisguised selves.
G. Theories of Dreaming and its Function
Freud describes the individual theories of dreams, pointing out that their main distinctions were in terms of the importance they assigned to various characteristics of dreams. He also alludes to the possibility that a theory may describe no specific function for dreams, yet he praises those that do as more appropriate.
He describes three rough groups of theories:
(1) Theories which argue that the psychic activity of the waking state is maintained whilst dreaming. However differences are found between the conditions of the waking and sleeping state, which account for the differences in functioning of the psyche under these two states. Advocates of this are Delboeuf (2) Theories which argue that dreams are an expression of psychic activity paralysed by sleep. In other words dreams are an incomplete waking state. These theories though, assign no real function to dreams, describing them as by products of physical, somatic processes, and reactions to stimuli (the sources of which are given previously). (3) Theories which argue that dreams are the result of special psychic activity, and as such represent the uninhibited, natural activity of the mind. However, advocates, like Scherner are unable to attribute a useful function to the symbolisation of phantasy in dreams.
Freud concludes that an explanation of dream life and its functions must lie somewhere between these extremes of Scherner and his phantastical representations, and the medical theory citing dreams as by products of somatic nocturnal processes.
H. The relation between dreams and Mental diseases
Freud discusses the role of dreams in relation to mental illness, focusing on the inner relations between dreams and psychoses and analogies which point to an intimate relationship. Freud discusses statements by many authors, most of the opinion that "insanity, an abnormal morbid phenomenon, is to be regarded as an enhancement of the periodically recurring normal dream state". Shared sources of aetiology between dreams and insanity have been suggested, such as organically conditioned sensations. However Freud concludes that whilst there is undeniable agreement between dreams and mental derangement, this can only be used to support the medical theory of dream-life. To explain dreams in terms of psychic abnormalities is impossible due to limited understanding of the psyche and its abnormalities, however he does acknowledge that given their close relationship it is likely that developments in one area should assist the other.