The Interpretation of Dreams

By Sigmund Freud

Commentary - Part III


VII. THE PSYCHOLOGY OF THE DREAM-PROCESSES

Having thus far been concerned with the secret meaning of dreams and the methods of discovering it and with the means employed by the dream-work for concealing it, we now look at the examples where the dream raises no problem of interpretation, but nevertheless retains the essential characteristics that differentiate dreams so strikingly from waking life. Thus we can see the incompleteness of our psychology of dreams. SO Freud begins to set up a number of hypotheses to probe the mental structure of the apparatus of the mind and the forces operating in it, using the phenomena at his disposal.

A. The forgetting of dreams

Despite this work on the interpretation of dreams, it remains a fact that most of us are inclined to forget our dreams, either as a whole, or bit by bit throughout the course of a day. Freud proposes that this s because, at night mental resistance to a dream is weaker, but not all as it manages to distort details in the structure of the dream. Furthermore how can we be sure that what we do recall was actually in the dream? Freud argues that any fabrications in recall, can be isolated by repeated recall by patients, and hence topics that are repeatedly altered can be isolated as the fabrications and distortions of recall.

In summary, Freud argues that dreams are forgotten in waking life, because of increased endopsychic censorship, which is reduced in the state of sleep, to make the formation of dreams possible. And that fresh daytime material inserts itself into the interpretative chains, but is not problematic, since it is no more than the distorting activities which have been in operation since the dream's formation

B. Regression

Freud defines 'regression' as the returning to things that are together older in time, more primitive in form and perceptual in nature. This regression, wherever it may occur, is an effect of a resistance opposing the progress of a thought into consciousness along the normal path, and of a simultaneous attraction exercised upon the thought by the presence of memories possessing great sensory force. All of this is accentuated by the fact that dreams are frequently an example of regression to the dreamer's earliest condition, a revival of his childhood.

C. Wish fulfillment

Freud acknowledges that our daytime thinking is varied - concerning judgments, inferences, denials, expectations, intentions etc. and therefore has to defend his argument that despite this, at night, it is restricted to the production of wishes alone.

He divides dreams into two groups: Those that are openly wish fulfillments and others in which the wish-fulfillment is unrecognisable and often disguised by every possible means. In these latter dreams, dream-censorship can be said to be at work. A further distinction can then be made: The undistorted wishful dreams are found principally in children, although short frankly wishful dreams can be found in adults to some extent.

Freud then cites three sources of these wishes: 1) The wish may have been aroused during the day and for external reasons may not have been satisfied, so is left to be dealt with at night. 2) The wish may have arisen during the day but been repudiated - so the dream is left to be dealt with at night, but because of repression. 3) The wish may have no connection with daytime life and be one of those wishes which only emerges from the suppressed part of the mind and become active in us at night.

Furthermore, Freud did not deny that unsolved problems and worries can also carry over into our sleep, and cites five sources which they might do so: 1) What has not been carried to a conclusion during the day owing to some chance hindrance 2) What has not been dealt with owing to the insufficiency of our intellectual power - what is unsolved. 3) What has been rejected and suppressed during the daytime 4) What has been set in action by our unconscious during the day. 5) Daytime impressions which are indifferent and for that reason not been dealt with.

Freud argues that anxiety dreams and unpleasurable dreams can be seen to be wish- fulfillment in a similar way to straightforward dreams of satisfaction. However unpleasurable dreams can be 'punishment dreams' and often occur when the day's residues are thoughts of a satisfying nature but the satisfaction which they express is a forbidden one. So, the trace of these thoughts that occurs in the manifest dream is their opposite, i.e. a punitive wish derived from the repressed wish.

Freud then related these findings to neuroses and hysterical symptoms, which he proposes develop 'only where the fulfillments of two opposing wishes, arising each from a different psychical system, are able to converge in a single expression.

D. Arousal by dreams - the Function of dreams - Anxiety dreams

Freud proposes that the function of dreaming is to bring back under the control of the preconscious the excitation in the unconscious which has been left free, and in doing so discharge the unconscious excitation, serving it as a safety valve and at the same time preserving the sleep of the preconscious in return for a small expenditure of waking activity. So it constitutes a compromise - servicing two systems, fulfilling the two wishes in so far as they are compatible with each other. But Freud adds that the basic role of dreams can be seen as the guardian of sleep.

Anxiety dreams are also wish fulfillment because it can be seen that the wish belongs to one system (the unconscious) while it has been repudiated and suppressed by the other system (the preconscious) and these two systems are in constant conflict with each other. Suppression of the unconscious is necessary to prevent unpleasurable material being released. If the inhibition from the preconscious ceases the unconscious excitations may release anxiety material. So in an example of a dream where his mother was dying, Freud interpreted it the anxiety as repression, but the fundamental source could be traced back to an obscure and sexual craving - ands sexual connotations begin to influence his interpretations.

E. The Primary and Secondary Processes - Repression

Freud, having denied two of the contradictory views from the first chapter - that dreams are meaningless and that they are purely somatic in source, continues with a brief resumée of his points made so far, so that the underlying processes may be identified:
1. Dream thoughts are continuations from your waking life of the few previous days
2. Dreams are hypermnesic - having access to material from early childhood
3. External sensory stimuli can be significant in dream material, but not so much related to the fundamental dream wish (in the same way that left over thoughts from few previous days)
4. Internal sensory stimuli - provide material accessible at any time which the dream- work uses whenever it has need of it for expressing dream thoughts.
5. Dreams are distorted and mutilated by memory - but Freud argues that this is no real obstacle as it is no more than the distorting activity which has been in operation since the dream's formation.

Furthermore, Freud proposes that there is a sleeping state of the mind - to be differentiated from the day time state - reflected by differences such as the fact that the mind has free play in its functioning in dreams as the preconscious activity allows the dreams to take their course, But Freud differs from others in arguing that the 'dream- work' is distinguishable from the normal day-time workings of the unconscious - it is more specific.

So we have 'trains of thought' either neglected or broken off and suppressed - these are 'preconscious' - drawn into the unconscious, and lead to the formation of a dream by becoming active - either through somatic causes, or being linked to another wish in the preconscious. In dream formation this train of thought then undergoes a series of transformations - which are no longer recognisable as normal psychical (conscious) processes.

1) Condensation of a whole train of thought into a single ideational element - an intensification of its content (i.e. trimethylamin in the dream of Irma's injection). 2) Freedom of transference of significance results in the construction of 'intermediate ideas - e.g. such as names with double meanings etc.) 3) Associations based on homonyms and verbal similarities as mentioned above, are then treated as equally valuable as the rest. 4) Mutually contradictory thoughts often combine to form condensations as thought there were no contradiction between them.

So there are two different kinds of psychical processes in the formation of dreams. One produces perfectly rational thoughts of no less validity than normal thinking and the other treats these thoughts in a bewildering and irrational manner (i.e. the dream-work 'proper').

Furthermore, a normal train of thought is only submitted to abnormal psychical treatment of the sort described if an unconscious wish derived from infancy and in a state of repression, has been referred on to it. Of the two systems that are involved in the formation of dreams - analogous to the unconscious and preconscious, - the first system is directed towards securing freedom of thought activation and the second inhibits this discharge. Furthermore Freud proposes that the these two systems are analogous to two 'processes' a primary and secondary one respectively. Thus, by analysing dreams he proposed that we are gaining insight into the unconscious activities of the mind, as we analyse the products of the preconscious, from these unconscious trains of thought.

F. The Unconscious and Consciousness - Reality

Freud divides the unconscious into two classes - unconscious and preconscious (excitations of the latter are able to reach consciousness). Meanwhile, consciousness is left to play the part of a sense-organ for the perception of psychical qualities. Excitatory information enters the consciousness by two directions: (i) from the perceptual system and (ii) from internal quantitative processes in a qualitative pleasure-unpleasure scale.

For an example of evidence for these propositions, Freud uses patients of hysteria. For example, a young female patient, dressed in a dishevelled manner, complained of having pains in the leg and a shaking, motion feeling through her body. Freud diagnosed this as a case of the censorship from preconscious to conscious being bypassed and resulting in the symptoms found, as the sexual phantasy (which he saw her condition to be symptomatic of) was disguised as a physical complaint.

In conclusion, he argues that the 'theoretical' value of the study of dreams to psychological knowledge is great, and it throws light on psychoneuroses. The practical value of such a study could address questions concerning the hidden characteristics of men and the importance of real forces in mental life, not to mention the ethical significance of suppressed wishes - as they lead to dreams, may they lead to other, more concrete things? It seems though that psychical reality is not to be confused with material reality, as actions are much more representative of character than consciously expressed opinions. And finally Freud addresses the value of dreams for giving us knowledge of the future. Whilst he argues that dreams are derived from the past, he acknowledges that by picturing our wishes as fulfilled dreams are leading us into the future.