A General Introduction to PsychoanalysisFreud, Sigmund
Science
A General Introduction to Psychoanalysis
Freud, Sigmund
Psychoanalysis
That is a physiological or biological problem concerning which there is
still much controversy. We can form no decision on the point, but I
think we may attempt a psychological characterization of sleep. Sleep is
a condition in which I wish to have nothing to do with the external
world, and have withdrawn my interest from it. I put myself to sleep by
withdrawing myself from the external world and by holding off its
stimuli. I also go to sleep when I am fatigued by the external world.
Thus, by going to sleep, I say to the external world, "Leave me in
peace, for I wish to sleep." Conversely, the child says, "I won't go to
bed yet, I am not tired, I want to have some more fun." The biological
intention of sleep thus seems to be recuperation; its psychological
character, the suspension of interest in the external world. Our
relation to the world into which we came so unwillingly, seems to
include the fact that we cannot endure it without interruption. For this
reason we revert from time to time to the pre-natal existence, that is,
to the intra-uterine existence. At least we create for ourselves
conditions quite similar to those obtaining at that time--warmth,
darkness and the absence of stimuli. Some of us even roll ourselves
into tight packages and assume in sleep a posture very similar to the
intra-uterine posture. It seems as if the world did not wholly possess
us adults, it has only two-thirds of our life, we are still one-third
unborn. Each awakening in the morning is then like a new birth. We also
speak of the condition after sleep with the words, "I feel as though I
had been born anew," by which we probably form a very erroneous idea of
the general feeling of the newly born. It may be assumed that the
latter, on the contrary, feel very uncomfortable. We also speak of birth
as "seeing the light of day." If that be sleep, then the dream is not on
its program at all, rather it seems an unwelcome addition. We think,
too, that dreamless sleep is the best and only normal sleep. There
should be no psychic activity in sleep; if the psyche stirs, then just
to that extent have we failed to reduplicate the foetal condition;
remainders of psychic activity could not be completely avoided. These
remainders are the dream. Then it really does seem that the dream need
have no meaning. It was different in the case of errors; they were
activities of the waking state. But when I am asleep, have quite
suspended psychic activity and have suppressed all but certain of its
remainders, then it is by no means inevitable that these remainders have
a meaning. In fact, I cannot make use of this meaning, in view of the
fact that the rest of my psyche is asleep. This must, of course, be a
question only of twitching, like spasmodic reactions, a question only of
psychic phenomena such as follow directly upon somatic stimulation. The
dream, therefore, appears to be the sleep-disturbing remnant of the
psychic activity of waking life, and we may make the resolution promptly
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
Reviews
Reviews
No reviews yet
Be the first to share your thoughts on this work.
Elsewhere in the archive
Join the Discussion
Join the discussion
Sign in to leave a comment or review.
Sign InorCreate an account