A General Introduction to PsychoanalysisFreud, Sigmund
Science
A General Introduction to Psychoanalysis
Freud, Sigmund
Psychoanalysis
tortured by hunger in the redoubt at Magdeburg, likewise saw himself
surrounded by wonderful meals, and George Back, who took part in
Franklin's first expedition, dreamed regularly and consistently of
luxurious meals when, as a result of terrible privations, he was nearly
dead of hunger."
A man who feels great thirst at night after enjoying highly seasoned
food for supper, often dreams that he is drinking. It is of course
impossible to satisfy a rather strong desire for food or drink by means
of the dream; from such a dream one awakes thirsty and must now drink
real water. The effect of the dream is in this case practically
trifling, but it is none the less clear that it was called up for the
purpose of maintaining the sleep in spite of the urgent impulse to awake
and to act. Dreams of satisfaction often overcome needs of a lesser
intensity.
In a like manner, under the influence of sexual stimuli, the dream
brings about satisfaction that shows noteworthy peculiarities. As a
result of the characteristic of the sexual urge which makes it somewhat
less dependent upon its object than hunger and thirst, satisfaction in a
dream of pollution may be an actual one, and as a result of difficulties
to be mentioned later in connection with the object, it happens
especially often that the actual satisfaction is connected with confused
or distorted dream content. This peculiarity of the dream of pollution,
as O. Rank has observed, makes it a fruitful subject to pursue in the
study of dream distortion. Moreover, all dreams of desire of adults
usually contain something besides satisfaction, something that has its
origin in the sources of the purely psychic stimuli, and which requires
interpretation to render it intelligible.
Moreover we shall not maintain that the wish-fulfillment dreams of the
infantile kind occur in adults only as reactions to the known imperative
desires. We also know of short clear dreams of this sort under the
influence of dominating situations that arise from unquestionably
psychic sources. As, for example, in dreams of impatience, whenever a
person has made preparations for a journey, for a theatrical
performance, for a lecture or for a visit, and now dreams of the
anticipated fulfillment of his expectations, and so arrives at his goal
the night before the actual experience, in the theatre or in
conversation with his host. Or the well-named dreams of comfort, when a
person who likes to prolong his sleep, dreams that he is already up, is
washing himself, or is already in school, while as a matter of fact he
continues sleeping, hence would rather get up in a dream than in
reality. The desire for sleep which we have recognized as a regular part
of the dream structure becomes intense in these dreams and appears in
them as the actual shaping force of the dream. The wish for sleep
properly takes its place beside other great physical desires.
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