Introductory lectures on psycho-analysis : $b a course of twenty-eight lectures delivered at the University of ViennaFreud, Sigmund
Science
Introductory lectures on psycho-analysis : $b a course of twenty-eight lectures delivered at the University of Vienna
Freud, Sigmund
Psychoanalysis
First, it may happen that the dream-work is not wholly successful in
creating a wish-fulfilment, so that part of the painful feeling in the
latent thoughts is carried over into the manifest dream. Analysis would
then have to show that these thoughts were a great deal more painful
than the dream which is formed from them; this much can be proved in
every instance. We admit then that the dream-work has failed in its
purpose, just as a dream of drinking excited by the stimulus of thirst
fails to quench that thirst. One is still thirsty after it and has to
wake up and drink. Nevertheless, it is a proper dream: it has renounced
nothing of its essential nature. We must say: “Ut desint vires, tamen
est laudanda voluntas.” The clearly recognizable intention remains a
praiseworthy one, at any rate. Such instances of failure in the work are
by no means rare, and one reason is that it is so much more difficult
for the dream-work to produce the required change in the nature of the
affect than to modify the content; affects are often very intractable.
So it happens that in the process of the dream-work the painful
_content_ of the dream-thoughts is transformed into a wish-fulfilment
while the painful _affect_ persists unchanged. When this occurs the
affect is quite out of harmony with the content, which gives our critics
the opportunity of remarking that the dream is so far from being a
wish-fulfilment that even a harmless content may be accompanied in it by
painful feelings. Our answer to this rather unintelligent comment will
be that it is just in dreams of this sort that the wish-fulfilling
tendency of the dream-work is most apparent, because it is there seen in
isolation. The mistake in this criticism arises because people who are
not familiar with the neuroses imagine a more intimate connection
between content and affect than actually exists, and so cannot
understand that there may be an alteration in the content while the
accompanying affect remains unchanged.
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