Incidentally our attention is called to the fact that important changes
in the material comprised by our ideas and our memory may be brought
about unconsciously and at night. The injunction that one should sleep
for a night upon any affair before making a final decision about it is
obviously fully justified. But we see that at this point we have
proceeded from the psychology of dreaming to that of sleep, a step for
which there will often be occasion.
Now there arises an objection threatening to invalidate the conclusions
we have just reached. If indifferent impressions can get into the dream
only in case they are recent, how does it happen that we find also in
the dream content elements from earlier periods in our lives, which at
the time when they were recent possessed, as Strümpell expresses it, no
psychic value, which, therefore, ought to have been forgotten long ago,
and which, therefore, are neither fresh nor psychologically significant?
This objection can be fully met if we rely upon the results furnished by
psychoanalysis of neurotics. The solution is as follows: The process of
displacement which substitutes indifferent material for that having
psychic significance (for dreaming as well as for thinking) has already
taken place in those earlier periods of life, and has since become fixed
in the memory. Those elements which were originally indifferent are in
fact no longer so, since they have acquired the value of psychologically
significant material. That which has actually remained indifferent can
never be reproduced in the dream.
It will be correct to suppose from the foregoing discussion that I
maintain that there are no indifferent dream stimuli, and that,
accordingly, there are no harmless dreams. This I believe to be the
case, thoroughly and exclusively, allowance being made for the dreams of
children and perhaps for short dream reactions to nocturnal sensations.
Whatever one may dream, it is either manifestly recognisable as
psychically significant or it is disfigured, and can be judged correctly
only after a complete interpretation, when, as before, it may be
recognised as possessing psychic significance. The dream never concerns
itself with trifles; we do not allow ourselves to be disturbed in our
sleep by matters of slight importance. Dreams which are apparently
harmless turn out to be sinister if one takes pains to interpret them;
if I may be permitted the expression, they all have “the mark of the
beast.” As this is another point on which I may expect opposition, and
as I am glad of an opportunity to show dream-disfigurement at work, I
shall here subject a number of dreams from my collection to analysis.
1. An intelligent and refined young lady, who, however, in conduct,
belongs to the class we call reserved, to the “still waters,” relates
the following dream:—
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