The value of Scherner’s and Volkelt’s discussions lies in the fact that
they call attention to a number of characteristics of the dream content
which are in need of explanation, and which seem to promise new
knowledge. It is quite true that symbolisations of organs of the body
and of their functions are contained in dreams, that water in a dream
often signifies a desire to urinate, that the male genital may often be
represented by a staff standing erect or by a pillar, &c. In dreams
which show a very animated field of vision and brilliant colours, in
contrast to the dimness of other dreams, the interpretation may hardly
be dismissed that they are “dreams of visual stimulation,” any more than
it may be disputed that there is a contribution of illusory formations
in dreams which contain noise and confusion of voices. A dream like that
of Scherner, of two rows of fair handsome boys standing opposite to each
other on a bridge, attacking each other and then taking their places
again, until finally the dreamer himself sits down on the bridge and
pulls a long tooth out of his jaw; or a similar one of Volkelt’s, in
which two rows of drawers play a part, and which again ends in the
extraction of a tooth; dream formations of this sort, which are related
in great numbers by the authors, prevent our discarding Scherner’s
theory as an idle fabrication without seeking to find its kernel of
truth. We are now confronted by the task of giving the supposed
symbolisation of the dental stimulus an explanation of a different kind.
Throughout our consideration of the theory of the somatic sources of
dreams, I have refrained from urging the argument which is inferred from
our dream analyses. If we have succeeded in proving, by a procedure
which other authors have not applied in their investigation of dreams,
that the dream as a psychic action possesses value peculiar to itself,
that a wish supplies the motive for its formation, and that the
experiences of the previous day furnish the immediate material for its
content, any other theory of dreams neglecting such an important method
of investigation, and accordingly causing the dream to appear a useless
and problematic psychic reaction to somatic stimuli, is dismissible
without any particular comment. Otherwise there must be—which is highly
improbable—two entirely different kinds of dreams, of which only one has
come under our observation, while only the other has been observed by
the earlier connoisseurs of the dream. It still remains to provide a
place for the facts which are used to support the prevailing theory of
somatic dream-stimuli, within our own theory of dreams.
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