This difficulty may be solved by considering another impression received
in the investigation of the manifold determination of the dream content.
Perhaps many a reader has already passed his own judgment upon this
investigation by saying that the manifold determination of the elements
of the dream is not a significant discovery, because it is a
self-evident one. In the analysis one starts from the dream elements,
and registers all the notions which are connected with them; it is no
wonder, then, that these elements should occur with particular frequency
in the thought material which is obtained in this manner. I cannot
acknowledge the validity of this objection, but shall say something
myself which sounds like it. Among the thoughts which analysis brings to
light, many can be found which are far removed from the central idea of
the dream, and which appear distinguished from the rest as artificial
interpolations for a definite purpose. Their purpose may easily be
discovered; they are just the ones which establish a connection, often a
forced and far-fetched one, between the dream content and the dream
thoughts, and if these elements were to be weeded out, not only
over-determination but also a sufficient determination by means of the
dream thoughts would often be lacking for the dream content. We are thus
led to the conclusion that manifold determination, which decides the
selection made by the dream, is perhaps not always a primary factor in
dream formation, but is often the secondary manifestation of a psychic
power which is still unknown to us. But in spite of all this, manifold
determination must nevertheless control the entrance of individual
elements into the dream, for it is possible to observe that it is
established with considerable effort in cases where it does not result
from the dream material without assistance.
The assumption is not now far distant that a psychic force is expressed
in dream activity which on the one hand strips elements of high psychic
value of their intensity, and which on the other hand creates new
values, _by way of over-determination_, from elements of small value,
these new values subsequently getting into the dream content. If this is
the method of procedure, there has taken place in the formation of the
dream a transference and displacement of the psychic intensities of the
individual elements, of which the textual difference between the dream
and the thought content appears as a result. The process which we assume
here is nothing less than the essential part of the dream activity; it
merits the designation of _dream displacement_. _Dream displacement_ and
_dream condensation_ are the two craftsmen to whom we may chiefly
attribute the moulding of the dream.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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