But we need go only a step further to find a dream source which is more
prolific than any of those mentioned above, which indeed promises to be
inexhaustible in every case. If it is established that the bodily organs
become in sickness an exciting source of dreams, and if we admit that
the mind, diverted during sleep from the outer world, can devote more
attention to the interior of the body, we may readily assume that the
organs need not necessarily become diseased in order to permit stimuli,
which in some way or other grow into dream pictures, to reach the
sleeping mind. What in the waking state we broadly perceive as general
sensation, distinguishable by its quality alone, to which, in the
opinion of the physicians, all the organic systems contribute their
shares—this general sensation at night attaining powerful efficiency and
becoming active with its individual components—would naturally furnish
the most powerful as well as the most common source for the production
of the dream presentations. It still remains, however, to examine
according to what rule the organic sensations become transformed into
dream presentations.
The theory of the origin of dreams just stated has been the favourite
with all medical authors. The obscurity which conceals the essence of
our being—the “_moi splanchnique_,” as Tissié terms it—from our
knowledge and the obscurity of the origin of the dream correspond too
well not to be brought into relation with each other. The train of
thought which makes organic sensation the inciter of the dream has
besides another attraction for the physician, inasmuch as it favours the
etiological union of the dream and mental diseases, which show so many
agreements in their manifestations, for alterations in the organic
sensations and excitations emanating from the inner organs are both of
wide significance in the origin of the psychoses. It is therefore not
surprising that the theory of bodily sensation can be traced to more
than one originator who has propounded it independently.
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.
Join the Discussion
Join the discussion
Sign in to leave a comment or review.
Sign InorCreate an account