FREUD'S DREAM THEORY

It , is generally unrecognized that SigmundFreud's contribution to the scientific understand-

ing of dreams derived from a radical reorientationto the dream experience. During the nineteenthcentury, before publication of The Interpreta-tion of Dreams, the presence of dreaming wasconsidered by the scientific community as a man-ifestation of mental activity during sleep . Thestate of sleep was given prominence as a factor ac-counting for the seeming lack of organization andmeaning to the dream experience . Thus, the as-sumed relatively nonpsychological sleep state setthe scientific stage for viewing the nature of thedream. Freud radically shifted the context . Herecognized-as myth, folklore, and commonsense had long understood-that dreams werealso linked with the psychology of waking life .This shift in orientation has proved essential forour modern view of dreams and dreaming .Dreams are no longer dismissed as senseless noteshit at random on a piano keyboard by an un-trained player. Dreams are now recognized as psy-chologically significant and meaningful expres-sions of the life of the dreamer, albeit expressedin disguised and concealed forms . (For a contrast-ing view, see AcFIIa ION_sYNTHESIS xxroTESis .)

Contemporary Dream Research

During the past quarter-century, there has beenincreasing scientific interest in the process ofdreaming. A regular sleep-wakefulness cycle hasbeen discovered, and if experimental subjects areawakened during periods of rapid eye movements(REM periods), they will frequently reportdreams. In a typical night, four or five dreamsoccur during REM periods, accompanied byother signs of physiological activation, such as in-creased respiratory rate, heart rate, and penileand clitoral erection . Dreams usually last for theduration of the eye movements, from about 10 to25 minutes . Although dreaming usually occurs insuch regular cycles ;.dreaming may occur at othertimes during sleep, as well as during hypnagogic(falling asleep) or hypnopompic .(waking up)states, when REMs are not present .

The above findings are discoveries made sincethe monumental work of Freud reported in TheInterpretation of Dreams, and.although of greatinterest to the study of the mind-body problem,these.findings as yet bear only a peripheral rela-tionship to the central concerns of the psychol-ogy of dream formation, the meaning of dream

content, the dream as an approach to a deeper un-derstanding of emotional life, and the use of thedream in psychoanalytic treatment .

Rudiments of the Dream

In his initial psychological work, Freud was ledto the dream via his interest in neurotic symp-toms . In his attempt to understand the meaningof symptoms, he asked his patients to associatefreely, and in doing so they began to reportdreams. He then treated the dream much like asymptom, amenable to the formation of associa-tional links and susceptible to interpretation .Freud asked patients to report freely what cameto mind in response to specific elements of thedream. The method of free association requiredthe curtailment of the mind's tendency to judge,evaluate, and criticize, and thus block the naturalflow of association .

This method, which Is also the method used bythe patient In revealing his thoughts and feelingsin psychoanalytic psychotherapy, led Freud toclarify the meaning of the dream . The dream asreported is called the manifest dream and is thedream as consciously perceived and subse-quently remembered. Freud discovered that be-hind the manifest dream could be uncovered anumber of latent thoughts, and these thoughtswere transformed by a process of dream workinto the manifest dream . When the manifestdream was analyzed by the method of free associ-ation, the dream representation could be under-stood as an attempt at the fulfillment of wishes ofwhich the dreamer was not consciously aware.

On the surface, such a proposition seemedeven more radical than the view that the seem-ingly senseless and chaotic dream is an under-standable part of psychological life ; .however,Freud 'presented evidence to support such aproposition . To support the wish fulfillment the-ory, for example, one can point to the small num-ber of dreams that are clearly wish-fulfilling evenin their manifest content . Explorers deprived offood and drink dream of huge banquets and lus-cious, clear, thirst-quenching mountain streams .Also, some children's dreams are manifestlywish-fulfilling . A medical student who must report tothe hospital early in the morning to make roundsdreams of lying in a hospital bed, and continuesto sleep, comforted in the thought that she is al-

ready in the hospital . Such a dream Is called adream of convenience. The wish fulfilled is theuniversal desire to continue to sleep . .

Such easily decipherable dreams are the excep-tion, however; most dreams do not readily pres-ent wishes as fulfilled in the manifest content .Instead, the manifest dream is the end product ofa process of disguise and distortion . To accountfor the masking of the wish, It is necessary to un-derstand that the difficulty the dreamer experi-ences in recognizing his or her wishes isexplained by the fact that the wishes that under-lie the dream are unacceptable to the dreamer'sego. The wishes are objectionable on moralgrounds or unacceptable because they lower self-esteem or produce anxiety, guilt, shame, disgust,or embarrassment . Thus, the wishes are uncon-scious, and the thoughts and feelings connectedwith such wishes are subjected to a censorshipthat interferes with ready access to consciousawareness. Many dreams that occur during anight's sleep are forgotten and fade away withawakening. The dream censorship also affects theretention of dream content : Thus, one may forgeta dream because of the presence of a repressiveforce. Other similar defensive forces use a varietyof psychological techniques to distort the repre- .sentations of clear wish fulfillment. As an exam-ple of distortion, an unconscious hostile wishdirected toward a loved one on the previous daymay be presented in a dream by the dreamer's at-tempt to rescue the loved one from a dangerousand painful situation invented by the dreamrepresentation .

Psychoanalysis is interested in the variedsources involved in the formation of a dream . Ifwe simply examine the dream on a manifestlevel, the dream is made of a large number ofelements . The Images of the dream may consist ofpreviously experienced real events, wakingthoughts, feelings, and ideas . Body sensations,memories from the previous day, or memories ofexperiences from the distant and even infantilepast may find a place In the manifest dream. Theimmediate source for the dream is some psycho-logical remnant, such as a longing, worry, orconcern-some incomplete task from the previ-ous day that has not been resolved and put to rest .In The Interpretation of Dreams, Freud offersseveral examples of such day residues that serveas precipitants to the Imagery of the dream . Freudhad a dream of turning over a colored picture of aplant In a monograph he had written . The Imme-

diate source of this dream was the sight of a newbook about the plant, which he had seen the pre-vious day. The dream was also instigated by a con-versation Freud had on the previous day with aman on a topic related to the book he saw . Thesecond Instigator, the conversation, was muchmore emotionally meaningful to Freud than thesight of the book in the window . It Is common fordreams to use indifferent recent memories toconceal other situations that stir emotion andconflict. It is also common for the thoughts aboutthe current life of the dreams to evoke relatedmemories from the past with which the immedi-ate experiences resonate .

The Dream Work

The latent dream thoughts, stirred by the day resi-dues, seek some form of expression . The vehiclefor this expression, the means by which the latentdream thoughts are transformed into manifestdream content, Is known as the dream work. Be-fore embarking on a description of dream work,one should point out that the latent dreamthoughts, when they are revealed through dreaminterpretation, follow the ordinary laws of logicand everyday speech . latent dream thoughts areunderstandable as forms of expression in the op •tative mood; that Is, "if only it were true that. . . ," "given such and such a condition, I wouldwish that . . . ," and other such ordinary means ofexpressing a desire .The dream work is the vehicle and language

available to the dreamer for expressing thought .The language resembles a rebus or pictographicpuzzle more than a written language, In whichwords bear a clear symbolic relation to a referent .The mechanisms of dream work : condensation,displacement, plastic representation, and sec-ondary revision (also known in older psychoan-alytic literature as secondary elaboration) . Thefirst three mechanisms are archaic, prelogicalmodes of thinking. The last, secondary revision,is a component of rational, logical thought .Condensation refers to the tendency to com-

bine a number of latent dream thoughts into amore succinct element . Thus, in Freud's well-known dream of Irma's injection, which he dis-cussed at length in the second chapter of TheInterpretation ofDreams, the figure of Irma inthe manifest content stands for at least seven

women including herself. Thus, a number of la-tent thoughts about women are condensed into asingle manifest element. Displacement Is a mech-anism that allows the dreamer to shift the emo-tional Intensity from one dream thought toanother. Freud maintained that there is never anydoubt about the psychological value of the latentdream thoughts . We know their value on the basisof our direct judgment, our shared humanity, em-pathy, and introspection. In the formation of thedream, however, the accent is shifted, the psy-chologically important is treated casually, andthe seemingly innocuous in the manifest contentmay stand for the emotionally intense . Displace-ment is facilitated by the dream censorship, resis-tance, and defensive needs to conceal conflictedthoughts from the dreamer's ego . Freud was fondof illustrating the concept of dream displacementby the tale of a town In which a tailor had com-mitted a crime punishable by execution . As thetown had only one tailor but had three butchers,it was decided to execute a butcher instead .

The contents of the latent dream thoughts arealso revealed through the processes used in con-structing the dream. As primary process mecha-nisms are inadequate to express relations be-tween dream thoughts, they may be expressed inthe formal means available to the dreamer . Thus,a close connection between two events or peoplemay be expressed by their occurrence simulta-neity In time or by juxtaposing figures side-by-side in the manifest dream . Furthermore, causalrelation in latent thought maybe represented by ashort dream sequence that introduces anotherdream. A contradiction may be expressed by a re-versal. Various qualities about the dreamer's per-ception of the dream may represent componentsof the latent dream thoughts . Thus, the sensoryquality of the dream may stand for ideas aboutclarity or vagueness, which are components ofthe latent dream thoughts . For example, a patienthas a "vague" dream that expresses his view of thepsychotherapist's interpretation of the previousday; It, too, was vague .

The dream work may also make use of a univer-sal tendency to depict a psychologically impor-tant person, body part, or experience by arepertoire of common symbols . A father or theanalyst may be represented by a king 'or presi-dent, a penis by a knife, a vagina by a cave, birthby water. These symbols, however, are traps forthe unwary. In the absence of confirming associa-

tions, the psychotherapist will not be taken in by .the facile glibness such symbols offer, but willexplore their meaning via associations from thepatient .

The third mechanism of the dream work is thecapacity to form plastic representations of thedream thoughts . The dreamer tends to form vis-ual Images rather than to express formal relationsamong thoughts in conceptual terms . Occasion-ally, the images are In other sensory modalitiesbesides the visual ; auditory, kinesthetic, and ol .factory are also used. Some dreams may lack allsensory qualities and be present only as thoughts,isolated ideas, feeling states, or single words .

The fourth factor responsible for the work ofconstructing a dream is secondary revision . Thismechanism strives to make the confusion andseeming chaos of dream images and thoughts co-herent and intelligible. The organized narrativeand storylike quality of the dream Is attributableto this factor. Occasionally, the dreamer will fitthe dream contents to an available daydream fromwaking life, much as a Renaissance painter maychoose to express personal infantile wishes formaternal care by making use of conventional Na-tivity Iconography.The dream work -is the manner by which a .

dream is created; dream analysis and interpreta=tion are the techniques by which the meaning isrevealed .

Harry 7) osman