The Interpretation of Dreams

The Interpretation of Dreams is the classic text on dream analysis and interpretation.
Freud
introduces many key concepts that would later become central to the theory of psychoanalysis.
Freud (1900) considered dreams to be the royal road to the unconscious as it is in dreams that
the ego's defenses are lowered so that some of the repressed material comes through to
awareness, albeit in distorted form. Dreams perform important functions for the unconscious
mind and serve as valuable clues to how the unconscious mind operates.
On 24 July 1895, Freud had his own dream that was to form the basis of his theory. He had
been worried about a patient, Irma, who was not doing as well in treatment as he had hoped.
Freud, in fact, blamed himself for this, and was feeling guilty.
Freud dreamed that he met Irma at a party and examined her. He then saw a chemical formula
for a drug that another doctor had given Irma flash before his eyes and realized that her
condition was caused by a dirty syringe used by the other doctor. Freud's guilt was thus
relieved.
Freud interpreted this dream as wish-fulfillment. He had wished that Irma's poor condition was
not his fault and the dream had fulfilled this wish by informing him that another doctor was at
fault. Based on this dream, Freud (1900) went on to propose that a major function of dreams
was the fulfillment of wishes.
Freud distinguished between the manifest content of a dream (what the dreamer remembers)
and the latent content, the symbolic meaning of the dream (i.e., the underlying wish). The
manifest content is often based on the events of the day.
The process whereby the underlying wish is translated into the manifest content is called
dreamwork. The purpose of dreamwork is to transform the forbidden wish into a non-
threatening form, thus reducing anxiety and allowing us to continue sleeping. Dreamwork
involves the process of condensation, displacement, and secondary elaboration.
The process of condensation is the joining of two or more ideas/images into one. For example,
a dream about a man may be a dream about both one's father and one's lover. A dream about
a house might be the condensation of worries about security as well as worries about one's
appearance to the rest of the world.
Displacement takes place when we transform the person or object we are really concerned
about to someone else. For example, one of Freud’s patients was extremely resentful of his
sister-in-law and used to refer to her as a dog, dreamed of strangling a small white dog.
Freud interpreted this as representing his wish to kill his sister-in-law. If the patient would have
really dreamed of killing his sister-in-law, he would have felt guilty. The unconscious mind
transformed her into a dog to protect him.
Secondary elaboration occurs when the unconscious mind strings together wish-fulfilling
images in a logical order of events, further obscuring the latent content. According to Freud,
this is why the manifest content of dreams can be in the form of believable events.
In Freud’s later work on dreams, he explored the possibility of universal symbols in dreams.
Some of these were sexual in nature, including poles, guns, and swords representing the penis
and horse riding and dancing representing sexual intercourse.
However, Freud was cautious about symbols and stated that general symbols are more
personal rather than universal. A person cannot interpret what the manifest content of a dream
symbolized without knowing about the person’s circumstances.
On 24 July 1895, Freud had his own dream that was to form the basis of his theory. He had
been worried about a patient, Irma, who was not doing as well in treatment as he had hoped.
Freud, in fact, blamed himself for this, and was feeling guilty.
Freud dreamed that he met Irma at a party and examined her. He then saw a chemical formula
for a drug that another doctor had given Irma flash before his eyes and realized that her
condition was caused by a dirty syringe used by the other doctor. Freud's guilt was thus
relieved.
Freud interpreted this dream as wish-fulfillment. He had wished that Irma's poor condition was
not his fault and the dream had fulfilled this wish by informing him that another doctor was at
fault. Based on this dream, Freud (1900) went on to propose that a major function of dreams
was the fulfillment of wishes.
Freud distinguished between the manifest content of a dream (what the dreamer remembers)
and the latent content, the symbolic meaning of the dream (i.e., the underlying wish). The
manifest content is often based on the events of the day.
The process whereby the underlying wish is translated into the manifest content is called
dreamwork. The purpose of dreamwork is to transform the forbidden wish into a non-
threatening form, thus reducing anxiety and allowing us to continue sleeping. Dreamwork
involves the process of condensation, displacement, and secondary elaboration.
The process of condensation is the joining of two or more ideas/images into one. For example,
a dream about a man may be a dream about both one's father and one's lover. A dream about
a house might be the condensation of worries about security as well as worries about one's
appearance to the rest of the world.
Displacement takes place when we transform the person or object we are really concerned
about to someone else. For example, one of Freud’s patients was extremely resentful of his
sister-in-law and used to refer to her as a dog, dreamed of strangling a small white dog.
Freud interpreted this as representing his wish to kill his sister-in-law. If the patient would have
really dreamed of killing his sister-in-law, he would have felt guilty. The unconscious mind
transformed her into a dog to protect him.
Secondary elaboration occurs when the unconscious mind strings together wish-fulfilling
images in a logical order of events, further obscuring the latent content. According to Freud,
this is why the manifest content of dreams can be in the form of believable events.
In Freud’s later work on dreams, he explored the possibility of universal symbols in dreams.
Some of these were sexual in nature, including poles, guns, and swords representing the penis
and horse riding and dancing representing sexual intercourse.
However, Freud was cautious about symbols and stated that general symbols are more
personal rather than universal. A person cannot interpret what the manifest content of a dream
symbolized without knowing about the person’s circumstances.

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The Interpretation of Dreams is the classic text on dream analysis and interpretation.

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