Basic Psychoanalytic Concepts on the Theory of Dreams

Humberto Nagera

• Publisher: Taylor & Francis
• Year: 2014
• Print ISBN: 9781138987715
• eBook ISBN: 9781317670476
• Edition: 1
• Topic: Psychology
• Subtopic: Mental Health in Psychology
• Index: Psychology

It is generally accepted that among Freud's many contributions to the understanding of the normal and abnormal aspects of mental functioning, The Interpretation of Dreams stands alone and above all others. In this work published in 1900 Freud laid down the foundations of psychoanalytic theory as it was to develop throughout this century. This work not only unravelled the significance of the process of dreaming and allowed for the scientific understanding of the true meaning and nature of the mysterious world of dreams, but created the basis for a general theory of personality capable of encompassing within a single model both the normal and abnormal aspect of mental functioning.

Originally published in 1969 Dr Nagera and his collaborators (all analytically trained) from the Hampstead Child Therapy Clinic and Course (now the Anna Freud Centre) isolated from Freud's work twenty-five basic concepts that they considered not only the cornerstones of Freud's theory of dreams but fundamental pillars for the understanding of psychoanalytic theory generally. They include subjects such as dream sources, dream work, dream censorship, manifest content, latent content, condensation, displacement, symbolism, secondary revision and dream interpretation. They are presented in a condensed and concentrated manner containing all significant statements made by Freud at any point in his life on the subject of dreams, as well as tracing the historical development of his ideas wherever significant. References to the sources are given in all instances for the guidance of the student of psychoanalysis, the psychiatrist, the social worker, the psychologist or the scholarly minded reader.

THE CONCEPT OF DREAMS

Definition of Dreams

DOI: 10.4324/9781315769790-1

A dream is the (disguised) fulfilment of a (repressed) wish.¹ This formulation may be regarded as Freud's most concise definition of a dream. A comprehensive definition of dreams, as conceived by Freud, should cover the total phenomenon of which the latent dream content, the dream-work and the manifest dream are the several, component parts. The dream-work is the most ‘essential’ part.² Only through understanding its laws and conditions can we reach the latent dream content which contains the true and disguised wish.³

¹ (1900a) The Interpretation of Dreams, The Standard Edition of the Complete Psychological Works of Sigmund Freud (hereafter referred to as S.E.), Vol. 4, p. 160; (cf. also (1901a) On Dreams, S.E., Vol. 15, p. 674 and (1925d) An Autobiographical Study, S.E., Vol. 20, p. 45).

² (1933a) New Introductory Lectures on Psycho-Analysis, S.E., Vol. 22, p. 8.

³ (1900a) The Interpretation of Dreams, S.E., Vol. 4, p. 134.

Dreams are the fulfilment of wishes⁴ in the service of the preservation of sleep. This was later qualified by the statement that dreams are the ‘attempted’ fulfilment of wishes.⁵ ‘We have accepted the idea that the reason why dreams are invariably wish-fulfilments is that they are products of the system Unconscious, whose activity knows no other aim than the fulfilment of wishes and which has at its command no other forces than wishful impulses’.⁶ It is for this reason that Freud wrote that ‘the interpretation of dreams is the royal road to a knowledge of the unconscious activities of the mind’.⁷ A dream is also described as a ‘substitute for an infantile scene modified by being transferred on to a recent experience’,⁸ and as the expression of ‘a piece of infantile mental life that has been superseded’.⁹

⁴ (1916–17) Introductory Lectures on Psycho-Analysis, S.E., Vol. 15–16, pp. 128–9.

⁵ (1933a) New Introductory Lectures on Psycho-Analysis, S.E., Vol. 22, p. 28.

⁶ (1900a) The Interpretation of Dreams, S.E., Vol. 5, p. 568; (1933a) New Introductory Lectures on Psycho-Analysis, S.E., Vol. 22, p. 18.

⁷ (1900a) The Interpretation of Dreams, S.E., Vol. 5, p. 608.

⁸ ibid, S.E., Vol. 5, P. 546.

⁹ ibid, S.E., Vol. 5, p. 567.

Though Freud referred to dreams as transient psychoses¹ neurotic symptoms in themselves² and considered them to be similar to the same set of psycho-pathological structures as idées fixes, obsessions and delusions,³ there is no doubt that he did not consider dreams as pathological phenomena in themselves. ‘Dreams are not pathological phenomena; they can appear in any healthy person under the conditions of a state of sleep’.⁴ The link with the psychoses prompts itself by the common element of the hallucinatory wish-fulfilment,⁵ that (the link) with a neurotic symptom by the dream's characteristic of being ‘a compromise between the demands of a repressed impulse and the resistance of a censoring force in the ego’.⁶

¹ (1916b) ‘A Mythological Parallel to a Visual Obsession’, S.E., Vol. 14, p. 230.

² (1916–17) Introductory Lectures on Psycho-Analysis, S.E., Vol. 15–16, p. 83. (1925d) An Autobiographical Study, S.E., Vol. 20, p. 45.

³ (1900a) The Interpretation of Dreams, S.E., Vol. 4, p. 281.

⁴ (1916–17) Introductory Lectures on Psycho-Analysis, S.E., Vol. 16, p. 297.

⁵ (1916b) ‘A Mythological Parallel to a Visual Obsession’, S.E., Vol. 14, pp. 229–31.

⁶ (1925d) An Autobiographical Study, S.E., Vol. 20, p. 45.

Freud's conceptualization of dreams must be seen in contrast to earlier and current medical theories about dreams. Referring to these he wrote that:

‘To concern oneself with dreams is not merely unpractical and uncalled-for, it is positively disgraceful. It brings with it the odium of being unscientific and rouses the suspicion of a personal inclination to mysticism…. We may therefore ask what may be the true source of the contempt in which dreams are held in scientific circles. It is, I believe, a reaction against the overvaluation of dreams in earlier days … interest in dreams sank to the level of superstition…. On the other hand the exact science of today has repeatedly concerned itself with dreams but always with the sole aim of applying its physiological theories to them. Medical men, of course, looked on dreams as non-psychical acts, as the expression in mental life of somatic stimuli…. Can you imagine what exact science would say if it learnt that we want to make an attempt to discover the sense of dreams? Perhaps it has already said it. But we will not let ourselves be frightened off. If it was possible for parapraxes to have a sense, dreams can have one too; and in a great many cases parapraxes have a sense, which has escaped exact science. So let us embrace the prejudice of the ancients and of the people and let us follow in the footsteps of the dream interpreters of antiquity’.¹

¹ (1916–17) Introductory Lectures on Psycho-Analysis, S.E., Vol. 15–16, pp. 84–7.

From this point of view the following characteristics and functions must be emphasized as particularly relevant:

1. Dreams are a product of the mindDreams are ‘not merely a somatic process … they are not meaningless … they are not absurd … they are psychical phenomena of complete validity—fulfilments of wishes: they ca...

Table of contents

• Cover Page
• Half Title Page
• Title Page
• Copyright Page
• Original Title Page
• Original Copyright Page
• Acknowledgements and Copyright Notices
• Foreword
• Table of Contents
• Introduction
• 1 The Concept of Dreams (Definition of Dreams)
• 2 Dream Sources (Dream Instigators)
• 3 The Dream-Wish
• 4 Other Wishes in Dreams and Dreaming
• 5 Note on Freud’s Use of the Terms ‘Latent Dream Content’ and ‘Latent Dream Thoughts’
• 6 Latent Dream-Content
• 7 Latent Dream-Thoughts
• 8 Day’s Residues
• 9 Affects in Dreams
• 10 The Use of Memories in Dreams
• 11 Dream-Fantasies
• 12 Manifest Content
• 13 Dream-Censorship
• 14 Dream-Work
• 15 Distortion in Dreams
• 16 Considerations of Representability (Plastic Representation)
• 17 Regression in Dreams
• 18 Condensation in Dreams
• 19 Displacement in Dreams
• 20 Secondary Revision
• 21 Symbolism
• 22 The Remembering and Forgetting of Dreams
• 23 Apparent Failures of the Wish-Fulfilling Function of Dreams: Punishment Dreams, Counter-Wish Dreams, Anxiety Dreams, Dreams in the Traumatic Neuroses
• 24 Dream Interpretation
• 25 Day-Dreams (Fantasies) and Dreams
• Index