Page - 78 - in Dream Psychology
Image of the Page - 78 -
Text of the Page - 78 -
foreconscious in general facilitates the formation of the dream. Let us refer to
the dream of the father who, by the gleam of light from the death chamber,
was brought to the conclusion that the body has been set on fire. We have
shown that one of the psychic forces decisive in causing the father to form
this conclusion, instead of being awakened by the gleam of light, was the
wish to prolong the life of the child seen in the dream by one moment. Other
wishes proceeding from the repression probably escape us, because we are
unable to analyze this dream. But as a second motive power of the dream we
may mention the father’s desire to sleep, for, like the life of the child, the
sleep of the father is prolonged for a moment by the dream. The underlying
motive is: “Let the dream go on, otherwise I must wake up.” As in this dream
so also in all other dreams, the wish to sleep lends its support to the
unconscious wish. We reported dreams which were apparently dreams of
convenience. But, properly speaking, all dreams may claim this designation.
The efficacy of the wish to continue to sleep is the most easily recognized in
the waking dreams, which so transform the objective sensory stimulus as to
render it compatible with the continuance of sleep; they interweave this
stimulus with the dream in order to rob it of any claims it might make as a
warning to the outer world. But this wish to continue to sleep must also
participate in the formation of all other dreams which may disturb the
sleeping state from within only. “Now, then, sleep on; why, it’s but a dream”;
this is in many cases the suggestion of the Forec. to consciousness when the
dream goes too far; and this also describes in a general way the attitude of our
dominating psychic activity toward dreaming, though the thought remains
tacit. I must draw the conclusion that throughout our entire sleeping state we
are just as certain that we are dreaming as we are certain that we are sleeping.
We are compelled to disregard the objection urged against this conclusion that
our consciousness is never directed to a knowledge of the former, and that it
is directed to a knowledge of the latter only on special occasions when the
censor is unexpectedly surprised. Against this objection we may say that there
are persons who are entirely conscious of their sleeping and dreaming, and
who are apparently endowed with the conscious faculty of guiding their
dream life. Such a dreamer, when dissatisfied with the course taken by the
dream, breaks it off without awakening, and begins it anew in order to
continue it with a different turn, like the popular author who, on request, gives
a happier ending to his play. Or, at another time, if placed by the dream in a
sexually exciting situation, he thinks in his sleep: “I do not care to continue
this dream and exhaust myself by a pollution; I prefer to defer it in favor of a
real situation.”
78
back to the
book Dream Psychology"
Dream Psychology
- Title
- Dream Psychology
- Author
- Sigmund Freud
- Date
- 1920
- Language
- English
- License
- PD
- Size
- 21.0 x 29.7 cm
- Pages
- 114
- Keywords
- Neurology, Neurologie, Träume, Psycholgie, Traum
- Categories
- Geisteswissenschaften
- International
- Medizin
Table of contents
- Introduction 4
- Chapter 1: Dreams have a meaning 9
- Chapter 2: The Dream mechanism 20
- Chapter 3: Why the dream diguises the desire 34
- Chapter 4: Dream analysis 43
- Chapter 5: Sex in dreams 54
- Chapter 6: The Wish in dreams 67
- Chapter 7: The Function of the dream 79
- Chapter 8: The Primary and Secondary process - Regression 89
- Chapter 9: The Unconscious and Consciousness - Reality 104