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The Interpretation of Dreams Chapter VI. THE DREAM-WORK A. Condensation Psychology
VI. THE DREAM-WORK
B. The Work of Displacement
Another and probably no less significant relation must have already forced
itself upon our attention while we were collecting examples of
dream-condensation. We may have noticed that these elements which obtrude
themselves in the dream-content as its essential components do not by any means
play this same part in the dream-thoughts. As a corollary to this, the converse
of this statement is also true. That which is obviously the essential content of
the dream-thoughts need not be represented at all in the dream. The dream is, as
it were, centred elsewhere; its content is arranged about elements which do not
constitute the central point of the dream-thoughts. Thus, for example, in the
dream of the botanical monograph the central point of the dream- content is
evidently the element botanical; in the dream- thoughts, we are concerned with
the complications and conflicts resulting from services rendered between
colleagues which place them under mutual obligations; later on with the reproach
that I am in the habit of sacrificing too much time to my hobbies; and the
element botanical finds no place in this nucleus of the dream- thoughts, unless
it is loosely connected with it by antithesis, for botany was never among my
favourite subjects. In the Sappho- dream of my patient, ascending and
descending, being upstairs and down, is made the central point; the dream,
however, is concerned with the danger of sexual relations with persons of low
degree; so that only one of the elements of the dream-thoughts seems to have
found its way into the dream-content, and this is unduly expanded. Again, in the
dream of my uncle, the fair beard, which seems to be its central point, appears
to have no rational connection with the desire for greatness which we have
recognized as the nucleus of the dream-thoughts. Such dreams very naturally give
us an impression of a displacement. In complete contrast to these examples, the
dream of Irma's injection shows that individual elements may claim the same
place in dream-formation as that which they occupy in the dream-thoughts. The
recognition of this new and utterly inconstant relation between the dream-
thoughts and the dream-content will probably astonish us at first. If we find,
in a psychic process of normal life, that one idea has been selected from among
a number of others, and has acquired a particular emphasis in our consciousness,
we are wont to regard this as proof that a peculiar psychic value (a certain
degree of interest) attaches to the victorious idea. We now discover that this
value of the individual element in the dream- thoughts is not retained in
dream-formation, or is not taken into account. For there is no doubt which of
the elements of the dream- thoughts are of the highest value; our judgment
informs us immediately. In dream-formation the essential elements, those that
are emphasized by intensive interest, may be treated as though they were
subordinate, while they are replaced in the dream by other elements, which were
certainly subordinate in the dream-thoughts. It seems at first as though the
psychic intensity * of individual ideas were of no account in their selection
for dream-formation, but only their greater or lesser multiplicity of
determination. One might be inclined to think that what gets into the dream is
not what is important in the dream-thoughts, but what is contained in them
several times over; but our understanding of dream-formation is not much
advanced by this assumption; to begin with, we cannot believe that the two
motives of multiple determination and intrinsic value can influence the
selection of the dream otherwise than in the same direction. Those ideas in the
dream-thoughts which are most important are probably also those which recur most
frequently, since the individual dream-thoughts radiate from them as centres.
And yet the dream may reject these intensely emphasized and extensively
reinforced elements, and may take up into its content other elements which are
only extensively reinforced.
* The psychic intensity or value of an idea- the emphasis due to interest- is of
course to be distinguished from perceptual or conceptual intensity.
This difficulty may be solved if we follow up yet another impression received
during the investigation of the over- determination of the dream-content. Many
readers of this investigation may already have decided, in their own minds, that
the discovery of the multiple determination of the dream-elements is of no great
importance, because it is inevitable. Since in analysis we proceed from the
dream-elements, and register all the ideas which associate themselves with these
elements, is it any wonder that these elements should recur with peculiar
frequency in the thought-material obtained in this manner? While I cannot admit
the validity of this objection, I am now going to say something that sounds
rather like it: Among the thoughts which analysis brings to light are many which
are far removed from the nucleus of the dream, and which stand out like
artificial interpolations made for a definite purpose. Their purpose may readily
be detected; they establish a connection, often a forced and far-fetched
connection, between the dream-content and the dream-thoughts, and in many cases,
if these elements were weeded out of the analysis, the components of the
dream-content would not only not be over-determined, but they would not be
sufficiently determined. We are thus led to the conclusion that multiple
determination, decisive as regards the selection made by the dream, is perhaps
not always a primary factor in dream- formation, but is often a secondary
product of a psychic force which is as yet unknown to us. Nevertheless, it must
be of importance for the entrance of the individual elements into the dream, for
we may observe that, in cases where multiple determination does not proceed
easily from the dream-material, it is brought about with a certain effort.
It now becomes very probable that a psychic force expresses itself in the
dream-work which, on the one hand, strips the elements of the high psychic value
of their intensity and, on the other hand, by means of over-determination,
creates new significant values from elements of slight value, which new values
then make their way into the dream-content. Now if this is the method of
procedure, there has occurred in the process of dream-formation a transference
and displacement of the psychic intensities of the individual elements, from
which results the textual difference between the dream-content and the thought-
content. The process which we here assume to be operative is actually the most
essential part of the dream-work; it may fitly be called dream-displacement.
Dream-displacement and dream- condensation are the two craftsmen to whom we may
chiefly ascribe the structure of the dream.
I think it will be easy to recognize the psychic force which expresses itself in
dream-displacement. The result of this displacement is that the dream-content no
longer has any likeness to the nucleus of the dream-thoughts, and the dream
reproduces only a distorted form of the dream-wish in the unconscious. But we
are already acquainted with dream-distortion; we have traced it back to the
censorship which one psychic instance in the psychic life exercises over
another. Dream-displacement is one of the chief means of achieving this
distortion. Is fecit, cui profuit. * We must assume that dream-displacement is
brought about by the influence of this censorship, the endopsychic defence. *(2)
* "The doer gained."
*(2) Since I regard the attribution of dream-distortion to the censorship as the
central point of my conception of the dream, I will here quote the closing
passage of a story, Traumen wie Wachen, from Phantasien eines Realisten, by
Lynkeus (Vienna, second edition [1900]), in which I find this chief feature of
my doctrine reproduced:
"Concerning a man who possesses the remarkable faculty of never dreaming
nonsense...."
"Your marvellous faculty of dreaming as if you were awake is based upon your
virtues, upon your goodness, your justice, and your love of truth; it is the
moral clarity of your nature which makes everything about you intelligible to
me."
"But if I really give thought to the matter," was the reply, "I almost believe
that all men are made as I am, and that no one ever dreams nonsense! A dream
which one remembers so distinctly that one can relate it afterwards, and which,
therefore, is no dream of delirium, always has a meaning; why, it cannot be
otherwise! For that which is in contradiction to itself can never be combined
into a whole. The fact that time and space are often thoroughly shaken up,
detracts not at all from the real content of the dream, because both are without
any significance whatever for its essential content. We often do the same thing
in waking life; think of fairy-tales, of so many bold and pregnant creations of
fantasy, of which only a foolish person would say: 'That is nonsense! For it
isn't possible.'"
"If only it were always possible to interpret dreams correctly, as you have just
done with mine!" said the friend.
"That is certainly not an easy task, but with a little attention it must always
be possible to the dreamer. You ask why it is generally impossible? In your case
there seems to be something veiled in your dreams, something unchaste in a
special and exalted fashion, a certain secrecy in your nature, which it is
difficult to fathom; and that is why your dreams so often seem to be without
meaning, or even nonsensical. But in the profoundest sense, this is by no means
the case; indeed it cannot be, for a man is always the same person, whether he
wakes or dreams."
The manner in which the factors of displacement, condensation and
over-determination interact with one another in dream-formation- which is the
ruling factor and which the subordinate one- all this will be reserved as a
subject for later investigation. In the meantime, we may state, is a second
condition which the elements that find their way into the dream must satisfy,
that they must be withdrawn from the resistance of the censorship. But
henceforth, in the interpretation of dreams, we shall reckon with
dream-displacement as an unquestionable fact.
The Interpretation of Dreams Chapter 6 - C. The Means of Representation in Dreams
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