Dream Psychology | Page 4

reach the sleeper from without or are accidental disturbances of his internal organs. The
dream has no greater claim to meaning and importance than the sound called forth by the
ten fingers of a person quite unacquainted with music running his fingers over the keys of
an instrument. The dream is to be regarded, says Binz, "as a physical process always
useless, frequently morbid." All the peculiarities of dream life are explicable as the
incoherent effort, due to some physiological stimulus, of certain organs, or of the cortical
elements of a brain otherwise asleep.
But slightly affected by scientific opinion and untroubled as to the origin of dreams, the
popular view holds firmly to the belief that dreams really have got a meaning, in some
way they do foretell the future, whilst the meaning can be unravelled in some way or
other from its oft bizarre and enigmatical content. The reading of dreams consists in
replacing the events of the dream, so far as remembered, by other events. This is done
either scene by scene, according to some rigid key, or the dream as a whole is replaced by
something else of which it was a symbol. Serious-minded persons laugh at these
efforts--"Dreams are but sea-foam!"
One day I discovered to my amazement that the popular view grounded in superstition,

and not the medical one, comes nearer to the truth about dreams. I arrived at new
conclusions about dreams by the use of a new method of psychological investigation, one
which had rendered me good service in the investigation of phobias, obsessions, illusions,
and the like, and which, under the name "psycho-analysis," had found acceptance by a
whole school of investigators. The manifold analogies of dream life with the most diverse
conditions of psychical disease in the waking state have been rightly insisted upon by a
number of medical observers. It seemed, therefore, a priori, hopeful to apply to the
interpretation of dreams methods of investigation which had been tested in
psychopathological processes. Obsessions and those peculiar sensations of haunting
dread remain as strange to normal consciousness as do dreams to our waking
consciousness; their origin is as unknown to consciousness as is that of dreams. It was
practical ends that impelled us, in these diseases, to fathom their origin and formation.
Experience had shown us that a cure and a consequent mastery of the obsessing ideas did
result when once those thoughts, the connecting links between the morbid ideas and the
rest of the psychical content, were revealed which were heretofore veiled from
consciousness. The procedure I employed for the interpretation of dreams thus arose from
psychotherapy.
This procedure is readily described, although its practice demands instruction and
experience. Suppose the patient is suffering from intense morbid dread. He is requested
to direct his attention to the idea in question, without, however, as he has so frequently
done, meditating upon it. Every impression about it, without any exception, which occurs
to him should be imparted to the doctor. The statement which will be perhaps then made,
that he cannot concentrate his attention upon anything at all, is to be countered by
assuring him most positively that such a blank state of mind is utterly impossible. As a
matter of fact, a great number of impressions will soon occur, with which others will
associate themselves. These will be invariably accompanied by the expression of the
observer's opinion that they have no meaning or are unimportant. It will be at once
noticed that it is this self-criticism which prevented the patient from imparting the ideas,
which had indeed already excluded them from consciousness. If the patient can be
induced to abandon this self-criticism and to pursue the trains of thought which are
yielded by concentrating the attention, most significant matter will be obtained, matter
which will be presently seen to be clearly linked to the morbid idea in question. Its
connection with other ideas will be manifest, and later on will permit the replacement of
the morbid idea by a fresh one, which is perfectly adapted to psychical continuity.
This is not the place to examine thoroughly the hypothesis upon which this experiment
rests, or the deductions which follow from its invariable success. It must suffice to state
that we obtain matter enough for the resolution of every morbid idea if we especially
direct our attention to the unbidden associations _which disturb our thoughts_--those
which are otherwise put aside by the critic as worthless refuse. If the procedure is
exercised on oneself, the best plan of helping the experiment is to write down at once all
one's first indistinct fancies.
I will now point out where this method leads when I apply it to the examination of
dreams. Any dream could be made use of in this way. From certain motives I,