Dream Psychology | Page 8

the night, after her day of fasting, she was heard calling out her name during sleep,
and adding: "_Tawberry, eggs, pap_." She is dreaming that she is eating, and selects out
of her menu exactly what she supposes she will not get much of just now.
The same kind of dream about a forbidden dish was that of a little boy of twenty-two
months. The day before he was told to offer his uncle a present of a small basket of
cherries, of which the child was, of course, only allowed one to taste. He woke up with
the joyful news: "Hermann eaten up all the cherries."
A girl of three and a half years had made during the day a sea trip which was too short for
her, and she cried when she had to get out of the boat. The next morning her story was
that during the night she had been on the sea, thus continuing the interrupted trip.
A boy of five and a half years was not at all pleased with his party during a walk in the
Dachstein region. Whenever a new peak came into sight he asked if that were the
Dachstein, and, finally, refused to accompany the party to the waterfall. His behavior was
ascribed to fatigue; but a better explanation was forthcoming when the next morning he
told his dream: he had ascended the Dachstein. Obviously he expected the ascent of the
Dachstein to be the object of the excursion, and was vexed by not getting a glimpse of the
mountain. The dream gave him what the day had withheld. The dream of a girl of six was
similar; her father had cut short the walk before reaching the promised objective on
account of the lateness of the hour. On the way back she noticed a signpost giving the
name of another place for excursions; her father promised to take her there also some
other day. She greeted her father next day with the news that she had dreamt that her
father had been with her to both places.
What is common in all these dreams is obvious. They completely satisfy wishes excited
during the day which remain unrealized. They are simply and undisguisedly realizations
of wishes.
The following child-dream, not quite understandable at first sight, is nothing else than a
wish realized. On account of poliomyelitis a girl, not quite four years of age, was brought
from the country into town, and remained over night with a childless aunt in a big--for
her, naturally, huge--bed. The next morning she stated that she had dreamt that _the bed
was much too small for her, so that she could find no place in it_. To explain this dream
as a wish is easy when we remember that to be "big" is a frequently expressed wish of all
children. The bigness of the bed reminded Miss Little-Would-be-Big only too forcibly of
her smallness. This nasty situation became righted in her dream, and she grew so big that
the bed now became too small for her.
Even when children's dreams are complicated and polished, their comprehension as a
realization of desire is fairly evident. A boy of eight dreamt that he was being driven with
Achilles in a war-chariot, guided by Diomedes. The day before he was assiduously
reading about great heroes. It is easy to show that he took these heroes as his models, and
regretted that he was not living in those days.

From this short collection a further characteristic of the dreams of children is
manifest--their connection with the life of the day. The desires which are realized in these
dreams are left over from the day or, as a rule, the day previous, and the feeling has
become intently emphasized and fixed during the day thoughts. Accidental and
indifferent matters, or what must appear so to the child, find no acceptance in the
contents of the dream.
Innumerable instances of such dreams of the infantile type can be found among adults
also, but, as mentioned, these are mostly exactly like the manifest content. Thus, a
random selection of persons will generally respond to thirst at night-time with a dream
about drinking, thus striving to get rid of the sensation and to let sleep continue. Many
persons frequently have these comforting dreams before waking, just when they are
called. They then dream that they are already up, that they are washing, or already in
school, at the office, etc., where they ought to be at a given time. The night before an
intended journey one not infrequently dreams that one has already arrived at the
destination; before going to a play or to a party the dream not infrequently anticipates, in
impatience, as it were, the expected pleasure. At other times the