Part 48
The philosophers, who have learned that correct and highly complicated thought structures are possible even without the co-operation of consciousness, have found it difficult to attribute any function to consciousness; it has appeared to them a superfluous mirroring of the perfected psychic process. The analogy of our Cons. system with the systems of perception relieves us of this embarrassment. We see that perception through our sensory organs results in directing the occupation of attention to those paths on which the incoming sensory excitement is diffused; the qualitative excitement of the P-system serves the mobile quantity of the psychic apparatus as a regulator for its discharge. We may claim the same function for the overlying sensory organ of the Cons. system. By assuming new qualities, it furnishes a new contribution toward the guidance and suitable distribution of the mobile occupation quantities. By means of the perceptions of pleasure and pain, it influences the course of the occupations within the psychic apparatus, which normally operates unconsciously and through the displacement of quantities. It is probable that the principle of pain first regulates the displacements of occupation automatically, but it is quite possible that the consciousness of these qualities adds a second and more subtle regulation which may even oppose the first and perfect the working capacity of the apparatus by placing it in a position contrary to its original design for occupying and developing even that which is connected with the liberation of pain. We learn from neuropsychology that an important part in the functional activity of the apparatus is attributed to such regulations through the qualitative excitation of the sensory organs. The automatic control of the primary principle of pain and the restriction of mental capacity connected with it are broken by the sensible regulations, which in their turn are again automatisms. We learn that the repression which, though originally expedient, terminates nevertheless in a harmful rejection of inhibition and of psychic domination, is so much more easily accomplished with reminiscences than with perceptions, because in the former there is no increase in occupation through the excitement of the psychic sensory organs. When an idea to be rejected has once failed to become conscious because it has succumbed to repression, it can be repressed on other occasions only because it has been withdrawn from conscious perception on other grounds. These are hints employed by therapy in order to bring about a retrogression of accomplished repressions.
The value of the over-occupation which is produced by the regulating influence of the Cons. sensory organ on the mobile quantity, is demonstrated in the teleological connection by nothing more clearly than by the creation of a new series of qualities and consequently a new regulation which constitutes the precedence of man over the animals. For the mental processes are in themselves devoid of quality except for the excitements of pleasure and pain accompanying them, which, as we know, are to be held in check as possible disturbances of thought. In order to endow them with a quality, they are associated in man with verbal memories, the qualitative remnants of which suffice to draw upon them the attention of consciousness which in turn endows thought with a new mobile energy.
The manifold problems of consciousness in their entirety can be examined only through an analysis of the hysterical mental process. From this analysis we receive the impression that the transition from the foreconscious to the occupation of consciousness is also connected with a censorship similar to the one between the Unc. and the Forec. This censorship, too, begins to act only with the reaching of a certain quantitative degree, so that few intense thought formations escape it. Every possible case of detention from consciousness, as well as of penetration to consciousness, under restriction is found included within the picture of the psychoneurotic phenomena; every case points to the intimate and two-fold connection between the censor and consciousness. I shall conclude these psychological discussions with the report of two such occurrences.
On the occasion of a consultation a few years ago the subject was an intelligent and innocent-looking girl. Her attire was strange; whereas a woman’s garb is usually groomed to the last fold, she had one of her stockings hanging down and two of her waist buttons opened. She complained of pains in one of her legs, and exposed her leg unrequested. Her chief complaint, however, was in her own words as follows: She had a feeling in her body as if something was stuck into it which moved to and fro and made her tremble through and through. This sometimes made her whole body stiff. On hearing this, my colleague in consultation looked at me; the complaint was quite plain to him. To both of us it seemed peculiar that the patient’s mother thought nothing of the matter; of course she herself must have been repeatedly in the situation described by her child. As for the girl, she had no idea of the import of her words or she would never have allowed them to pass her lips. Here the censor had been deceived so successfully that under the mask of an innocent complaint a phantasy was admitted to consciousness which otherwise would have remained in the foreconscious.
Another example: I began the psychoanalytic treatment of a boy of fourteen years who was suffering from _tic convulsif_, hysterical vomiting, headache, &c., by assuring him that, after closing his eyes, he would see pictures or have ideas, which I requested him to communicate to me. He answered by describing pictures. The last impression he had received before coming to me was visually revived in his memory. He had played a game of checkers with his uncle, and now saw the checker-board before him. He commented on various positions that were favourable or unfavourable, on moves that were not safe to make. He then saw a dagger lying on the checker-board, an object belonging to his father, but transferred to the checker-board by his phantasy. Then a sickle was lying on the board; next a scythe was added; and, finally, he beheld the likeness of an old peasant mowing the grass in front of the boy’s distant parental home. A few days later I discovered the meaning of this series of pictures. Disagreeable family relations had made the boy nervous. It was the case of a strict and crabbed father who lived unhappily with his mother, and whose educational methods consisted in threats; of the separation of his father from his tender and delicate mother, and the remarrying of his father, who one day brought home a young woman as his new mamma. The illness of the fourteen-year-old boy broke out a few days later. It was the suppressed anger against his father that had composed these pictures into intelligible allusions. The material was furnished by a reminiscence from mythology. The sickle was the one with which Zeus castrated his father; the scythe and the likeness of the peasant represented Kronos, the violent old man who eats his children and upon whom Zeus wreaks vengeance in so unfilial a manner. The marriage of the father gave the boy an opportunity to return the reproaches and threats of his father—which had previously been made because the child played with his genitals (the checker-board; the prohibitive moves; the dagger with which a person may be killed). We have here long repressed memories and their unconscious remnants which, under the guise of senseless pictures have slipped into consciousness by devious paths left open to them.
I should then expect to find the theoretical value of the study of dreams in its contribution to psychological knowledge and in its preparation for an understanding of neuroses. Who can foresee the importance of a thorough knowledge of the structure and activities of the psychic apparatus when even our present state of knowledge produces a happy therapeutic influence in the curable forms of the psychoneuroses? What about the practical value of such study someone may ask, for psychic knowledge and for the discovering of the secret peculiarities of individual character? Have not the unconscious feelings revealed by the dream the value of real forces in the psychic life? Should we take lightly the ethical significance of the suppressed wishes which, as they now create dreams, may some day create other things?
I do not feel justified in answering these questions. I have not thought further upon this side of the dream problem. I believe, however, that at all events the Roman Emperor was in the wrong who ordered one of his subjects executed because the latter dreamt that he had killed the Emperor. He should first have endeavoured to discover the significance of the dream; most probably it was not what it seemed to be. And even if a dream of different content had the significance of this offence against majesty, it would still have been in place to remember the words of Plato, that the virtuous man contents himself with dreaming that which the wicked man does in actual life. I am therefore of the opinion that it is best to accord freedom to dreams. Whether any reality is to be attributed to the unconscious wishes, and in what sense, I am not prepared to say offhand. Reality must naturally be denied to all transition—and intermediate thoughts. If we had before us the unconscious wishes, brought to their last and truest expression, we should still do well to remember that more than one single form of existence must be ascribed to the psychic reality. Action and the conscious expression of thought mostly suffice for the practical need of judging a man’s character. Action, above all, merits to be placed in the first rank; for many of the impulses penetrating consciousness are neutralised by real forces of the psychic life before they are converted into action; indeed, the reason why they frequently do not encounter any psychic obstacle on their way is because the unconscious is certain of their meeting with resistances later. In any case it is instructive to become familiar with the much raked-up soil from which our virtues proudly arise. For the complication of human character moving dynamically in all directions very rarely accommodates itself to adjustment through a simple alternative, as our antiquated moral philosophy would have it.
And how about the value of the dream for a knowledge of the future? That, of course, we cannot consider.[GC] One feels inclined to substitute: “for a knowledge of the past.” For the dream originates from the past in every sense. To be sure the ancient belief that the dream reveals the future is not entirely devoid of truth. By representing to us a wish as fulfilled the dream certainly leads us into the future; but this future, taken by the dreamer as present, has been formed into the likeness of that past by the indestructible wish.
VIII LITERARY INDEX
Footnote 1:
Aristoteles. _Über Träume und Traumdeutungen._ Translated by Bender.
Footnote 2:
Artemidoros aus Daldis. _Symbolik der Träume._ Translated by Friedrich. S. Krauss. Wien, 1881.
Footnote 3:
Benini, V. “La Memoria e la Durata dei Sogni.” _Rivista Italiana de Filosofia_, Marz-April 1898.
Footnote 4:
Binz, C. _Über den Traum._ Bonn, 1878.
Footnote 5:
Borner, J. _Das Alpdrücken, seine Begründung und Verhütung._ Würzburg, 1855.
Footnote 6:
Bradley, J. H. “On the Failure of Movement in Dream.” _Mind_, July 1894.
Footnote 7:
Brander, R. _Der Schlaf und das Traumleben._ 1884.
Footnote 8:
Burdach. _Die Physiologie als Erfahrungswissenschaft_, 3 Bd. 1830.
Footnote 9:
Büchsenschütz, B. _Traum und Traumdeutung in Altertum._ Berlin, 1868.
Footnote 10:
Chaslin, Ph. _Du Rôle du Rêve dans l’Evolution du Délire._ Thèse de Paris. 1887.
Footnote 11:
Chabaneix. _Le Subconscient chez les Artistes, les Savants et les Ecrivains._ Paris, 1897.
Footnote 12:
Calkins, Mary Whiton. “Statistics of Dreams.” _Amer. J. of Psychology_, V., 1893.
Footnote 13:
Clavière. “La Rapidité de la Pensée dans le Rêve.” _Revue philosophique_, XLIII., 1897.
Footnote 14:
Dandolo, G. _La Coscienza nel Sonno._ Padova, 1889.
Footnote 15:
Delage, Yves. “Une Théorie de Rêve.” _Revue scientifique_, II, Juli 1891.
Footnote 16:
Delbœuf, J. _Le Sommeil et les Rêves._ Paris, 1885.
Footnote 17:
Debacker. _Terreurs nocturnes des Enfants._ Thèses de Paris. 1881.
Footnote 18:
Dugas. “Le Souvenir du Rêve.” _Revue philosophique_, XLIV., 1897.
Footnote 19:
Dugas. “Le Sommeil et la Cérébration inconsciente durant le Sommeil.” _Revue philosophique_, XLIII., 1897.
Footnote 20:
Egger, V. “La Durée apparente des Rêves.” _Revue philosophique_, Juli 1895.
Footnote 21:
Egger. “Le Souvenir dans le Rêve.” _Revue philosophique_, XLVI., 1898.
Footnote 22:
Ellis Havelock. “On Dreaming of the Dead.” _The Psychological Review_, II., Nr. 5, September 1895.
Footnote 23:
Ellis Havelock. “The Stuff that Dreams are made of.” _Appleton’s Popular Science Monthly_, April 1899.
Footnote 24:
Ellis Havelock. “A Note on Hypnogogic Paramnesia.” _Mind_, April 1897.
Footnote 25:
Fechner, G. Th. _Elemente der Psychophysik._ 2 Aufl., 1889.
Footnote 26:
Fichte, J. H. “Psychologie.” _Die Lehre vom bewussten Geiste des Menschen._ I. Teil. Leipzig, 1864.
Footnote 27:
Giessler, M. _Aus den Tiefen des Traumlebens._ Halle, 1890.
Footnote 28:
Giessler, M. _Die physiologischen Beziehungen der Traumvorgänge._ Halle, 1896.
Footnote 29:
Goblot. “Sur le Souvenir des Rêves.” _Revue philosophique_, XLII., 1896.
Footnote 30:
Graffunder. _Traum und Traumdeutung._ 1894.
Footnote 31:
Griesinger. _Pathologie und Therapie der psychischen Krankheiten._ 3 Aufl. 1871.
Footnote 32:
Haffner, P. “Schlafen und Träumen. 1884.” _Frankfurter zeitgemässe Broschüren_, 5 Bd., Heft. 10.
Footnote 33:
Hallam, Fl., and Sarah Weed. “A Study of the Dream Consciousness.” _Amer. J. of Psychology_, VII., Nr. 3, April 1896.
Footnote 34:
D’Hervey. _Les Rêves et les Moyens de les Diriger._ Paris, 1867 (anonym.).
Footnote 35:
Hildebrandt, F. W. _Der Traum und seine Verwertung für Leben._ Leipzig, 1875.
Footnote 36:
Jessen. _Versuch einer Wissenschaftlichen Begründung der Psychologie._ Berlin, 1856.
Footnote 37:
Jodl. _Lehrbuch der Psychologie._ Stuttgart, 1896.
Footnote 38:
Kant, J. _Anthropologie in pragmatischer Hinsicht._ Kirchmannsche Ausgabe. Leipzig, 1880.
Footnote 39:
Krauss, A. “Der Sinn im Wahnsinn.” _Allgemeine Zeitschrift für Psychologie_, XV. u. XVI., 1858–1859.
Footnote 40:
Ladd. “Contribution to the Psychology of Visual Dreams.” _Mind_, April 1892.
Footnote 41:
Leidesdorf, M. _Das Traumleben._ Wien, 1880. Sammlung der “Alma Mater.”
Footnote 42:
Lémoine. _Du Sommeil au Point de Vue physiologique et psychologique._ Paris, 1885.
Footnote 43:
Lièbeault, A. _Le Sommeil provoqué et les Etats analogues._ Paris, 1889.
Footnote 44:
Lipps, Th. _Grundtatsachen des Seelenlebens._ Bonn, 1883.
Footnote 45:
Le Lorrain. “Le Rêve.” _Revue philosophique._ Juli 1895.
Footnote 46:
Maudsley. _The Pathology of Mind._ 1879.
Footnote 47:
Maury, A. “Analogies des Phénomènes du Rêve et de l’Aliènation Mentale.” _Annales med. psych._, 1854, p. 404.
Footnote 48:
Maury, A. _Le Sommeil et les Rêves._ Paris, 1878.
Footnote 49:
Moreau, J. “De l’Identité de l’Etat de Rêve et de Folie.” _Annales med. psych._, 1855, p. 361.
Footnote 50:
Nelson, J. “A Study of Dreams.” _Amer. J. of Psychology_, I., 1888.
Footnote 51:
Pilcz. “Über eine gewisse Gesetzmässigkeit in den Träumen.” Autorreferat in _Monatsschrift für Psychologie und Neurologie_. März 1899.
Footnote 52:
Pfaff, E. R. _Das Traumleben und seine Deutung nach den Prinzipien der Araber, Perser, Griechen, Indier und Ägypter._ Leipzig, 1868.
Footnote 53:
Purkinje. Artikel: _Wachen, Schlaf, Traum und verwandte Zustände in Wagners Handwörterbuch der Physiologie_. 1846.
Footnote 54:
Radestock, P. _Schlaf und Traum._ Leipzig, 1878.
Footnote 55:
Robert, W. _Der Traum als Naturnotwendigkeit erklärt._ 1886.
Footnote 56:
Sante de Sanctis. _Les Maladies mentales et les Rêves._ 1897. Extrait des _Annales de la Société de Médecine de Gand_.
Footnote 57:
Sante de Sanctis. “Sui rapporti d’Identità, di Somiglianza, di Analogia e di Equivalenza fra Sogno e Pazzia.” _Rivista quindicinale di Psicologia, Psichiatria, Neuropatologia._ 15, Nov. 1897.
Footnote 58:
Scherner, R. A. _Das Leben des Traumes._ Berlin, 1861.
Footnote 59:
Scholz, Fr. _Schlaf und Traum._ Leipzig, 1887.
Footnote 60:
Schopenhauer. “Versuch über das Geistersehen und was damit zusammenhängt.” _Parerga und Paralipomena_, 1. Bd., 1857.
Footnote 61:
Schleiermacher, Fr. _Psychologie._ Edited by L. George. Berlin, 1862.
Footnote 62:
Siebek, A. _Das Traumleben der Seele._ 1877. _Sammlung Virchow-Holtzendorf._ Nr. 279.
Footnote 63:
Simon, M. “Le Monde des Rêves.” Paris, 1888. _Bibliothèque scientifique contemporaine._
Footnote 64:
Spitta, W. _Die Schlaf- und Traumzustände der menschlichen Seele._ 2. Aufl. Freiburg, I. B., 1892.
Footnote 65:
Stumpf, E. J. G. _Der Traum und seine Deutung._ Leipzig, 1899.
Footnote 66:
Strümpell, L. _Die Natur und Entstehung der Träume._ Leipzig, 1877.
Footnote 67:
Tannery. “Sur la Mémoire dans le Rêve.” _Revue philosophique_, XLV., 1898.
Footnote 68:
Tissié, Ph. “Les Rêves, Physiologie et Pathologie.” 1898. _Bibliothèque de Philosophie contemporaine._
Footnote 69:
Titchener. “Taste Dreams.” _Amer. Jour. of Psychology_, VI., 1893.
Footnote 70:
Thomayer. “Sur la Signification de quelques Rêves.” _Revue neurologique._ Nr. 4, 1897.
Footnote 71:
Vignoli. “Von den Träumen, Illusionen und Halluzinationen.” _Internationale wissenschaftliche Bibliothek_, Bd. 47.
Footnote 72:
Volkelt, J. _Die Traumphantasie._ Stuttgart, 1875.
Footnote 73:
Vold, J. Mourly. “Expériences sur les Rêves et en particulier sur ceux d’Origine musculaire et optique.” Christiania, 1896. Abstract in the _Revue philosophique_, XLII., 1896.
Footnote 74:
Vold, J. Mourly. “Einige Experimente über Gesichtsbilder im Träume.” _Dritter internationaler Kongress für Psychologie in München._ 1897.
Footnote 74a:
(Vold, J. Mourly. “Über den Traum.” _Experimentell-psychologische Untersuchungen._ Herausgegeben von O. Klemm. Erster Band. Leipzig, 1910.)
Footnote 75:
Weygandt, W. _Entstehung der Träume._ Leipzig, 1893.
Footnote 76:
Wundt. _Grundzüge der physiologischen Psychologie._ II. Bd., 2 Aufl. 1880.
Footnote 77:
Stricker. _Studien über das Bewusstsein._ Wien, 1879.
Footnote 78:
Stricker. _Studien über die Assoziation der Vorstellungen._ Wien, 1883.
PSYCHOANALYTIC LITERATURE OF DREAMS
Footnote 79:
Abraham, Karl (Berlin): _Traum und Mythos: Eine Studie zur Volker-psychologie_. Schriften z. angew. Seelenkunde, Heft 4, Wien und Leipzig, 1909.
Footnote 80:
Abraham, Karl (Berlin): “Über hysterische Traumzustände.” (_Jahrbuch f. psychoanalyt. und psychopatholog._ Forschungen, Vol. II., 1910.)
Footnote 81:
Adler, Alfred (Wien): “Zwei Träume einer Prostituierten.” (_Zeitschrift f. Sexualwissenschaft_, 1908, Nr. 2.)
Footnote 82:
Adler, Alfred (Wien): “Ein erlogener Traum.” (_Zentralbl. f. Psychoanalyse_, 1. Jahrg. 1910, Heft 3.)
Footnote 83:
Bleuler, E. (Zürich): “Die Psychoanalyse Freuds.” (_Jahrb. f. psychoanalyt. u. psychopatholog._ Forschungen, Bd. II., 1910.)
Footnote 84:
Brill, A. A. (New York): “Dreams and their Relation to the Neuroses.” (_New York Medical Journal_, April 23, 1910.)
Brill. Hysterical Dreamy States. Ebenda, May 25, 1912.
Footnote 85:
Ellis, Havelock: “The Symbolism of Dreams.” (_The Popular Science Monthly_, July 1910.)
Footnote 86:
Ellis, Havelock: _The World of Dreams_. London, 1911.
Footnote 87:
Ferenczi, S. (Budapest): “Die psychologische Analyse der Träume.” (_Psychiatrisch-neurologische Wochenschrift_, XII., Jahrg., Nr. 11–13, Juni 1910. English translation under the title: _The Psychological Analysis of Dreams_ in the _American Journal of Psychology_, April 1910.)
Footnote 88:
Freud, S. (Wien): “Über den Traum.” (_Grenzfragen des Nerven- und Seelenlebens._ Edited by Löwenfeld und Kurella, Heft 8. Wiesbaden, Bergmann, 1901, 2. Aufl. 1911.)
Footnote 89:
Freud, S. (Wien): “Bruchstück einer Hysterieanalyse.” (_Monatsschr. f. Psychiatrie und Neurologie_, Bd. 18, Heft 4 und 5, 1905. Reprinted in Sammlung kleiner Schriften zur Neurosenlehre, 2. Folge. Leipzig u. Wien, 1909.)
Footnote 90:
Freud, S. (Wien): “Der Wahn und die Träume in W. Jensen’s _Gradiva_.” (_Schriften zur angewandten Seelenkunde_, Heft 1, Wien und Leipzig, 1907.)
Footnote 91:
Freud, S. (Wien): “Über den Gegensinn der Urworte.” A review of the brochure of the same name by Karl Abel, 1884. (_Jahrbuch für psychoanalyt. und psychopatholog._ Forschungen, Bd. II., 1910.)
Footnote 92:
“Typisches Beispiel eines verkappten Ödipustraumes.” (_Zentralbl. für Psychoanalyse_, I. Jahrg. 1910, Heft 1.)
Footnote 93:
Freud, S. (Wien): _Nachträge zur Traumdeutung_. (Ebenda, Heft 5.)
Footnote 94:
Hitschmann, Ed. (Wien): _Freud’s Neurosenlehre. Nach ihrem gegenwärtigen Stande zusammenfassend dargestellt._ Wien und Leipzig, 1911. (Kap. V., “Der Traum.”)
Footnote 95:
Jones, Ernest (Toronto): “Freud’s Theory of Dreams.” (_American Journal of Psychology_, April 1910.)
Footnote 96:
Jones, Ernest (Toronto): “Some Instances of the Influence of Dreams on Waking Life.” (_The Journ. of Abnormal Psychology_, April-May 1911.)
Footnote 97:
Jung, C. G. (Zürich): “L’Analyse des Rêves.” (_L’Année psychologique_, tome XV.)
Footnote 98:
Jung, C. G. (Zürich): “Assoziation, Traum und hysterisches Symptom.” (_Diagnostische Assoziationsstudien._ Beiträge zur experimentellen Psychopathologie, hrg. von Doz. C. G. Jung, II. Bd., Leipzig 1910. Nr. VIII., S. 31–66.)
Footnote 99:
Jung, C. G. (Zürich): “Ein Beitrag zur Psychologie des Gerüchtes.” (_Zentralblatt für Psychoanalyse_, I. Jahrg. 1910, Heft 3.)
Footnote 100:
Maeder, Alphonse (Zürich): “Essai d’Interprétation de quelques Rêves.” (_Archives de Psychologie_, t. VI., Nr. 24, April 1907.)
Footnote 101:
Maeder, Alphonse (Zürich): “Die Symbolik in den Legenden, Märchen, Gebrauchen und Träumen.” (_Psychiatrisch-Neurolog._ Wochenschr. X. Jahrg.)
Footnote 102:
Meisl, Alfred (Wien): _Der Traum. Analytische Studien über die Elemente der Psychischen Funktion_ V. (Wr. klin. Rdsch., 1907, Nr. 3–6.)
Footnote 103:
Onuf, B. (New York): “Dreams and their Interpretations as Diagnostic and Therapeutic Aids in Psychology.” (_The Journal of Abnormal Psychology_, Feb.-Mar. 1910.)
Footnote 104:
Pfister, Oskar (Zürich): _Wahnvorstellung und Schülerselbstmord. Auf Grund einer Traumanalyse beleuchtet_. (Schweiz. Blätter für Schulgesundheitspflege, 1909, Nr. 1.)
Footnote 105:
Prince, Morton (Boston): “The Mechanism and Interpretation of Dreams.” (_The Journal of Abnormal Psychology_, Oct.-Nov. 1910.)
Footnote 106:
Rank, Otto (Wien): “Ein Traum, der sich selbst deutet.” (_Jahrbuch für psychoanalyt. und psychopatholog._ Forschungen, Bd. II., 1910.)
Footnote 107:
Rank, Otto (Wien): _Ein Beitrag zum Narzissismus_. (Ebenda, Bd. III., 1.).
Footnote 108:
Rank, Otto (Wien): “Beispiel eines verkappten Ödipustraumes.” (_Zentralblatt für Psychoanalyse_, I. Jahrg., 1910.)
Footnote 109:
Rank, Otto (Wien): _Zum Thema der Zahnreiztraume_. (Ebenda.)
Footnote 110:
Rank, Otto (Wien): _Das Verlieren als Symptomhandlung. Zugleich ein Beitrag zum Verständnis der Beziehungen des Traumlebens zu den Fehlleistungen des Alltagslebens_. (Ebenda.)
Footnote 111:
Robitsek, Alfred (Wien): “Die Analyse von Egmonts Traum.” (_Jahrb. f. psychoanalyt. u. psychopathol._ Forschungen, Bd. II. 1910.)