The interpretation of dreams by Freud

Context

Freud (1856-1939) lived in Vienna until one year before his death in London where he had taken refuge from the Nazis.

Vienna was the capital of the Austro-Hungarian empire from 13th. to the 20th. centuries. It included areas now part of Poland, Hungary, Czechoslovakia, and Austria and was ruled by the Habsburg dynasty. Several of Freud's dreams were inspired by the rulers of his country.

From 1740 to 1780, the Habsburg Empire was ruled by Empress Maria Theresa. Freud recounts a dream in which his father stands before a crowd in the place of the Empress. He interprets this dream as the fulfillment of his wish to be a father who is "a pure and great presence to one's children after one's death."

Maria Theresa was succeeded by her son Joseph II. He issued the Edit of Tolerance (1781) which gave Jews and Protestants freedom of worship and allowed Jews University entrance and the occupation of trades previously banned to them. Emperor Joseph appeared in another of Freud's dreams in which an inscription on an equestrian statue of the ruler inspired him to raise a monument to a dead friend called Joseph.

Another political figure in late 19th. century Austria was Count Franz Anton Thun. Freud tells of a dream where he saw the Count at a train station on his way to see the emperor. He recalled a standing joke about the politician whom the press called Count Nichtsthun(do-nothing). Freud explains that while the Count was going for a difficult interview with the Emperor he himself is on holiday. His interpretation is that the spirit of rebellion which permeates the dream is part of a wish to rebel against his father whom he associates with Count Thun.

The Austro-Hungarian Empire was formally broken up in 1918 at the end of World War I when Poland, Czechoslovakia, and Austria became independent nations.

Hitler invaded Austria in 1938, declaring it part of Germany. Freud's books were burned and he was put under house arrest for several months until the family was allowed to leave the country. At the age of 82 he was allowed to emigrate to London, but not before signing a document stating that he had not been ill-treated by the Nazis. It is said that he added the following in his own handwriting: "I can most warmly recommend the Gestapo to anyone." He died a year later.

Wilhelm Wundt, a founder of modern psychology, influenced Freud. Wundt's Principles of Physiological Psychology (1874) promoted the investigation of mental phenomena, not through empirical investigation, but through introspection. Freud used this method in The Interpretation of Dreams, considering it a valid scientific approach. (Freud's methodology is similar to Descartes' since they both use introspection as their scientific approach.)

Freud's book was also influenced by the physiology of the 19th. century which viewed the human mind as functioning through chemical reactions. In chapter 7 of his book, for instance, Freud follows Hermann von Helmholtz who held that physiologically energy could be displaced, but not lost.

In 1885-1886 Freud studied hysteria with Charcot, the neurologist at the Parisian Salpêtrière hospital. Charcot treated hysteria with hypnosis. Some traces of Freud's interest in hypnotic treatment are visible in Chapter 2 of his book where he describes an ideal state in which patients can recall their dreams:

"In order that he may concentrate his attention on his self-observation it is an advantage for him to lie in a restful attitude and shut his eyes. It is necessary to insist explicitly on renouncing all criticism of the thoughts that he perceives." 

The couch position where patients lie with closed eyes is said to be similar to the state of hypnotic trance.

Commentary

The Interpretation of Dreams (1899) aimed to prove that dreams are scientifically meaningful. Freud claimed that dreams fulfilled repressed, unconscious childhood wishes.

Epigraph 

"Flectere si nequeo superos, Acheronta movebo" 

This is a quote from the Aeneid translated as: "If I cannot deflect the will of higher powers, then I shall move the River Acheron." This river flows through the Greek underworld and so Acheron is often interpteted as the lower regions of the unconscious.

Prefaces

Freud wrote a new preface for most of the book's re-editions, demonstrating a great pride in his work. In the Fifth Preface he goes as far as to compare his discoveries with Copernicus and Darwin and, ironically, mentions that each of their investigations were a blow to humanity's ego. He states that Copernicus showed that the Earth was not the centre of the universe; Darwin demonstrated that humans were related to other primates; Freud himself revealed to:

"... each one of us that he is not even master in his own house, but that he must remain content with... scraps of information about what is going on unconsciously in his own mind."

Chapter 1

Freud wrote this chapter last and it stands as a summary of the book. He revises the literature on dreams, philosophy, folk tales and religious beliefs with the aim of laying a scientific foundation for the interpretation of dreams He also considers the source of dreams through experiences and physical stimulation. He underlines the disagreements and gaps in the literature which allow room for his own interpretation of dreams and promises to throw light on the nature of the human mind

Chapter 2

Freud analyses one dream as an example of how he will apply his method of analysis. He dreamt that he and his wife welcomed evening guests in a big country house. Among the guests is a patient called Irma. On consulting other doctors, one proposes an injection for Irma. Freud's interprets the dream as fulfilling his wish to be respected as a doctor. He ends the chapter wondering if all dreams fulfill wishes.

Chapter 3

The author repeats his question about whether all dreams are wish fulfillments and answers in the affirmative:

"We find ourselves in the full daylight of a sudden discovery," 

He proceeds to give examples of dreams which fulfill wishes. A hungry prisoner dreams of a meal; a child forbidden to go on an excursion to the mountains dreams of going there.

The author piles up many examples of wish-fulfilling dreams but does not reach a convincing answer to universality: all dreams may not be the fulfillment of wishes. Some complained that Freud's interpretations often defrauded his wish fulfillment theory because he assumed this conclusion instead of proving it.

Chapter 4

He addresses the objection to wish fufilling dreams by discussing how unpleasant dreams are really wish fulfillments. He does this by distinguishing between the dream's surface level and hidden levels. In the obvious surface part, its manifest content, it appears not to fulfill a wish. However, on its hidden level it does fufill a wish.

Freud seems inconsistent in his interpretations of dreams: strawberries and cool drinks support his theory; dreams about getting no dinner do the same. If a patient has a dream which disproves his theory then the interpretation is that the person is fulfilling a wish to prove him wrong. The theory allows for no contradiction. (Note that Popper’s theory of falsification contends that scientific inquiry should aim not to verify hypotheses, as Freud does, but to rigorously test and identify conditions under which they are false. This is not Freud's approach since he appears to assume wish-fulfillment as unfalsifiable.)

Chapter 5

Freud examines the topics of dreams and where they come from. Their sources include recent memories, seemingly trivial experiences, childhood and infancy events and physical sensations during sleep. He then considers recurrent dreams about flying or sitting tests. He concludes that there are some dreams common to everyone. These also fulfill wishes.

The stereotypical Freudian interpretation of dreams is that they have a sexual source. He does insist on basing evidence on sexuality, though this chapter's list of dreams does not rely on a predetermined list of sexual symbols. One exception is the interpretation of women's dreams of falling as imagining themselves as 'morally fallen women' in the sense of sexually licentious.

According to the author early experiences and desires are imprinted in the unconscious. Freud's theory is that a child experiences powerful feelings about his carers who offer satisfactions, and equally compelling bad sensations when they frustrate pleasures.

Chapter 6

This chapter introduces the notion of dream-work, meaning the processes by which unconsious dream-thoughts change into manifest content. One process is condensation which compresses many ideas into one image. The displacement process is where latent dream-thoughts appear as trivial manifest content. The means of representation is how dreams connect better with ideas. Secondary revision is when the dream changes when the dreamer talks about it.

Freud underlines the idea that dream-work is not creative, but is a rearrangement of fragments through displacement and condensation. For him dreams are unconscious creations of the dreamer. With this argument he counters the superstition that dreams are sent by supernatural beings and insists that they are produced by dreamers' mental activities.

Regarding symbolism Freud seems to be in favour of it, then not in favour, which critics say is inconsistent. The author seems to amplify the symbolic interpretation with remarks like:

"It is fair to say there is no group of ideas that is incapable of representing sexual facts and wishes." 

However, Freud might argue that the inconsistency lies in the human mind which is the creator of dreams. This means that the interpreter can never be sure whether to interpret a dream symbolically or not.

Freud's style of argumentation tends towards self-contradiction. When he asks if the whole mind or only part of it is responsible for creating dreams, his answer is affirmative: both parts are responsible, despite admitting that they are mutually exclusive. In his personal life the author showed an equally contradictory approach when he stated that the same person can be simultaneously a friend and an enemy.

Chapter 7

The author offers a description of how the mind works based on his investigation into dreams. For Freud the unconscious is the primary process because it comes before consciousness and is the largest part of the mind. The preconscious which censors unconscious wishes forms the secondary process. He shows how unconscious wishes try to reach the conscious mind: sometimes the unconscious wish turns into a neurotic symptom; sometimes the wish finds expression in a dream.

The chapter opens with the account of a dream he was told by a woman who then redreamt it: when a sick child died his father employed an old man to watch over his body while the father rested. The father dreamt that his son had come to tell him that there was a fire in the room and that he was burning. The father ran into his son's room to find a candle had set fire to the bed, the watchman was asleep and the dead child's sleeve was burning. 

However, the author decides to go further than the interpretation of dreams and his analysis aims to shed light on the structures of the working mind. The burning child story opens the question of the interconnection of perception, the unconscious and the conscious. Unlike others who brush aside dreams as unintelligible, Freud claims that the unknown shapes us and that dreams are the key to understanding it. 

Freud argues that people have two systems: the unconscious desire and the conscious decision. This creates a tension between wishes and their fulfillment, mostly because the conscious system rejects the yearnings of the unconscious. The result is sometimes a neurosis evidenced in a compromise or a dream where the repressed wish is expressed in disguise. Despite psychotherapeutic intervention Freud maintains that these unconscious wishes are indestructible.

Appendix A

He examines a dream that foretells the future. However, if it can foretell the future it changes the author's interpretation since these dreams do not fulfill a wish. Freud goes on to demonstrate that these dreams are actually the expression of a repressed sexual wish.

Themes

The Unconscious

Freud distinguishes between the conscious and unconscious mind. He borrowed and developed the term of the unconscious, which was coined in the 18th. century by Frederich Schelling, the German Romantic poet. Freud discriminates between conscious dream content, the surface level which is remembered on waking, and the unconscious dream thoughts which are reveled by analysis. His aim us to access the unconscious mind through dream analysis.

Wish Fulfillment

In chapter 2 Freud sets out his main theme:

"When the work of interpretation has been completed, we perceive that a dream is the fulfillment of a wish."

 He illustrates his theory with examples of wishes: a hungry prisoner's dream of a meal and a child's dream of an outing. Both dreams include an impediment to the subject's wish: the warden restricts food, the parents cancel the excursion. Forbidding developed into a driving force in the dreamers' minds and the dreams became more complex and distorted.

The author ends up by showing that dreams are the disguised fulfillment of unconscious wishes from infancy, often of a sexual nature. The distortion of dreams arises from the dreamer's own censorship of the content. Freud later named this censor 'the preconscious'. His interest in dreams lies in his belief that they are guides to the workings of the waking mind.

Infantile Sexual Wishes

In Three Essays on the Theory of Sexuality (1905) Freud elaborated on his theory that the preconscious rejection of a dreamer's unconscious wishes rejected was sexual and formed in infancy. He theorised that children go through various stages of erotic focus: bucal, anal and genital, and all their bodily sensations are erotic. 

In The Interpretation of Dreams he posits that the boy infant wishes to possess his mother sexually and murder his father as in Sophocles' play Oedipus Rex. This later became his theory of the Oedipus complex. 

Although Freud refers to a wish to murder (thanatos) and sexual impulses (eros) in children he doesn’t mean conscious knowledge, but rather intense driving forces. Since he believes these to be 'indestructible' he contends that they shape the later adult psyche.

Structures of the Mind

In chapter 7 the author sketches out how impulses are processed in the mind. They begin with a sensory perception (sight, smell...) and progress through memory traces into more detail. Then they meet the preconscious which limits access to the unconscious. If they are not barred entrance they penetrate consciousness. 

Dreams go through the process backwards in what Freud calls "regression". If the preconsconscious denies a wish entrance to consciousness then it travels through memory traces, simplifying as it goes, and losing its links to logic. The wish turns into a dream and is perceived as a hallucination. 

Freud illustrates this process in metaphoric sketches, particularly the iceberg image, but does not claim any relationship with actual brain biology.

The proportions are clear: a large unconscious which houses memories, including perception which creates no memories and the preconscious gateway. Consciousness is smaller, which indicates that most of what affects human behaviours and emotions happens outside conscious control.

Psychoanalysis

Four years before The Interpretation of Dreams Freud had published Studies in Hysteria (1895) with co-writer Josef Breuer. In their book the authors commented on their findings that patients who suffered from hysteria obtained relief through talking about it. Under hypnosis these patients described childhood experiences which had provoked their symptoms. Breuer and Freud noted that by describing these memories some of the symptoms of hysteria dissipated. They concluded that hysterics were mainly due to reminiscences. This encouraged Freud to develop his psychoanalytical method of uncovering unconscious desires and fears through 'free association' recall of patients' dreams.

Censorship

The censorship process conceals unconscious desires from the conscious mind. Even though these desires are expressed through dreams, censorship distorts the dream content so that the wishes of the individual are disguised. Freud called this psychic censor the "superego".

Freud's method needs patients to be in a relaxed state of mind in order to lower the level of censorship and shed light on their hidden desires. In early work Freud used hypnosis, but later found that a patient lying relaxed on a couch gave the same results without hypnosis. The patient was then told to freely associate ideas in the course of the treatment. 

Id, Ego, Superego

Freud’s book on personality theory, Das Ich und das Es, (The Ego and the Id) was published in 1923. It structured the psyche into three parts: the id, ego, and superego. They are not biological, but metaphorical conceptualisations of mental functions which develop at different times of our life. 

The id is the instinctual part of the mind containing sexual and aggressive drives with hidden memories. The superego is a moral conscience and the ego mediates between the primitive impulses of the id and the superego. 

The id is that part of the unconscious that holds our urges, including the libido, a sexual energy that enables not only survival but also artistic appreciation.

The id functions on a pleasure principle: all unconscious wishes must be immediately satisfied and when this happens we experience pleasure; if denied we feel tension and frustration.

The ego is part of the conscious, rational personality. It develops in order to meditate between the unrealistic, unreasonable id and the real world. It works following the reality principle, relying on social norms to make behavioural decisions.

Freud's analogy is that the id is a horse and the ego is the rider. The ego is:

“like a man on horseback, who has to hold in check the superiour strength of the horse.”

The superego functions on the morality principle which moves us to behave responsibly following social norms. It deals out rewarding feelings of satisfaction and punishing feelings of shame. It forms part of the unconscious as a voice of conscience and self-criticism. It persuades the ego to make moral decisions, not only realistic ones, and so aim for perfection.