Freud proves that dreams have tangible
correlations with happenings in the waking state. He also explains the
processes by which the psyche distorts dreams, often making them
incomprehensible at first glance. Freud first cites earlier work done in
the field by Aristotle, who stated that dreams are the workings of the
psyche and are of a demonic nature, whereas civilizations before that of
Aristotle believed dreams could be either divinely-inspired to guide or
demonically-inspired to deceive. One aspect upon which both ancient
civilizations and modern writers agree is the relativity of dreams to the
dreamer's social background. The dream's source, regardless what the
dream portrays, is an experience, or a series of experiences the dreamer
had in waking hours, in thought or in action.
Dreams are usually incomprehensible due to the remoteness of their
sources. Freud relates such an experience told by Delboeuf, where he
dreams of nursing back to life two lizards that were buried in the snow,
and feeds them a particular type of fern whose name Delboeuf knew in his
dream. Upon waking Delboeuf had no idea how he had acquired the name of
that fern, until, two years later, when he visited a friend who possessed
an album of ferns. In it, Delboeuf had written the binomial nomenclature
of each fern, as dictated to him by someone else, an event he had
completely forgotten had taken place two years before the occurence of the
dream.
One reason Freud says dreams are forgotten is becuse many dreams' subject
matter is from childhood life, and not necesarily from notable events, but
from more obscure ones. Many writers, however disagree, saying most
dreams draw on material as fresh as a few days before the dream. This
chasm led others yet to conclude on each person's psychological
individuality. Freud declares many dreams are forgotten because people do
not pay them much attention.
Freud does, later on in the book, take the reader through a sample dream
analysis, demonstrating his technique of self-analysis. The dreamer, upon
waking, takes note of the dream's setting, or environment, the characters,
the dialogues and thoroughly comments on what the meaning of each element
is. This technique Freud writes, is different then the symbols technique,
which requires an analysis of the whole, rather than the parts.
In the end, Freud writes that a dream is a wish-fulfillment. But what
about painful and embarassing dreams? He shows that, through dream-
distortion, even those are wish-fulfillment and an indication of the
future drawn upon the past.