Introduction to Psychoanalysis

Chapter 11 Preliminary Hypotheses and Techniques of Dream Interpretation (2)
You are wrong about this main point.You consider it absurd to assume that the dreamer's first association must be what we expect, or at least the clue to interpreting the dream, and that associations are arbitrary. You think that if I have other expectations, other possibilities, I will blindly rely on chance for luck, and you are very wrong.I have boldly said that you have an almost obsessive belief in mental freedom and choice, and I have also said that this belief is unscientific and should give way to the demands of dominating psychoactive determinism.I ask you to respect the fact that the dreamer was questioned just to have this association, and not another.I am not listing one belief against another.It is proved that the resulting associations are not our choice, are not undecided, and are not irrelevant to our desires.I have recently learned that similar evidence can be found in experimental psychology laboratories.

This is very important, and you must pay special attention to it.If I ask someone what he associates with a certain element in a dream, I will let him associate freely, that is, leave the original idea in his mind and think about it as he pleases.Free association requires a special attentional participation, which is different from our exclusion of reflection.Some people make this association very easily, while others have great difficulty.If we did not suggest any word for the stimulus, or restricted ourselves to the desired association or associations, such as asking for a proper name or number, these associations would necessarily have a higher degree of freedom, and you would think this would be more Psychoanalysis is more selective.And in each case his associations were strictly governed by some important train of thought, which at the time of its operation was unknown to us, like those tendencies which give rise to faulty and so-called "accidental" actions.

I myself and many of my followers have made many experiments and published some of the results of those experiments with names and numbers which have no reason to come.The experimental method is as follows: a series of associations are developed from a proper name, and these associations will be interlocked with each other, and are no longer completely free.Like the associations aroused by the various elements of the dream, they continue until the train of thought evoked by them has exhausted all of them.At this time, you may be able to explain the motivation and significance of this special name, free association.The results of these experiments are the same for many times, so the obtained materials are extremely rich, so we must do more detailed research, and the associations caused by those numbers may be more illustrative.We are indeed amazed at the rapidity and closeness with which these associations are connected with each other, and at the same time their hidden purpose becomes more apparent.Let me cite the analysis of personal names as an example. Of course, this analysis does not include a large amount of materials.

Once, when I was treating a young man, I happened to remark that we seem to have a free choice of proper names, when in fact the proper names we think of are entirely determined by the situation, the eccentricity and the status of the subject.Because once in doubt, I will ask him to experiment on the spot.I learned that he had many female friends, with varying degrees of intimacy.So I told him that if he could think of a lady's name at will, he would be free to choose among many names.He agrees.The next thing not only surprised me, but also surprised him deeply: he was silent for a moment, and then said the word "white" (Albine) that he thought of, and he did not blurt out the names of a large number of women.I said to him: "This is very strange! What is the relationship between this name and you? How much do you know about 'Bai'?" What's even weirder is that there is no one he knows with the name "Bai", and he has no idea about this name. Can't think of anything.Perhaps you think that the analysis fails; but the fact is that the analysis is complete and need not be supplemented by other associations.The young man's skin was so fair that I used to call him (Albino) "white-skinned man" in my analytical conversations with him, when we were talking about the feminine element of his character.It can be seen from this that the woman he was most interested in at that time was himself, a female "white man".

A person occasionally thinks of a certain tune because of certain thoughts, but he is ignorant of the existence of these thoughts.The reason why I thought of this song may be because of the lyrics in the song, and secondly, it may be because of the source of the tune. It is not difficult to prove this point.However, this statement must be qualified: the reason why a great musician suddenly thinks of a certain tune lies in the musical value of the tune.With regard to musicians, I have no analytical experience, so I dare not include them in the above conclusions.The first reason is general.A young man I knew was at one time a fan of the Parisian tune in "Helen of Troy," and I admit it's lovely.Later, through analysis, it was learned that he was in love with two girls named "Ida" and "Helen" at the same time.

If these freely induced associations are thus restricted and attached to a particular background, the associations arising from individual stimulating ideas must be equally strictly restrained.Experiments have shown that these associations are not only attached to those stimulating ideas, but are also influenced by subconscious activities, that is, some thoughts and interests of strong emotional value that were not realized at the time are what we call "complexes".

These associations have been valuable material for experiments which occupy an important place in the history of psychoanalysis.The Wundt school pioneered a kind of "association experiment", in which the person receiving the experiment faced with a given "stimulus word" must try his best to give the "response word" he thought of.At that time, some points were required to be paid attention to: the time interval between the stimulus language and the response language, the nature of the response language, and possible errors in repeated experiments.The Zurich school headed by Bleuler and Jung occasionally asked the experimenters to tell why they had strange associations, and kept doing experiments in order to obtain an explanation for the association experiment response.As a result, I gradually learned that abnormal reactions are strongly dominated by certain emotions.This discovery by Bleuler and Jung built the first bridge between experimental psychology and psychoanalysis.

After hearing this you may say: "Now, we all agree that free associations are bound, not free to choose, as we first thought; we also admit that the same is true of associations of dream elements. point of disagreement. You claim that the associations of individual elements in a dream are conditioned by the psychological background of that element. What that background is is unknown, and we can find no evidence for it. If the dreamer's emotions determine So what does it mean to us if the association of the elements in the dream is made? Obviously, this is useless for understanding dreams; or, like association experiments, it can only make us understand the complex better; What does it matter?"

True, but you miss an important point which makes it unnecessary for us to start our discussion with association experiments.In the association experiment, we arbitrarily selected the stimulus word that determines the response, and the response word is the bond between the stimulus word and the subject's complex.In dreams, the stimulus is replaced by a product of the dreamer's psychic activity, and the dreamer does not know why it arises, so this product of psychic activity can be regarded as a derivative of a certain complex.Now, if it is supposed that the associations of the various parts of the dream are determined by the complex which elicits this particular element, it is no longer fantastic for us to analyze these elements in order to discover this complex.

Now give another example to prove it.The name of oblivion does explain the analysis of dreams, with the difference that oblivion concerns only one person, whereas dream-interpretation concerns two persons.If I temporarily forget a proper name, I dare say I still know it, and turn a corner from Bernhay's experiment to make the same judgment about the dreamer.Now, I can no longer catch the proper name that I have forgotten but still know.We know from experience that it is useless to think hard.However, we can often think of one or several other proper names.If an alternate name comes to mind naturally, the situation is obviously analogous to that of the analysis of dreams.In fact, the dream element is not really what I am after, it is only a substitute for that which we do not know and which we want to find through dream analysis.The difference was that I had forgotten a proper name, fully aware that that name was not the original name, and that, with regard to the elements of the dream, it had to be learned by painstaking research.If I forget the proper name, then start with the alternate name, and analyze and discuss the original thing beyond the escape consciousness, such as the forgotten name.If I attend to these alternate names, and allow them to set up a chain of associations in my mind, it is only a matter of time before I can recall the forgotten proper name.From this we know that those naturally occurring alternative names are not only related to the forgotten proper name, but also limited by it.

I will illustrate this analysis with an example; one day I forgot the name of a small country on the Rivera River with Monte Carlo as its capital.I have thought about everything I know about this country, such as Prince Albert of the Royal Family of Luxinan, his wedding and his love of deep sea exploration. In short, all the memories are still useless.So I just gave up and just let the alternate names come to mind.Alternative names came quickly: first Monte Carlo, then Piedmont, Albania, Montevideo, Colico, etc. (Piedmont, Albania, Montevideo, Colico) The first thing I noticed was Albania, and then It was Monte Negro, or maybe black and white; then, I noticed that there were four alternative names with the "Mon" sound, so I remembered the forgotten country name-Monaco.Therefore, the alternate name is actually derived from the forgotten name; the first syllable of the original name constitutes four alternate names, and the last alternate name is composed of the original syllables in sequence, including the last syllable, so that all syllables of the original name are Gathered.And the reason why I temporarily forget is also easy to understand.Munich is called Monaco in Italy, and thoughts related to Munich suppress the memory of Monaco.

This example is very good, but too simple.As for the other instances, perhaps you have to make long associations with the alternative names, and in this case the analogy with the analysis of dreams is easier.I have had this experience.I was invited to drink Italian wine with him, and in the hotel he recalled a happy memory of a certain wine and wanted to order it, but he forgot the name of it.Then many different alternate names came up, from which I learned that he forgot the name of the wine because of a lady named Hedway.Sure enough, he told me that he had met the lady when he drank it for the first time, and he remembered the name from my surmise.By this time he was married, and the name Hedway was an unhappy past.

If the special name for forgetting is really as mentioned above, dream interpretation is full of possibilities.Starting from the substitute, the analysis of a series of associations, following the clues, always leads to the original object; and deduced from the forgotten name, we may perhaps assume that the association of an element of a dream is not determined by this element, and that this determination is not affected by the conscious mind. Controlled by the original thoughts.When this hypothesis is established, it provides considerable evidence for dream interpretation.

(End of this chapter)