Introduction to Psychoanalysis

Chapter 15 The Examination Function of Dreams (1)
Ladies and gentlemen, through the analysis of children's dreams, we have learned about the generation, basic characteristics and functions of dreams.Dreams are the pacification of psychological stimuli that interfere with sleep by the gratification of hallucinations.There is only one kind of adult dream that we can definitely interpret, and that is the dream of the childish type.We have neither discussed nor understood other types of dreams.However, the results we have obtained cannot be ignored.If a dream can be fully understood, it always appears as a wish-fulfillment; this is very important, and it is by no means accidental or coincidental.

I think that other types of dreams are disguised substitutes of an unknown content, to which the source must be traced; our hypothesis is due, among other reasons, to the resemblance of dreams to mistakes.Therefore, we must study it in order to understand and understand the disguise function of dreams.

It is precisely because of the camouflaging function of dreams that they appear incredible.Therefore, we need to clarify: first, why dreams are disguised, that is, motives; second, the function of disguise; third, the method of disguise.We can go a step further and say that masquerading is a product of the "working of dreams."Let us now describe the dream-action and inquire into its power.

Let us begin with the presentation of a dream recorded by a well-known lady in the field of psychoanalysis.She said that the dreamer was a well-educated and respected woman.This dream has not been analyzed, because from the perspective of a psychoanalyst, the recorder believes that it is ineffable and does not need to be explained.The dreamer didn't explain it, only criticized and denounced it vigorously, as if she knew the hidden meaning of the dream, she also said: "An old woman in her 50s who worries about her children all the time has done such absurd things. A dream."

Now we come to the details of her dream, which concerns the "service of love" during the Great War.She went to the First Military Hospital and told the guards that she was looking for the director and wanted to serve in the hospital.She emphasized the word "service" in her speech, and the officers immediately understood that she was talking about "love service."Because she was an old woman, the police officer hesitated a little before letting her into the hospital. However, she did not go to see the director, but went directly into a large dark room, where many officers and military doctors were gathered around the dining table, or stood or sit.She made it clear to one of the army doctors, and he immediately understood.Her words in the dream seemed to be: "I and countless Viennese women are willing to wait for soldiers, officers or others..." At last it became a whisper.When she saw the half-baffled, half-bad look on the officers' faces, she knew they understood her perfectly.She went on: "I know this decision is a bit scary, but our hearts are sincere. No one would ask a soldier on the battlefield if he would like to die in battle." Then there was a minute of awkward silence; the military doctor He held her in his arms and said, "Ma'am, if that's the case, then..." (another murmur) She broke free, thinking, "Maybe they are all the same." So she said: "God, I'm an old woman, maybe I don't have to. There's one condition: be aware of the age, after all an old woman and a young girl may not... It's terrible." The doctor said: "I know very well." But the other officers, and the boy who had made love to her, laughed loudly, and the old woman called the superintendent, whom she knew, to make things clear.However, she had forgotten the name of the dean, which surprised her very much.The military doctor paid her 1 points of respect and pointed her to the way to the third floor, which was a narrow spiral iron staircase leading directly from this dark room to the upper floor.As she climbed the ladder, she heard an officer say: "Her decision is shocking, regardless of her age; she should be saluted!" An endless ladder.

The old woman had two such dreams in a few weeks, only slightly changed, but according to her, the changes were meaningless or unimportant.

The unfolding of this dream is very similar to a daydream, and it is relatively coherent, and many places will become clear after a little inquiry: although you understand it, you never do it.Among them, there are many breaks in tone that are the most surprising and interesting. There are three breaks in tone in the dream, the voice turns into a whisper, and the content seems to become blurred.We have not analyzed this dream, so strictly speaking, we have absolutely no right to figure out its meaning; however, we still found some clues that can be used to draw conclusions, such as "love service", and the time before the whispering behind Intermittent language is completed according to its meaning.After supplementing, a dream will be formed, which means that the dreamer is ready to devote himself to satisfying the sexual needs of military personnel at any time.This is indeed a shameful and terrible erotic phantasy, about which the dream does not appear, and where the context would have been revealed, there would have been an indistinct murmur, the secret meanings of which had been repressed or annihilated.

I think it's easy for you to understand why these details are suppressed, the content itself is too shocking.These days, similar things are everywhere.You don't have to look far, just try any politically inclined newspaper and you will find cuts everywhere and blank pages.These blank spaces, which must have been events that would have been disapproved by the press prosecutor, were deleted verbatim.Maybe you think it's a pity, and the deleted news must be the most interesting information among them.

Sometimes it is not the whole sentence that is checked, and the author may have expected that a certain paragraph will be criticized by the prosecutor, so he changes such sentences from hard to soft, slightly modified, or only hints and insinuations.As a result, there are no more gaps in the news, and those turns and unclear expressions show that the author has checked in his heart when writing.

By analogy with the above analogy, we can also say that the language that is deleted or softened into a whisper in the dream must be a victim of the censorship.It is true that we will also use the term "dream examination" as one of the reasons for the disguise of dreams.Whenever there is a discontinuity in the obvious, we know that it is because of the function of inspection; more deeply, whenever a memory is vague, unclear, and therefore suspicious in a more definite element, we know It is considered to be the evidence of the checking effect.In fact, anyway, censorship is seldom as straightforward and blissful as in "love service"; the more common censorship is to use the second method, that is, to replace the real meaning with embellishments, hints, and allusions.

The censorship of dreams also has a third method of implementation, which is beyond the reach of the censorship regulations; for this special form of activity of the censorship of dreams, we may refer to a dream which has already been analyzed above.Do you still remember the dream of "buying three bad seats for one and a half florins", and as far as the hidden meaning of the dream is concerned, "too hasty" and "too early" are very important, which means "to marry too early is too stupid It’s stupid to buy theater tickets early, and it’s ridiculous for my sister-in-law to rush to buy jewelry.”Xianyi did not express this core idea, but only focused on watching the theater and buying tickets.Owing to the transplantation and rearrangement of the center of gravity which takes place in the dream elements, the manifest dream-content differs so much from the latent dream-content that it is no longer doubted that there is a latent dream-content in the dream.This shifting of the center of gravity is also an important method of dream camouflage, and it is for this reason that dreams are so strange that even the dreamer is reluctant to admit that they are his own internal reactions.

The deletion, alteration and rearrangement of the material constitute the mode of the dream-censorship and the method of its camouflage.We shall now study the disguising of dreams, and examine whether activity is the chief cause of dream disguising, or one of them.Often the term "transplantation" includes both a change in material and a change in sequence.

Knowing that the censorship of dreams is roughly as described above, let us now turn our attention to the dynamics of dreams.I hope you will not anthropomorphize the "inspection function" and describe it as a serious little guy who resides in the hut of the brain and performs its duties; there is no need to specify its location, thinking that a power of inspection will be generated in the "brain center". And if this "brain center" is injured, the inspection will stop immediately.We can just regard it as a meaningful noun expressing a dynamic relationship.We need not therefore be indifferent to the tendencies of both the exerciser and the recipient of this power, and we need not be surprised if we find ourselves blind to the censorship we encounter.

But it is true.You will recall the strange experience we have had in interpreting dreams by the method of association: when we try to trace through the elements of a dream the unconscious thought behind it, we encounter a resistance.We also know that this resistance comes and goes.When the resistance is small, the analysis of dreams can be based only on associations; when the resistance is high, a long series of associations is necessary, and we have to distance ourselves from the ideas from which we started, and we have to resist all kinds of criticisms brought about by associations along the way.The various resistances encountered in the analysis of dreams now appear to be censorships in the "dream operation", and they are only objective censorships; it can be seen from the above that the power of censorship can promote the disguise of dreams without being exhausted. It remains permanently maintained as an institution to maintain the completed camouflage.Just as the resistance encountered in dream analysis varies with the elements of the dream, so the degree of camouflage induced by the censorship varies with the elements of the dream as a whole.By comparing the manifest and latent manifestations of the dream, some latent elements will disappear completely, some will change slightly, and some will still appear in the manifest, or even intensified.

Our object now is to discover what tendencies perform the check, and what tendencies are checked.This question is very important for the understanding of sleep and of people's daily life, and it will not be difficult to answer if we take a general look at every dream that has been analyzed.The disposition to censor is the disposition to acknowledge or approve in the dreamer's waking state.If you deny the correct interpretation of the dream, your motive at this time promotes the censorship and forms a disguised motive, so the analysis of dreams is especially necessary.Please go back to the dream of the woman in her fifties: we have not analyzed this dream, but she herself is still amazed.If Dr. von Hugehelm had told her that the significance was beyond doubt, she might have been more than just furious.Doesn't the obscene words in the dream turn into murmurs stem from this attitude of criticism?
(End of this chapter)