Introduction to Psychoanalysis

Chapter 25 The Satisfaction of Desire (1)
Ladies and gentlemen, it is necessary to mention our research process again here.When we were about to use analytic therapy, we encountered the disguise of dreams, and we decided to leave the problem aside for the time being and study the dreams of children, in the hope of gaining some insight into their general characteristics.Let us study dream-disguise after the study of children's dreams has come to fruition. I hope that we have gradually gained confidence in the study of dream-disguise.We must admit, however, that the results of these two aspects have not yet been integrated and coherent, so our job at this time is to integrate the results.

Both of the above-mentioned studies have clearly shown that the essential nature of dreams is the experience of transforming thoughts into hallucinations.And how this process is accomplished is amazing.We need not say much here on such general psychological matters.Through the study of children's dreams, we understand that the purpose of dream work is to obtain the satisfaction of a certain desire and to eliminate the interference of stimuli on sleep.As regards the disguise of dreams, we cannot, of course, make any assumptions until we have been told how to explain them. At the outset we wish to connect these ideas of the dream with those of the child.If I know that all dreams are really children's dreams, that they make use of childish "raw materials," and that the characteristics of the dreams are the same as those of the child's psychic instinctive impulses and psychic mechanisms, then our wishes will be fulfilled.Now that we have an understanding of the disguising role of dreams, we have to ask further: Can the idea that "dreams are the fulfillment of desires" also be interpreted as a disguised dream?
We have analyzed numerous dreams before, but we have not dealt with the question of "desire-fulfillment".I think that when we analyzed dreams earlier, you must have noticed this question many times: "Since the goal of dream work is to satisfy desires, have these dreams been fulfilled?" This question is very important, it is those Lay critics often refer to it.You know, human beings are born with an aversion to new knowledge and original ideas, and one of the ways to express it is to reduce any new theory infinitely until it can no longer be reduced, and if possible, add a symbol. The "desire-fulfillment" became such a symbol to summarize our new theory of dreams.Whenever they heard that "dreams are the fulfillment of desires," they would ask: "How is the fulfillment of desires formed in dreams?" Their question can be regarded as overthrowing this concept.Immediately they will think of their many dreams, most of which are unpleasant, and sometimes even frightening; thus they feel that the theory of psychoanalytic dreams is not credible.In fact, this question is not difficult to solve; the disguised dream does not express the wish-fulfillment openly, but we have to seek it, so we have to wait for the interpretation of the dream after analysis to prove it.We have also learned that the desires which lie behind the dream-disguise, which are rejected by the censorship, constitute the motives of both the dream-disguise and the censorship.However, it is difficult for lay critics to understand that we must not ask what kind of desire a dream fulfills until it has been interpreted; they always forget this.In fact, their reluctance to accept the idea of ​​fulfilling their desires is also influenced by the censorship of the dreams, which makes them substitute questions for real thoughts and thus deny the censored dream desires.

For ourselves, it is naturally necessary to explain why there are many dreams with unpleasant content, and we would like to know why there are "anxious dreams".Here we have dealt with the dream-affects for the first time; this subject is well worth studying, but unfortunately we cannot discuss it at the present time.If dreams are wish-fulfillments, there is naturally no possibility of intrusion of unpleasant emotions: the lay critics seem right about this.And this problem is very complicated because they ignore three aspects.

First, sometimes the dream-work does not work very well for the desire-fulfillment situation.Therefore, there will be some unpleasant emotions in the latent part of the manifest part of the dream.After analysis, it can be seen that the unpleasant emotions of these hidden meanings are far stronger than the dreams formed by these hidden meanings.This is evidenced by either instance.We therefore admit that at this point the dream-work is no longer able to achieve its goal, just as a thirsty person cannot quench his thirst by dreaming of drinking water.The dreamer is still thirsty, so he will get up and look for water to drink.These dreams still retain their dreamlike character and are proper dreams.We have to say "Despite limited power, it is still satisfying desire".In any case, the clear and identifiable intention makes it still worthy of praise.There are not a few examples of dream work failures; the reason for the failure is that dream work is longer than the transformation of facts, and it is difficult to produce emotional transformations that meet needs; emotions are often very stubborn.Thus, the unpleasant latent content is transformed into a wish-fulfillment during the operation of the dream-work, while the unpleasant emotion remains unchanged.The emotion is then out of harmony with the content, and critics seize the moment to accuse dreams of being incapable of satisfying desires at all, and that harmless content is often accompanied by unpleasantness.With regard to these ill-advised criticisms, we say that it is in such dreams that the desire-fulfillment disposition is most evident.It is in such dreams that this tendency appears as a dissociated state.Their criticism is incorrect, because they do not understand neurotics at all, and think that the content is more closely related to the emotion than there is; therefore they cannot understand that the content changes while the accompanying emotion remains the same.

Second, this point is very important, but it is also ignored by ordinary people.The fulfillment of desires can bring happiness to the mind, but we have to ask: "What kind of people are happy?" Of course, people who have this desire feel happy.Instead, we learn that the dreamer has a very specific attitude toward his desires: he rejects them, condemns them, and even refuses to have them.Therefore, the satisfaction of these desires makes it unpleasant.It is known from experience that such unhappiness, though it remains to be analyzed, is the main cause of anxiety.Viewed in terms of his desires, the dreamer is like two persons held together by some common thread.I don't want to continue to expand this question, but just want to tell you a very famous fairy tale.You can find these relationships in the story.A benevolent god grants a poor man and his wife the first three wishes.They are very happy and choose their wishes with extreme care.The wife who smelled the neighbor's barbecued sausage wished for two sausages. She had a thought, and the sausage appeared in front of her. The first wish was fulfilled.The husband disagreed and was very angry, so he wished that the two sausages were hung on his wife's nose. The second wish was also fulfilled, and the sausages hung on his wife's nose and could not move; however, the wife was very painful about the husband's wish.You can imagine the ending of the story. After all, they are husband and wife, so their third desire makes the sausage leave the wife's nose.Maybe we can use this myth to describe other things; here I just want to illustrate the fact that the satisfaction of one person's desire can make another person very unhappy, unless the two people's hearts are exactly the same.

In this way, we can explain the "anxiety dream" more easily and more completely.There is still one point to be taken into account before adopting the hypothesis supported by many ideas.That is—anxiety dreams often have little disguise in their content; they seem to escape the censorship's attention.Often these dreams reveal the gratification of a naked desire which the dreamer does not recognize, which he has completely rejected; thus anxiety enters in and takes the place of the censorship.The dream of a child is the overt fulfillment of a desire acknowledged by the dreamer, the ordinary disguised dream is the invisible fulfillment of a repressed desire, and the formula of the anxiety dream is the overt fulfillment of a repressed desire.Anxiety thus shows how powerful the repressed desire is, the censorship of the dream is no longer subdued, and despite the interference of the censorship the fulfillment of the desire is achieved or almost achieved.From the standpoint of the examiner, we know that the satisfaction of the repressed desire will make the dreamer's emotions unhappy, which will arouse resistance.Anxiety, thus manifested in the dream, is caused by forces that cannot restrain the desire at the time.This resistance becomes a cause of anxiety, which we cannot fully learn from the study of dreams alone, and it is obvious that we must also discuss it from other aspects.

The hypothesis applicable to undisguised anxiety dreams may also be applied to those dreams which are only slightly disguised, and to dreams of comparable unhappiness or anxiety caused by other causes.Generally speaking, we are often awakened by anxious dreams; we are often awakened before the repressed desire behind the dream cannot overcome the censorship and obtain full satisfaction.In regard to these dreams, although their original object has not been realized, this does not change their main character.We used to think of dreams as the protectors of sleep, whose purpose was to protect them from disturbance.The capacity of this protector is obviously not sufficient to defend against disturbance or danger alone, so it has to wake up the sleeping person as in the dream; however, sometimes we still sleep soundly despite the deep uneasiness and anxiety in the dream.We comfort ourselves in sleep, "It's just a dream." So let it go, and fall asleep again.

You may ask, when does the desire of the dream overcome the censorship.It depends both on the size of the desire and on the censorship; the power of the desire can be very strong for certain reasons; and our impression is that when the two are evenly matched, the attitude of the censorship is often the cause of the change. .We have already seen that the severity of the censorship varies, and that it varies in intensity from time to time according to the different dream elements; we now add that the general behavior of the censorship is very indeterminate, and that the severity of the censorship often varies with respect to the same elements. .If the censorship suddenly fails to fight a desire, it throws off its pretense and resorts to the last resort, which is to awaken the dreamer by arousing anxiety.

Why should these evil, repelled desires disturb our sleep at night?As strange as we are about this, we cannot yet explain it.To answer this question we can only resort to another hypothesis based on the nature of sleep.During the day, the powerful force of censorship suppresses these desires from intruding into consciousness.The nocturnal censorship, however, is probably relaxed, or at least greatly weakened, by sleep, as are the other functions of mental life.Now that the inspection function has been relaxed, the suppressed desire is waiting for an opportunity.Some neurotics with insomnia consider their initial insomnia to be automatic; that is, they are afraid to fall asleep because they are afraid of dreaming, that is, they are afraid of the consequences of lax censorship.You can easily understand that the weakening of the inspection function is not a serious problem, and sleep reduces the functions of various activities; therefore, even if evil thoughts are waiting for an opportunity at this time, at most they can only form dreams, and in fact there is no hindrance at all.Because of this, the dreamer can comfort himself at night: "This is just a dream." Let it go and go to sleep.

Thirdly, you should remember that when the dreamer refutes his desire, it is like two different persons put together by close ties; then you understand that there is another situation in which the fulfillment of a desire can simultaneously cause unpleasant things: that It is punishment.Let's use the mythical story we talked about last time to explain this problem.The sausage on the plate in front is the immediate satisfaction of the desire of the first person, the wife; the sausage hanging from the nose is the satisfaction of the desire of the second person, the husband, and is at the same time a punishment for the foolish desire of the wife.In cases of neurosis we also find desires similar to the third desire in this myth.In the psychic life of man such punishing tendencies are numerous and powerful, and are regarded as the principal cause of certain painful dreams.Now you may think that the so-called "desire-fulfillment" really has no fulfillment to speak of with regard to these dreams.But after careful analysis, your conclusion is incorrect.Now, let us postpone the discussion and comparison of the various possibilities of what the dream takes to be the content of the dream, and then of course the meaning of the fulfillment of desires, anxiety, punishment, etc., is very narrow.However, anxiety is originally the opposite of desire, and the opposite and the positive are very easy to form associations. We know that the two are the same thing in the subconscious, and punishment itself can be regarded as the satisfaction of a desire, but what it satisfies is It's just a desire to check the effect.

(End of this chapter)