45

V.

IN the complicated and intricate dreams
with which we are now concerned, conden-
sation and dramatisation do not wholly
account for the difference between dream
contents and dream thoughts. There is
evidence of a third factor, which deserves
careful consideration.

When I have arrived at an understanding
of the dream thoughts by my analysis I
notice, above all, that the matter of the
manifest is very different from that of the
latent dream content. That is, I admit,
only an apparent difference which vanishes
on closer investigation, for in the end I find
the whole dream content carried out in the
dream thoughts, nearly all the dream
thoughts again represented in the dream
content. Nevertheless, there does remain
a certain amount of difference.
The essential content which stood out

46

clearly and broadly in the dream must,
after analysis, rest satisfied with a very
subordinate rôle among the dream thoughts.
These very dream thoughts which, going by
my feelings, have a claim to the greatest
importance are either not present at all in
the dream content, or are represented by
some remote allusion in some obscure region
of the dream. I can thus describe these
phenomena: During the dream work the
psychical intensity of those thoughts and con-
ceptions to which it properly pertains flows
to others which, in my judgment, have no
claim to such emphasis. There is no other
process which contributes so much to con-
cealment of the dream’s meaning and to
make the connection between the dream
content and dream ideas irrecognisable.
During this process, which I will call the
dream displacement, I notice also the psy-
chical intensity, significance, or emotional
nature of the thoughts become transposed
in sensory vividness. What was clearest
in the dream seems to me, without further

47

ON DREAMS

consideration, the most important; but
often in some obscure element of the dream
I can recognise the most direct offspring of
the principal dream thought.

I could only designate this dream dis-
placement as the transvaluation of psychical
values. The phenomena will not have been
considered in all its bearings unless I add
that this displacement or transvaluation is
shared by different dreams in extremely
varying degrees. There are dreams which
take place almost without any displace-
ment. These have the same time, meaning,
and intelligibility as we found in the
dreams which recorded a desire. In other
dreams not a bit of the dream idea
has retained its own psychical value, or
everything essential in these dream ideas
has been replaced by unessentials, whilst
every kind of transition between these con-
ditions can be found. The more obscure
‘and intricate a dream is, the greater is the
part to be ascribed to the impetus of dis-
placement in its formation.

48

The example that we chose for analy-
sis shows, at least, this much of displacement
—that its content has a different centre of
interest from that of the dream ideas. In
the forefront of the dream content the main
scene appears as if a woman wished to
make advances to me; in the dream idea the
chief interest rests on the desire to enjoy
disinterested love which shall “cost
nothing”; this idea lies at the back of the
talk about the beautiful eyes and the far-
fetched allusion to “spinach.”

If we abolish the dream displacement,
we attain through analysis quite certain
conclusions regarding two problems of the
dream which are most disputed—as to what
provokes a dream at all, and as to the con-
nection of the dream with our waking life.
There are dreams which at once expose
their links with the events of the day; in
others no trace of such a connection can be
found. By the aid of analysis it can be
shown that every dream, without any ex-
ception, is linked up with our impression of

49

ON DREAMS

the day, or perhaps it would be more correct
to say of the day previous to the dream.
The impressions which have incited the
dream may be so important that we are not
surprised at our being occupied with them
whilst awake; in this case we are right in
saying that the dream carries on the chief
interest of our waking life. More usually,
however, when the dream contains any
thing relating to the impressions of the day,
it is so trivial, unimportant, and so deserv-
ing of oblivion, that we can only recall it
with an effort. The dream content appears,
then, even when coherent and intelligible,
to be concerned with those indifferent
trifles of thought undeserving of our waking
interest. The depreciation of dreams is
largely due to the predominance of the in-
different and the worthless in their content.

Analysis destroys the appearance upon
which this derogatory judgment is based.
When the dream content discloses nothing
but some indifferent impression as insti-
gating the dream, analysis ever indicates

4

50

ON DREAMS

some significant event, which has been re-
placed by something indifferent with which
it has entered into abundant associations.
Where the dream is concerned with uninter-
esting and unimportant conceptions, analy-
sis reveals the numerous associative paths
which connect the trivial with the momen-
tous in the psychical estimation of the indi-
vidual. It is only the action of displacement
if what is indifferent obtains recognition in
the dream content instead of those impressions
which are really the stimulus, or instead of
the things of real interest. In answering the
question as to what provokes the dream, as
to the connection of the dream, in the daily
troubles, we must say, in terms of the in-
sight given us by replacing the manifest
latent dream content: The dream does never
trouble itself about things which are not de-
serving of our concern during the day, and
trivialities which do not trouble us during
the day have no power to pursue us whilst
asleep.

What provoked the dream in the ex-
 

51

ample which we have analysed? The
really unimportant event, that a friend in-
vited me to a free ride in his cab. The
table d’hôte scene in the dream contains an
allusion to this indifferent motive, for in
conversation I had brought the taxi parallel
with the table d’hôte. But I can indicate
the important event which has as its substi-
tute the trivial one. A few days before I
had disbursed a large sum of money for a
member of my family who is very dear to
me. Small wonder, says the dream thought,
if this person is grateful to me for this—
this love is not cost-
free. But love that shall
cost nothing is one of the prime thoughts
of the dream. The fact that shortly
before this I had had several drives with
the relative in question puts the one drive
with my friend in a position to recall the
connection with the other person. The in-
different impression which, by such ramifica-
tions, provokes the dream is subservient to
another condition which is not true of the
real source of the dream—the impression

52

must be a recent one, everything arising
from the day of the dream.

I cannot leave the question of dream dis-
placement without the consideration of a
remarkable process in the formation of
dreams in which condensation and displace-
ment work together towards one end. In
condensation we have already considered
the case where two conceptions in the
dream having something in common, some
point of contact, are replaced in the dream
content by a mixed image, where the dis-
tinct germ corresponds to what is common,
and the indistinct secondary modifications
to what is distinctive. If displacement is
added to condensation, there is no forma-
tion of a mixed image, but a common mean
which bears the same relationship to the
individual elements as does the resultant
in the parallelogram of forces to its com-
ponents. In one of my dreams, for in-
stance, there is talk of an injection with
propyl. On first analysis I discovered an
indifferent but true incident where amyl

53

ON DREAMS

played a part as the excitant of the dream.
I cannot yet vindicate the exchange of
amyl for propyl. To the round of ideas of
the same dream, however, there belongs the
recollection of my first visit to Munich,
when the Propylæa struck me. The attend-
ant circumstances of the analysis render
it admissible that the influence of this
second group of conceptions caused the dis-
placement of amyl to propyl. Propyl is, so
to say, the mean idea between amyl and
propylæa; it got into the dream as a kind
of compromise by simultaneous condensa-
tion and displacement.

The need of discovering some motive for
this bewildering work of the dream is even
more called for in the case of displacement
than in condensation.