Chapter 6 Lecture 5 Preliminary Research and Its Difficulties

One day we discovered that some of the symptoms of neurotics have meaning.Psychoanalytic therapy is based on this discovery.When patients undergo this treatment, they talk about their symptoms and sometimes their dreams.We therefore suspect that dreams also have a meaning. However, our lecture does not intend to follow this historical order, but to reverse this order and explain the meaning of the dream first.Because the study of dreams is not only the best preparation for the study of neurosis, but also the dream itself is a symptom of neurosis; and because this phenomenon occurs in healthy people, it is even more convenient for us to study.Honestly, if people were healthy and dreamed, we could learn from their dreams almost all that the Institute of Neurology can give us.

Dreams are therefore the object of study in psychoanalysis.Dreams, like mistakes, are common to healthy people, but they are also ignored by ordinary people, who regard them as obviously having no practical value.The study of dreams, however, is more likely to provoke ridicule.Negligence is only ignored by ordinary people and science, but it will not lose its dignity if it is studied.It is said that there are more important facts than negligence, and that is certainly true, but the study of negligence is not without gain.As for the study of dreams, it is not only futile, but also considered absolutely shameful: it is neither scientific nor suspicious of mysticism.And in neuropathology and psychiatry, where there are many more important problems—such as psychic ulcers, bleeding chronic inflammation, etc.—can the doctor be distracted from the study of dreams?Dreams are simply too trivial and worthless to be objects of scientific study.

There is another factor in dreams which is hardly amenable to practical study.In the study of dreams the object is not easy to ascertain.For example, delusion, its outline is still relatively clear. The patient clearly claims: "I am the emperor of China." But what about dreams?But most of them are not possible to describe.When a person talks about dreams, can he guarantee that he is right?Has it not been deleted?Or didn't it have to be added because of fuzzy memory?Most dreams, except for small fragments, cannot be remembered.Can a scientific method of psychology or therapy be based on this material?

Criticism is unfair and may arouse suspicion.The argument which denies dreams to be objects of scientific investigation is obviously carried too far.When we discuss negligence, some people think it is too trivial, but we explain ourselves by saying that "you can see the big from the small".If you say that dreams are vague, this is also a characteristic of dreams—something has a certain characteristic, which is beyond our control; besides, there are also clear and definite dreams.As far as psychiatric research is concerned, some other objects, like dreams, have vague ills, such as many obsessive-compulsive symptoms, but many psychiatrists with reputation and status have also studied them.I also recall an instance I had treated.The patient, a woman, described her ailment as follows: "I have a feeling that I have hurt, or wanted to kill, a creature—perhaps a child—no, no, perhaps a dog, as if I pushed it off a bridge -- or something like that."As for the fact that it is not easy to have exact memories of dreams, that can be remedied. You just need to define everything that the dreamer said as the content of the dream. As for what he forgets or adapts in his memories, he will ignore it. .Further, one should not be so dogmatic in saying that dreams are unimportant facts.We know from our own experience that the emotions left by dreams can remain unchanged throughout the day, and according to doctors' observations, insanity and delusions can all originate in dreams, and historical figures sometimes have the urge to do great things because of dreams of.What is the real reason why scientists look down on dreams?From my point of view, it is a reaction to the ancient times' emphasis on dreams.Everyone knows that it is not an easy task to describe the situation in ancient times, but we can presume that our ancestors dreamed like us more than three thousand years ago.As far as we know, the ancients believed that dreams had great significance and practical value; they all looked for omens of the future in dreams.The ancient Greeks and other oriental peoples must bring a dreamer when they send troops, just as they must bring scouts to spy on the enemy when they send troops today.When Alexander the Great went out, the most famous dreamers were in his camp.The city of Tire was still on the island at that time, and its defenses were so strong that the emperor had the intention of giving up the siege.One night, he dreamed of a half-man, half-goat god dancing triumphantly. He told the dream to the dreamer, who thought it was a sign of victory to break the city; Seoul City.Although the Etruscans and the ancient Romans also used other methods to predict the future, in the Greek and Roman periods, dream interpretation was actually very popular and respected by the world.Artemidorus of Dardis, who is said to have been born in the time of Emperor Hadrian, wrote a dream book which was handed down to later generations.Afterwards, how the technique of dream interpretation deteriorated, and how dreams were ignored by the world, I cannot tell you.The progress of learning must not degenerate dreamcasting, for in the dark ages of the Middle Ages even more absurd things than dreamcasting were carefully preserved.The fact is that interest in dreams gradually degrades to the level of superstition and is retained only among the uneducated.Today, dream interpretation skills are getting worse and worse, reduced to only wanting to get the lottery winning numbers from dreams.On the other hand, the sophisticated sciences of today frequently take dreams as objects of study, but their sole purpose is to elucidate physiological theories.From the doctor's point of view, dreams are naturally not a psychic process, but the psychic expression of physical stimuli.Binz said in 1876 that dreams are "a useless and morbid physical process, which has nothing to do with concepts such as the immortality of the soul."Maury compares dreams to dancing madness, which is opposite to the coordinated movements of normal people; the ancients also had a metaphor for dreams, thinking that if "a person who does not understand music puts his ten fingers on the piano fluttering on the keyboard", the sound he produced was a bit like the content of a dream.

The so-called "interpretation" is to reveal its hidden meaning, but the ancient interpretation of dreams has never talked about the hidden meaning.Look at the writings of Wundt, Jodl, and other modern philosophers; content to belittle the value of dreams by enumerating the differences between dream life and waking thought, they stress the lack of connection of associations, the critical faculty The cessation of action, the annihilation of all knowledge, and other weakened features, etc.The only contribution which the exact sciences can make to our knowledge of dreams is the influence of all physical stimuli during sleep on their content.A recently deceased Norwegian writer, Volde, wrote two volumes dealing with experimental studies on dreams, translated into German in 1910 and 1912.But almost all he wrote was about the consequences of changing the positions of the hands and feet.These studies are to be regarded as models for our experiments with dreams.Can you imagine how pure science would judge us if we knew that we wanted to inquire about the meaning of dreams?Criticism has been learned; but it does not hold us back.If slips can have latent meanings, so can dreams: the meaning of slips is in many cases too late for pure science to investigate.So let us take the views of the ancients and the masses at large, and follow in the footsteps of the dreamers of old.

First, we must determine the direction of our career and make an overview of the scope of dreams.What exactly is a dream?It is not easy to define a dream in one sentence.Dreams, however, are familiar to everyone and need not be sought for definition.Only the gist of the dream still needs to be pointed out.How will these characteristics be discovered?The scope of dreams is large, and there are many differences between this dream and that dream.It may therefore be the gist of dreams if we can point out the common element of all dreams. Well, then, the first common denominator of all dreams is sleep.Dreams are clearly a psychic life in sleep, a life somewhat similar to waking life, but at the same time very different.That is the definition of Aristotle's dream.Dreams and sleep may be more closely related.We can be awakened by dreams, we wake up naturally, or we wake up reluctantly from sleep, and we often have dreams.Dreams seem to be a situation between sleep and waking.So our attention can be focused on sleep; so what is sleep?

That's a question of physiology or biology, and there's still a lot of debate.We cannot yet have any definite answers, but I think we can point to a psychological feature of sleep.The situation of sleep is: I don't want to negotiate with the outside world, and I don't want to be interested in the outside world.I go to sleep to detach from the outside world and avoid those stimuli from outside.Likewise, if I am tired of the outside world, I can go to sleep.When I am going to sleep, I can say to the outside world, "Let me be quiet, I am going to sleep."The words of children are just the opposite: "I don't want to sleep yet; because I'm not tired yet, and I want to see more".So the biological purpose of sleep seems to be hibernation, and its psychological purpose seems to be to cease interest in the outside world.We do not want to enter the world, so the relationship with the world has to be cut off sometimes, so that it can be tolerated.Thus, we return in time to the prenatal or "in the womb" life, trying to repeat the features that elicit similarities to this life, such as the withdrawal of warmth, darkness, and stimuli.Some of us are also curled up like a ball, similar to the position in the womb.So it seems that only two-thirds of us adults belong to this world, and one-third has not yet been born.Waking up every morning is like being born anew.In fact, when we talk about awakening, we often use this sentence: "We seem to be born again"-on this point, our conception of the general feeling of newborn babies may be completely wrong; comfortable.When speaking of birth, we say "first seen."

If this were the nature of sleep, dreams would not belong to sleep, but would seem to be an unwelcome supplement to sleep; in fact we are convinced that sleep without dreams is the best and most restful sleep.During sleep, psychic activity must be absolutely eliminated; if this activity still existed, the true peaceful situation before sleep would not be achieved;Dreams, therefore, do not seem to have to be meaningful.It is different with faults, which are at least waking activities; but if I sleep, mental activity has completely ceased, except for some remnants that we cannot suppress, so that dreams need not have meaning.In fact, since the rest of the mind is asleep, I must not take advantage of the dream even if it has meaning.Therefore, dreams are only the product of irregular reactions or psychological phenomena caused by physical stimuli.Dreams must be a residue of waking psychic activity which disturbs sleep.This question is not sufficient to further the aims of psychoanalysis, and we may henceforth resolve to discard it.

Dreams are useless, but there is no doubt that they exist, and we may as well explain their existence.Why doesn't mental activity stop absolutely?Perhaps it is because some thoughts do not want to quiet the mind; some stimuli still work on the mind, and to these stimuli the mind has to respond.So dreams are a way of responding to stimuli during sleep.Starting from this, we may have the possibility of dream interpretation.We can study in various dreams which stimuli disturb sleep and form dream responses.In this way we may perhaps ascertain the first common characteristic of all dreams. Are there other common characteristics?Yes, there is another unmistakable quality, but it is harder to grasp and describe.The nature of the mental processes during sleep differs greatly from those during waking.In dreams we experience many things, which we absolutely believe in, when in fact what we experience may be just a disturbing stimulus.Most experiences in dreams are visions; although feelings, thoughts, and other sensations are also mixed in, visions are always the main component.Part of the difficulty in dream-telling consists in translating these images into language.Dreamers often say to us, "I can draw it, but I don't know how to tell it." The difference between dream life and waking life is not a reduction of mental capacity, as imbecility is different from genius; In fact, it is only a qualitative difference, but it is not easy to pinpoint exactly where the difference is.Fechner once said that dreams perform on a different stage in the mind than in waking conceptual life.The meaning of this statement is beyond our comprehension, but it shows that most dreams make a wonderful impression on us.Nor is it easy to compare the movements of the dream with the playing technique of someone who does not know the music.Because the piano always responds to the movement of the keys with the same pitch, it just doesn't make a tune.This second common feature of dreams, though not understood, must also be carefully remembered.

Are there any other common characteristics?No matter where I look, I can't think of another one, but I can only see differences in various aspects-the duration of the dream, the degree of clarity, the emotional content, the time limit of the memory, and so on.All this is something we can never hope for in a meaningless turmoil.As far as the duration of the dream is concerned, some are very short, containing only one or a few images, a single thought, perhaps only one word;Some dreams are so well organized that they are like actual experiences, so that after waking up, they still don’t know they are dreams, and some are so vague that they cannot be traced back; that is to say, for the same dream, some parts may be very clear, but some parts are not very clear. And the fleeting part.Some dreams are coherent, even witty or fantastic, while others are chaotic, silly, absurd, and grotesque.Some dreams calm us down, and others can arouse all kinds of emotions—pain to tears, or terror to wake us up, joy or fear, the list goes on and on.Most dreams are forgotten after waking up; some impressions can last for a long time, and then the memory gradually becomes blurred and incomplete; some dream impressions are so vivid, such as childhood dreams, that they can be remembered clearly thirty years later, as if recent experience.Dreams, like people, may meet once and never return; they may reappear, sometimes with a slight change, sometimes not at all in their form.All in all, the fragments of the nocturnal mind have at its disposal a great deal of material from which the events of the day can be recreated—only never quite the same.

To explain these differences in dreams.We might assume that they correspond to transitional states between waking and sleeping, or to different levels of deep sleep.However, if this explanation can be established, then when the mind is closer to the awakened state, not only the value, content, and clarity of the dream will increase, but the dreamer will gradually understand that this is a dream, and it will never be a dream. There is both a clear and reasonable element in the dream, and at the same time an irrational and unclear element, and then many other things will be dreamed.The mind could never change the depths of sleep so rapidly.So this explanation is unhelpful; in fact, we have no shortcuts in explaining this problem by any means. Now let us temporarily leave aside the "meaning" of dreams, and try to start from the common elements of dreams in order to gain a deeper understanding of the nature of dreams.From the relation of dreams to sleep we have inferred the reaction to sleep-disrupting stimuli.At this point we already know that we can be helped by the sophisticated experimental psychology which has shown that stimuli received during sleep can be represented in dreams.There have been many experiments in these lines, not least of which are those of Volde, which we have said.We may also happen to confirm their results by our own observations.I would like to share with you some earlier experiments.Morrie had performed this experiment on himself.In his dreams he made himself sniff cologne, and he dreamed that he was in Cairo, in Farina's, and some absurd adventures ensued.Another person twisted his neck lightly, and he dreamed of applying medicine to his neck, and also dreamed of a doctor who treated him when he was a child.Another person dripped a little water on his forehead, and immediately he dreamed that he was in Italy, drinking Orvieto's white wine, and sweating profusely. , A group of so-called stimulus dreams may perhaps be more characteristic of those experimentally produced.The following three dreams, recorded by an astute observer Hillbrandt, were all in response to the sound of the alarm clock: "It was a spring morning, and I was walking, through several fields of growing green, as far as the next village, and saw a whole procession of villagers all dressed clean, going to church with hymns in their hands. It was Sunday, of course, Morning service was about to be held. I resolved to attend, too, but fainted from the heat, and took the shade in the churchyard. I was reading the epitaph on the tomb, when I heard the bell-ringer enter the attic, which was high, and I was I saw a small clock in the building, and the ringing of the bell was the signal to start prayer. The clock didn't move for a while, and then it started to swing. The bell sounded bright and sharp, and I woke up from sleep. But it turned out to be the sound of an alarm clock. " Another combination of images is as follows: "It's a sunny winter day with deep snow on the road. I have agreed to explore by snowmobile, but I have to wait a long time before someone tells the snowmobile to leave the door. So I prepare to get in the car, First, he opened the leather blanket, fetched the foot warmer, and then sat in the car. But the horse was waiting for the signal to start, and there was a slight delay. Then the bell cable was pulled up, and the small bell shook violently, and began to sound A familiar musical sound, because the sound was too loud, woke me up from my slumber. It turned out to be the sharp sound of the alarm clock." Now for a third example: "I saw a kitchen maid approaching the dining room with dozens of plates stacked high. I saw her pyramid of china plates seem to be in danger of losing balance. I warned her: 'Be careful! Your china plates will fall on the floor.' Her reply was, of course, that they were used to handling plates like this; Thought so—then came the banging on the threshold as I entered, and the china fell to pieces. But—I knew at once that the incessant sound was not due to broken plates, but the regular chiming of the bell—only when I awoke Knowing that the chime was only from an alarm clock." These are very ingenious and understandable dreams, coherent and different from ordinary dreams.In this regard, we certainly have no doubts.The common feature of these dreams is that in each instance the situation is evoked by a sound which the dreamer recognizes upon waking to be an alarm clock.Here we know how dreams come into being, but we know more than that.I didn't know the alarm clock when I was dreaming, and the alarm clock didn't appear in the dream, but there was another sound instead of the alarm clock.The stimuli which disturbed sleep were interpreted differently in each case.What is the reason?But can't tell; it seems arbitrary.To understand the dream, however, we have to explain why, out of the many sounds, this one was chosen alone to represent the stimulus given by the alarm clock.On this basis, we can object to Morrie's experiment, because although the stimulus which disturbed the sleeper was presented in the dream, his experiment could not explain why it happened to be presented in this way, which does not seem to be explained by the nature of the stimulus disturbing sleep. .Moreover, in Maury's experiment, there are many other dream scenes attached to the direct result of that stimulus, such as the absurd adventure in the cologne dream, which we don't know how to explain yet. You may think that dreams help us to understand the influence of disturbing stimuli by simply waking the sleeper.But in many other instances, it's not so easy.We never wake up from every dream. If in the morning we recall the dream of the previous night, how do we know which disturbing stimulus it arose from?After a dream I succeeded in assuming the stimulus of a sound, but of course only because it was suggested by a special situation.It was one morning, somewhere in the Tyrolean hills, when I woke up and realized I had dreamed that the Pope had died.I myself could not explain the dream, and then my wife asked me, "Did you hear the terrible bells of the churches at dawn?" I was too sound asleep to hear anything, but luckily she told me, I already understand my dream.Sometimes sleepers are stimulated by some kind of stimulus to cause dreams, but then they no longer know what the stimulus is. Are there many cases like this?Maybe a lot, maybe not a lot.We wouldn't have believed it if someone hadn't given it a thrill.In addition, we do not attempt to estimate external stimuli which disturb sleep, since we know that these stimuli can only explain fragments of the dream and not the reaction of the dream as a whole. We need not therefore abandon the doctrine entirely: we can also deduce it from another direction.What stimuli disturb sleep and induce dreams is of little importance.If it is not always external stimuli invading a sense, it may also be stimuli originating from internal organs—so-called somatic stimuli.This hypothesis is close to, or agrees with, the general view on the origin of dreams, since "dreams originate in the stomach" is a common legend.Unfortunately, the somatic stimuli that interfered with sleep during the night do not appear upon waking, so there is no possibility of proof.But the origin of dreams in bodily stimuli is well documented by reliable experience, and this cannot be ignored.All in all, there is no doubt that the condition of internal organs can affect dreams.It is also a well-known fact that many of the contents of dreams have to do with distension of the bladder or excitement of the genitals.In addition to these obvious examples, there are others in which, judging from the content of the dream, it is at least conceivable that some similar bodily stimuli must have acted, since in the dream content we can discern a generalization of these stimuli, representative or stand-in.Scherner had studied dreams in 1861, and also advocated the theory that dreams originated from physical stimulation, and cited several good examples to illustrate.For example, he dreamed of "two rows of handsome children, with beautiful hair and clean skin, fighting with each other with angry eyes. At first, this row and the other row pulled each other, then let go, and then held each other as before." He explained this The two rows of children's teeth seem to make sense, and the dreamer "pulled a big tooth from the gum" after waking up, which seems to prove the reliability of his explanation.Another example is that it seems appropriate to explain the "narrow and winding path" as the stimulation originating from the small intestine. Scherner's claim that dreams always replace the organ from which the stimulation is caused by similar objects seems to be mutually confirmed. We are therefore prepared to admit that internal and external stimuli occupy an equal place in dreams.Unfortunately, valuations on this factor have the same drawbacks.As far as most of the cases are concerned, it is not possible to prove whether the dream can be attributed to the stimulation of the body; only a few dreams make us suspect that its origin is related to the stimulation in the body, and most of the other dreams are not necessarily so; The stimuli, like external sensory stimuli, can only explain the immediate reaction of the dream to it.So the origin of most of the content of the dream remains unclear. But in studying the action of these stimuli, another feature of the dream-life can be noticed.Dreams not only reproduce stimuli, but also simplify stimuli, make superficial meanings, adapt them to the dream scene, and replace them with other things.This is an aspect of the "dream-work" which cannot but interest us, since we may thereby gain a better understanding of the real nature of dreams.The scope of a person's dreams need not be limited by the proximate cause of the dream.The British king unified the three islands, and Shakespeare wrote the play Macbeth to celebrate, but does this historical fact explain the whole content of the play?Can explain the greatness and mystery of the whole play?Similarly, the internal and external stimuli received by the sleeper are only the cause of the dream and are not sufficient to explain the true nature of the dream. The second common element of dreams, the character of their psychic life, is on the one hand difficult to grasp and on the other hand insufficient as a clue for further investigation.Can our experiences in dreams, which are mostly visions, be explained by stimuli?Are those stimuli really what we experience?If they are indeed stimuli, then why are so few stimuli acting upon the sense of vision so much of the experience of dreams as visions?Like speech in a dream, is there really a conversation or something like a conversation that invades our ears while we sleep?I dare not hesitate to deny the possibility. If starting from the common elements of dreams does not advance our understanding of dreams, let us discuss their differences.Dreams are often meaningless, chaotic, and absurd, but some dreams are also quite reasonable and easy to understand.I will tell you of a plausible dream which I heard recently from a young man, which proceeded as follows: "I was walking in Contenaslaus, and I met Mr. So-and-so; after walking with him for some time, I went into a restaurant. There were two The women came with a man and sat at my table. At first I was bored and did not look at them, but when I looked at them, I thought they were very beautiful."The dreamer said that he had indeed taken a walk in Conternaslaus the night before, which was his usual route, and that he had indeed met a certain gentleman on the way.As for the rest of the dream, it is not a direct memory, but similar to a previous event.Another example is the dream of a certain lady, which is not difficult to understand. "Her husband asked her: 'Don't you think our piano needs to be tuned?' She replied: 'I'm afraid it's not worth it, the hammers need new leather'." What I said with my husband during the day.What do we gain from these two inexplicable dreams?All that is obtained is the fact that everyday life and other relevant events are visible in the dream.If this is true of all dreams without exception, then it is not without value.But this is impossible; dreams of this character are only a minority.Most dreams have no relation to the events of the previous day, so we cannot understand meaningless or absurd dreams from this.In other words, we have encountered a new problem.We not only need to know what a dream is; if the content is clear, as in the example just given, we also need to know the reason and purpose of the recurring recent facts in the dream. If I continue to pursue the understanding of dreams in this way, not only will I get tired of it, but you will also get tired of it.It can be seen that if we have not found a solution to a problem, even if it arouses the interest of the whole world, it will not help us.This solution has not yet been found.The meager contribution of experimental psychology to the knowledge of the eliciting of dreams by stimuli is worthwhile.Philosophy can contribute nothing but ridicule the insignificance of our subject.As for the esoteric sciences, we don't want to learn about them.History and common people's views think that dreams are meaningful and can be omens; but this is not very credible, and there is no possibility of verification.So our initial efforts were totally ineffective. Yet we had an unexpected thread of research from an aspect we hadn't noticed before.That's the common saying.Common sayings are indeed not accidental products, but the precipitation of ancient knowledge—we should not pay too much attention to them—in common sayings, strangely, there are so-called "day-dreams".Daydreaming is a product of fantasy, a very common phenomenon, which can be seen in healthy or sick people, and can be easily studied by daydreamers themselves.It is very strange that these phantasies, which have none of the common features of dreams, are also called day-dreams.Daydreams have nothing to do with sleep, and as far as the second common feature is concerned, they lack experience or hallucinations, and are just imaginations; daydreamers themselves admit that they are illusions, seeing nothing but thinking.These daydreams are found before puberty, sometimes at the end of childhood, and in adulthood, daydreams either cease to exist or remain until old age.The content of these fantasies is clearly directed by motives.The scenes and events in daydreams are either used to satisfy the daydreamer's ambition or desire for power, or to satisfy his lust.Young men often have ambition fantasies; young women's ambitions are focused on the success of love, so they often have lust fantasies; but the need for lust often lurks behind men's fantasies. Want to win the praise and love of women.In other respects, these daydreams vary, and their destinies vary.Some daydreams are replaced by a new fantasy after a short period of time, and some daydreams make up long stories, keeping pace with the times and changing with the circumstances of life.Literary works take this kind of daydream as the subject; writers transform, disguise, or delete their own daydreams into scenes in novels and plays.However, the protagonist of the day dream is often the day dreamer himself, either directly, or secretly portraying himself with others. Day dreams are called dreams, perhaps because their relationship with reality is similar to that of dreams, and their content is as unreal as dreams.However, day dreams may be called dreams because they have the same psychological characteristics as dreams; we do not know about this characteristic, but we are only still studying it.On the other hand, we think that the same name means the same reality, which may be completely wrong.Anyway, I'll have to wait for an answer later.