Chapter 7 Lecture 6 Preliminary Hypotheses and Techniques of Dream Interpretation

We know, therefore, that a new method has to be employed in order to study dreams successfully.I say to you plainly: we admit the following hypothesis as a basis for further investigation: — Dreams are not a bodily phenomenon, but a psychic one.You always know what this means; but what is the reason for this assumption?We have no reason, but on the other hand there is no reason preventing us from making this assumption.Our point of view is that if dreams are a bodily phenomenon, they have nothing to do with us; if we are to be interested, we have to assume that they are a psychic phenomenon.Therefore, we would rather assume that this hypothesis is correct and see what happens.With the results, it can be decided whether this hypothesis can be supported, and it can be confirmed as a safe conclusion.What needs to be clarified now is what is the purpose of our research, or what direction are we going to work towards?Our aims are the same as those of all science—that is, to gain an understanding of these phenomena, to establish the relations between them, and finally to try to control them.

We therefore continue to rest on the hypothesis that dreams are a psychic phenomenon.And the dream is the actions and language of the dreamer, but we don't understand it.Now if we express something, but you don't understand, what will you do?Don't you want me to explain?So why can't we ask the dreamer about the meaning of the dream? You will remember that we also used this method in our study of the meaning of negligence.What was being discussed then was the case of slips of the tongue.Someone said: "So something is wrong again," and we asked—no, I was wrong, fortunately it was not us who asked the question but someone else who had nothing to do with psychoanalysis—and they asked, what is the meaning of this inexplicable statement? Why not.The man immediately replied that he himself was about to say, "That's a nasty thing," but he stopped himself, and said in milder terms, "There's something going on over there." I had said then This inquiry is the model for psychoanalytic research.You will now understand that the technique of psychoanalysis seeks, as far as possible, to make the analysands answer their own questions.The dreamer must therefore also interpret his own dreams for us.

But the dream procedure is not so simple, as we all know.As far as negligence is concerned, first, there are many examples where this method can be applied; second, there are many examples where the person being questioned is unwilling to answer, and when he hears someone else answering for him, he angrily refute it.As for dreams, examples of the first type are completely lacking; the dreamer often declares that he knows nothing about the matter.We can't explain it for you, and he didn't refute it.So we don't have to try to figure it out?He doesn't know it, we don't know it, and the third person certainly doesn't know it either, so a solution is hopeless.If you are happy, forget it.But if you don't think so, then follow me.I can tell you that the dreamer does understand the meaning of his dream; it is just that he does not know that he understands, and thinks he knows nothing.

At this point you may draw my attention to the fact that I have just said a few words, but I have made two assumptions, so I am afraid it is difficult to say that my method is reliable.Not only that dreams are a psychological phenomenon, but also that certain events are understood, but they don't know that they understand-such assumptions!You have only to remember that these two hypotheses cannot coexist, and you will be indifferent to the conclusions drawn from them. Yes, I am here to speak, not to deceive you.I have professed to give an "Introduction to Psychoanalysis," but I do not want to preach divine instruction, to give you many facts that are easily connected, and to hide all difficulties, so that you will easily believe that you have learned something new.No, it is because you are all beginners that I am eager to tell you this science for what it is, including its cumbersomeness and immaturity, its claims and possible criticisms.I know that no matter what kind of science, especially for beginners.I also know that in teaching other sciences an effort is made at first to hide those difficulties and shortcomings from the students.But psychoanalysis cannot do this.So I propose two hypotheses, one contained within the other.Those who feel that this is all too forced or too uncertain, or who are in the habit of applying more reliable facts or more refined deductions, need not follow me.It is only that I would advise them to abandon the psychological problem entirely, because within the sphere of psychology, I am afraid that it will be difficult to find a road as reliable as they are going.Moreover, if a science wants to contribute to human knowledge, it does not have to force others to believe it.Believe it or not, depending on the results, it can wait patiently to attract everyone's attention with its own research results.

But for those who are not discouraged by this, I also warn them that my two hypotheses are not of equal importance.The first hypothesis "dreams are a psychic phenomenon" will be confirmed by our research.The second hypothesis has been proved elsewhere, and I am merely transferring it here. Where and to what relation are we to suppose that a dreamer possesses knowledge which he does not know he possesses?Astonishing as it may seem, this fact changes our conception of mental life without the need to hide it.It may also be pointed out in passing that this fact, when stated, would be misleading, but it is true—in short, a contradiction in terms.But the dreamer has absolutely no intention of concealing anything.Nor can we attribute this fact to people's ignorance or lack of interest, nor to ourselves, since these psychological problems are ignored by definitive observation and experimentation.

Where is the evidence for this second hypothesis?Originally derived from the study of the phenomenon of hypnosis. In 1889, I was in Nancy watching Lieber and Bernheim conduct the following experiment.They put someone into a state of sleep and give him all sorts of hallucinatory experiences.After waking up, he seemed to have no idea of ​​the events that passed through the hypnosis.Bernheim repeatedly asked him to tell the story of the hypnosis.The man claimed he didn't remember anything.But Bernheim repeated his application, saying that he should always know, should always remember.The man hesitated, and began to recall, first vaguely remembering something suggested by the hypnotist, and then remembering another thing, and his memory gradually became clear and complete, until finally he did not miss anything.At that time, no one told him, but he thought of it himself. It can be seen that these memories were in his heart from the beginning, but he couldn't get them; he didn't know that he knew, he just believed that he didn't know.His situation was exactly like that of the dreamer we suppose.

If this fact is true, I think you will be surprised to ask me: "When you discuss negligence, there is hidden intention behind the wrong words, but you don't know it, so you try to deny it. Why didn't you present this evidence? Suppose a If a man can have a certain memory, and he believes he does not know it, then it is possible that he has other mental processes going on in him that he does not know. If this argument was advanced early, it should have been used. We are convinced, and we understand fault more easily." Yes, I would have advanced it then, but I will save the argument for a later time when it is more necessary.Some faults are self-explainable in themselves, and others, if we are to understand their significance, must assume the existence of psychic processes of which we are ignorant.As far as dreams are concerned, we have to look elsewhere for an explanation, and here the evidence for hypnosis will be easier for you to accept.The situation of negligence is normal, unlike the state of hypnosis.The main condition of dreams is sleep, and there is a clear relationship between sleep and hypnosis.Hypnosis may be called unnatural sleep; we say "sleep" to the hypnotized person, and this suggestion can be compared with dreams in natural sleep.The psychological situation of the two is also similar to each other.In natural sleep, we completely stop negotiating with the outside world; the same is true during hypnosis, we just communicate inrapport with the performer.The nanny's sleep can be regarded as normal hypnosis. Although the nanny sleeps, she still communicates with the child and can only be awakened by the child.So now it seems that it is not bold to use hypnosis to compare natural sleep.And the assumption that "the dreamer knows about the dream, but he has no access to this knowledge, so he doesn't believe he knows it" cannot be regarded as an absurd fabrication.In our study of dreams, which began with sleep-disturbing stimuli and daydreams, we have now seen a third path, namely, dreams evoked by suggestion during hypnosis.

Now if we go back and talk about dreams, we may be more confident.We know that the dreamer does know about the dream; the question is how to make it possible for him to come up with this knowledge and tell us.We do not expect him to say at once the meaning of the dream, but we think he can deduce its origin, and the thoughts and emotions from which it arose.As far as negligence is concerned, you will remember that someone mispronounced "Fat Die", and you asked him how this error occurred, and his first association gave us an explanation.The technique of dream interpretation is very simple, and this example can be used as a model.We also ask the dreamer how he came to have this dream, and his answer can also be regarded as an interpretation of the dream.Whether he thinks he knows or doesn't know is irrelevant, we all treat them equally.

The technique is very simple, but I am afraid that you will object more strongly.You will say: "Here comes another hypothesis, this is the third one! It's even more unreliable! You ask the dreamer what he thinks about the dream, do you think his first association is really the explanation we need? However, he may have no associations at all, or only God knows what his associations are. What grounds for your expectations are beyond our imagination. In fact, you believe too much in chance, but more criticism is needed here It takes force to deal with it. Besides, a dream is not like a single slip of the tongue, but a combination of many elements. Which association should we trust?"

In all unimportant respects your words are to the point.You say that dreams, unlike slips of the tongue, are composed of many elements, and that is all right.Of course our technology has to take this into account.We analyze the dream into its individual elements and study them one by one; thus the similarity between dreams and tongue slips is established.You also say that if we ask the dreamer about all the individual elements in his dream, he may say that he does not elicit any thoughts, and that is also true.As far as some examples are concerned, this answer is acceptable, and what they are we will tell you later; it is strange that we ourselves have definite opinions about these examples.But, roughly speaking, if the dreamer says that he has no thoughts, we will contradict him, press him for an answer, tell him that he must have some thoughts—and we are not wrong, as it turns out.He will evoke an association, and what that association is is none of our business.Past experience is especially easy to recall.He will say: "That was yesterday." For example, the two inexplicable dreams mentioned above, or: "That reminds me of what happened recently." This shows that dreams and impressions of the previous day are often prone to occur. Contact, not what we first thought.And if he starts with a dream, he will remember the earlier events, and finally he can recall the distant past.

But on the main point, you are wrong.I assume that the first association of the dreamer must be exactly what we need, or at least it can be a clue to the explanation. You think this assumption is absurd, and you think that the association can be arbitrary, and it does not happen to what we want to seek. I think that if I expect other things, there are other possibilities, I will blindly trust in opportunities for luck-this is a big mistake.I have ventured to say that you have a deep-seated belief in mental freedom and choice, and I have pointed out that this belief is unscientific and should give way to deterministic claims governing mental life.I want you to respect the fact that the dreamer happened to have this association and not the other when he was questioned.Nor am I raising one belief against another.The resulting association is not the result of choice, nor is it indeterminate, nor is it irrelevant to what we want, all of which can be proved.I have recently learned that similar evidence is available even in experimental psychology. This is very important, please pay special attention to it.If I ask someone what association he has with a certain element in a dream, I ask him to keep the original idea in his mind and think about it as he pleases. This is called free association.Free association requires a special attention distinct from introspection, which we exclude.Many people have no difficulty in adopting this attitude, while others find it extremely difficult to make this association.If I do not use any particular stimulus words, or limit only the kind of associations I need, such as asking someone to remember a proper name or a number, then the associations thus presented must have a higher degree of freedom.You think that the associations are even more selective than those used in psychoanalysis.In every instance, however, the associations are strictly controlled by an important mood, unknown to us at the time of its operation, just as are those tendencies which give rise to faults and so-called "accidental" actions. I myself, and many others after me, have made many experiments, some of which have been published, with regard to names and numbers which have no cause.Its method is as follows: a proper name brings up a series of associations, which are no longer completely free, but which are linked to each other.It is the same as the associations aroused by the various components of the dream.This series of associations goes back and forth until the thoughts aroused by the impulse have exhausted their efforts to omit nothing.But at that point, you may already be able to explain the motivation and meaning of the free association of a proper name.These experiments repeatedly produced the same results; and the material thus obtained was so rich that we were obliged to proceed to detailed investigations.The association caused by the number may be used as an illustration.We cannot but be amazed at how quickly these associations flow into one another, and with what sureness they lead to a hidden purpose.I will take the analysis of a person's name as an example, since this analysis does not need to include a large amount of material. When I was treating a young man, I happened to talk about this issue, saying that we seem to have the freedom to choose in these respects, but in fact, the proper names that come to mind are all determined by the situation at that time and the subjects. traits and status.Since he expressed doubts, I asked him to experiment on the spot.Knowing that he had many girlfriends, of varying degrees of intimacy, I told him that if he were to recall a woman's name at random, there were many names at his disposal.He agreed.But not only I was surprised, even he himself was surprised, because he did not mention the names of a large number of women, but was silent for a moment, and then admitted that he only thought of Albine's translation: it means "white". "That's strange!" I said to him, "what's your relationship with that name? How many Albines do you know?" What's even more strange is that he didn't know anyone named AlbiDe, and the name also attracted I don't care about his associations.You may think that the analysis has failed; in fact it is complete and needs no additional associations.It turned out that this man had a very fair complexion; in my analytic conversations I used to jokingly call him Albino, which means "Old Man of Heaven"; and it was at that time that we were studying the feminine element of his character.So the woman or daughter-in-law he was most interested in at that time was himself. A melody that occurs to a person can also be produced by ideas, but the existence of these ideas is unknown to the person.As for the origin of the melody, one can be due to the lyrics in the melody, and the other can be due to the source of the melody. This is easy to prove.But this sentence must have the following restrictions: a real musician suddenly thinks of a tune, because the tune has musical value.I have no analytical experience with musicians, so I dare not include them in the above conclusions.The first reason is indeed more common.I know of a young man who at a certain period was obsessed with the tune of the Paris song in "Helen of Troy". I also admit that this tune is very attractive. Two girls, one named Ida "Ida" and one named Helen "Helen". If these associations, which occur quite freely, are thus restricted and attached to a definite background, the associations which are attached to a single idea of ​​a stimulus must be equally strictly restrained.Experiments have shown that these associations are not only dependent on the stimulus ideas we give, but also on subconscious activities, that is to say, on thoughts and interests of strong emotional value that we did not realize at the time, which we call complexes. Such associations have been valuable material for experiments, and these experiments occupy an important place in the history of psychoanalysis.The Wundt school pioneered a so-called "association experiment", in which the subject had to answer as many "response words" as possible for a designated "stimulus word".At that time, attention should be paid to the following points: the time interval between the stimulus word and the response word, the nature of the response word, errors that may occur when the experiment is repeated, etc.The Zurich school led by Breuer and Jung sometimes asked the subjects to explain why they had strange associations, and sometimes used continuous experiments to explain the reactions of the association experiments, only to gradually realize that these abnormal reactions were strictly depends on one's mood.This discovery by Bleuler and Jung built the first bridge between experimental psychology and psychoanalysis. When you hear this, you may say: "We now all admit that free associations are bound and not free to choose, as we originally thought; we admit that the same is true of the associations of dream-elements. What we are disputing, however, is not Not here. You maintain that the associations of each element in a dream are conditioned by the psychological background of that element, but what this background is is unknown, and we see no evidence for this. To say that the associations of the elements of a dream determine But what use is this to us? It does not contribute to the understanding of dreams; at most, like association experiments, it leads to some understanding of the so-called complexes; but what have complexes to do with dreams?" True, but you have overlooked an important point which prevents me from using the association experiment as a starting point for this discussion.As far as the association experiment is concerned, the stimulus word that determines the response is chosen arbitrarily, and the response is between the stimulus word and the subject's complex.As far as dreams are concerned, the stimulus word is substituted for a psychic component of the dreamer whose origin is unknown to the dreamer, and which, therefore, can itself be regarded as a derivative of the complex.It would therefore not be fanciful to assume that the associations of the elements of a dream are determined by the complex from which this particular element has arisen, and that the complex should then be discovered from these elements. Now give another example as proof.The forgetting of the proper name can indeed be used to illustrate the analysis of dreams, with the difference that the former concerns only one person, while dream interpretation concerns two persons.If I forget a proper name for a moment, I conclude that I still know it, and by turning a corner from Bernheim's experiment, the same can be said about the dreamer.Now this proper name, which I have forgotten but I do know, has eluded me.I have learned from experience that it is useless to think hard.But I can often think of one or several other proper names.If I just naturally recall a surname, then the situation and that of the dream-analysis are obviously similar to each other.The dream element is not really what I want to pursue, it is just used as a substitute for something I don't know and want to pursue through dream analysis.The difference is that if I forget a proper name, I am fully aware that the alternate name is not the original name, and as far as the dream element is concerned, this insight is only possible after painstaking research.If I forget the proper name, then I can use that alternate name as the starting point to obtain the original thing that escaped from consciousness at that time, such as the forgotten name.If I pay attention to these synonymous names and let them arouse layers of associations in my mind, sooner or later I can recall the original name that has been forgotten. Therefore, I know that the synonymous names that arise naturally are not only clearly related to the forgotten name relationship, and is constrained by it. I would like to illustrate this analysis with the following example: One day I could not remember the name of a small country on the Riviera with Monte Carlo as its capital.I've thought about everything I know about this country; I've thought about Prince Albert of the Lucinan royal family, his marriage, his passion for deep-sea exploration—in short, everything, but nothing. void.So I stopped thinking about it; I just let the names come to me.They came quickly: Monte Carlo first, then Piedmont, Albania, Montevideo, Colico.Albania first caught my attention; followed by Montenegro, perhaps because of the contrast between black and white.原Albania means white, and Montenegro means black.Again, I noticed that there were four syllables of "Mon" in those pronouns, and I immediately remembered the forgotten country name and called Monaco "Monaco". It can be seen that the pronouns actually originated from the forgotten original names; the four The syllable comes from the first syllable of the original name, and the last syllable follows the order of the syllables of the original name, and includes the last syllable, so that the syllables of the original name are complete.As for the reason why this proper name is temporarily forgetful, it is not difficult to find out.Monaco is what Italy used to call Munich, and because of the idea of ​​Munich, I suppressed the memory of Monaco. This is a good example, but too simple.In other cases, you may have to make longer associations with aliases, and then the analogy will be more similar to dream analysis.I also had this experience.A certain man once invited me to drink Italian wine with him.He had pleasant memories of a certain wine, which he had asked for in a restaurant, but had forgotten its name.There were many different nicknames, and I deduced that he lost the name of the wine because of a woman named Hedwig.If so, he not only said that he had met a Hedwig when he tasted the wine for the first time, but also remembered the name of the wine because of my speculation.He was happily married by then, and the name Hedwig belonged to a past that he did not want to look back on. If the forgetting of proper names is as mentioned above, dream interpretation is also possible.Starting from the substitute, the original object can always be obtained by using a series of associations; and deduced from the forgotten name, we may suppose that the association of an element of a dream is not only determined by that element, but also by the original object which is not in consciousness. thought.If this assumption can be established, then the technique of dream interpretation has a considerable basis.