Chapter 9 Eighth Lecture: Children's Dreams

I think we're moving too fast, so let's take a few steps back.Before applying the analytical method to the interpretation of dream disguises, we said that we had better temporarily narrow our attention to dreams which were not or rarely disguised, in order to avoid difficulties arising from the disguise.In fact, this approach would run counter to the development of psychoanalysis; for in fact, the existence of undisguised dreams is only known after a consistent application of our dream-interpretation method and a thorough analysis of once disguised dreams. exist. Such dreams can be found in children's dreams: children's dreams are short, clear, easy to understand, and their meaning is not ambiguous, but they are dreams after all.Not all dreams of children are of this type, however.Dreams of masquerade begin to appear in the first years of childhood, and the dreams of children between the ages of five and eight are recorded to have all the characteristics of adult dreams.But if you limit yourself to the period of incipient mental activity or the period of four or five years of age, you will find a series of so-called infantile dreams, and dreams of the same type can be had in later childhood; The next can be as childish as a baby's dream.

On the basis of the dreams of these children it is not difficult to gain a firm and reliable understanding of the main properties of dreams. In order to understand these dreams, it is not necessary to analyze them, nor to apply any technique.It is not necessary to question the dream-telling child either.Yet we need to know a little about his life; each dream explains the experience of the previous day.For a dream is a reaction of the mind in sleep to the experiences of the previous day. Now give a few examples as follows, as the basis for further conclusions. 1 A one-year-old and ten-month-old child wants to send another child a basket of cherries as a birthday present.He obviously didn't want to, though he could have had some cherries himself; next morning he said he dreamed that Hermann had eaten them all.

2 A three-year-old and three-month-old girl swam in the lake for the first time.When she returned, she refused to go ashore and cried loudly; in her opinion, time on the lake passed too quickly.The next morning, she said that she dreamed of going to the lake again last night.We can guess that she spent more time swimming in the lake in her dreams than during the day. 3 A boy of five years and three months traveled with others in Oschental near Hallstatt.He had heard before that Hallstatt was at the foot of Mount Deckstein, and he was interested in this mountain.From the house in Ossi, you can see Mount Deckstein, and through the telescope, you may see the Simeone hut on the top of the mountain.The child had repeatedly looked through the binoculars at the hilltop hut, but no one knew if he saw it.This trip started with a pleasant expectation.Whenever there was a new mountain in sight, he asked if it was Mount Deckstein.But every time he got a negative answer, he gradually felt disappointed, and immediately kept silent, and he didn't want to go up a few steps with others to see the waterfall.People thought he was too tired, but the next morning he said happily: "Last night I dreamed that I was in Simeone's cabin".So he joined this tour with this expectation.Regarding the distance, he only repeated what he had heard before: "You have to walk on the mountain for six hours to reach the top of the mountain."

From these three dreams, it seems to be evident. 2 These childhood dreams are not without meaning; they are complete and intelligible psychic operations.As I said before, you should remember the views on dreams in medicine, and also remember that someone compares dreams to the random strumming of a piano keyboard by someone who is not familiar with music.The children's dreams quoted above absolutely contradict this statement.The strangest thing is that a child can make complete mental actions during sleep, whereas an adult within the same situation is content with only intermittent responses.Moreover, we can have various reasons to conclude that the sleep of children is more mature and deeper than that of adults.

3. These dreams are not disguised, so they do not need to be interpreted: their manifest and latent ones agree with each other.We can therefore conclude that masquerade is not the main attribute of dreams.I think you must believe this sentence.But after careful study, it has to be admitted that these dreams are not without disguise, although to a very shallow degree, there is always a certain difference between the manifest and latent dreams. Fourth, if children feel regretful about their recent experience, have hope or have unsatisfied desires, they will react by dreaming.The child fulfills this wish directly and undisguisedly by means of dreams.The part played by external or internal stimuli in disturbing sleep and producing phantoms may now also be discussed.On this point we already know some definite facts, but these facts account for only a very small number of dreams.In the dreams of children it is difficult to see the influence of such bodily stimuli; for children's dreams are perfectly intelligible.However, we need not for this reason abandon the idea of ​​stimulating dreams.We only need to ask why, in addition to physical stimuli, the sleep-disrupting stimuli have been forgotten to have psychological stimuli in the first place?We know that it is these psychic stimuli which disturb the sleep of adults in the greater part; for these stimuli often deprive adults of the psychic situation required for sleep—that is, of disassociation from the external world.They don't want to interrupt their life; they'd rather continue what they're doing, which is why they don't sleep.The psychic stimulus that disturbs the child's sleep is therefore an unsatisfied wish, to which his reaction is a dream.

5. It is from this shortcut that we know the function of dreams.If the dream is a reaction to a psychic stimulus, the value of the dream consists in giving the excitement such an outlet as to eliminate its stimulus and allow sleep to continue.How this catharsis is dynamically realized by the dream is not known, but we already know that dreams are not the disruptors of sleep, and quite a few people blame them for it, but the guardians of sleep from disturbing influences.We tend to think that without dreams we can sleep more deeply, but this view is wrong; in fact, without the help of dreams, sleep would be impossible, and the reason why we sleep well is because of dreams.Dreams cannot help disturbing us a little, but just as a policeman cannot avoid firing a gun when driving out a disturber.

Six dreams arise from wishes, and the content of dreams is to express this wish, which is one of the main characteristics of dreams.It is also an invariable property that dreams not only give occasion for the expression of a thought, but also express the fulfillment of a wish in the form of a hallucinatory experience. "I would like to swim in the lake" is the wish that caused the dream; as for the content of the dream: "I am swimming in the lake".So even in these simple dreams of childhood there is still a slight distinction between the latent and manifest dream-content, which translates wishes into experiences through disguise.When interpreting dreams, we must first try to restore this disguise.If this is one of the most common characteristics of all dreams, we shall know the way of interpreting the preceding dreams: "I saw my brother holding a bamboo knot" does not mean "My brother is saving money" but "I hope My brother wants to economize." Of these two general characteristics, the second is more easily recognized than the first.It was only after extensive research that we were convinced that it was often a wish, and not a prejudice, purpose, or condemnation, that caused the phantasm; Translated into an experience, the stimulus is eliminated and quieted.

VII. With regard to these properties of dreams, we may again compare dreams with faults.In the fault we have distinguished a tendency to restrain and a tendency to be restrained, and fault is the mediation of the two.Dreams also belong to this category; the distracted tendency is of course only the sleep tendency, and the distracted tendency is a psychic stimulus, which we call the wish to gratify, because at present we can find no other psychic distraction for sleep. Stimulate.Dreams are also a result of mediation; we sleep and still experience wish-fulfillment; we fulfill wishes while still sleeping.So both tendencies have some successes and some failures.

8 You must remember that I once tried to use "day dreams" to solve the problem of dreams.We think that these "day dreams" are indeed fulfilling desires, ambitions or lusts, but in the form of thinking or imagination, which is very vivid, but it is definitely different from the experience of hallucinations.Thus, the two properties of dreams, although less definite, are still common to "day dreams", while the one property peculiar to sleep and absent from waking is completely lacking.In language, too, we find wish-fulfillment a central characteristic of dreams.And if dream experiences are nothing more than a mode of imaginative re-enactment, which is only possible under special conditions of sleep—what we might call "noctumal day-dreams" or "anoctumal day-dreams"—then we have Know how dreaming can eliminate stimuli and lead to satisfaction; because day dreaming is also a mental activity of fulfilling wishes, which is the only reason why people have day dreams.

There are also some other idioms with the same meaning.As the saying goes: "Pigs dream of acorns, geese dream of corn." "Chicks dream of what? Dream of grain." These proverbs have been reduced from children to animals, and the content of dreams they advocate is also the fulfillment of wishes. .There are also many idioms referring to the same thing, such as "beautiful as a dream"; Echoes.Of course, there are also so-called "anxietydreams," painful dreams, or innocuous dreams, but there is no equivalent idiom for these.Of course, we also have the term "nightmare", but according to common usage, "dream" always has some connotations of wish fulfillment.No matter what kind of proverb, it will never say that pigs and geese dream of being slaughtered.

It is naturally puzzling that this wish-fulfilling feature of dreams should be neglected by ordinary dream-talkers.In fact, they often see this layer too; but no one has ever admitted that it is a characteristic of dreams and serves as a guide for dream interpretation.Exactly why they did this, you can figure it out once you think about it, let's leave it for a later discussion. Let us now see how much knowledge can be gained with so little effort from the study of children's dreams!We already know that 1. The function of dreams is to protect sleep; 2. Dreams arise from two conflicting tendencies, one to sleep and the other to satisfy a certain psychological stimulus; 3. Dreams are meaningful psychological actions; 4. Dreams have two The main properties are wish fulfillment and hallucinatory experience.At the same time, however, we have almost forgotten that we are studying psychoanalysis.Apart from the relationship between dreams and faults mentioned above, our investigation has no special features.Any psychologist, ignorant of the assumptions of psychoanalysis, would probably give the same interpretation to children's dreams.But why has no one given such an explanation? If all dreams were so childish, the problem of dreams would have been solved long ago, our research would have been completed, and there would be no need to ask the dreamer, talk about the unconscious, or use the method of free association.This is clearly the direction in which we should continue to work.We have found time and time again that properties which are said to be universally valid turn out to be confined to a certain minority of dreams.Therefore, the problem to be solved now is whether the characteristics expressed in children's dreams are relatively stable, or whether dreams with inconspicuous consciousness and difficult to see wishes also have these characteristics?Our opinion is that these dreams have been disguised so many times that they cannot be judged at once.We even think that in order to unravel this masquerade, recourse to psychoanalysis is necessary, which is not necessary in the study of the meaning of children's dreams. There is at least one other class of dreams which, like those of children, are also undisguised and easily recognizable as wish-fulfillments.These dreams are all caused by urgent physical needs - such as hunger, thirst, sexual desire, etc. - and the fulfillment of wishes consists in the response to these internal stimuli.For example, I have recorded that a little girl of one year and seven months dreamed of a menu with her own name F. Anna on it... strawberries, raspberries, eggs, and butter bread. Fruits, accumulated food can not be melted, have to starve for a day, this dream is the reaction of this situation.At the same time, her grandmother, 68 years old and 5 months old, had to fast for a day because of her floating kidney. That night, she dreamed that someone invited her to a dinner party, and there were delicacies in front of her.Others, such as starving prisoners, and food-starved travelers and explorers, often dream of being fed.Norton Skelder, for example, in his 1904 book on the South Pole, describes his winter life with the expedition as follows (vol. 1, p. 336): "Our dreams clearly show the direction of our thoughts at the time. We never dream So many and so vivid as then. Even friends who rarely dream, often have long dreams to talk about when we exchange dreams in the morning. All our dreams are about that far country, but Sometimes I also dreamed about the situation we were in at that time—food was the main object of the dream. A friend often dreamed about eating at night, and said in the morning that he had eaten three dishes and was very happy. Another dreamed that the mountains were full of food. It was all tobacco leaves; another dreamed of ships sailing in, and at last no more ice was seen. Another dream is also worth mentioning: the postman came with a letter in his hand, explaining repeatedly why he was late; Misdelivered, and then it took a lot of trouble to get the letter back. Although there are many more strange things in sleep, the most amazing thing is that almost all my own dreams or the dreams I hear others say lack Imagination. If I recorded all these dreams, it would certainly be of great interest to psychology. If dreams can satisfy everyone, you can imagine how we yearn for sleep." In addition, I would like to quote another paragraph, This time it is Duprier's words: "Pike traveled in Africa, and when he was almost dying of thirst, he often dreamed of the water-rich valley in his hometown. Surrounded by good food; George Barker, who participated in Franklin's first expedition, used to dream of being full when food was dying." Anyone who eats more food for dinner and becomes thirsty at night will inevitably dream of drinking water.Hunger and thirst cannot be stopped by dreams, so when you wake up thirsty, you have to drink water.At this time, the dream has no practical function, but it can be seen that the purpose of the dream is to protect the sleep and prevent the stimulus from waking the dreamer to take action.If the intensity of the wish is weak, the "dream of wish fulfillment" often achieves the purpose of fulfillment. Likewise, sexual stimuli can be fulfilled by dreams, but this gratification has its own peculiarities which deserve our attention.Because the impulse of sexual desire is not dependent on external objects like hunger and thirst, so nocturnal emissions can also give the dreamer real satisfaction; however, the relationship with external objects is also very important. I will talk about it later, so this real satisfaction still has nothing to do with The object of the dream is connected, but the disguise is not obvious.As Ranke has said, the nocturnal feature can be used as a suitable object for the study of the disguise of dreams.As far as adults are concerned, wish dreams are often accompanied by other purely mental things in addition to fulfillment. We still need to explain this kind of dream in order to understand it. However, wish-fulfilling dreams of this infantile type in adults are not necessarily mere reactions to urgent needs of the organism.We also know that some of these short and clear dreams are caused by some powerful situation, obviously the result of psychic stimulation.For example, some "anxious" dreams have "impatience" dreams. The dreamer is preparing to travel, or to watch a play, or to give a speech, or to visit friends, all of which will realize his expectations in advance in the dream. Arriving at the destination, or dreaming that you are in the theater, or dreaming that you have told each other farewell with the friends you want to visit.Another example is the so-called "comfort"-dreams of "lazyness". In order to continue to sleep soundly, the dreamer dreams that he has already got up, washed his face, or is in school, but he is still sleeping. This dream means that he wants to get up in the dream , rather than actually getting out of bed.We have already admitted that the wish to sleep often plays a part in the composition of dreams, and in these dreams this wish manifests itself as the cause of the dream.The needs of the dream are therefore as important as the other great organic needs. I would like to refer you here to the reproduction of Schwind's painting in the Schacker Gallery in Munich, and to draw your attention to the fact that the painter knew very well that dreams can be evoked by powerful situations.The title of the painting is "Prisoner's Dream", and the theme of the dream is of course the prisoner's escape.The prisoner tried to escape through the window, because the sunlight entered the room through the window and woke him from sleep.The overlapping demon gods undoubtedly represent the position where he should continue to stand when he climbed the upper window; if I have not misunderstood or attached, the appearance of the demon god standing on the top and near the window, that is, the position the prisoner hopes to take, is exactly similar to that of the dreamer. I have said that, with the exception of the dreams of children and those of the infantile type, all dreams are unavoidably disguised and difficult to interpret.Although we speculate that these dreams are also wish-fulfilling dreams, we dare not say whether this is the case at the moment, and we cannot infer from the manifest content of the dream what psychological stimulus caused these dreams, or prove that they are also similar to other dreams. Relieve or reduce its irritation.But they still require interpretation or translation; the history of masquerade must be studied retrospectively, and the obvious must be replaced by the latent, before it can be definitively determined whether the conclusions drawn from the study of children's dreams can be used to explain everything. dream.