DREAMS 187 



mercilessly condemns himself for laziness and redoubles 

 his efforts to overcome the inertia. On the other hand, a 

 man who is actually lazy and failing to make the most of 

 himself may be led into habits of self-pity and self- 

 indulgence by concluding that he is seriously tired. 

 When face to face with this problem it is well to ask 

 whether the dreams have been mostly of the recent or the 

 remote type. If they have been filled with the cares of 

 the day, there is good ground for assuming that cumula- 

 tive nervous fatigue is developing. If they are recalled 

 as fantastic, varied, and curious, the conclusion may be 

 less welcome, but also less ominous. 



As to dreams of the "presentative type"- those in which 

 immediate circumstances connected with the body itself 

 and sources of stimulation close at hand are concerned 

 the most interesting facts established are those with 

 regard to symbolic depiction of the causative conditions. 

 It is quite plain that the dreaming mind usually refers 

 all its experiences to external affairs. It gives them an 

 objective existence. Suppose, for example, that a man has 

 an uncomfortably palpitating heart. When he is awake 

 he is in no doubt of the actual nature of the case, but 

 when he falls asleep and dreams, it is not to feel that his 

 heart is rapid and irregular, but to view some scene sug- 

 gestive of difficult action, it may be a horse struggling to 

 draw a load up a hill or a laborer grappling with a heavy 

 stone. The writer once lay thinking of the physiologic 

 action of the heart as sleep drew near, and when the 

 border-line was crossed he saw at once a huge pulley- 

 block. It was so good a symbol of a weight-raising device 

 that he awoke with lively gratification. 



According to the same principle, the victim of indi- 

 gestion does not think while he dreams that he is suffering, 

 but he becomes a witness of some spectacle of violence or 

 horror. Dreams referable to distention of the bladder 

 symbolize the real trouble in na'ive and amusing ways. 

 One who was in such a case thought that he turned on a 

 faucet which did not run. The trivial dream perfectly 



