5o THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY 



more searching and profound. Freud, however, goes far beyond the 

 fundamental — and, as I believe, undeniable — proposition that dream- 

 imagery is largely sjnnbolic. He holds that behind the symbolism of 

 dreams there lies ultimately a wish; he believes, moreover, that this 

 wish tends to be really of more or less sexual character, and, further, 

 that it is tinged by elements that go back to the dreamer's infantile 

 days. As Freud views the mechanism of dreams, it is far from exhibit- 

 ing mere disordered mental activity, but is (much as he has also argued 

 hysteria to be) the outcome of a desire, which is driven back by a kind 

 of inhibition or censure (i. e., that kind of moral check which is still 

 more alert in the waking state) and is seeking new forms of expression. 

 There is first in the dream the process of what Freud calls condensation 

 (Verdichtung), a process which is that fusion of strange elements which 

 must be recognized at the outset of every discussion of dreaming, but 

 Freud maintains that in this fusion all the elements have a point in 

 common, and overlie one another like the pictures in a Galtonian com- 

 posite photograph. Then there comes the process of displacement or 

 transference ( Verschrebung), a process by which the really central and 

 emotional basis of the dream is concealed beneath trifles. Then there is 

 the process of dramatization or transformation into a concrete situation 

 of which the elements have a symbolic value. Thus, as Maeder puts 

 it, 1G summarizing Freud's views, " behind the apparently insignificant 

 events of the day utilized in the dream there is always an important 

 idea or event hidden. We only dream of things that are worth while. 

 What at first sight seems to be a trifle is a gray wall which hides a great 

 palace. The significance of the dream is not so much held in the dream 

 itself as in that substratum of it which has not passed the threshold 

 and which analysis alone can bring to light." 



" We only dream of things that are worth while." That is the 

 point at which many of us are no longer able to follow Freud. That 

 dreams of the type studied by Freud do actually occur may be accepted ; 

 it may even be considered proved. But to assert that all dreams must 

 be made to fit into this one formula is to make far too large a demand. 

 As regards the presentative element in dreams — the element that is 



April, 1907; as also by Ernest Jones, "Freud's Theory of Dreams," Review of 

 Neurology and Psychiatry, March, 1910, and American Journal of Psychology, 

 April, 1910. For Freud's general psychological doctrine, see Brill's translation 

 of " Freud's Selected Papers on Hysteria," 1909. There have been many serious 

 criticisms of Freud's methods. As an example of such criticism, accompanying 

 an exposition of the methods reference may be made to Max Isserlin's " Die 

 Psychoanalytische Methode Freuds," Zeitschrift fur die Gesamte Neurologie 

 und Psychiatrie, Bd. I., Heft 1, 1910. A judicious and qualified criticism of 

 Freud's psychotherapeutic methods is given by Lowenfeld, " Zum gegenwiirtigen 

 Stande der Psychotherapeutie," Miinchener medizinische Wochenschrift, Nos. 3 

 and 4, 1910. 



ie Loc. cit., p. 374. 



