562 The Outline of Science 



undoubtedly covers a very large part of dream phenomena, even 

 although it certainly does not cover the whole. This theory is, 

 briefly, that a dream is the symbolic fulfilment of a repressed 

 wish ; the wish has been repressed because, for one reason or an- 

 other, its appearance in the conscious mind is attended with pain. 

 But, as we have seen, repressed elements do not lose their vitality ; 

 they continue to work and they endeavour, as it were, to manifest 

 themselves in some way or another. Now during sleep the bar- 

 riers between the conscious and the unconscious are to some ex- 

 tent relaxed. Elements which are ruthlessly repressed in the 

 waking life are now subjected to a less severe repression. But 

 these elements cannot emerge in their naked purity, as it were; 

 they exhibit themselves in a disguised form, often of the most 

 fantastic description. In this way the wish secures a partial 

 satisfaction. In his book on The Interpretation of Dreams, 

 Freud gives a large number of such cases of symbolic fulfilment, 

 and explains the technical processes by which these dreams are 

 related to forgotten episodes in the life of the patient. Many of 

 these cases are more ingenious than convincing. 



Not all dreams are due to repressed wishes. Many dreams 

 are more or less inchoate reproductions of impressions received 

 during the day ; such dreams, however, have a fragmentary char- 

 acter. In very many cases where the dream is a rounded and com- 

 pleted whole it is also an allegory, a symbolic manifestation of 

 elements which have been repressed into the unconscious. The 

 repressed elements, even so, do not secure complete fulfilment. 

 Repression is still operative, although it is relaxed. There is still 

 what Freud calls the "censor." Dreams may illustrate very in- 

 terestingly, in fact, the indirect ways in which psychic energy 

 seeks an outlet, when direct satisfaction is for some reason or other 

 denied it. Many works of art are similar to dreams in this re- 

 spect. In some cases of very deep and powerful repressed com- 

 plexes, a dream fulfilment may not be satisfactory. An actual 

 pathological condition may be set up ; hysteria, insanity, and dis- 



