152 Some Implications of the Incarnation [CH. 



Freud's basal dogma is that every experience persists 

 in memory. The brain for him the brain 1 constitutes 

 the seat of memory, and mental processes are physio- 

 logical phenomena retains each least impression. The 

 past leaves its indelible mark. In waking life the effect 

 of many of these impressions is imperceptible except in 

 so far as they mark out and render easy a path of dis- 

 charge for the response to some stimulus, through 

 habit -formation. (For the brain has its paths, some 

 well-worn tracks, some little frequented, but none ever 

 overgrown and obliterated. Rarely in later life does a 

 discharge leap over the hedge, and trample out a new 

 way.) 



This imperceptibility of the effect of so many stimuli 

 and their responses agrees well with Bergson's view that 

 we only remember that which at the moment we can use. 

 In dreams, however, the mind moves along the winding, 

 intertwined paths which in the day are so little used. 

 Every dream, says Freud and this is one of the central 

 moments of his teaching expresses a wish-fulfilment. 

 The mind wishes to repeat some experience; or to get 

 the complete fruition of some joy that was itself cut 

 short or unattained in waking life. 



Simple dreams of wish-fulfilment occur in grown men 

 and women, but not commonly. Another factor has 

 come in. In children one finds them constantly. If a 

 child has not been over-drilled, his dreams are almost 

 always simple wish-fulfilments. Anyone who has 

 healthy young children may easily verify this state- 

 ment for himself. As far as we can judge, it is the 

 same with animals. We are all familiar with the joy- 

 ous hunting dreams of dogs, and their (presumably 

 victorious) dream-fights. 



1 Or rather the region between the organic elements of the 

 brain-paths, whatever that may mean (Interpretation of Dreams, 

 P- 44). 



