September 5, 1913] 



SCIENCE 



343 



are not at home in the reahn of the neuroses, 

 and who take up this book in the atmosphere 

 of the study or the experimental laboratory 

 and would try to correlate it with the psycho- 

 logical data with which they usually work, the 

 book is apt to be startling, unconvincing, re- 

 pellent. The latter would have no difficulty 

 in finding easy openings for criticism, both as 

 regards method and form of presentation. The 

 criticisms which have been brought forward 

 against Freud's whole theory of the neuroses 

 will no doubt be brought up in relation to this 

 book, to the effect that it is largely a question 

 of assumptions, ingenious but far-fetched 

 hypotheses, and unconvincing arguments lack- 

 ing proof. As to what proof actually consists 

 in hostile critics are apt to be discreetly 

 silent. It must be remembered that the type of 

 demonstration appropriate to one topic may be 

 quite out of place in relation to another; the 

 satisfactory proof of a paleontological thesis 

 is something very different from a mathemati- 

 cal demonstration. The proof that a certain 

 piece of flint is really an arrow-head and not 

 a mere casual product of nature consists in 

 showing its place in a large series, and the 

 extent of that series, which the individual re- 

 quires in order to be convinced, will largely 

 depend upon the attitude of the individual. 

 So the extent of the series of data required to 

 convince a reader of the truth of certain prin- 

 ciples as to the neuroses and dream interpre- 

 tation will depend very largely on certain per- 

 sonal factors. The presentation of material 

 must necessarily be comparatively limited and 

 much depends on what the reader can himself 

 supply to supplement the data of the book; if 

 he should have no relevant data at his com- 

 mand then the whole theory of dream interpre- 

 tation may seem highly artificial. Any one 

 with wide experience must admit the essential 

 truth of certain general principles, while re- 

 serving judgment on the conclusiveness of 

 certain detailed interpretations. 



The method employed by the author in the 

 interpretation of the dream is that of free 

 association, a method which he found useful 

 in his psycho-analytic work. After the first 

 chapter, which deals with the literature on 



dreams, Freud presents us an example of his 

 method of interpretation of a dream, and in 

 the succeeding chapters he defends his thesis 

 that the dream is essentially the fulfilment of 

 a wish : " The dream is the (disguised) fulfil- 

 ment of a (suppressed, repressed) wish." The 

 term wish must not be taken in too crude a 

 manner, but is used to represent a variety of 

 vague strivings and longings which are 

 dynamic factors that frequently escape the 

 notice of clear consciousness. The author 

 demonstrates conclusively that dreams fre- 

 quently represent wishes in an undisguised 

 form, and that they often represent wishes in 

 a more or less distorted manner. But he goes 

 further; he maintains that the dream always 

 represents the fulfilment of a wish. In two 

 examples which the author quotes, the fact 

 that the dream represents the opposite of the 

 fulfilment of a wish is interpreted as showing 

 that the patients desired to prove that Freud 

 was wrong in his theory of the nature of 

 dreams. This is one example of the subtlety of 

 the author's argument which never leaves him 

 at a loss, but which, on the other hand, is more 

 ingenious than convincing. The argument, 

 too, would be more satisfactory if the patient 

 who wished to refute Freud dreamed that she 

 was dreaming. The fifth chapter (pp. 138 to 

 259) is devoted to an analysis of the actual 

 stuff of which our dreams are made, and the 

 sources from which the material comes. The 

 important thing is that behind the trivial and 

 absurd manifest dream content, thoughts of 

 serious personal significance are always found 

 at work. Memories of childhood experiences 

 here play an enormously important role. In 

 this connection Freud takes up the analysis 

 of certain typical dreams and gives many ex- 

 amples of the symbolism which occurs in 

 dreams. His statements are frequently dog- 

 matic, e. g., with regard to the meaning of 

 dreams about landscapes and localities of fa- 

 miliar appearance (p. 242). On the other hand, 

 Freud himself draws the line at some of the 

 interpretations advanced by Stekel. His criti- 

 cism of his pupil is not altogether inapplicable 

 to his own product : " These interpretations 



