360 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY 



the other hand, it is continually going on, for the old complexes are 

 always striving up to expression. And so the system of energy in the 

 unconscious is a two-way system; the upper system keeping down the 

 lower. If this be true, how different is our mind from the report which 

 consciousness gives us. Outwardly, all is calm and placid, and yet 

 beneath the surface is the mighty conflict always going on. We are 

 like citizens sleeping in security while outside the gates the battle rages 

 hot between our protectors and our enemies. Fortunately, it is our 

 protectors who are usually victorious ; the repressive force of the upper 

 level is strong enough to prevent the emergence of the denizens of the 

 lower stages. But this is not always so. Occasionally the assailants 

 find a breach in the fortifications, or a weak spot in the line of battle, 

 and echoes of the conflict come to us within. 



To abandon figures, the lower level of the unconscious may under 

 certain circumstances win a partial victory, and some feature of the old 

 complex may arise in our minds. This may happen in the following 

 way. Suppose that a train of thought broken off during the day, and 

 sinking to the upper level of the unconscious, works out there to a 

 conclusion which permits it to be brought into associative connection 

 with one of the complexes on the lower level. The whole process has 

 been unconscious; we are not aware that such a connection has been 

 made, and yet in the trivial event of the day there has been some ele- 

 ment, some common feeling tone, some phrase, some suggestion, which 

 is like enough to the old complex to form an associative connection 

 with it. Suppose that during the day we express some slight concern 

 about the health of a near relative, and, in the pressure of work, forget 

 about the matter. Under the threshold, on the upper level, this train 

 of thought may spread further. Now it is one of the traits of children 

 that they have at first little sympathy and love for their j^ounger 

 brothers and sisters. It is not uncommon for them to express a wish 

 that they would die, that they might have more attention from their 

 parents. For death for the child means of course only an absence ; he 

 has no conception of its real significance. But such an idea is foreign 

 to the adult mind ; it has been so repressed and was expressed at so early 

 a stage that we can hardly realize that it ever existed. However, on 

 Freud's theory, it still does exist, and is continually being repressed by 

 the upper levels. Suppose now that the train of thought having to do 

 with the health of the relative in question works out to a conclusion 

 below the threshold which tends to call up the old complex. This is at 

 once given new energy, its repression is more difficult. And yet it does 

 not emerge consciously. But at night, when the inhibitions are down 

 in sleep, when the repressive force is not quite so great, it makes a 

 supreme effort, and gets through — in a dream. "We may awaken terri- 

 fied from a dream of the death of the same relative who caused us the 



