the interior of the body.
Others Scherner (1861) and Volkelt (1875) formed an estimate of the gaps in
somatic explanations of dreams. – seeking to regard dreaming as essentially mental. They argue that
the imagination is free from the shackles of daytime and seeks to give symbolic representations of the
nature of the organ from which the stimulus arises and of the nature of the stimulus itself. This prompts
the question as to why should the mind do this, though?
A particular criticism of Scherner and his symbolization
of stimuli, is that these stimuli are present at all times and it is generally held that the mind is more accessible
to them during sleep than when awake. So, why doesn't the mind dream all through the night continuously
and of all the organs. May such dream activity needs special excitations from the eyes, ears, teeth,
intestines etc. However more likely is the idea that special motives for interpretations of these stimuli
may be temporarily operative which direct the attention to visceral sensations that are uniformly present
at all times – but this is beyond the scope of Scherner's theory.
Material of dreams is a collection of psychical
residues and memory traces (with a preference for recent and infantile material), so they use 'currently
active' material (an indefinable quality). Therefore Freud argues that if fresh information in the form of
bodily sensations (of the 3 three types) are added during sleep, they are united with the other currently
active psychical material to furnish what is used for the wish-fulfillment construction of the dream. This
combination need not occur – as there is more than one way of reacting to a stimulus during sleep. When
it does occur, it suggests that it has been possible to find ideational material to serve as the content of
the dream of such a sort as to be able to represent both kinds of source of the dream – the somatic and
the psychical. However the essential nature of the dream remains the fulfillment of a wish, no matter
in what way the expression of that wish-fulfillment is determined by the currently active material.
Freud
therefore pictures a combination of individual factors, physiological and accidental, produced by the circumstances
of the moment, determining the behaviour of a person in particular cases of comparatively intense objective
stimulation during sleep. According to his habitual or accidental depth of his sleep he will either suppress
the stimulus, so his sleep is not interrupted or it will compel him to wake up or encourage an attempt to
overcome the stimulus by weaving it into a dream. Therefore it follows that external objective stimuli will
find expression in dreams with greater or less frequency in on person than in another (Freud confesses
that he is biased, being a very heavy sleeper himself).
He concludes with the statement that 'Dreams
are the guardians of sleep and not its disturbers', i.e. all dreams serve the purpose of prolonging sleep
instead of waking up.
In Freud's opinion therefore, somatic sources of stimulation during sleep (unless of
unusual intensity) contribute similarly to the formation of the dreams as do recent but indifferent impressions.
They are brought into help the formation of the dream if they fit appropriately with the ideational content
derived from the dream's psychical sources, but otherwise not.
D. Typical dreams
Freud observes that,
whilst each person is free to construct his dream-world according to his own idiosyncratic experiences,
there are also a number of dreams that almost everyone has dreamt alike, and presumably arise from
the same source in every case, so could illuminate the sources of dreams
(a) Embarrassing dreams of
being naked
The embarrassment of the dreamer and the indifference of the onlookers, - such as the
contradictions found commonly in dreams. The indifference of onlookers has been the result of wish-
fulfillment, whereas some force has led to the retention of the other features. From analyses of neurotics,
and the context in which these dreams appear, Freud is certain that they are based upon memories
from earliest childhood. When we look back at this unashamed period of childhood (where nudity was
indeed fun and liberating rather than shameful) it seems to us paradise. Thus dreams of being naked
are dreams of exhibiting, the core lying in the dreamer himself, as he is at the present time, and the
persons in front of whom the dreamer feels ashamed. Such feelings of being inhibited, representing
a conflict of will, are addressed later (Chapter 6 (c)).
(b) Dreams of the death of persons of whom the
dreamer is fond
There are two classes of these types of dreams. Those in which the dreamer is unaffected
by grief, and awakens astonished at his lack of feeling, and those in which the dreamer feels deeply
pained by the death and may even weep in his sleep. First type are by no means 'typical'.
However the
second type of dream – the meaning of their content is a wish that the person in question may die. Freud
then tries to defend this assertion in face of inevitable rebellion. He reserves that this wish may not be
for that person's death at the present time.
He looks to childhood for more evidence for these claims.
Since children are completely egotistic, he claims that they strive ruthlessly to satisfy their needs, especially
against their prime rivals – their siblings. Therefore he argues that many people who love their siblings
harbour ill wishes against them in their unconscious, dating from earlier times and these are capable