dreams

as shrewd and just as free as in the waking state. A man cannot violate the laws of thought; that is, even in a dream he cannot judge things to be
identical which present themselves to him as opposites. He can desire in a dream only that which he regards as a good (sub ratione boni). But in
this application of the laws of thought and will the human intellect is led astray in dreams by confusing one notion with another. Thus it happens
that in dreams we formulate and commit the greatest of contradictions, while, on the other hand, we display the shrewdest judgment and arrive at
the most logical conclusions, and are able to make the most virtuous and sacred resolutions. The lack of orientation is the whole secret of our
flights of phantasy in dreams, and the lack of critical reflection and agreement with other minds is the main source of the reckless extravagances
of our judgments, hopes and wishes in dreams" (p. 18).
[25]Compare with this the element of "Desinteret," in which Claparede (1905) finds the mechanism of falling asleep.
[26]There are no dreams which are absolutely reasonable which do not contain some incoherence, some absurdity.
[27]The dream is psychic anarchy, emotional and intellectual, the playing of functions, freed of themselves and performing without control and
without end; in the dream, the mind is a spiritual automaton.
[28]There is no imaginable thing too absurd, too involved, or too abnormal for us to dream about.
[29]The production of those images which, in the waking man, most often excite the will, correspond, for the mind, to those which are, for the
motility, certain movements that offer St. Vitus' dance and paralytic affections...
[30]A whole series of degradations of the faculty of thinking and reasoning.
[31]An action of the mind spontaneous and as though automatic; (2) a defective and irregular association of ideas.
[32]Later on we shall be able to understand the meaning of dreams like these which are full of words with similar sounds or the same initial
letters.
[33]The dream is neither pure derangement nor pure irrationality.
[34]In sleep, excepting perception, all the faculties of the mind intellect, imagination, memory, will, morality - remain intact in their essence;
only, they are applied to imaginary and variable objects. The dreamer is an actor who plays at will the mad and the wise, executioner and victim,
dwarf and giant, devil and angel.
[35]Hervey de St. Denys.
[36]The Marquis Hervey attributes to the intelligence during sleep all its freedom of action and attention, and he seems to make sleep consist only
of the shutting of the senses, of their closing to the outside world; except for his manner of seeing, the man asleep is hardly distinguishable from
the man who allows his mind to wander while he obstructs his senses; the whole difference, then, between ordinary thought and that of the
sleeper, is that with the latter the idea takes an objective and visible shape, which resembles, to all appearances, sensation determined by exterior
objects; memory takes on the appearance of present fact.
[37]That there is a further and important difference in that the mental faculties of the sleeping man do not offer the equilibrium which they keep
in the waking state.
[38]The image in a dream is a copy of an idea. The main thing is the idea; the vision is only accessory. This established, it is necessary to know
how to follow the progression of ideas, how to analyse the texture of the dreams; incoherence then is understandable, the most fantastic concepts
become simple and perfectly logical facts.
[39]Even the most bizarre dreams find a most logical explanation when one knows how to analyse them.
[40]Cf. Haffner and Spitta.
[41]That brilliant mystic, Du Prel, one of the few writers for the omission of whose name in earlier editions of this book I should like to
apologize, has said that, so far as the human mind is concerned, it is not the waking state but dreams which are the gateway to metaphysics
(Philosophie der Mystik, p. 59).