a-general-introduction-to-psychoanalysis-sigmund-freud

abundance of ideas in connection with single elements of dream that it would
be absolutely impossible to review the work in perspective. If we write the
dream out and confront it with the written account of all the ideas which arise
in connection with it, these may easily amount to a reiteration of the text of
the dream. It would therefore seem most practical to choose for analysis
several short dreams of which each one can at least reveal or confirm
something. This is what we shall decide upon, provided experience should not
point out where we shall really find slightly distorted dreams.
But I know of another way to simplify matters, one which, moreover, lies in
our path. Instead of attempting the interpretation of entire dreams, we shall
limit ourselves to single dream elements and by observing a series of
examples we shall see how these are explained by the application of our
method.
1. A lady relates that as a child she often dreamt "that God had a pointed
paper hat on his head." How do you expect to understand that without the
help of the dreamer? Why, it sounds quite absurd. It is no longer absurd
when the lady testifies that as a child she was frequently made to wear such
a hat at the table, because she could not help stealing glances at the plates of
her brothers and sisters to see if one of them had gotten more than she. The
hat was therefore supposed to act as a sort of blinder. This explanation was
moreover historic, and given without the least difficulty. The meaning of this
fragment and of the whole brief dream, is clear with the help of a further idea
of the dreamer. "Since I had heard that God was all-knowing and all-seeing,"
she said, "the dream can only mean that I know everything and see
everything just as God does, even when they try to prevent me." This
example is perhaps too simple.
2. A sceptical patient has a longer dream, in which certain people happen to
tell her about my book concerning laughter and praise it highly. Then
something is mentioned about a certain "'canal,' perhaps another book in
which 'canal' occurs, or something else with the word 'canal' ... she doesn't
know ... it is all confused."
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