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

They permit us in certain cases to interpret a dream without questioning the
dreamer who, aside from this, has no explanation for the symbol. If the
interpreter is acquainted with the customary dream symbols and, in addition,
with the dreamer himself, the conditions under which the latter lives and the
impressions he received before having the dream, it is often possible to
interpret a dream without further information—to translate it "right off the
bat." Such a trick flatters the interpreter and impresses the dreamer; it stands
out as a pleasurable incident in the usual arduous course of cross-examining
the dreamer. But do not be misled. It is not our function to perform tricks.
Interpretation based on a knowledge of symbols is not a technique that can
replace the associative technique, or even compare with it. It is a supplement
to the associative technique, and furnishes the latter merely with
transplanted, usable results. But as regards familiarity with the dreamer's
psychic situation, you must consider the fact that you are not limited to
interpreting the dreams of acquaintances; that as a rule you are not
acquainted with the daily occurrences which act as the stimuli for the dreams,
and that the associations of the subject furnish you with a knowledge of that
very thing we call the psychic situation.
Furthermore, it is very extraordinary, particularly in view of circumstances to
be mentioned later, that the most vehement opposition has been voiced
against the existence of the symbolic relationship between the dream and the
unconscious. Even persons of judgment and position, who have otherwise
made great progress in psychoanalysis, have discontinued their support at
this point. This is the more remarkable since, in the first place, symbolism is
neither peculiar to the dream nor characteristic of it, and since in the second
place, symbolism in the dream was not discovered through psychoanalysis,
although the latter is not poor otherwise in making startling discoveries. The
discoverer of dream symbolism, if we insist on a discovery in modern times,
was the philosopher K. A. Scherner (1861). Psychoanalysis affirmed
Scherner's discovery and modified it considerably.
Now you will want to know something of the nature of dream symbolism, and
to hear some examples. I shall gladly impart to you what I know, but I admit
that our knowledge is not so complete as we could desire it to be.
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