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

SIXTH LECTURE
THE DREAM
Hypothesis and Technique of Interpretation
WE must find a new path, a new method, in order to proceed with the
investigation of the dream. I shall now make an obvious suggestion. Let us
assume as a hypothesis for everything which follows, that the dream is not a
somatic but a psychic phenomenon. You appreciate the significance of that
statement, but what justification have we for making it? None; but that alone
need not deter us from making it. The matter stands thus: If the dream is a
somatic phenomenon, it does not concern us. It can be of interest to us only on
the supposition that it is a psychic phenomenon. Let us therefore work upon that
assumption in order to see what comes of it. The result of our labor will
determine whether we are to hold to this assumption and whether we may, in
fact, consider it in turn a result. What is it that we really wish to achieve, to what
end are we working? It is what one usually seeks to attain in the sciences, an
understanding of phenomena, the creation of relationships between them, and
ultimately, if possible, the extension of our control over them.
Let us then proceed with the work on the assumption that the dream is a
psychic phenomenon. This makes it an achievement and expression of the
dreamer, but one that tells us nothing, one that we do not understand. What
do you do when I make a statement you do not understand? You ask for an
explanation, do you not? Why may we not do the same thing here, ask the
dreamer to give us the meaning of his dream?
If you will remember, we were in this same situation once before. It was
when we were investigating errors, a case of a slip of the tongue. Someone
said: "Da sind dinge zum vorschwein gekommen," whereupon we asked—no,
luckily, not we, but others, persons in no way associated with
psychoanalysis—these persons asked him what he meant by this unintelligible
talk. He immediately answered that he had intended to say "Das waren
schweinereien," but that he had suppressed this intention, in favor of the
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