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

throw out are comparable to the dreams of natural sleep. The psychical
conditions are in both cases really analogous. In natural sleep we withdraw
our attention from the entire outside world; in the hypnotic, on the other
hand, from the whole world with the exception of the one person who has
hypnotized us, with whom we remain in touch. Furthermore, the so-called
nurse's sleep in which the nurse remains in touch with the child, and can be
waked only by him, is a normal counterpart of hypnotism. The transference of
one of the conditions of hypnotism to natural sleep does not appear to be
such a daring proceeding. The inferential assumption that there is also
present in the case of the dreamer a knowledge of his dream, a knowledge
which is so inaccessible that he does not believe it himself, does not seem to
be made out of whole cloth. Let us note that at this point there appears a
third approach to the study of the dream; from the sleep-disturbing stimuli,
from the day-dreams, and now in addition, from the suggested dreams of the
hypnotic state.
Now we return, perhaps with increased faith, to our problem. Apparently it is
very probable that the dreamer knows of his dream; the question is, how to
make it possible for him to discover this knowledge, and to impart it to us?
We do not demand that he give us the meaning of his dream at once, but he
will be able to discover its origin, the thought and sphere of interest from
which it springs. In the case of the errors, you will remember, the man was
asked how he happened to use the wrong word, "vorschwein," and his next
idea gave us the explanation. Our dream technique is very simple, an
imitation of this example. We again ask how the subject happened to have
the dream, and his next statement is again to be taken as an explanation. We
disregard the distinction whether the dreamer believes or does not believe he
knows, and treat both cases in the same way.
This technique is very simple indeed, but I am afraid it will arouse your
sharpest opposition. You will say, "a new assumption. The third! And the most
improbable of all! If I ask the dreamer what he considers the explanation of
his dream to be, his very next association is to be the desired explanation?
But it may be he thinks of nothing at all, or his next thought may be anything
at all. We cannot understand upon what we can base such anticipation. This,
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