The Interpretation of Dreams Sigmund Freud (1900)

ecause they are torn out of their context, cannot prove to be very illuminating. If these passages are capable of throwing any light upon the
intimate relations between dream and the psycho-neurosis, they have served the intention with which I have included them.
[8] As in the dream of the deferred supper and the smoked salmon. -
[9] It often happens that a dream is told incompletely, and that a recollection of the omitted portions appears only in the course of the analysis.
These portions, when subsequently fitted in, invariably furnish the key to the interpretation. Cf. Chapter VII, on forgetting of dreams.
[10] Similar counter-wish-dreams have been repeatedly reported to me within the last few years, by those who attend my lectures, as their
reaction to their first encounter with the wish-theory of dreams.
[11] Zentralblatt fur Psychoanalyse, Jahrg. II, 1911-12.
[12] I will here observe that we have not yet disposed of this theme; we shall discuss it again later.
[13] A great contemporary poet, who, I am told, will hear nothing of psycho-analysis and dream-interpretation, has nevertheless derived from his
own experience an almost identical formula for the nature of the dream: "Unauthorized emergence of suppressed yearnings under false features
and names" (C. Spitteler, "Meine fruhesten Erlebnisse," in Suddeutsche Monatshefte, October, 1913).
[14] See [previous reference] above.
CHAPTER 5
THE MATERIAL AND SOURCES OF DREAMS
Having realized, as a result of analysing the dream of Irma's injection, that the dream was the fulfilment of a wish, we were immediately
interested to ascertain whether we had thereby discovered a general characteristic of dreams, and for the time being we put aside every other
scientific problem which may have suggested itself in the course of the interpretation. Now that we have reached the goal on this one path, we
may turn back and select a new point of departure for exploring dream-problems, even though we may for a time lose sight of the theme of wish-
fulfilment, which has still to be further considered.
Now that we are able, by applying our process of interpretation, to detect a latent dream-content whose significance far surpasses that of the
manifest dream-content, we are naturally impelled to return to the individual dream-problems, in order to see whether the riddles and
contradictions which seemed to elude us when we had only the manifest content to work upon may not now be satisfactorily solved.
The opinions of previous writers on the relation of dreams to waking life, and the origin of the material of dreams, have not been given here. We
may recall however three peculiarities of the memory in dreams, which have been often noted, but never explained:
1. That the dream clearly prefers the impressions of the last few days (Robert, Strumpell, Hildebrandt; also Weed-Hallam);
2. That it makes a selection in accordance with principles other than those governing our waking memory, in that it recalls not essential and
important, but subordinate and disregarded things;
3. That it has at its disposal the earliest impressions of our childhood, and brings to light details from this period of life, which, again, seem trivial
to us, and which in waking life were believed to have been long since forgotten.[1]
These peculiarities in the dream's choice of material have, of course, been observed by previous writers in the manifest dream- content.
A. Recent and Indifferent Impressions in the Dream
If I now consult my own experience with regard to the origin of the elements appearing in the dream-content, I must in the first place express the
opinion that in every dream we may find some reference to the experiences of the preceding day. Whatever dream I turn to, whether my own or
someone else's, this experience is always confirmed. Knowing this, I may perhaps begin the work of interpretation by looking for the experience
of the preceding day which has stimulated the dream; in many cases this is indeed the quickest way. With the two dreams which I subjected to a
close analysis in the last chapter (the dreams of Irma's injection, and of the uncle with the yellow beard) the reference to the preceding day is so