INTRODUCTORY NOTE (first edition)
IN this volume I have attempted to expound the methods
and results of dream-interpretation; and in so doing I do not think I have
overstepped the boundary of neuropathological science. For the dream
proves on psychological investigation to be the first of a series of
abnormal psychic formations, a series whose succeeding members- the
hysterical phobias, the obsessions, the delusions- must, for practical
reasons, claim the attention of the physician. The dream, as we shall see,
has no title to such practical importance, but for that very reason its
theoretical value as a typical formation is all the greater, and the
physician who cannot explain the origin of dream-images will strive in
vain to understand the phobias and the obsessive and delusional ideas, or
to influence them by therapeutic methods.
But the very context to which our subject owes its
importance must be held responsible for the deficiencies of the following
chapters. The abundant lacunae in this exposition represent so many points
of contact at which the problem of dream-formation is linked up with the
more comprehensive problems of psycho- pathology; problems which cannot be
treated in these pages, but which, if time and powers suffice and if
further material presents itself, may be elaborated elsewhere.
The peculiar nature of the material employed to
exemplify the interpretation of dreams has made the writing even of this
treatise a difficult task. Consideration of the methods of dream-
interpretation will show why the dreams recorded in the literature on the
subject, or those collected by persons unknown to me, were useless for my
purpose; I had only the choice between my own dreams and those of the
patients whom I was treating by psychoanalytic methods. But this later
material was inadmissible, since the dream-processes were undesirably
complicated by the intervention of neurotic characters. And if I relate my
own dreams I must inevitably reveal to the gaze of strangers more of the
intimacies of my psychic life than is agreeable to me, and more than seems
fitting in a writer who is not a poet but a scientific investigator. To do
so is painful, but unavoidable; I have submitted to the necessity, for
otherwise I could not have demonstrated my psychological conclusions.
Sometimes, of course, I could not resist the temptation to mitigate my
indiscretions by omissions and substitutions; but wherever I have done so
the value of the example cited has been very definitely diminished. I can
only express the hope that my readers will understand my difficult
position, and will be indulgent; and further, that all those persons who
are in any way concerned in the dreams recorded will not seek to forbid
our dream-life at all events to exercise freedom of thought! |
