Repressed homosexualism is perhaps even harder to reveal to the subject.
I have found my task infinitely simpler when the subject had done a good deal of reading along psychoanalytic lines or had attended many lectures on the subject. In fact it is my conviction that when psychoanalytic books are read by a larger proportion of the population, thousands of “sex” cases will disappear, together with the absurd fears based on ignorance which are responsible for many a mental upset.
Interpreting a subject’s dreams is the best known means of probing and sounding his unconscious, but in the majority of cases it only helps indirectly in treating the case. When we deal with nightmares, however, the results are more direct and more rapidly attained. A nightmare interpreted rightly will never recur, or if it does, WILL NOT FRIGHTEN OR AWAKEN THE SUBJECT.
Insight will develop which, even in the sleeping state, will enable the subject to recognize that his dream is only a dream and to sleep on undisturbed. A patient who was often terrorized by a dream in which some man stabbed him in the back, gradually came to recognize his unconscious homosexual leanings and analysed the nightmare in his sleep when it occurred again with excellent results. It did not frighten him and gradually disappeared, being replaced by grosser dreams devoid of anxiety.
A patient was bothered by dreams in which he was repelling onslaughts of large beasts with a walking stick or an umbrella which invariably broke and which he was always trying to tip with iron rods or tacks.
He finally gained insight into his unconscious fear of impotence which was dispelled by a visit at a specialist’s office.
Not only did that nightmare disappear but very soon after, his dreams changed to visions of successful sex-gratification.
Dream insight based upon the personality of the analyst should not be considered as real insight. When a patient reports, “I dreamt that I was a baby but remembered that Mr. Tridon would call that a regression dream and I awoke,” or, “I felt that Mr. Tridon would characterize the whole thing as a masochistic performance and awoke,” much work remains to be done.
The dreamer must know that his nightmare is a symbol and not merely know that his analyst would call it a symbol.
When the dreamer has acquired the technical skill which enables him, after a little concentration and meditation, to interpret his own sleep visions, he is no longer at the mercy of the annoyance called nightmare. When he can see at a glance where the repression seems unbearable, he may devise ways and means to satisfy his cravings more completely if they are justifiable and lawful; if they are unjustifiable or socially taboo, he may seek substitutes for them and, especially as I have explained in another book, free them from the parasitic cravings which make them unduly obsessive.
He who can read the indications of his own dreams, has at his disposal an instrument of great precision which indicates to him the slightest fluctuations of his personality and, besides, points out various solutions for the problems of adaptation which the normal, progressive human being must solve every day of his life.
Oneiromancy is the algebra which enables us to perform rapidly complicated calculations in the mathematics of psychology.
BIBLIOGRAPHY
Abrahamson, I.—Mental disturbances in lethargic encephalitis. Journal of Nervous and Mental Disease. September 1920.
A study of the sleeping sickness based mainly upon cases observed at Mt. Sinai Hospital.
Abraham, K.—Dreams and Myths. Nervous and Mental Disease Monograph Series. No. 28.
A monograph proving that legends and myths are in reality the day dreams of the human race.
Adler, A.—Traum and Traumdeutung. Zentralblatt f. Ps. A. III, p. 574.
A short essay on dream interpretation from the point of view of the ego urge.
Aschaffenburg, G.—Der Schlaf in Kindesalter und seine Störungen. Bergmann, Wiesbaden.
Observations on the disturbances of the sleep of children.
Bruce, H. A.—Sleep and Sleeplessness. Little Brown.
A popular exposé of the problem of sleeplessness from a modern point of view.
Coriat, I.—The Meaning of Dreams. Little Brown.
A small book containing the analyses of many dreams according to the Freudian technique.
Coriat, I.—The Nature of Sleep. Journal of Abnormal Psycho. VI. No. 5.
Coriat, I.—The Evolution of Sleep and Hypnosis.
Ibidem, VII. No. 2.
Delage, Y.—La nature des images hypnagogiques. Bulletin de l’ Inst. Gen. Psycho. 1903, p. 235.
Du Prel, Carl.—Künstliche Träume. Sphinx, July 1889.
A study of artificial dreams.
Freud, S.—The Interpretation of Dreams. Macmillan.
Freud, S.—Dream Psychology, with an introduction by André Tridon. McCann.
The most important books on Dream Interpretation.
Frömner, E.—Das Problem des Schlafs.
Bergmann, Wiesbaden.
Henning, H.—Der Traum ein assoziativer Kurzschluss.
Bergmann, Wiesbaden.
Maury, A.—Le Sommeil et les Rêves. Paris 1878.
The first attempt at a methodical study of dreams and at correlating them to physical stimuli.
Maeder, A. E.—The Dream Problem. Nervous and Mental Disease monograph series. No. 22.
A presentation of the subject from the point of view of the Swiss School.
Hall, B.—The Psychology of sleep. Moffat Yard.
A review of the various sleep theories from the academic point of view.
Kaplan, L.—Ueber wiederkehrende Traumsymbole. Zentrablatt f. Ps. A. IV, p. 284.
An essay on dream symbolism.
Manacéine, M. de.—Sleep, its physiology, pathology, hygiene and psychology. Scribner.
The most complete study of sleep from every possible point of view, placing the emphasis, however, on the physical aspects of sleep.
Sachs, H.—Traumdeutung und Menschenkenntniss. Jahrb. d. Ps. A. III, p. 121.
Schrotter, K.—Experimentelle Träume. Zentralblatt f. Psy. A. II, p. 638.
A record of very interesting experiments in the production of artificial dreams through hypnotism.
Silberer, H.—Der Traum Enke. Stuttgart.
A very clear primer in dream study, epitomizing the latest hypotheses in interpretation.
Silberer, H.—Ueber die Symbolbildung. Jahrbuch d. Psy-A. III, p. 661.
Silberer, H.—Zur Symbolbildung. Jahrbuch d. Psy-A. IV, p. 607.
Silberer, H.—Bericht über eine methode Hallucinationserscheinungen herbeizurefen. Jahrbuch d. Psy.-A. I, p. 513.
Stekel, W.—Die Sprache des Traumes. Wiesbaden, 1911.
Stekel, W.—Die Traüme der Dichter. Wiesbaden, 1912.
Stekel, W.—Fortschritte in der Traumdeutung. Zentralblatt f. Psy-A. III, pp. 154, 426.
Stekel, W.—Individuelle Traumsymbole. Zentralblatt f. Psy-A. IV, p. 289.
Stekel is essentially a Freudian but his books contain hundreds of illustrations and case histories, making his books more understandable to laymen than Freud’s writings.
“Die Sprache des Traumes” is the most useful text book of Symbol Study.
Tridon, A.—Psychoanalysis, Its History, Theory and Practice. Huebsch.
See Chapter V: Symbols, the language of the dreams, and Chapter VI: The dreams of the human race.
Tridon, A.—Psychoanalysis and Behaviour. Knopf.
See part IV, chapter II: Self-knowledge through dream study.
Tridon, A.—Introduction to Freud’s “Dream Psychology.” McCann.
Vold, J. M.—Ueber den Traum. Leipzig 1910-1912.
Void holds that every dream is caused by a physical stimulus.
Vaschide, N.—Le Sommeil et les Rêves. Paris, 1911.
A physical explanation of sleep and dreams.
Footnotes:
[1] Readers unfamiliar with my previous works might accuse me of placing undue emphasis upon “mental” causes and ignoring the influence of bacilli, toxins, etc., in disease. I refer them to the chapter: Mind and Body, an indivisible unit, in my book, “Psychoanalysis and Behaviour.” It is a truism that in tuberculosis for instance the prognosis depends greatly from the “mental” condition of the patient and on his will to live. We are protected against disease germs by the various secretions of the mouth, stomach, intestine, etc. Whenever a “mental” cause, such as fear, intense sorrow, etc., translates itself into an action of the sympathetic system which stops the flow of saliva and gastric juice and the intestinal peristalsis, we can see how the organism is then predisposed to an invasion of pathogenic bacteria. The depressed, the stupid and the ignorant are the first victims in any epidemic, the depressed because their protective vagotonism is too low, the stupid and the ignorant because they are more frequently than the intelligent and well informed a prey to fear.
[2] The orthodox Freudian would of course interpret such a vision as a symbol of an attempted regression to the fetal condition, return to the mother’s womb, etc. As a matter of fact, sleep is to a certain extent a return to the period of the fetus’ almost complete omnipotence of thought. I have noticed, however, that I never dream of swimming except on days when I have been prevented from indulging in my favourite sport at the shore or in the swimming pool.
This is to my mind a perfectly obvious dream needing no far fetched interpretation, symbolical only in so far as it expresses my attitude to sleep (See chapter on Attitudes reflected in dreams).
[3] Dr. Percy Fridenberg has shown the exaggerated shock reactions felt by the organism after the eye suffers an injury or is operated on, and recalls Crile’s saying that our activation patterns come from sight.
[4] The duration of a dream is not as short as some of Maury’s experiments would lead us to believe. Some of the experimental dreams timed by Schroetter lasted almost as long as it takes to relate them.
[5] Insanity is simply a day dream from which we cannot awake at will.
[6] All the dreams cited in this book are reported in the patient’s own words.