Dream Analysis Chapter 7 - Self, Subconscious and Consciousness - Reality

Thanks to China Xinyu Psychological Network

It seems not worthwhile to discuss the historical significance of dreams as an independent topic. For example, maybe a dream prompted a leader to make some bold attempts, and it might change history. This problem will only arise if dreams are considered to be a mysterious force that is different from common spiritual forces. This problem disappears if dreams are regarded as "an expression" of impulses which have been resisted during the day (and which are strengthened at night by sources of excitement deep within the soul) [37]. The ancients' respect for dreams was based on a correct psychological understanding. This is the worship of the uncontrollable and indestructible power in the human mind - the "devil" that generates dream wishes and the power operating in our subconscious.

I do not speak of "our" subconscious mind without purpose. Because what I am describing is different from what other philosophers call the unconscious, and it is even different from what Lipps calls it. For them, this term is simply the opposite of consciousness; the thesis, which they argue for and against with equal enthusiasm and energy, is that in addition to consciousness, there must be subconscious spiritual forces. Lipps further asserted that all that is spiritual exists in the subconscious mind, and part of it also exists in the conscious mind. But we do not concentrate these phenomena on dreams and hysteria in order to confirm this theory, for the experience of normal waking life is sufficient to prove its correctness. The new discovery resulting from the analysis of psychopathological structures and the first member of this class (dreams) is that the unconscious - which belongs to the psyche - is a functional combination of two different systems.

This is true for normal people, and it is the same for sick people. Hence there are two kinds of subconsciousness, which are not yet distinguished by psychologists. In psychological terms, they are both subconscious, but from our point of view, one of them is called the subconscious and cannot enter the conscious level, while the other is called the preconscious because of its excitement - —After meeting certain regulations or passing the censorship test—you can reach the realm of consciousness. The fact that these excitements have to pass through a series of fixed institutions before arriving (their existence can be seen in the changes produced by censorship) enables me to describe them by a spatial analogy. Earlier, we have described the interrelationship between these two systems, that is, the preconscious stands between the subconscious and the conscious, like a sieve. The preconscious not only blocks the communication between the subconscious and the conscious mind, but also controls the power of voluntary movement and is responsible for the distribution of variable potentials - part of which is known as "attention".

In addition, we must distinguish the difference between the superconscious and the subconscious - which emphasizes the similarity between the spirit and the conscious mind.

So what is the remaining role of consciousness? (It was once so all-powerful, hiding everything). There are only those sense organs for detecting spiritual qualities. According to our basic concept of diagram, we can only regard conscious sensation as a function of a special system, so the abbreviation "consciousness (cs)" is appropriate. Judging from its physical properties, we believe that this system is very similar to the perceptual system, because it can accept stimuli of various properties, but it cannot retain traces of changes—that is, it has no memory. The mental device that points the sensory organs of its perceptual system to the external world is itself a kind of external world to the sensory organs of consciousness, and the purpose of the existence of consciousness depends on this relationship. Here again we come into contact with the principles of the ruling group composed of various institutions which seem to govern the structure of the mental apparatus. The excited material flows towards the sensory organs of consciousness in two directions: 1. By the sensory system - whose excitement depends on The nature of the stimulus - comes. Perhaps it undergoes a new polish before becoming a conscious sensation. ②Comes from inside the mental device. When, after certain modifications, they come into consciousness, the number of their steps is felt in the quality of pleasure and pain.

Philosophers who discovered that reason and extremely complex thought structures could be produced without consciousness were left wondering what function consciousness had. To them it is but a superfluous mirror image of the whole spiritual process. But we have avoided this embarrassment by drawing an analogy between the consciousness system and the perceptual system. We know that the perception of sensory organs focuses the potential of attention in the input pathway that conducts sensory stimulation. The stimulation of different properties of the perceptual system is a regulator of the amount of movement of the mental apparatus.

We can also think that the sensory organs of the consciousness system also have the same function. By the awareness of pleasure and pain it affects the course of potentialities in the mental apparatus which would otherwise operate by means of subconscious transference. The pain principle is probably the first factor that automatically regulates the transfer of potential. But "awareness" of these qualities may well lead to a second and more subtle adjustment, even against the first. In order to perfect the function of the device, it is necessary to risk going against the original plan and to guide and overcome those painful relationships. From the perspective of the psychotic mind, we find that these regulatory processes caused by stimuli of different natures in the sensory organs account for a significant part of the function of this mental apparatus. The automatic control and efficiency limitations of the original "pain principle" are interrupted by sensory conditioning (which is itself automatic). We find that repression (which, although effective at first, eventually loses its inhibitions and control of the mind) affects memory more easily than perception, because it cannot draw upon the greater potential of the mental sense-organs. We know that a thought to be deleted cannot become conscious because it is suppressed; on the other hand, such a thought is sometimes suppressed because of other reasons to withdraw it from consciousness. Below are some therapeutic procedures you can use to unblock subconscious problems.

The value of the sensory organs of consciousness in creating excessive potential for the regulation of potentials that can be changed in quantity can be shown by the fact that they produce some new properties and therefore bring about some new regulation. These are the reasons why humans are superior to animals. The thought process itself has no quality except that it is accompanied by pleasure or pain. We know that certain limits must be placed because they can disturb the mind. In order for thought processes to have properties, in humans they must be associated with verbal memories - properties whose residual properties are sufficient to attract the attention of consciousness and thus confer from consciousness a new, malleable potential to the thought processes (see Chapter 7).

Only by analyzing the thought processes of hysteria can we understand the multifaceted nature of the problem of consciousness. From here we can get the impression that there is a censorship system similar to that between the subconscious and the preconscious when the preconscious potential is transformed into consciousness [38]. Likewise, this censorship operates only after a certain number of limitations, so that thought structures of low energy escape its control. We can find many different examples in psychological symptoms. These examples show why a certain thought cannot enter consciousness, or why it can struggle to enter consciousness under certain restrictions. These examples all point to the close and mutually inverse relationship between censorship and consciousness. Below I will use two examples to conclude my discussion of this issue.

A few years ago, I had the opportunity to talk to a patient. She was a smart girl, but she had a simple and indifferent expression on her face. Her clothes were strange. Because women generally dress very carefully, but one of her socks was hanging down, and the two buttons on her blouse were unbuttoned. She said her feet hurt. I didn't ask to see them, but she exposed her calves. She said her main trouble was (according to her): a feeling inside her body, like something was "stabbing" inside her, with "back and forth movements" that kept "swaying" her, sometimes making her Her whole body was "rigid". A medical colleague of mine was present and looked at me, clearly understanding the significance of her complaint. But what surprised me was that the patient's mother didn't care at all, even though she must have been in the same situation that her child complained about frequently. The girl had no idea of ??the meaning of her own words, otherwise she would not have said them. In this case, censorship was successfully hooked, allowing a fantasy that would otherwise have been trapped in the preconscious to emerge through a disguised innocent complaint.

Here is another example. A fourteen-year-old boy came to me for psychoanalysis suffering from contractural convulsions, hysterical vomiting, headaches, etc. I began his treatment by asking him to close his eyes and tell me immediately if he saw any images or had any thoughts. He answered with a description of the image - the last impression he had before he came to see me, emerging in his memory. At that time, he was playing chess with his uncle. Looking at the chessboard in front of him, he thought of several situations, favorable or unfavorable, and some unsafe ways to play. Then he saw a dagger on the chessboard—an object that belonged to his father but had been placed on the chessboard in his imagination.

Next came a scythe, then a scythe, and then an old farmer mowing the grass with a scythe on the far side of his house. It took several days before I discovered the significance of this series of images. The child was troubled by family unhappiness. His father was rude and prone to temper tantrums, his marriage to the patient's mother was not harmonious, and his education contained too many "threats." His father divorced his mother, a gentle, affectionate woman, and later remarried. One day his father brought home a young woman who was the patient's new mother. A few days later, the child's illness began. His repressed hatred for his father produced the above series of images, and the metaphor is obvious.

Their material is derived from mythological recollections. The scythe is the thing with which Zeus, the god of the universe, castrated his father; the image of the scythe and the old farmer represents the cruel old man Cronus, who ate his own children, for which Zeus gave such unfilial revenge ( See Chapter 5). His father's remarriage gave the child an opportunity to avenge the reproaches and threats his father had given him long ago for playing with his genitals (please note: chess, unsafe play (forbidden behavior), injurious human dagger). In this case, the long-suppressed memory and the things derived from it have always existed in the subconscious mind, but now slip into the consciousness in a roundabout way, in the form of an apparently meaningless image.

If someone asks what is the physiological value of the study of dreams? My answer is that it contributes to psychological knowledge and casts light on the problem of psychosis. Who could have predicted the importance of a thorough understanding of the structure and function of the psychic apparatus? Because even with today's incomplete understanding, we can still use it for treatable psychological disorders and achieve good therapeutic results. But what practical significance does this study have as a tool for understanding the mind and the hidden character of each person—I’ve heard the question asked? Do the subconscious impulses revealed by dreams reveal the importance of real power in life? Should we disregard the moral significance of repressed wishes, and if they create dreams now, will they create something else later? I don't think I can answer these questions because I haven't studied this aspect of dreams in any depth. However, I think it was wrong for a Roman emperor to put one of his subjects to death for dreaming of murdering the emperor. He should first find out the meaning of the dream, which may well be different from what it appears to be. Perhaps a dream with another content actually contains the meaning of this kind of regicide. Shouldn't we consider the following statement to be true? -Plato once asserted that good people are content to "dream" what bad people actually do. So I think the dream should be forgiven. As for whether these subconscious wishes should become reality? I don't dare to say it. But those intermediate and disembodied thoughts must not be true. If the subconscious appears in front of us in its truest form, we still make this decision without hesitation. The spiritual reality is also a special existence and should not be confused with the material reality. Therefore, it seems unnecessary for people to reject the immorality of their dreams. By understanding the functioning of our mental apparatus and recognizing the relationship between the conscious and subconscious minds, the immoral aspects of our dream life and fantasy life will largely disappear without a trace. Shakes once said: "We should not be surprised if we return to consciousness to find what those dreams tell us about a real situation. If the magnifying glass of analysis enables us to discover that the so-called giant monsters are just tiny little things. "It's just a bug."

In terms of practical use in judging human character, a person's behavior and actual expressed opinions are enough as a reference, especially behavior should be the first and most important thing to consider. important. Because many impulses that enter consciousness are neutralized by the true power of spiritual life before they are acted upon. In fact, these impulses often run unimpeded because the subconscious mind determines that they must be deleted at some stage. In any case, it is profitable to learn from the soil (which has been cultivated with the utmost care) in which our virtues proudly grow. Because the complex human character—pushed in all directions by forces—rarely resembles the simple dichotomies of ancient moral philosophy.

So can dreams predict the future? Of course, this question is not valid. It is better to say that dreams provide us with past experiences. Because dreams originate from the past from every perspective, and the ancient belief that they can predict the future is not entirely without truth.

Dreams that express wish fulfillment certainly foretell the future we expect, but this future (the dreamer dreams of the present) is molded by his indestructible wishes to be exactly the same as the past.

--------------Note:

〔1〕Please see my book "Psychological Analysis of Daily Life", Chapter 12, about Writing to Freud, I predict that this book contains 2,467 errors.

[2] There is only one place on Siegfried's body that can be hurt. And Hagen used a trick to prompt Kunningz to embroider a small cross on Siegfried's coat at this important point (only Kunningz knew the secret). Later Hagen used this mark to stab Siegfried. dead.

[3] The following dream quoted in my lecture on "Introduction to Psychoanalysis" illustrates the doubtful and uncertain meaning of dreams, and the phenomenon of their content changing into a unit. Even so, it can still be analyzed successfully after a period of isolation.

A skeptical woman had a long dream. "In the dream, some people mentioned my book about jokes to her and rated it very highly. Then there was an idea about channels. Maybe it was another book that mentioned channels, or some About the passage...she didn't know...nothing was obvious."

You will no doubt think that the "passage" element is inaccessible and inexplicable because it is so inexplicable. Clearly, you are right about being aware of the difficulty; but the difficulty does not come from lack of obviousness. The difficulty is not obvious but arises from another reason. The dreamer couldn't connect the "passage" to anything else, and of course I couldn't explain it. A little while later - the next day in fact - she told me that she had thought of something that might be related to her, that it was a A joke, a joke she had heard. On the ferry between Dover and Calais in France, a well-known writer struck up a conversation with an Englishman. The latter quoted a sentence: "Dusub-limeauridiculeiln'yaqu'unpas" (There is only one step between sublimation and absurdity). "Yes, lepas de Calais," replied the author, meaning that he considered France sublime and England ridiculous. But Pas de Calais is a channel (waterway) - the British part. You may ask if I think this has anything to do with dreams. Of course; it also provides the answer to the puzzling part of the dream. Don't you think the joke existed before the dream and was a subconscious idea hidden behind the "passage"? Do you think this was an invention added later? The relationship between the two betrayed suspicions concealed by the patient's apparent admiration; and her resistance undoubtedly contributed to the delay in telling the story and to the inconspicuousness of the dream element. Carefully considering the relation of this dream element to its unconscious background, we find that it is part of that background, its suggestion, but that its isolation renders it incomprehensible.

〔4〕Please refer to Chapter 1 of "Psychological Analysis of Daily Life" (translated by Lin Keming) "On the Psychological Mechanism of Forgetting".

〔5〕"Is this going well?" This is an old medical term, which means "Is the excretion normal?"

〔6〕The dream that children have in their early years, The memory often remains vivid in my mind. These dreams are of great importance in understanding the client's mental development and the occurrence of psychosis. The interpretation of such dreams thus frees the physician from errors and uncertainties, and thus from theoretical confusions.

〔7〕This principle can of course also be applied to situations where the dream content openly reveals superficial connections, such as the two dreams recorded by Maori: "He dreamed that he was from Jerusalem or Mecca. Pilgrim. After many adventures, he visited the chemist Pelletier. After talking with him for a while, the chemist gave him a zinc shovel, which then turned into a broad sword. , he was walking along the highway, counting the kilometers on the mileposts, and then he was in the grocery store, where there was a set of large scales and a man was adding kilograms to the scales. To weigh Mauri. Then he called to Maori: 'You are not in Paris, but in Gio-lo. ' Then a few scenes later, he saw Lobelia, and then General Lopez - who had just reported. I saw the news of his death.

Finally, he woke up when he dreamed about the lottery game. "After working with patients with psychosis for so long, I found that they are all happy to use this method of expression.

[8] "Psychological Analysis of Daily Life" Chapter 7, Page 112 At the end of the book, Freund once discussed the mistakes he made with Daudet's character.

〔9〕If you want to further differentiate this linear diagram, you must assume the previous one. There is consciousness before consciousness, in other words, feeling is equal to consciousness. 〔10〕The first person to mention regression was Abertu**agnus, a scholar in the 13th century. He said: "Imagination relies on storage. Sensory impressions create dreams, and the steps involved in dreaming are exactly the opposite of those in waking moments. Hobbes also said: "In short, our dreams are the opposite of what we imagine when we are awake." When we are awake, the action starts at one end, but when we are dreaming, it starts at the other end. ”

[11] They have the same indestructible nature as all those spiritual activities that truly belong to the subconscious (that is, belong only to the subconscious). As long as these channels are opened, they will always be unobstructed. They will not be closed due to disuse.

As long as they are stimulated by the subconscious, they will continue to trigger this exciting process, which is similar to the destruction of the Odyssey, if I may use a metaphor. Just like the ghosts in the underground world - these ghosts will be reborn as long as they drink human blood.

From this point of view, those programs in the preconscious system can be destroyed. The principles of psychotherapy are based on this difference.

〔12〕I have attempted to gain a better understanding of what is prevalent during sleep and the conditions of hallucinations. These efforts are documented in my paper. "Some Meta-Psychological Supplements to the Theory of Dreams" (1917)

[13] This is what later "psychoanalysis" called the superego.

< p> [14] A German gold coin - Krone is equivalent to ten marks.

[15] In later discussions, Freud used "transfer effect" to describe another difference. (Although not unrelated). He first discovered this phenomenon in psychoanalytic treatment-that is, transferring the object originally applied to a certain childhood (still existing in the subconscious mind) to a current object.

[16] This is the so-called eternal principle, which Freud discussed in the first few pages of "Beyond the Pleasure Principle", but it was already in Freud's early psychological writings. The basic assumption is that there must be something that feels exactly the same as a "satisfying experience".

In other words, there must be a "realistic test." " method to test whether something is real.

[19] LeLorrain correctly expressed the wish fulfillment of dreams. He said: "There will be no serious fatigue, and there will be no such experience again. A long and stubborn struggle. This struggle consumes all the happiness we seek. ”

[20] I have already discussed this train of thought in depth in my paper on the two main mental activities—the pleasure principle and the truth principle—and will return to this discussion later. .

[21] Or more correctly, some symptoms correspond to subconscious wishes, while the other part are mental structures that resist wishes.

[22] Jackson said: "If you knew all the facts about dreams, you would know all about mental disorders. ”

[23] Is this the only function of dreams? I don’t know anything else. Meder once tried to show that dreams have other secondary functions. His starting point was based on correct observations. , that is, some dreams are intended to resolve conflicts, and are actually used to solve problems in real situations after dreaming - that is, dreams seem to be a laboratory for actions in waking moments, so he drew between dreams, beasts and children's games. The next parallel - they can be seen as a place for the exercise of innate instincts and at the same time a preparation for later serious action. He also proposed that dreams have a "play function" before Mede. Deller also insisted on the "premeditated" nature of dreams (the dream in my 195 "Partial Analysis of a Hysterical Case").

We can only regard it as a dream expressing a wish, because it keeps recurring every night until the intention is discovered).

After a little thinking, we know that the so-called "continuation" function of dreams should not be included in the scope of any dream analysis. Forming intentions in advance, creating possible solutions to problems (which are perceived later in waking moments), and other similar things, are products of the subconscious and preconscious mind; they may be known as "remains of the day" The identity of "object" continues into sleep and is connected with a subconscious wish to form a dream. Therefore, the so-called "prethought" function of dreams is nothing more than a part of the preconscious waking thoughts, the products of which can be detected through the analysis of dreams and other phenomena. In cases where dreams and their manifest meaning have long been confused together, we must be careful lest we confuse the dream with hidden dream-thoughts.

[24] The second factor is more important and profound, but it is also ignored by most people. Undoubtedly, the fulfillment of a wish will bring happiness, but the question arises: "To whom?" Of course, it refers to the person who has this wish. However, as far as we know, the relationship between the dreamer and his wish is very special. He excludes and censors them. Simply put, he didn't like them at all. Therefore its satisfaction does not bring pleasure, but the opposite. Empirically, this opposite situation appears as a state of anxiety (this needs to be explained further). The relationship between the dreamer and his wish may thus be seen as a union of two completely separate persons by some important common elements. I am going to tell you a fairy tale (please see Chapter 7, Section C), the situation is the same as before. A kind god promised to fulfill the first three wishes of a poor couple. They were very happy and decided to choose these three wishes well. But the smell of grilled sausages coming from the neighboring farmhouse tempted the woman to get some, and in a flash of light her first wish came true and her husband became furious. In anger, he wished that the sausage would hang on the tip of his wife's nose, and his wish came true. The sausage cannot be removed from this new position. This is the fulfillment of the second wish. But it is only a man's wish, and its realization makes the wife very uncomfortable. You already know the rest of the story. Since they are actually one person - Mr. and Mrs. - then the third wish should be for the sausage to leave the lady's nose. This fairy tale can be related to many things, but I will only use it here to illustrate:

If two people disagree, the fulfillment of one person's wish may bring a lot of unhappiness to the other person.

[25] Some of the following remarks should be revised in light of Freund's later views on anxiety.

[26] A version of the Old Testament written in Hebrew and German. In Chapter 4 on Deuteronomy there are many woodcut illustrations of Egyptian gods, several of which have beaks.

[27] Regarding sex, the German slang is "vogeln", which is changed from "vogel" (usually refers to a bird).

[28] After I wrote this book, many such materials began to appear in the psychoanalytic literature.

[29] In later writings, Freund called it the pleasure principle.

[30] Translation Note: Freud later discussed this topic at length in his 1921 paper "Repression". His later views on this issue can be found in Lesson 32 of his "New Introductory Lecture" in 1933.

〔31〕Here (and elsewhere as well), I deliberately did not repair the flaws in my thesis. The reason is that on the one hand it would take a lot of effort, and on the other hand it would require me to quote those Material that has nothing to do with dreams. For example, I deleted whether there are different meanings between "repression" and "repression". But everyone should understand very well that the latter emphasizes the connection with the subconscious mind. I also did not explain why Mengshui was distorted by the censorship system when it gave up the path to the consciousness and chose the process of retreat. There are also many similar omissions. What I am anxious to do is to create a conception of the problems which will be encountered in further analysis of the dream-operation, and to suggest at the same time the problems which will be encountered in further analysis. Deciding where to cut off the thread of explanation is not easy.

There are many special reasons (perhaps not ones that my readers will be able to guess) why I have not treated in detail the place played by sexual content in dreams, and why I have avoided analyzing dreams that have an obvious sexual content. From my point of view, as well as from the laws of neuropathology, I would not view X life as something shameful, or that doctors or scientific researchers should have nothing to do with it. The translator of Oneirocritica of Artenidorus of Daldis did not, for moral reasons, print out the part about sexual dreams to the readers, which seems to me ridiculous. The reason I hesitated is that it would involve me in issues of sexual transsexuality and intersex that I still don't understand, so I leave that for the future. (Strachtey's note. Kraus, the translator of Oneirocritica, later published this deleted chapter in his journal Anbthropoplyteia. This journal was quoted by Freud and praised highly elsewhere.)

[32] Freund believed that Virgil’s words were intended to express the power of suppressed instinctive impulses.

[33] Dreams are not the only study of psychological phenomena that can form the basis of psychopathology. In some unfinished essays, I tried to reach the same conclusion using many phenomena in daily life. These and other accounts of forgetfulness, slip-ups, poor behavior, etc. are compiled in the book Psychological Analysis of Everyday Life.

[34] After understanding that the important feature of preconsciousness is its relationship with the remnants of written expression, this point of view needs further clarification. Innervation is a very vague word that often has a structural meaning and is used to refer to the distribution of nerves in a certain organ or region. Freund often used it to represent the energy conduction of a certain system or nerve, or to refer to an export system-that is, a release program.

〔35〕I am happy to point out that after an author (DuPrel) studied dreams, he observed the same conclusion as me about the relationship between consciousness and subconsciousness. He wrote: "Concerning the question of the mind, we have to answer this basic question first (that is, whether consciousness and the mind are exactly the same). The answer to this basic question is no, that is, the concept of mind is more important than consciousness. Much broader. Just like the stars in the sky, apart from its illuminating power, it still exerts the influence of gravity." He also said: "This is a fact that consciousness and mind are not the same. Vast."

[36] Tartini was a composer and violinist (1692-177). It is said that he dreamed that "after he sold his soul to the devil, he grabbed a violin and played an extremely beautiful sonata with perfect technique."

After waking up, he immediately wrote down all he could The memory part ended up being written as the famous "Trillo De Di-avolo."

[37] Please see note [4] in Chapter 2 for the dream Alexander the Great had when he besieged the city of Trillo and could not capture it for a long time. .

〔38〕The censorship between the preconscious and subconscious is rarely seen in Freud’s later works. However, in his article "The Unconscious" he discussed it in detail.

Complete book (end)