T,HROUGH A GLASS DARKLY:

KNOWLEDGE OF THE SELF IN DREAMS

IN IBN KHALDUNS
MUQA DDIMA
1. Introduction
In his Haskell Lectures of 1906 the Christian Islamicist Duncan Black
Macdonald described what he regarded as a remarkably modern concept of
subliminal selves, found in the Muqaddima (Sixth Prefatory Essay) of the
great Muslim historian Ibn Khaldkn. Said Macdonald, Ibn Khaldiin came
to a queer semi-evolutionary doctrine which he borrowed from the
Aristotelian philosophers, and, on the other hand, to a doctrine of the
human mind which seems halfway between phrenology and the more
modern and fashionable hypothesis of subliminal selves.*
If we make allowances for the psychological inheritance of Ibn Khaldkn
from Aristotle, through the Muslim scholastics, we shall be compelled to
admit the close agreement of his theories with the modern doctrine of the
working of the different ~ e l v e s . ~
Those who read these words in light of modern psychoanalytic and
psychotherapeutic theories will think of Freud and Jung. Macdonalds interests,
however, were directed to what he thought of as the reality of the supernatural
and the latent capacities of mankind to perceive that reality. He was
sympathetic, for example, to claims for telepathy and telekinesis, and was very
interested in the work of the Society for Psychical Research: He thought that
future investigation of nervous diseases through the use of hypnotism would very
likely shed light on the nature of Muhammads trance^.^ Indeed, Macdonald held
that belief in the reality of the unseen was the essential core of the Muslim
tradition6
Macdonalds sense that Ibn Khaldhs psychology contained modern
elements in its notion of different selves suggests an intriguing line of inquiry.
Let us ask whether there are any elements of what we now call a psychoanalytic
theory in Ibn Khaldkns notion of the structure and capacity of the soul to know

Duncan Black Macdonald, The Religious Attitude and Life in Islam (Chicago, 1909; New York:
AMS Press, 1970).
Ibid., p. 42.
Ibid., p. 67.
Ibid., pp. 86ff.
Ibid., pp. 4 6 4 7 .
For a further discussion of Macdonalds view of Islam, cf. Gordon E. Pruett, Duncan Black
Macdonald: Christian Islamist, in Orientalism, Islamists andldam, ed. Asaf Hussein, Robert Olson,
and Jarnil Qureshi (Brattleboro, VT: Amana Books, 1985).

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the truth as revealed in dreams. Such an hypothesis is neither frivolous nor

simply anachronistic. Both Ibn KhaldGn and Freud conceive of dreams as
expressions, even revelations of a distinction between ordinary consciousness
and another much larger activity of the self. For both, further, knowledge of and
exercise of that distinction is the royal road to truth.
11. Ibn Khaldirns Notion of the Unconscious

A . The soul in the scheme of things

For Ibn Khaldiin, the soul occupies its appropriate place in a hierarchy of
being. Drawing upon Muslim and Aristotelean models he conceives of creation
as an ascending order of being, beginning with the Iowest ranks of minerals and
progressing in an ingenious and gradual manner to plants and animals.s Each
rank has an end point that is connected with the first stage of the next rank.
He means that it is fully prepared to become the first stage of the next rank,
which is in turn implied in the previous stage. Whether this progression can
rightly be called evolutionary in the modern sense of the term is unclear.
Certainly Ibn Khaldim thinks that the present ranks of this order constitute all
such levels that ever existed, so that there is no analogy to Darwins natural
selection in his thought. Yet the notion of LLconnectionsuggests a kind of
dynamic development that is distinguishable from a fixed hierarchy of levels that
have no interdependence among them.
Creation, then, is represented as an unbroken chain of being that progressed,
in its upper levels, through the stage of monkeys, where sagacity and perception
are found, but which has not reached the stage of actual reflection and
thinking.* At this point physical perception achieves all that is possible for it,
and we must now look to another and higher mode of perception and, indeed, of
being. Ibn Khaldim observes that in the world of sensual perception, on the one
hand, and of creation, on the other, certain influences may be seen. In the
world of sensual perception the influences of the motions of the spheres and the
elements are evident, and in the world of creation the influences of growth and
perception may be seen. The spheres are in layers which are interconnected, in
a shape which the senses are able to perceive only through the existence of
motions; and below the spheres are the four elements, arranged gradually and
continually in an ascending order, viz. earth to water, water to air, and air to
fire.O
The influences of the elements and spheres in the world of sensual perception
and the influences of growth and perception in creation suggest the existence of

Cf. Philip Wheelwright, Aristotle (Indianapolis: Bobbs-Merrill, 1951), pp. 117-54.

Ibn Khaldun, The Muqaddimah: An Introduction to History. 3 vols., tr. Franz Rosenthal (New
York: Pantheon Books, 1958), I, 195; throughout the following discussion use is made of the relevant
section in this translation, I, 194-216.
Ibid.
Ibid., I, 194-95.

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31

something that is different from the bodily substances, and itself exercises
influence. This is something spiritual. It is connected with created things,
because the various worlds must be connected in their existence. This spiritual
thing is, in fact, the soul; it possesses its own perceptive ability and causes
motion.12

B. Analysis of the soullself

The souls nature, in accordance with Ibn Khaldbns view of the connectedness
of all being, must be understood to be a consequence of its connection with the
next higher rank of being, that of angelicality. For the soul possesses pure
perception and absolute intellection, which it receives from the higher sphere
of angels. For Ibn Khaldiin this means that the soul must be prepared to
exchange humanity for angelicality. In sum, then, the soul is linked
downward to the body and its substances, and upward to the realm of
angels. The body is, therefore, the organ of the SOU^.'^
Ibn Khaldbns view of the person may be described in the following way.
There are two levels of senses. The first, and lower-given the downward link
to the body-consists of the operation of the five senses of sight, hearing, touch,
taste and smell, which can be explained wholly in terms of organic or biological
processes. Second, and higher-leading to the realm of ange1icality-is a
complex of the inward sense. This is actually five senses peculiar to the
supra-biological functions of the person, and may be arranged in an ascending
order that reflects the idea of the connections already described.
First in ascending order beyond the biological processes is the common
sense, or integrated perception of all the biological senses, a concept virtually
identical to the koine aesthesis of Aristotle, and distinguished from the lower
sensory operations in that the latter are thought to work independently of each
other. The common sense conveys its integrated perception to the imagination,
the next in order of the stages of the inward senses. Imagination pictures an
object of sensual perception in the soul, as it is, abstracted from all external
matter.I5
Ibn K h a l d h offers a useful graphic representation of the inward senses. He
conceives of the inward senses connection with the external senses in something
like the following design: the brain has three cavities, first, back and middle. The
first and back cavities are each divided into a front and a rear area. Ibn Khaldtm
assigns the common senses and imagination to the first cavity, the common
sense to the front part, the imagination to the rear. The five external senses
flow, or move, into the front part of the first cavity (the location of the
Ibid., I, 195.
See above note 7.
Muqaddimah, I, 195.
l4 Ibid., 1, 196.
I s Ibid., I, 197.
I

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common sense). Moving downward, the five external senses are connected
with the animal spirit, which proceeds from the left cavity of the heart. With
this model in mind let us continue.
Imagination is connected with what Ibn Khaldiin calls estimative power
which [perceives] (abstract) ideas that refer to individualities.I6 Here the soul
conceives of the hostility of Zayd, the friendship of Amr, the compassion of the
father, or the savagery of the ~ o l f . This
~ estimative power is directed to and
located in the rear part of the back cavity of the brain, and is connected in turn
with memory. Ibn Khaldfin believes that memory includes all objects of
perception, whether objects in the so-called real world or in the imagination.
This is important for the next connection. Memory is said to be located in the
front part of the back cavity of the brain; and it is connected to the middle
cavity, which is occupied solely by the sense of thinking. Thinking, in other
words, draws upon all the contents of memory, whether they are derived from
real or imaginative experiences.
The next step in the hierarchy beyond thinking is the angelic realm; therefore
thinking is both the highest of the human inward senses and the definitive link
with the angelic realm, where, as we shall see, truth is revealed. Ibn K h a l d h
believes that the soul has a constitutional desire to think, and to be free of the
lower person. This means that the soul is naturally attracted to the angelic realm,
where there is knowledge of spiritual things, free of the limitations of bodily
organs. This disposition of the soul to think and thus to strive for angelic
knowledge is the work of God.*
Nevertheless, not all souls, however disposed, succeed in attaining the
knowledge of the angelic realm. Ibn Khaldiin distinguishes among three types of
souls. First, there are those by nature too weak to attain the spiritual sphere,
and are thus content to move downward from the operation of thinkingrather than upward to angelicality-to
the realm of perception and
imagination, using their memory and estimative power. As a rule, this is the
extent of human corporal perception, and is epitomized in the goals of the

scholar^.^^
Second, there are souls who, through thinking, move upward to a type of
intellection that does not require the bodily senses, that is, intuition. This soul
can progress because of its innate preparedness for [this intellection].20 These
are the souls of saints, of those with mystical learning, and those possessed of
divine knowledge. This second type has not yet attained the full knowledge of
angelicality, however. That is the status of prophethood. The prophets exchange
humanity, both corporal and spiritual, for angelicality in the moments of their
hearing of the Word.21 God has granted the prophets immunity from sin and
Ibid.
Ibid.
Ibid.
l q Ibid., I, 198.
2o Ibid.
21 Ibid., I, 199.
l6

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error ci+ma) and straightforwardness, without which they could not attain this
state. Moreover, prophets do not require aids or crafts, for they are innately
prepared for the exchange of humanity for angelicality, sloughing off humanity
at will.zz
Among the angels, the prophets learn all there is to be learned there. They
then bring what is to be learned back to the level of understanding appropriate
for transmission to human perception. All of this takes place out of time, in a
flash. (Ibn Khaldim points out that the Arabic word for revelation, wahy, is
derived from the root to hasten, whjY3

C.A concept of the unconscious as revealed in dreams

In the experience of revelation the prophets learn the truth of God as revealed
in the angelic realms and bring it back in a form that is comprehensible to
human intellection. Muhammads experiences of revelation illustrate the supratemporal transformation of human nature into angelicality; and his reciting of
the Qurgn demonstrates the rendering of that truth in human form. Thanks to
the Prophet, we can know the truth.
Ibn K h a l d h is not content, however, to leave the matter there, and inquires
further into the means and methods of acquiring the truth. Among the means he
explores-along
with sand-writing, geomancy, necromancy, stonecasting,
numerolcgy and the reading of entrails, among others-is dreaming. We can, I
think, see something of what Macdonald unwittingly uncovered in his reference
to multiple or subliminal selves in Ibn Khaldihs treatment of dreaming and
dreams; for in this state of consciousness that is neither ordinary nor bound to
the bodily senses the self may learn something of the truth.
In sleep, observes Ibn Khaldun, the soul glimpses knowledge of future events
that it desires, and regains perceptions that properly belong to it. This is so
because it is free of bodily matters and the limitations of corporal perception.
Dreams, then, allow a type of perception and concomitant knowledge that are
not possible under the circumstances of ordinary wakefulness. Moreover, the
knowledge gained in dreaming sleep is said to be of future events-events said to
be desired by the soul, not just any future events. If dreams provide knowledge
of the future, it is a future about which the soul ~ a r e s . 2 ~
But if dreams convey knowledge of a future of great personal significance,
they do not always do so obviously and literally. Frequently, the soul uses
allegory and imaginary pictures, in order to gain (the desired kn~wledge.)~~
It
draws from the storehouse of forms and images, employing objects derived from
physical perception and imagination that repose in memory. Through a process
of synthesis and analysis, (these forms) are shaped into imaginary pictures.z6
Ibid.
Ibid., 1, 200.
24 Ibid., I, 207.
25 Ibid.
26 Ibid., I, 21 1.

22

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The allegory and images constitute the form of the dream remembered by the
dreamer; the knowledge has been conveyed, but interpretation is required
through which, nevertheless, the knowledge may be comprehended and acquired.
I shall return to this dream work shortly.
This activity is enabled by what Ibn K h a l d h calls dream vision, the faculty
of seeing spiritually in dreams. It is a universal characteristic, or preparedness,
of human beings; it is possessed by the soul, and is a means of striving toward
the pure spirituality that is the natural disposition of the soul. Yet dream vision
lives in the body, and is peculiar to human beings. Angels, by contrast, need no
dream vision because they d o not require bodily perception and thus do not need
to return from one state of consciousness or perception to another? As for a
prophet, his perceptual powers include pure angelic perception through his
exchange of humanity for angelicality; in that moment, what he perceives is
clearly similar to what happens in sleep, even though sleep is much inferior to
(revelation).**
The Prophet, then, shares the general human preparedness; he also shares the
necessity for moving from one form of consciousness to another in order to
know the truth. Conversely, then, human preparedness, or dream vision, is in
essence like the Prophets angelic perception of revelation. They differ in degrees
of clarity and completeness; for there are hindrances to translating the
common, non-prophetic, preparedness for spirituality into actuality. Since it is
necessary to sleep in order to dream, it is clear that the hindrance in question is
the external sensory experience of the world through the five lower senses. God,
Ibn Khaldfm says, therefore created man so that in sleep the veil of the senses
could be lifted. When that veil is lifted, the soul is ready to learn the things it
desires to know in the world of Truth ( h ~ q q ) . ~ ~
Ibn Khaldtin is concerned, then, with the relationship between the unconscious
and the conscious self, or between the self as perceiving entity and the dreaming
self as not perceiving in the usual sense of the term but still knowing. He
observes that perceptions of the rational soul are the work of the corporeal
animal spirit, referred to earlier, which occupies a lower but prerequisite place
in Ibn Khaldtins concept of the self. It is, in his description, a fine vapor which
is concentrated in the left cavity of the heart, following the Roman physician
Galens anatomical teaching^.^' It spreads with the blood into the veins and
arteries, making sensual motion and all other corporal action possible, like a
form of energy that provides the driving thrust of physical activity.
Its [the vapors] finest part goes up to the brain. There, it is tempered by the
coldness of (the brain), and it effects the actions of the powers located in the
cavities of the brain.3 By means of this spirit, operating in the powers of
Ibid., I, 208.
Ibid.
29 Ibid., I, 209.
j0 Ibid., I, 210.
3 1 Ibid.
27
28

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35

common sense, imagination, the estimative power, memory and thinking, the
rational soul drives toward knowledge of the truth.
In effect, the rational soul perceives in the two different ways, external and
internal. Ibn Khaldiin notes that the external powers of perception are subject
to weakness and lassitude as the result of exertion and fatigue, and to spiritual
exhaustion through too much activity. Therefore, God gave them the desire to
rest, so that perfect perception might be renewed afterwards. This rest is
achieved when the animal spirit retires from the external senses and is
concentrated in the inward cerebral powers. Ibn Khaldiin speculates that the cold
of night drives the natural heat of the body inward, rendering the external
perceptions temporarily inactive. That is why we sleep at night.32
Asleep, the persons spirit rests with the inward powers: [tlhe preoccupations
and hindrances of sensual perception lessen their hold over the soul, and it now
returns to the forms that exist in the power of memory.33 Freed of the concerns
arising from external perception, the soul occupies itself with its storehouse of
remembered forms, and draws both from previous external perception and
imagination. Then, through a process of synthesis and analysis, (these forms)
are shaped in imaginary pictures. These pictures are the content of dreams.
Most dreams, Ibn Khaldiin thinks, are traces of recent sensual perception; and
these the soul transmits to the inner power of common sense, which combines
all the five external senses, to be perceived in the manner of (those) five senses.34
These traces of the days experience are not integrated into dream vision, but are
merely reflections or remnants of external perception.
More interesting are two other categories of activity in dreams. Ibn Khaldun
writes:
Frequently, however, the soul turns to its spiritual essence in concert with
the inward powers. It then accomplishes the spiritual kind of perception for
which it is fitted by nature. It takes up some of the forms of things that
have become inherent in its essence a t that time. Imagination seizes those
perceived forms and pictures them in the customary molds either
realistically or allegorically. Pictured allegorically, they require interpretation. The synthetic and analytic activity which (the soul) applies to the
forms in the power of memory, before it perceives its share of glimpses (of
the supernatural), is (what is called in the Quriin) confused dreams.35
Ibn Khaldiin describes the allegorizing of the content of dreams as a work of the
soul, a process of bringing together (synthesis) and taking apart (analysis) in
what can be called the construction of a dream. Moreover, the parts of which the
dream is constructed are already extant, and are drawn from the stock of images

32
33

35

Ibid., I, 210-1 I .
Ibid.
Ibid., I, 21 1.
Ibid.; cf. S. 12:44 and 21:5, the dreams of Joseph and the Baker.

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and forms available in the souls memory. This work is accomplished by

imagination, using images drawn from both external perception and imagination.
This dream work requires an apposite interpretative effort, for apparent
distortion is a quality of allegorical dreams.
That this is so is borne out in Ibn Khaldbs explication of the three types of
dream visions. First, dreams that are clear and unmistakeable in their meaning
and content are from God. These may be analogous to the visions of the
Prophet. Second, dreams whose content is given by angels are received in the
form of allegory, and require interpretation. Third, confused dreams are said
to be from Satan, for they are futile, and Satan is the source of futility. The
second and third categories represent two levels of distortion. The satanic
dreams cause mere confusion, so that no interpretation of them would yield
knowledge of the truth. However, the angelic dreams both require interpretation
and are revelatory. (So, too, knowledge vouchsafed to the Prophet comes in the
exchange of the human for the angelic world.)36
Since dreams occur when our conscious activity is in abeyance, Ibn Khaldim
wonders whether there is any way in which they may be actively sought. We have
seen that he conceives of dream vision as a preparedness, that is, a natural
faculty. It is, he notes,
a particular quality of the.human soul common to all mankind. Nobody is
free of it. Every human being has, more than once, seen something in his
sleep that turned out to be true when he awakened. He knows for certain
that the soul must necessarily have supernatural perception in sleep.37
But this quality is independent of conscious will:
Most of the (afore-mentioned supernatural perception by means of dream
vision) occurs to human beings unintentionally without their having power
over it. The soul occupies itself with a thing. As a result, it obtains that
glimpse (of the supernatural) while it is asleep, and it sees that thing. It
does not plan it that way.38
In short, dream vision requires suppression of consciousness for its operation.
Two themes in this description of the dream vision and its role as conduit for
knowing the truth are particularly significant. First, Ibn K h a l d b asserts that
dream vision is common to all mankind, but is not to be found in a conscious
state. He asserts, in effect, that in addition to the conscious life there is an
unconscious one, characterized as a faculty, a preparedness. This unconscious
faculty is known to us in the state of the suspension of the conscious activity, i.e.,
in dreaming sleep. As noted, this unconscious state is not always dependent upon
traces of conscious activity, perception and sensation for its contents; for in
dream vision we also know things other than those conveyed to us through
36

Ibid., I, 211-12.

)Ibid., I, 212.

Ibid.: italics added.

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sensation and perception, such as the knowledge revealed from God and angels,
and the confused knowledge fabricated by Satan. Further, the differences
among the types of dreams are not a function of the dream vision or the
preparedness but of the source from which a dream arises. Thus the existence of
the unconscious faculty is not in dispute, despite the differences in types of
dreams.
Second, the soul occupies itself with a thing, and the result is that in
dreaming it achieves a glimpse of that thing. That thing, according to
Rosenthals translation, is supernatural. We should not be too hasty here; at
the least, supernatural means that which we could not know by conscious
thought or perception and sensation. Such knowledge includes a spectrum of
considerable breadth, and only occasionally suggests what is rather dramatically
implied by the English term supernatural. The point here is that the object
with which the soul occupies itself is of great importance to it, but it is known
only when the operation of the conscious is suspended in sleep. Ibn K h a l d b
means to say that the supernatural object cannot really be grasped, however
vigorously it is sought, until the unconscious dream vision, or preparedness, is
freed of the concerns of the bodily functions. This conclusion suggests that the
thing with which the soul is so concerned is more important to it than what it
can learn through ordinary natural conscious perception and other related
functions, and that only the unconscious mode of perception can reveal it.
This view is consistent with Ibn Khaldiins general concept of the soul-his
psychology. The soul, he asserts, is the only being in creation that exists
potentially; in association with the body it also gains the existence of actuality. It
has matter and form, following Aristotelean concepts. The form of the soul is
perception and intellection, through which its material existence is achieved and
manife~ted.~The operation of the bodily senses gives the soul an actual
existence, i.e., in time and space. Conversely, the soul extracts universal ideas
from the sensation of the body; and by repeated intellection and perception it
acquires its material existence, which is to be distinguished from the material
existence of the body?O
This movement from potentiality to actuality implies a developmental view of
the relationship between soul and body. Thus the child, whose perceptive and
intellective faculties are not fully developed, cannot yet obtain the benefits of the
souls mature activity. The child
is unable to achieve the perception which comes to the soul from its
essence, either in his sleep or through removal (of the veil of sense
perception) or anything else. For the form of the soul, which is its very
essence, namely perception and intellection, has not yet materialized (in the
child). Nor has the power of the soul to abstract the universals
materialized
39

Ibid., I, 214.
I, 215.
Ibid.

Ibid.,

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38

In this immature state the tension between the bodily activities and the full
power of the souls ability to know the truth that lies beyond mere sensation is
beginning to emerge. Dream vision and any other state in which this
supernatural knowledge may be attained are neither exploited nor developed.
With maturity, the soul realizes its two categories of perception, through
bodily organs and through its own essence, without any intermediary. The
soul is prevented from (the latter kind of perception) by its immersion in the
body and the senses, and the preoccupation of (body and sense^).'"^ The soul,
then, lives with a tension between its bodily actuality, operating through the
senses which are by nature oriented toward the external reality, and its own
essence, i.e., its direct knowledge of reality unhindered by the limitations of
sensorial experience and the external world. Dream vision is an operation of this
latter kind, and can function only in the absence of interference from the
conscious experience of the world. There is a dynamic relationship between the
two functions of the soul.
Ibn Khaldun concludes by observing that while the soul is influenced in its
working toward knowledge of reality by the bodily functions, it is not always
limited by them. He writes,
Frequently, however, the soul plunges from the external into the internal.
Then, the veil of the boQy is lifted for a moment, either by means of a
quality that belongs to every human being, such as sleep, or by means of a
quality that is found only in certain human beings, such as soothsaying or
casting (of pebbles, etc.), or by means of exercises such as those practiced
by (certain) Sufis who practice the removal (of the veil of sense perception).
At such moments, the soul turns to the essences of the highest group (the
angels), which are higher than itself. . . . They are pure perception and
intellects in action. They contain the forms and realities of the existentia, as
was oust) mentioned. Something of those forms is then disclosed in (the
soul). It derives some knowledge from them. Frequently, it transmits the
perceived forms t o the imagination which, in turn, puts them into the
customary molds. (The soul,) then, has recourse to sensual perception to
explain the things it has perceived, either in their abstract form or in the
molds into which (they were put by the imagination). In this way it gives
information about them. This is how the preparedness of the soul for
supernatural perception must be e~plained.4~
The knowledge revealed to the soul when free of the veil of the body is
transmitted to and integrated into its entire nature, that is, conveyed to and
through sensual perception and its conscious work. This supernatural
knowledge may be known after it is formed in the customary molds of the
conscious perceptibn.
42
43

Ibid., I, 215.
Ibid., I, 215-16.

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In sum, not only does Ibn Khaldiin hold that 1) the soul has an unconscious,
2) that the unconscious is a conduit of knowledge not disclosed to the
conscious-and in this is superior to bodily sensation and perception-but 3)
also the nature of the soul is such that integration of that knowledge into its
whole structure is essential, and that this integration is accomplished in such a
way that we may say that the unconscious becomes conscious.
111. A Freudian Commentary
According to Ibn Khaldim, dreams both reveal and obscure truth that is
normally hidden from our consciousness. This is also Sigmund Freuds view.
Freuds discovery of the unconscious as it was disclosed in dreams led him away
from mere neurology and toward an integrated understanding of the nature of
human personality. The unconscious is Freuds central concept; it was also the
foundation of his notion of cure. In famous words, he wrote,
What we must make use of must no doubt be the replacing of what is
unconscious by what is conscious, the translating of what is unconscious
into what is conscious. Yes, that is it. By carrying what is unconscious on
into what is conscious, we lift the repressions, we remove the preconditions
for the formation of symptoms, we transform the pathogenic conflict into a
normal one for which it must be possible somehow to find a s0lution.4~
As Ibn Khaldiin realized, to comprehend what is present in the unconscious and
then to make it an integral part of the self is to move from ignorance to
knowledge and thus to maturity.
It will be obvious that there are differences in the world views of Ibn Khaldim
and Sigmund Freud. Freuds inheritance of the theory of evolution over against
Ibn Khaldims use of Aristotelean categories is an important example, as is the
fact that Freud approaches the subject matter of the unconscious from the
perspective of a doctor confronted with a suffering patient, while Ibn Khaldim is
obviously engaged in what might be regarded as a metaphysical investigation.
These differences could be the subject of another essay. The concern of this
study, however, is that they share the discovery of an unconscious self, or an
unconscious aspect of the self, whose existence is revealed in dreams, and that
they believe that knowledge of the material of dreams, through interpretation,
leads to knowing the truth. Ibn Khaldiin shares with Freud the realization that
knowledge of the truth is the consequence of bringing the unconscious into the
conscious. Further, for both this is a universal human situation and capacity.
These common insights are more important than their differing world views and
motives.
Freud came to realize that the content of dreams was not directly admissible
to the conscious. That discovery was the essential clue to the structure, and

Sigmund Freud, Introductory Lectures on Psychoanalysis, tr. James Strachey, in Standard

Edition, XVI (London: Hogarth, 1963), 435.

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conflict, of the self. While the technique of hypnosis suggested that the mind
could hold latent ideas, the study of dreams showed that these ideas had their
own content, logic and structure in the unconscious setting. Freud characterized
this material as egoistic, narcissistic, and even psychotic in nature. But that is
simply to say that dream material is concerned wholly with the satisfaction of
desires without regard to the consequences of that satisfaction for the self in the
external world. Those consequences were precisely the central concerns of the
conscious self. In sleep these concerns went into abeyance, and in dreams
material that perforce was repressed dominated the mind of the sleeper.4*
The content of dreams, then, is ordinarily unavailable to the conscious mindexcept in a modified form, as I shall explain-because it consists of ideas that
are unacceptable to the waking consciousness. Ibn Khaldfm, too, seems to
appreciate this point when he suggests that dream vision occurs unintentionally.
The soul occupies itself with a thing. As a result, it obtains that glimpse (of the
supernatural) while it is asleep and it sees that thing. It does not plan it that
way.*6 We are obliged, says Freud, to infer from dreams and related phenomena
(such as symptoms) the existence of a psychical process of which we know
nothing. In that case, we have the same relation to it as we have to a psychical
process in another person, execept that it is in fact one of our own.*
Ibn Khaldiin suggests that the content of dreams appears in the time of sleep,
when the external perceptions are at rest. In this state, Freud points out, the
essential narcissism of the self is allowed full play, but without risking danger to
the person, who is protected by the state of sleep. Indeed, the conflict between
our natural desires and the effort of restraining them by the ego brings about a
kind of exhaustion that requires sleep. Ibn Khaldiin also recognizes the fatigue
that besets the external senses. God, he says, therefore created the soul with the
capacity for sleep so that the external perceptions could rest. Again, the
implication is that the unconscious requires a temporary cessation of conscious
activities in order to make its contents manifest.
But this manifestation is almost never exact or literal. Ibn Khaldiin recognizes
three types of dreams, distinguishable with respect to the degree to which they
require interpretation. Dreams from God do not require interpretation; dreams
from the angelic realm-that same realm where the Prophet is told the truthrequire interpretation of their images that leads to knowledge of the truth; and
dreams from Satan employ images that are merely confusing. Freuds work in
the interpretation of dreams led him to the conclusion that the dream has two
forms, manifest and latent. The difference between them was the result of a work
of distortion. But it was possible to undo the distortion through interpretation,
and through that to discover the truth-in Freuds view, the truth of the conflict
of the persons emotional history, which he had repressed. Where Ibn Khaldim
4s Cf. Introducrory Lecrures. Standard Ed., XVI, 143, 224, and Sigmund Freud, On Narcissism:
An Introduction, tr. James Strachey, in Standard Edition, XIV (London: Hogarth, 1957).
Muqaddimah, I. 212; see above at note 38.
4 7 Sigmund Freud, New Introducrory Lectures. tr. James Strachey, in Standard Edition, X X
(London: Hogarth, 1964). 70.

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41

writes of images and allegorical presentation of the content of the dream drawn
from the inner senses of imagination and memory, Freud writes of dream work. A
reported dream bears all the signs of distortion: disjointed structure, sudden
shifting of persons, times, places and climaxes, so that one can hardly follow the
plot of the dream at all. Freud concluded that there must be differences
between the reported or manifest dream and the hidden or latent dream. He
attributed the distortion to dream work (Traurnarbeitung); and he called the
agency of dream work the censor, whose task was to protect the psychic
apparatus from the exigencies of external reality. Dream work could transform
the latent dream by suppressing the dream entirely, or it could fragment or fuse
elements of it. It could displace the focus of the dream away from its threatening
elements to a more remote point. Further, dream work distorted the latent
dream by transforming the thought or idea of the dream into visual images
and by imposing upon the latent dream the structure of what became the
manifest or reported dream. Finally, contrary relationships could be rendered in
the form of identities, and opposites could be made to imply each other:*
Dream work implies the hiding of a truth. It uses images, patterns, symbols,
and allegory to express itself safely. But what is expressed is, when properly
interpreted, the truth of the persons emotional history. For Freud dreams are not
mere confusion but important clues to the selfs nature. This link between dream
work, intepretation, and what the self wants, and is, is suggested also by Ibn
KhaldOn. What is discovered in the content of dreams is knowledge of the souls
future, that is the future about which the soul cares, not just any future.
For both Ibn Khaldun and Freud dreams disclose the larger structure of the
self, or the soul. Let us recall Ibn Khaldiins concept of the connection between
the ranks and stages of all creation, leading to the soul with its external and
internal senses, and through thinking to the realm of angelicality. While Freuds
worldview in this respect is clearly influenced by evolutionary
he too
conceives of the emergence of the self as a direct consequence of the development
of earlier and less complex forms (perhaps the place of monkeys in Ibn
Khaldtins scheme as embodying the full extent of sagacity and perception,
though lacking reflection and thinking, suggests more sophistication in this
matter than might at first appear to be the case). It is illuminating in :his regard
to compare Ibn Khaldiins description of the role of the animal spirit and
Freuds concept of instincts. For in each case their influence is discoverable in
the higher forms of knowledge that the investigation of the unconscious reveals.
Ibn Khaldun traced the path of the animal spirit through the external to the
internal senses, where it is chilled by the coldness of the brain and where it
effects the actions of the powers located in the cavities of the brain. By this
48 Cf. Sigmund Freud, Dreams and Telepathy, tr. James Strachey, in Standard Edition, XVIII
(London: Hogarth, 1955), 197, 200; Sigmund Freud, The Ego and The Id, ed. Ernest Jones, tr. Joan
Riviere, in The International Psycho-Analytical Library, XI1 (London: Hogarth, 1927), 16;
Introductory Lectures, Standard Ed., XVI, 143, 171-89.
49 Cf. Sigmund Freud, Beyond the Pleasure Principle, tr. James Strachey, introduction and notes
by Gregory Zilboorg (New York: Liveright, 1928; reprint ed. New York: Bantam, 1959), pp. 45ff.

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activity of the animal spirit the rational soul reaches the body, and moves toward
knowledge of the truth.
This unbroken motion from corporeal animal spirit to knowledge of the truth
of the angelical realm links the biological and spiritual activities of the soul. If
we take spiritual to mean supra-biological activity, this concept is found also
in Freud, especially in connection with the notion of the instincts. For example,
civilization is the tool by which the instincts are controlled; but it is the product
of those instincts. Hence, as Freud pointed out at length, its discontents are no
surprise. The deepest essence of human nature consists of instinctual impulses
which are of an elementary nature, which are similar in all men and which aim at
the satisfaction of certain primal needs.50 It is not until these instinctual
vicissitudes have been surmounted that what we call a persons character is
formed. . . .5 These instincts are, in themselves, neither bad nor good, except as
civilization calls them so. Rather,
We believe that civilization has been created under the pressure of the
exigencies of life at the cost of the satisfaction of the instincts; and we
believe that civilization is to a large extent being constantly created anew,
since each individual who makes a fresh entry into human society repeats
this sacrifice of instinctual satisfaction for the benefit of the whole
community. Among the instinctual forces which are put to use the sexual
impulses play an important part; in this process they are sublimated-that
is to say, they are diverted from their sexual aims and directed to others
that are socially higher and no longer sexual.52
But society by itself could not hope to restrain instinctual desires if the
individual did not participate in some effective way in the task of repression.
Thus Freud suggests that there is in fact an inner, personal conflict between the
mindless demands of the sexual instincts and the demands of the instincts he
calls self-preservative, or ego-instincts. At times, he observed, these two sides
look very much alike; and so they are, since each is an instinctive activity. Yet
the difference is that one threatens the ego, while the other protects it.53
This conflict and its maintenance is just what constitutes the supra-biological
life of the self. Thus Freud and Ibn Khaldirn propose a developmental
interpretation of the conflict. The delimination of the bodily senses and of the
operation of the soul in the inner senses by which it attains spiritual knowledge is
a mark of the mature self, and is thus incomplete in the child. The blurred
distinction is replaced by the complementary relationship already described, by
virtue of the strengthening of both bodily and spiritual perceptions (see above).
For Freud the conflict does not attain this level of clarity until the resolution
of the Oedipus complex. Prior to this point the experience of the world is so
Sigmund Freud, Thoughts on War and Death: I. The Disillusionment of the War, tr. James
Strachey, in Standard Edition, XIV (London: Hogarth, 1957), 281f.
5 Ibid.
52 Introduciory Lectures, Standard Ed., XVI, 22-23.
5 3 Ibid., XVI, 350; cf. 413.

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43

suffused with the desixes of the self that the child is unable to distinguish between
his wishes and reality. With the successful resolution of the Oedipal conflict the
child acquires a conscious or internal control of his desires and is able to
distinguish more or less clearly between what is desired and what is possible in
the
He acquires, Freud says, worldly wisdom. For in the Oedipal crisis
he realizes that he must discipline his instincts; and by the act he inaugurates the
dictatorship of reason. As with Ibn Khaldun, this is an account of the
development of the corporeal life that culminates in the hegemony of the soul, or
reason.
But it makes all the difference in the world whether one is or is not aware of
the conflict; the healthy person is aware, the neurotic is not. The conflict
remains, and constitutes the foundation of all the highest activities of human
culture. Yet that activity is not instinctive, however much it may depend upon
the instinctual inheritance. Here is a psychoanalytic rendition of Ibn Khaldfins
continuous motion from biological heritage to knowledge of the truth.
But also, here is the point of both dream interpretation-and psychoanalysisand the fruit of dreaming and its analogous prophetic vision, according to Ibn
Khaldun: the truth is brought to and integrated into the whole self. The
unconscious is made conscious; that is another way of saying the same thing.
Freud believes that it must be possible to bring the contents of the unconscious
under the dictatorship of reason, and thus to restore the essential unity of the
mental life.55 Through dream vision, or the work of the soul in dreams, and
through the manifestation of the truth that dream vision receives in the molds
and forms of sensual perception, truth is integrated into the soul. As with the
Prophet, the truth is received as transmitted. A wholeness of knowiedge and
understanding is achieved, which is superior to the prior state of division and
even antagonism between the internal and external senses and between waking
and dreaming-or, with Freud, between the unconscious and the conscious.
Freud speaks of this state as the restoration of a mental unity; nevertheless, like
Ibn Khaldim he means a completeness that was not there before. For Ibn
Khaldim the dream may lead to knowledge of God, just as the Prophets vision is
the occasion of knowing the will of God. But for both Freud and Ibn Khaldun
the completeness is achieved only when that knowledge, whether of the nature
and content of the unconscious or the angelic knowledge, is brought fully into
the understanding of the self, that is, made conscious.
Macdonald offers Ibn Khaldijns psychology as a particularly compelling
example of the Muslim attraction for the Unseen Reality.56 Yet Ibn Khaldijn
rejects all supra-natural technique^.^' But prophecy and dreams are ways to the
54 Cf. Sigmund Freud, Dissolution of the Oedipus Complex, tr. James Strachey, in Standard
Edition, XIX (London: Hogarth, 1961). 173-77.
5 5 Sigmund Freud, Lines of Advance in Psycho-analytic Therapy, tr. James Strachey, in
Standard Edition, XVII (London: Hogarth, 1955). 161-66.
56 Cf. Life, pp. 76ff.
5 Cf. Muqaddimah. I, 233, 244.

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THE MUSLIM WORLD

truth. In the context of this essay, this means that he believes that the capacity
for knowing truth lies in the nature of self, through what amounts to selfunderstanding, rather than through occult techniques. Ibn Khaldihs conclusion
is thus more than simply modern-it is liberating.

Northeastern University
Boston, Massachusetts

GORDONE. PRUETT