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5 Interpretation of Dreams1

5.1 Freud’s Theory of Dreams and Dreaming

5.2 Theoretical Remarks on Freud’s Theory
5.3 Day Residue and Infantile Wish
5.3.1Wish fulfilment Theory: A Unifying Principle of Explanation
5.3.2 Self-Representation and Problem Solving
5.4 Self-Representation Theory and Its Consequences
5.5. Clinical Dream Research
5.6 Experimental Dream Research
5.7 Technique of Dream Interpretation

5.1 Freud’s Theory of Dreams and Dreaming

The “Interpretation of Dreams“, Freud's seminal study has been the most popular area of
psychoanalytic theory and technique. Before we can discuss the issue of how dreams can be
interpreted, we will have to review up-to-date basic knowledge about the formation and
function of dreams.
After a short summary of Freuds dream theory, a discussion of diverse basic assumptions
and of Freud´s theoretical concepts will be presented. Then - following the historical line,
some important extensions of psychoanalytic dream theory will be presented. After that, the
recent findings of experimental sleep and dream research will be summarized. A short
evaluation of the recent research will be presented, followed by a survey on theory of
interpretation of dreams.
In his book, which was officially published in 1900, The Interpretation of Dreams Freud
addresses basic issues about the formation of dreams, the meaning of dream content and the
function of dreaming. His main positions were that dreams have the function of wish
fullfillment, that one must distinguish between manifest and latent content of dreams and that
the latent dream content has to be inferred from the so-called free associations of the dreamer
to his/her dream.
Through the analysis of the manifest dream contents the dream-work is revoked and
returned to the infantile material. Using the mechanism of condensation, displacement,
respect for representation (visualization) and secondary elaboration the non-representable
latent contents are revised, until they escape the censorship and are re-presentted as manifest
content.
Condensation describes the processing of word and object representation, where only the
essential contents are represented. Thus the manifest dream is always shorter than the latent
thoughts. Subsequently, various contents may be fused or coalesce to form new concepts.
Palombo (1978) indicated comparison as the general feature of condensation and
displacement and called condensation a cognitive comparison by “superimposition”
Displacement describes a dream mechanism by which dream thoughts may be changed in
the sense of substition by displacing the original meaning to another distant meaning. These
changes take place along conceptual, tonal or emotional connections. Affects as well as time

1
Revised by S. Hau und H. Deserno
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relations may be changed. Emotions may be linked up to new content or may be completely
suppressed.
Through the process of secondary revision, the dream receives its final coherent version in
order to be remembered and narrated. Discrepancies are eliminated, transitions are smoothed
out and blanks are filled in. The secondary revision takes place in the moment when the
dream is experienced and has become conscious. It is directed by the waking state.
According to Freud, the disguise of the latent dream thoughts serve the wish fulfilment of
unconscious (libidinal and agressive) drives. To (re)-present these in dreams, secondary
dream sources are required, for example, day residues, which are emotionally charged or
contain incomprehensible recent perception impressions.
The day residuals stem from the preconscious and serve as vehicles for the unconscious
wishes which themselves are not able to form a dream on their own merit; they have to attach
themselves to the day residues in order to achieve (re-)presentation. Conversely, the
unconscious drive wishes provide the (psychic) energy. The mediating instance, for Freud, is
the censorship. It assumes responsibility for norms, morale and social requirements.
During sleep, changes in psychic work occur. The secondary logical thinking moves to the
background, and is replaced by the more associative, timeless, primary process thinking.
Furthermore, reality testing is impaired and due to the muscular relaxation during sleep,
somatic discharge of motor excitation is not possible. The regressive movements in thinking
during sleeping states are shaped by three different aspects of regression: egression in time,
content and formal regression.
Besides for some special rules in regard to abstract dream thoughts in visual scenery (e.g.
discrepancies, if-then relations, causal relations etc.), Freud touched upon repetetive dream
contents. Thus, he did not exclude the possibility of universal dream symbolism. For the most
part, he had problems with the concept of nightmares which resisted integration into Freud´s
concept of wish fulfilment. Therefore, he changed his formulation from the wish fulfilling
function of the dream to saying that dreams are the effort of wish fulfilment.
Even if many contemporary psychoanalysts axiomatically maintain a seemingly un-
dissoluble connection between theoretical approach and the art of dream interpretation, the
clinical and emirical findings of the last seventy years have deeply changed and expanded the
concepttualizations of dreaming as a process and the understanding of dreams.

Different Research Cultures

Today, two different research cultures exist side by side: the clinical-psychoanalytic dream
research, within which Freudian dream theory was further refined and the experimental dream
research – also refered to as extraclinical (Fischmann et al. 2012; Fonagy et al. 2012) – which,
utilizing tools of basic sciences, investigates the dream as a specific state of consciousness.
The two fields seem to interact in a limited degree only; in clinical discussions psychoanalysts
often are irritated if one introduces empirical findings to justify an interpretation.
In view of the multiplicity of psychoanalytic theories on dream and the rich findings from
experimental research, it is no longer possible to present a uniform and consistent dream
theory. The clinical perspective on the dream, which has initially been dominated by Freud´s
theory on wish fulfilment, had to give way to to the concept of dream as a multi-functional
psychic event.
In this process, the ego as designer or producer has received more attention. In addition,
the manifest dream has regained its importance and has received more attention (Jiménez
2012). Special interest was devoted to the dream as a form of unconcious thinking, where the
capability of hyperconnectivity is regarded as basic for creative insights, conflict solutions or
relationship issues.
With the development of object-relational psychology, the understanding of dream
function has been expanded. Not only has wish fulfilment been regarded as a central function,
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but in dreams wish for relationships has become paramount. Planning and rehearsing of social
interactions are regarded as essential features. Post-traumatic dreams had for a long time been
integrated into the usual psychoanalytic dream theory. Today they are considered as potential
indicators for past traumatic experiences rather than a sub-category of dreams that somehow
have to fit into the wish fulfment approach.

5.2 Theoretical Remarks on Freud’s Theory

Dream Language and Dream Work

Freuds´ theory on the genesis and functions of dreaming has been the first attempt at
systematically describing unconscious psychic processes. It comprises various important ideas
on dreaming as unitary theoretical sketches; for example, Theodor Fechner´s (1801-1887)
concept of distinguishable psychic locations for wakefulness and dreaming experiences as
well as a systematic procedure for interpreting dreams.
Certainly the visual mode of (re-)presentation in manifest dream is accentuated; this leads
to a theoretical difficulty of solving the issue for understanding dream contents, namely an
adequate comprehension of the relation of image and thought. This had been identified by
Freud in a later footnote that was added in 1925 (Freud 1900a, p. 506). However, to reduce
this issue of image and thought is much too simple, because besides for visual content also
acoustic or somatic sensation content appear in dreams.
Even more debated is Freud´s notion that the phenomenological features should be
understood as manifestations of phylogenetic older modes of working of the psychic
apparatus, which, appear due to regression in the sleeping mode. As Freud sketched it in
lecture 13 dream language is shaped by archaic features. Here the regression appears in a
formal mode.
As to regression, we may further observe that it plays a no less important part in the theory of neurotic
symptom-formation than in the theory of dreams. We may therefore distinguish a threefold species of
regression, as said above: (a) a topical one, in the sense of the scheme of the Psi-systems here
expounded; (b) a temporal one, in so far as it is a regression to older psychic formations; and (c) a
formal one, when concrete (0r figuarative) modes of expression and representation take the place of
abstract modes. The three forms of regression, topical, in time, and formal, are basically. In the
majority of cases they coincide; that which is older in point of time is at the same time formally
primitive (concrete), and in the psychic topography, nearer to perception. (Freud 1900a, p.548)
While topical and timely regression are bound to the processes of dream generation (or
formation), the formal type of regression plays a role in the reproduction of dreams, in
memory processes and dream telling (see Hau 2004).
The distinction beween latent and manifest dream suggests that contents of the manifest
dream – pointing to something absent in the sense of symbols – have to be retrieved by
interpretative work at first.
The American philosopher Susanne K. Langer (1954) characterized every human thinking
activity as a symbolic activity. All cognitions principally refer to something: to some third
and absent thing for example, an experience, someone in a relationship, or the memory of an
episode within a relationship.
If one assumes that every dream is a cognitive process, where the experience of a dream
world does not occur as an immediate experiential impression, but rests on stimulated
memories of experiential worlds, then all content (re-)presened in a dream is the result of
symbolic activity.
Dreaming is representing psychic micro-worlds (U. Moser 2005), i.e. models of inner,
actual (and focal) conflicts that are based on life experiences (or core conflicts) of the
dreamer; they are inner working models of attachment partners in past and present.
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Everything that is present in a dream has to be experienced, understood and symbolized (see
the longitudinal studies by Foulkes 1999, Strauch et al. 1997).
In dreaming, the experiential world of the dreamer is simulated using symbolic processes,
especially - metaphors. In order for inanimate objects or people to gain entry into the dream
space (Khan 1972) they must first be symbolized and have to be mentalized.
Lakoff and Johnson (1980) argue that for the most part, all thinking processes are meta-
phoric; they are based on an individually tailored conceptual system which is relevant for the
understanding of metaphors. Metaphoric concepts, however, can only be developed if the
meaning of the metaphor has been understood. Therefore, E. Hartmann (2011) designates
dream contents as „visual metaphors“
This has implications for the handling of dreams in psychotherapy. We must assume that
all which is represented in a dream is of individual, especially subjective significance. In
therapeutic situations, each dream has to be newly interpreted. Therefore one cannot rely on
generalized symbolic translations. All efforts to identify general valid symbols and
translations would be erroneous.
This does not exclude the fact that general metaphors exist, are valid, and are shared in
society. Nevertheless, the context in which they are utilized and shared are individually
different. These metaphors may acquire an individual context with dependent meaning that
cannot be deduced from a general previous understanding when interpreting a dream.
However, the work of translation is not without problems, not only in regard to the
description of the formal properties in dream language or the dream work, but in regard to the
problem of translation of thoughts in (mostly visual) images too. In order to prepare a dream
process, the latent dream thoughts are transformed in images, in acoustic contents or somatic
sensations. When a dream is memorized, these images or contents are back-translated (Spence
1982a).
The direction in which the translation is made, that is, whether from thought language into
dream language or vice versa, is by no means without significance. On the contrary, keeping
this in mind makes it possible to understand some of the contradictions which affect the
relationship of images to latent dream thoughts and have also determined the rules of
translation relevant to the psychoanalytic interpretation of dreams.
The inner perceptions which are still possible under the conditions of sleep probably have
to be interpreted as contextualizations in the sense of E. Hartmann, who states: “Dreaming
contextualizes emotions” (1999). Connections with everyday experiences are constructed,
which enables the dreamer to process emotions. This is called the adaptive function of
dreams.
It is important to realize that a dream is not at all a finished product; it is constantly being
reworked. When telling a dream, details are omitted or added and the dream narrative varies
from time to time. We always have to take note of three relevant yet differing products:
1. the experienced, dreamed dream that is accessible via memory only;
2. memorizing transformations, reworkings which distinguish the memorized dream and
the dreamed dream.
As a rules these changes are not very significant, and one can assume a structural
agreement of both
3. Thw reported dream is difefrent from the memorized dream. Here too changes occur due
to the transformation that take place in a spoken version (Moser & von Zeppelin, 1996).
These transformations are shaped by actual interactive influences, as in the transference-
countertransference dynamics in a psychoanalytic treatment (Deserno 1999). This third
version is the definitive object of investigation in research and in psychoanalytic work when
attempting to decypher the dream (Hau 2004).
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From the very outset Freud (1916/17) had great difficulties in understanding the
relationship between dream elements and their "'genuine' thing.": the manifest dream element
is not so much a distortion of the latent and more as
a representation of it, a plastic, concrete portrayal of it, taking its start from the wording. But precisely
on that account it is once more a distortion, for we have long since forgotten from what concrete
image the word originated and consequently fail to recognize it when it is replaced by the image". (p.
121)
Freud was interested in clarifing the relationship between dream elements and the "'genuine'
thing" as he characterized the relationship between manifest and latent dream element.
In his Introductory Lectures, he initially distinguished "three such relationships — those of
a part to a whole, of allusion and of plastic portrayal."
The fourth is the symbolic relationship. According to Freud (1916/17) the relationship
between symbol and dream element is constant, and this facilitates translation:
Since symbols are stable translations, they realize to some extent the ideal of the ancient as well as
of the popular interpretation of dreams, from which, with our technique, we had largely departed .
They allow us in certain circumstances to interpret a dream without questioning the dreamer, who
indeed would in any case have nothing to tell us about the symbol. If we are acquainted with the
ordinary dream-symbols, and in addition with the dreamer's personality, the circumstances in which he
lives and the impressions which preceded the occurrence of the dream, we are often in a position to
interpret a dream straightaway to translate it at sight, as it were. (p.151)
However, it is easy to understand the transformation of the latent dream thoughts into a
visual manifest dream as a preliminary process and not as part of the distortion by
dreamwork. Freud localized the latent dream thoughts in the unconscious as the motivational
forces for dreaming.
By the fusion with day residues, the latent dream thoughts are involved in the dream work
and are transformed into experienced dream images. In this phase the process of dream work
consists in continous reworking with the goal of bypassing the censorship in order to bring the
prepared contents to (re-)presentation in the manifest dream.
Then further changes may occur. In the secondary process, re-working blanks in the
storyline are filled in, contradictions are smoothed out and a coherent narrative is generated.
Transformatory Steps
We are faced with six transformatory steps that are partially anchored in the process of
dream generation (formation) and partially part of reproduction before a dream is accessible
for third parties. This may become the object of investigation before clinical work of
interpretation can begin.
Taking into account these six steps of transformations one cannot assume that the clinical
work of translation is simply dealing with a back-translation as Freud suggested.
Instead, one has to conceive a dynamic process during which meaning and understanding
of the reported dream product is created jointly by patient and analyst (Ferro 1999). This fits
into the dynamic perspective viewing the dream not as a finished product but as a process
which continously generates new versions of the dreaming process. They manifest themselves
not only in memories of dreams but in actual transferences too as it has been described and
clinically illustrated case histories (see Stewart (1993) and Deserno providing case
illustrations (1992, 1993, 1998, 1999, 2008). The transforming relation of dreaming and
transference has been described in dreamseries Kächele and Deserno 2009, Deserno &
Kächele 2012).
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Theory of Dream Production

In Freud´s writings the latent dream thought performed a change of meaning: at first, it
was identical with the day residue, and now it turns out to be the essential that is transformed
by the dream work into the manifest dream. The latter can be retranslated by the work of
interpretation. In contrast to the primacy of visual language, the latent dream thought was
placed in the deepest level of the unconscious where it melted with the wish which was in
need to be translated
Freud started with the concept of interpretive work. At the onset it seemed to be obvious
for him to equate day residues (the dream motive) with the latent dream thoughts (1916/17).
In his theory of dream work, that is the formation or generation of dreams, the latent dream
thoughts are transposed under the influence of dream censorship into a different mode of
expression:
Dreaming harks back to states of our intellectual development which have long since been superseded
— to picture-language, to symbolic connections, to conditions, perhaps, which existed before our
thought-language had developed. We have on that account described the mode of expression of the
dream-work as archaic or regressive. (p.199)
Today we would rather say that this work is carried out with regressive methods. With the
definitive change in meaning, "everything we learn in interpreting the dream" is termed latent
dream thoughts. (p.226)
The great predominance of the interpretive work on the theory of dream formation is clear
from the identification of the dream censor with the resistance to the uncovering of the latent
dream thoughts, which in turn represent, above all, wishes repressed to different levels. This
predominance of wishes among the latent dream thoughts is explained on the one hand by the
universal significance of the world of wishes, and on the other by the special attention paid by
psychoanalysts from the very outset to the wishful aspect of dreamings. Freud's general point
of view — i.e., that dreams are in essence nothing else than a special form of our thinking
(1900a, p.506) — was neglected until Erikson (1954) published "The Dream Specimen of
Psychoanalysis".
Erikson demonstrated how much is achieved by pure formal analysis of the manifest dream
before the specific work of interpretaion is opened and unconscious wishes or latent dream
thoughts are retrieved. His detailed analysis of formal properties of the dreaming frees the
way to a better understanding of the manifest configuation in which the internal concept
within the expression of “finding oneself in the world” comes from. The dream becomes a
mirror for self states or turns into a source of information about the states of our inner
universe states or how this universe of the dreamer is constituted and how his basic feelings
about life look like.

5. 3 Day Residue and Infantile Wish

There is hardly a step in Freud's theory of dreams bolder than the one linking the attempt at
wish fulfillment with the postulate that this must be an infantile wish, i.e.,
the discovery that in point of fact all dreams are children's dreams, that they work with the same
infantile material, with the mental impulses and mechanisms of childhood. (1916/17, p.213)
In The Interpretation of Dreams, Freud, gives, in contrast to the infantile wish, an
impressive wealth of evidence for the operational effectiveness of wishes which originate in
the present, and for motives which Kanzer (1955) termed the "communicative function" of
dreams. In addition, we havem to remember Freud's distinction between dream source and
dream motor; the selection of material "from any part of the dreamer's life" (Freud 1900a, p.
169) and the introduction of this material as causal moment of the dream are two quite
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separate things.
We believe that Freud retained the concept of the primacy of the infantile wish for
heuristic reasons and on grounds of treatment technique. We will not go into the question of
how often interpretation has succeeded in convincingly tracing dream formation back from
the day residues (the immediate precipitating factors) to infantile wishes, and showing the
latter to be the deeper, more essential causes.
Freud illustrated the relationship between the day residues and the (infantile) unconscious
wish by comparing it to a commercial enterprise, which always needs a capitalist to provide
the financing and an entrepreneur with an idea and the vision to carry it through. The
capitalist is the unconscious wish, supplying the psychic energy for dream formation, the
entrepreneur is the day residue. However, the capitalist could also have the idea, or the
entrepreneur the capital. Thus, the metaphor remains open: this simplifies the situation in
practice, but impedes the attempt to understand it theoretically. (Freud 1916/17, p.226)
Later, Freud (1933a) transformed this metaphor into the theory of dream genesis from
above (from the day residue) and from below (from the unconscious wish).

Ways of Understanding the Dream

Day residues function as an affective bridge between thinking in the waking state and
dream thinking (or the sleeping state). The identification of the day residue, by reference to
the patient's associations, usually leads to a first, immediate understanding of the dream. This
bridge function can be seen particularly clear in experimental dream research, when subjects
are woken at night and questioned about their dreams. Greenberg and Pearlman (1975, p.447)
observed this process from the perspective of the psychoanalytic situation, and underlined the
relatively undistorted incorporation of affect-charged events into the manifest dream.
For Freud, the day residue stands at the crossroad of associative lines from which the one
leads to the infantile, the other to the present wish. If we free ourselves from the dichotomy of
current and infantile wish sources and adopt instead the concept of the associative network
according to which past and present become entwined in many temporal stratifications
(Palombo 1973), we gain access to the thesis that the main function of dreaming is the
development, maintenance (regulation) and, when necessary, the restoration of psychic
processes, structures, and organization (Fosshage 1983, p.657).

Repeating Nightmares
Ernest Hartmann (1934-2013) exemplifies the issue of repeating nightmares and how in
due course of time - and alleviated by psychotherapy – states of anxiety and threat are slowly
integrated into more everyday situations under less affective arousal. He clearly attributes
dreaming a therapeutic function. In his model, that uses the nightmare as paradigmatic
example for the dream function, he surpasses the unsolved contrast between wish and anxiety
dreams (1998, 2010, 2011). He argues as follows (2011):
As cognitive process, dreams have the property of hyperconnectivity. The logical goal-
directed thinking resides at the one end of the continuum, the loosely-associative dream
thinking at the other that is able to connect to most unusual contents, increases. Phantasies,
daydreams respective revérie in the sense of Bion (1967) take place between the two poles.
The associative connections in dreams are not arbitrarily produced; they are directed by
affects or actual conflicts. In dreams, preferable visual metaphers are utilized. Thinking in
dreams is largely liberated from the necessity of serial, goal-oriented rue-based thinking of the
waking state. The production of such connections, directed by prevailing affects, has an
adaptive function; it helps to generate sensible emotional memories and to register the
conflicting material into every context. Whether a dream is remembereed or not, is
insignificant.
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We know very little about whether the control of these assimilative and adaptive processes
in the psychic milieu interne always require recourse to infantile, repressed wishes, or
whether this is necessary only in selected cases, i.e., when a recent conflict begins to resonate
with an unsolved infantile conflict situation.

Functions of Dreaming
An unnecessary assumption is Freud`s idea that infantile wishes are the “motor” of dream
formation. The concept of a capitalist was generated at a time when one did not know that
dreaming is a biological activity and doesn´t require an energetic justification.
In the first edition we presented some theoretical points for Freud´s thinking:
The fact that the capitalist is equated in the original metaphor with the psychic energy which he
provides, reflects Freud's assumption concerning energy economy, in which psychic energy is seen as
the basic force behind the stimulus, the force which creates the wish and presses for its fulfillment —
even if only through a kind of abreaction in the form of hallucinatory gratification. (One can also
borrow a term from ethology and call such abreactions vacuum activities in the absence of the instinct-
gratifying object. (Thomä and Kächele 1987, p.144)
Now we could raise the fictive issue - which dreams that are only retrievable by systematic
awakenings in the sleep lab under controlled conditions would have been recalled and told in
psychoanalytic treatment? And which dreams would not be remembered because they have
already fulfilled their psychological task?
Of clinical relevance is the question, which dreams are remembered and to whom are
they told? The communicative function of dreams (Kanzer 1955) remains a purely
psychoanalytic question that has differential relevance for the general functions that are
involed in dreaming:
- wish fulfillment
- problem solving
- information retrieval
- memory consolidation
- ego consolidation
- stress reduction
- affect regulation
As we have seen in the section about dream thinking in a historical perspective, the
assumption that dreaming mainly has a function in the service of coping with reality has given
way to the significance of dreaming for intrapsychic equilibrium and for the maintenance of
its psychic functions.
In the following section we shall present some important points of view on the
development of the theory about dreaming.

5.3.1 Wish fulfilment Theory: A Unifying Principle of Explanation

Conceptual Efforts
Freud felt it important to have a uniform principle of explanation and to stick to it, despite
all theoretical and practical difficulties he encountered, which we will elaborate on below. He
sought to solve these difficulties by equipping the wish, in its capacity as the motive force of
dream formation, with theoretical powers comprising many elements from various sources.
Freud preferred this move toward uniformity to other approaches as early as 1905, though
without providing a convincing justification.
In order to be able to adhere to the uniform principle of explanation, Freud had to make
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great theoretical and conceptual efforts, which we will now briefly summarize. The
formation, nature, and function of the dream are founded in the attempt to eliminate psychic
stimuli by means of hallucinatory gratification (Freud 1916/17, p.136). One component of this
teleological functional theory is the thesis that the dream, or the dream compromise
formation, is the guardian of sleep, helping to fulfill the desire to remain in the sleeping state
(Freud 1933a, p.19).
Expansion of the concepts of wish and gratification allowed even those dreams which
appeared to contradict wish fulfillment theory — so-called punishment dreams — to be
integrated into it. The understanding of the dream as a compromise between various
tendencies made it possible for the essential motivation in the form taken by the manifest
dream to be attributed sometimes to the wish for sleep, and sometimes to the need for self-
punishment, interpreted as a wish and located in the superego.
It was also possible to incorporate into the traditional teleological functional theory the fact
that people sometimes wake up during anxiety dreams. This was accomplished by means of
the supplementary hypothesis that in nightmares, the guardian of sleep reverses its normal
role and interrupts the sleep to stop the dream from becoming even more frightening. Many
attempts to mitigate the anxiety can then theoretically be accommodated around this
emergency function, e.g., the sleeper's simultaneous awareness that "it's only a dream." This
interpretation of anxiety dreams is based on the hypothesis of protection against stimuli, and
more broadly on Freud's economic hypothesis, which is of course also embodied in the idea
that the dream constitutes an attempt to eliminate psychic stimuli by means of hallucinatory
gratification.
The contradictions and inconsistancies in the explanations of dreaming based on wish
fulfillment theory cannot simply be eliminated. The fact that Freud, nonetheless, always
considered the wish to be the motive force in dreaming is presumably connected with
psychoanalytic heuristics. In Sect.3.1 we have emphasized that there were good reasons for
the fact that psychoanalytic heuristics are oriented on the pleasure principle, i.e., on the
dynamic of unconscious desires (see also Sects.8.2 and 10.2).
It is important, however, to distinguish between the discovery of unconscious desires, that
the psychoanalytic method can disclose, and the explanation of dreaming and dream work as
the expression of desires (see Sect. 10.2). Wishes and longings will influence human life day
and night even after metapsychology and its fundamental principle (drive economy) are dead,
that is, can no longer be viewed as the foundation of wish fulfillment theory.
So there is no need to push all dreams into one unifying theoretical schema. The present
state of the art clearly states that sleep is not the guardian of dream as Freud postulated it.
Instead the conditions of sleep create the optimal conditions in order to experience dreams.

5.3.2 Self-Representation and Problem Solving

In contrast to wish fulfillment theory, whose inner contradictions led him to make repeated
additions and amendments, Freud never had to revise his statement in The Interpretation of
Dreams: "It is my experience, and one to which I have found no exception, that every dream
deals with the dreamer himself" (1900a, p.322). We would like to quote fully his elaboration
of this statement, which was repeated almost word for word in his later work:
Dreams are completely egoistic. Whenever my own ego does not appear in the content of the dream,
but only some extraneous person, I may safely assume that my own ego lies concealed, by
identification, behind this other person; I can insert my ego into the context. On other occasions, when
my own ego does appear in the dream, the situation in which it occurs may teach me that some other
person lies concealed, by identification, behind my ego. In that case the dream should warn me to
transfer on to myself, when I am interpreting the dream, the concealed common element attached to
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this other person. (1900a, pp. 322-323)

In Freud's later observations that the figure who plays the leading role in the dream is
always oneself (1916/17, p.142; 1917d, p.223), this fact is again attributed to the narcissism
of the sleeping state and to the loss of interest in the entire external world - narcissism here
being equated with egoism or egocentrism. Incidentally, it is also possible to establish a link
to wish fulfillment theory, since self-representation always includes wishes. Thus, the
dreamer always has unfulfilled wishes, be they ungratified instinctual needs or products of
man's unique creative fantasy.

Self- Represention by Identification

The narcissism of the sleeping state and the regressive form of thinking in dreams may
correspond to a loss of interest in the external world if "interest" and "external world" are
understood in a similar way to the distinction between subject and object; we believe,
however, that interest is linked with the external world in a deeper sense, thereby eliminating
the subject-object, I-you differentiation in order to achieve identity via identifications.
Rereading the passage quoted above particularly attentively, it becomes even clearer that
Freud is talking about self-representation through identification, i.e., about the establishment
of commonality especially in regard to connection relations. However, the dreamer is egotistic
insofar as he plays out his thoughts and wishes without limits and without regard of the used
inanimate or animate object which is also true for day dreams.
The direction and the activities that are represented in the dream seem to emanate from the
ego. In a dream, first, the interaction with the other is prepared and sought. Only when these
turn out to be dangerous, menacing or too risky do the safety measures e.g. a change or a
withdrawal from the actual interaction is initiated. In the extreme case, a dream is interruped
by having the dreamer wake up (Moser & v. Zeppelin 1996).

Thomas French´s Expansion of the Wish Fullfillment Theory

In the development of the theory of dream interpretation one can identify an increasing
extension of functions that are ascribed to the dream. (i.e. the theory of wish fullfillment has
been enriched by further functions).
A salient expansion of Freud´s view was the approach from Thomas French (1954), which
melted together the Freudian conflict model, the field theory of Kurt Lewin, the early cog-
nitive approach of Edward Tolman and the gestalttheory of Wolfgang Köhler. He assumed
that all behaviors tend to plolarize in oppositions and assumed that integrative fields modify
the degree of polarization. In the case of neurotic conflict solutions – a further assumption –
the cognitive and affective span would be limited.
Based on a detailed study of a dream series he could show that with progression of analytic
work, the integrative span width becomes enlarged. In spite of this, French thought that in
dreams a solution of conflicts can be achieved. In his model, it is characteristic that - in a
dream - an unsolved conflict is substitued by cognitive more accebtable conflict
constellations. If this does not work a withdrawal takes place and the dream process is
interrupted.
In a later elaboration French and Fromm (1964) identified two essential differences of their
dream theory to Freud: the first difference is Freud´s unilateral theoretical interest in the
infantile wish, which he saw as essential motor or force of the dream work; the second
difference consists in Freud´s technique of reconstruction that is limited to the following
chains of associations.
The general idea that French and Fromm expose is „problem solution” which adds to all
human living an unique, ubiquitous and never ending task; it is also focused for social
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adaptation, by which problem solution receives a special meaning with regard to relationship
conflicts.

Moser and von Zeppelin’s Dream Theory

A very modern consequential further development of the cognitive approach has been
widely publized in a whole series of articles and books by Ulrich Moser and Ilka von
Zeppelin, two Swiss psychoanalysts. In their view (1996), the eternal problem of the manifest
dream and its interpretation is that dreams are regarded as a mere „accumulation of
information that have to be interpreted from an idiographic perspective.
However, the challenging question is: what is the manifest dream?

We distinguish the narrated dream, the memorized dream and the dreamed dream....We postulate that
the dreamed dream in its structure is sensual, mostly visual, take place in a sequence of situations,
sometimes moves to the level of verbal processes and contains cognitive processes. The experience of
dreaming is primary and present. The dreamer shapes the dream world step by step. Whatever he or
she experiences is immediate. (p.375)

Based on these assumptions Moser und von Zeppelin developed the model „dream as
microworld“ that in its richness in details is unique; however, learning the explicit coding
rules for analyzing dream reports is a real challenge (Moser 1999). For further clinical and
non-clinical application of this highly relevant theory formation see Moser (2003a,b; 2005),
Moser und von Zeppelin (2004a,b,c) und Döll-Hentschker (2008).

Evaluation
Freud always maintained his skeptical position towards efforts to attribute a creative aspect
to dream work. (Freud 1923a, dt S. 218, engl @@). He still insisted the meaning of dreams to
be reduced to one form of thinking, to the idea of wish fulfillment. This may be traced back to
his immanent theoretical commitment which arose from his latent anthropology, from his
image of man and world which had determined his scientific orientation.
His concept was to reduce psychic phenomena, including formation, meaning and
characteristics of the dream to somatic processes. Without doubt, needs and wishes are close
to drives as a border concept between psychic and somatic; therefore, dreams were under-
stood as a discharge of inner excitations. That Freud in his clnical work found a confirmation
of his latent image of man, cannot be seen as confirmation in the sense that he found the
easter egg that were hidden by himself.
Even when the theory of wish fullfillment in the sense of a drive discharge is not tenable, it
remains a heuristic principle of first order to study all psychic phenomena, also the dream, as
expression of wishes and needs. Everywhere if one gives up this regulatory principle for the
comprehension of psychic phenoma something essential is lost.

5.4 Self-Representation Theory and Its Consequences

We would like to summarize Freud's thesis that every dream represents the dreamer himself,
and to draw some conclusions which extend his thesis.

Latent and Manifest Dream

The contradictions in the psychoanalytic theory of dreams (resp. the dream work) arise
from the fact that therapeutic translation (interpretative work) does not yield the meaning
behind the manifest dream content without encountering resistance by the dreamer. One
problem which arises in the interpretative work is that of determining the relationship
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between the latent dream thoughts uncovered by interpretation and the manifest dream
content (i.e., between the latent and the manifest dream).
Inconsistencies arise in attempts at translation, because Freud now assumed a kind of
genetic relationship, in which the thought — the later phenomenon from the point of view of
developmental psychology — was subordinated to the archaic symbolic mode of expression
in the shape of a simultaneously operative latent wish. The following statement is
characteristic: "You will see, too, that in this way it becomes possible in regard to a large
number of abstract thoughts to create pictures to act as substitutes for them in the manifest
dream while at the same time serving the purpose of concealment" (Freud 1916/17, p. 121,
emphasis added).
It is quite clear that Freud is concerned here — as indeed in all his work — with the
relationship of preliminary stages to the final form, i.e., with the subject of transformation and
with the problem of the divergence and development of psychic constellations. The above-
mentioned contradictions are also ultimately related to the great difficulty in comprehending
transformation rules and their determinants when wish, image, and thought, or affect and
perception, have been separated from each other even though they comprise a unit of
experience. Think, for example, of the transformation of the wish into "hallucinatory wish
fulfillment."
Since a primary infantile wish was subordinated to the latent thought in the chain of events
assumed by the theory, this may also be viewed as a kind of transformation problem, which
might explain the contradictory statements concerning "manifest" and "latent." If one adopts
the abbreviated term latent dream to describe the meaning of the manifest dream revealed by
interpretation, without localizing the meaning itself to a seemingly real preliminary stage, one
need not concern oneself with theoretically inadequate attempts at problem solving, but can
regain an openness oriented on the special form of thinking in dreams.

Subjective View and Loss of Freedom

We have already indicated which processes of psychological development create the basis
for the appearance of the person of the dreamer in every dream. Yet questions of detail remain
open if we choose the formulation that the dream is a self-representation in which the dreamer
is involved at least insofar as he expresses his subjective view of a part of his world in
pictorial language. His subjective view of himself and of the part of his life represented in the
dream is — even independently of the regression — ego-oriented. The other drama is
personal, the words, and actions are invented and staged by the playwright, at least inasmuch
as they cannot effectively contradict the dream author's characterizations and settings.
The author, however, does not have complete freedom of choice concerning material and
means of representation, which are in fact to a large degree predetermined by the following
restrictions: As long as there are no thoughts which force us irresistibly in the waking state or
in neurotic or psychotic illnesses, we feel that we are masters in our own house, with
sufficient freedom of choice between various possible courses of action.
Even when the scope for choice is actually very limited by external or internal factors, and
when, from the motivational point of view, our freedom of will seems to dissolve into
dependence, we still lay claim, at least subjectively, to the possibility of choosing to do one
thing and not another. If it were otherwise, we would not be able to achieve the ideal aim of
psychoanalysis, which is, by means of insight into the determinants of thought and action, to
enlarge an individual's realm of freedom and his capacity for responsibility for himself and
those around him, i.e., to free him from the inevitable consequences of unconscious processes.
In dreams, the subjective feeling of being a master in one's own house, and at least
potentially free, is lost. We experience this loss particularly strong when we fight our way out
of sleep during anxiety dreams, against which we are totally helpless, and overcome the loss
of freedom by reasserting the ascendancy of the ego. The lessening of the resistance to
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repression, together with the processes molding dream formation (dream work) described by
Freud, allows unconscious areas of psychic life to emerge; which, the ego would prefer not to
acknowledge and against which barriers are erected.
It is one of the established general principles of psychoanalysis that these unconscious
strivings, nevertheless, produce symptoms, precisely because they return through the back
door and deprive the master of the house of his power and his freedom. The relevance of this
general principle for human life is controversial in some specific contexts in individual
psychopathology and in the history of collectives.

Frustrations and Resistance

From the dynamic point of view, it would seem natural to look particularly closely at what
effects the lessening of repression resistance during sleep has on the dreamer's world of
wishes. Since wishes are by their very nature directed at objects and strive for gratification,
and since there are no limits to human imagination — i.e., it goes far beyond the immediate
gratification of vital needs — frustrations inevitably emerge. In view of the basic significance
of wishes, and the fact that even in paradise wish fulfillment would probably never catch up
with human fantasy — to say nothing of real failures or of the incest taboo, which is probably
the only taboo to transcend almost all sociocultural boundaries and have universal validity
(Hall and Lindzey 1968; Bischoff 1985) — it is not surprising that Freud restricted the
practical therapeutic consideration of the meaning of dreams to the representation of wishes.
On the one hand, the world of wishes is inexhaustible, and on the other, there are always
restrictions, prohibitions, and taboos which prevent wishes from being fulfilled. Thus, wishes
involve so many imagined or genuine mortifications, which can be nourished endlessly from
the individual's surplus fantasy, that a particularly strong resistance is built up to
acknowledging and consciously recognizing them. Freud therefore attributed to the dream
censor a masking and encoding function which permits only the attempt to fulfill wishes.

Dream Language and Language of Waking State: Problems of Translation

Approaching the night side of our thinking can also be disturbing for the patient when his
associations revolve around the manifest dream content, the search for meaning is left entirely
to him, and his reading is left unchallenged. Even patients who are strongly motivated by
curiosity or who are, on the basis of previous experience, inclined to grant that dreaming has a
creative function are disturbed by the sinister nature of some dreams. It is often possible to
understand this apprehensiveness in the context of resistance in one form or another, and thus
to be able to offer means of overcoming it.
Because it occurs so commonly and so regularly, and is by no means always confined to
the initial phase of treatment, we would like to describe it using the more general term
"identity resistance" (Chap.4), that is to say, resistance rooted in the patient's adherence to his
conscious image of himself and the world, i.e., to his previous identity.
Identity resistance is directed not only outward, against the opinions and influences of
others — specifically the analyst — but also inward, particularly against the different
representation of the self and the world in dreams. This internal aspect is what Erikson (1968)
means when he speaks of identity resistance and the fear of changes in the identity feeling
(pp. 214-215).

Comparative Identification
The above thoughts on identity and identity resistance make it necessary for us now to
consider the concept of identification in the sense of "just as." Freud (1900a, p.320) states that
a figure in a dream can be made up of parts of a number of different people, and says that this
"construction of a composite person" (p. 321) cannot be differentiated clearly from identifi-
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cation. When construction of a composite person is not completely successful, another figure
appears in the dream.
We have traced Freud's assumption (1923c, p.120) that the dreamer's ego can appear more
than once in the same dream — in person and concealed behind other figures — back to the
dream language's direct conversion of common features or similarities into visual images.
Instead of giving verbal expression to thoughts such as "I am similar to..." or "I wish I was
like...," the dreamer portrays the person with whose beauty, strength, aggression, sexual
potency, intelligence, sophistication, etc. he would like to identify.
This substantively multifaceted process makes it possible for human development to take
place and for the individual to learn from a model. One could say that while the gratification
of instincts ensures animal survival, identification is necessary to guarantee the ontogenesis of
a person in the given sociocultural context. Thus we support Freud's thesis that primary
identification is a direct or original form of the association of feelings with an object,
occurring earlier than any object relationship, and thus has basic constitutive significance for
human development (Freud 1921c, pp.106-107; 1923b, p. 31).
The effortlessness with which the dreamer distributes his own opinions, intentions, or
actions between several figures is linked with the probably irreducible nature of the formal
structure of this special language, a structure which resembles the composition of picture
puzzles or riddles. These, by the way, were very popular in 19th-century Vienna, which may
explain why Freud chose them as a metaphor for the structure of dreams — a metaphor of
which even Wittgenstein approved of - in spite of his general hostility to psychoanalysis.

No Clear Demarcation of Subject and Object

It seems a natural step to describe representation of the dreamer by another person as
projection, but the depth of self-representation through others would be limited if it were to be
attributed to projection in general and defense in particular. Nevertheless, it is not uncommon
for dreamers to have trouble recognizing themselves in others, or to see the mote in another's
eye without noticing the beam in their own. The primitive level of psychological development
to which dreamers can regress enables subject and objects to be interchanged. The
differentiation of ego and not ego, of subject and object, is not yet complete in this phase (and
is fortunately never absolute, even in the healthy adult, otherwise there would be no such
thing as mutual and shared happiness, let alone the "oceanic feeling"; see Thomä 1981, pp.
99-100).
In this context, we would like to refer again to the painstaking investigations by Foulkes
(1982), which showed that the dream reports of 3- to 4-year-old children describe actions
carried out by other people. At the dream level, children of this age, thus, live principally
from identification, not from projection.

Discussion: Wishfulment- and Self-Representation Theory

In contrast to his faithfulness to the assumption that the function of dreaming is the
representation of wishes, Freud later (1923c, pp.120-121) repudiated as speculation the
proposition that all figures appearing in dreams are fragmentations or representations of the
dreamer's own ego. But who has upheld this proposition?
It is our view that Freud's criticism might have been directed against Jung's interpretation
at the subjective level. Alternatively, it is conceivable that this opinion was held by other
psychotherapists or that it had just emerged within psychoanalysis. Finally, it is possible that
Freud wanted to warn in advance against regarding this point of view as absolute.
Consistently throughout his whole work, he adheres to the view that the dreamer can
appear more than once in a dream and be concealed behind others. An absolutist conception
would have breached the all-embracing heuristic principle of finding the infantile root of the
motivating dream wish whenever possible.
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An absolutist theory of self-representation would thus have come to rival wish fulfillment
theory as the primary concept of psychoanalytic dream interpretation. In fact, though,
practical therapeutic dream interpretation was as far from realizing this at the beginning of the
1920s as it had been when Freud wrote The Interpretation of Dreams, in which all those
factors were already covered, which, had also proven their worth in the understanding of
Dora's dreams.
In other words, in the process of looking for latent wishes, including the infantile dream
wish, other aspects of dreams and their meaning were constantly being discovered, including
the problem-solving and conflict-mastering functions. There was always a great variety of
approaches to dream interpretation, but never any tendency to replace wish fulfillment theory
with an equally comprehensive theory of self-representation.
It is important not to forget Freud's view that it is the regression in sleep that makes it
possible for the dreamer to represent himself through several dream figures. This facilitates
the cross-border traffic between "I" and "you," between subject and object, and makes them
interchangeable in the sense of reciprocal identification in the dream drama. The emergence
of magic wishes allows objects in dreams, as in fairy tales, to be transformed ad libitum.
Being and having, identification and wishes, are no longer opposites but two aspects of the
dream process.
In view of all this, it seems natural to seek the target of Freud's criticism outside the
Freudian schools of psychoanalysis and to find it in Jung's interpretation of dreams at the
subjective level. Even if we should be mistaken in this assumption, we hope at least that our
error is productive for the pursual of our topic. For historical and practical reasons, any
discussion of self-representation in dreams must include both interpretation at the subjective
level, which is intimately related to Jung's self concept, and Kohut's narcissistic, self
psychological interpretation.

5.5 Clinical Dream Research

After Freud, clinical work concerning dreams was regarded as routine and the amount of
clinical publications about dreams and dream analysis progressively decreased. Questions
relating to the meaning of transfer and countertransference became the focus of interest.
Dream lost its status as the royal road toward the unconscious. However, in the following
decades to this day, important advances in psychoanalytical dream theory have been
developed.
Erik H. Erikson (1954) made an important step toward the rehabilitation of the manifest
dream content in his paper “The Dream Specimen of Psychoanalysis” in which he carefully
analyzed Freud’s Irma dream. In his multi-stage schemata, concerning dream interpretation,
are Freud’s known initial approaches of free thoughts or the symbolic interpretation of
manifest dream contents; however, Erikson describes, at the same time, a systematic exami-
nation of manifest dream contents in light of place, time, person, affects, channels of
perception, etc.
Dream contents are connected via present conflicts and day residues as well as the
relationship with the therapist. This is described in connection between dream and transfer
toward inner psychological conflicts and the tasks of life and development concerning the
respective life-span of the dreamers. Erikson paves the way for the appreciation of dream
contents, the evaluation of relationship capacities, and the inner conflict condition of the
individual.
Formal dream content analyses show (compare Domhoff, 1995) that one can work fairly
close with the systematic analysis of components and processes in the manifest dream and
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assess how the subject experiences and evaluates oneself in the world and toward other
persons in the dream.
Besides Erikson, several psychoanalysts, independent from one another, thought about the
psychological conditions of dreaming and the utilization of dreams in psychoanalyses. In this
case, important concepts were worked out, for example, by Isakower (1938, falling asleep
phenomenon; see Leuschner 2015), Lewin (1955, dream screen) and Anzieu (1985, moi-
peau).
The emphasis of the manifest dream and the focus on the subjective realm of living in the
way it presents itself in the dream as well as the attachment constellations, designed in the
dream, characterize the progression of psychoanalytical dream theory and dream
interpretation (compare amongst others Greenson 1970, Pontalis 1974). For psychoanalytic
work with dreams, the connection of dream and transmission are important. In this case, the
relationship that the dreamer has to his dreams is formulated anew therefore Pontalis (1974)
spoke of the dream as an object.

Dream and Transference

For the psychoanalytic work with dreams the connection between dream ad transference
became a ‘leitmotif’! This line of clinical dream research was initiated by Lewin (1948, 1950,
1953, 1955), Kemper (1957/5), and was continued by Gill (1966/82) and Morgenthaler
(1986). They insisted specifically in connecting the analysis of transference with the analysis
of dreams (Deserno 1992, 1993, 1999; Ermann 2005). The dreaming quality of the psycho-
analytic situation and the implementation of unconscious transference is underlined. Deserno
(2005, 2007) developed his ideas even further by combining different psychic realities with
different symbolic modes in the psychoanalytic situation. He identifies the dream and the
memory character of transference actions with different forms of symbolizations
If one concentrates on how a patient experiences dreams or current relationships to the
analyst in the situation of transference and how the characteristics change in the course of
treatment one can find indications for the connections of interpersonal events and intra-
psychological functions. The essential idea is that the dream does not develop like a solitary,
detached from daily life experience, but is closely connected with the interpersonal expe-
riences and is sensitive in catching and depicting events that happen during psychoanalytical
treatment including both transference and counter-transference.
The next step is to examine the dream concerning its interpersonal contexts. Apart from the
disclosure of latent dream thoughts and repressed drives, the main point is the examination of
the interpersonal inner realm of the dreamer. What are the object representations brought into
dreams and how does the dreamer act accordingly?
In this approach, context and subjective meanings are generated (Stolorow and Atwood
1993), i.e. the interpretatitive work of dreams seeks themes of configuration that structure the
self and the object in the recounting of the dream. Understanding of the dream’s meaning
takes place through conceptual elaboration of these attachment configurations. They assume
that these topics are an additional possibility to be able to better understand “pre-reflective
unconscious expriences that structure the subjective individual inner universe of the dreamer”
(p. 216).
Dream interpretation does not happen simply because of a causal mechanical model with
which dream work can be made retrogressive in order to identify the underlying wish. Instead,
it concerns the occupation with current emotionally relevant problems in the life of the
dreamer. However, it does not mean that the attempt for wish fulfillment via the dream does
not have any significance. Dreams are now rather understood in a broader sense and inter-
preted as such. Thus, other individual preferences and intentions of the dreamer appear to be
relevant as well. These processes can be shown best in a particular type of dream that cannot
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be explained with the idea of wish fulfillment as the function of dream - anxiety dreams and
nightmares.

Hartmann on Nightmares
E. Hartmann (1998, 2011) described the processes in nightmares as exemplary for all
dreams. In this case, the function that plays an essential role in all dreams is most clear:
contextualizing of emotions. Following a traumatic experience, for example, earthquake, fire
disaster, accident, act of war, terror, torture, violence, etc., a typical sequence of dreams can
be observed. In the beginning, immediately following the traumatic experience repeated
nightmares appear. This is described as “re-enactment” in the dream. Comparable to a film,
the events repeat unchanged in the dream (as if one would watch the same sequence over and
again). However, the unchangeability was put into question, for example, in the case of
chronic post-traumatic disorders (compare Varvin et al., 2012).
Moreover, Hartmann describes how this sequence of events changes i.e., locations or
events are exchanged or persons appear suddenly and are integrated in the actions or
happenings, respectively. For example, the victim of a fire disaster dreams after a while about
a gigantic flood approaching. However, also this picture changes after some time and
becomes in the dream a train approaching. Thus, the content of the images change to an
everyday character and decreases in affect intensity. Hartmann describes this as changing
contextualization as an essential function of all dreams.
A tram driver was entangled in a deadly accident, which he experiences in its sequence again in a nightmare. In
the framework of therapeutic work, the dream went through changes. Finally, he was no longer driving the tram
but a suspension railway high above the ground. Via this change, he could be sure to no longer run over the
person in the dream. (1999, p.115)
By reason of this example one can deduce that the dream has a “therapeutic function”. New
contexts are found from everyday life and because of that an originally overwhelming
experience, expressed in nightmares, can eventually be contextualized. In the continuing
process, nightmares change more and more into common dream experiences. In a safe place,
the dream creates connections, helps in decreasing highly affective conditions of experience
and gives them a grip.
What appears clearly in nightmares takes place also in all other dreams. Whenever
discrepancy exists or disturbing experiences, a conflict occurs, a problem must be solved, a
dangerous situation develops for the ego. As long as the ego capacities are intact, one
attempts to connect the problematic event in the dream with other experiences in the waking
state showing less affectivity. This view, concerning dream functions, can be brought into
accord with Freud or Stolorow’s psychoanalytical dream theories. Nightmares and anxiety
dreams can be integrated into a more general model.

Donald Melzer´ Contribution

Donald Melzer (1984) attributes autonomous symbolic value to the dream. Through
experience of early interaction with the mother, who communicates via physical contact and
in rhythmic exchange with the child, the first emotional symbolizing conditions and
experiences are developed. Later in a second step this process is linguistically interchanged
and made describable. With this comes expansion or inclusion, respectively of the
experiences and information from and with the outer world. Melzer speaks of two differing
grammars that come close to the pre-verbal and verbal self, and comes very close to, for
example, Stern’s (1985) view, however, this can also be brought into relation to the concept
of primary processes and secondary processes according to Freud or to the process of
mentalizing as well (compare Fonagy, Gergely, Jurist, & Target, 2002).
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In the dream concept of Melzer, the secondary process in dream interpretation receives a
central role. In the verbalized dream, thoughts become accessible to the meaning of the
dream. In this case, a transformation - information coded by dreamwork - occurs and
experiences from the early symbolized body experience from which emotional conditions and
unconscious thoughts originate. The transfer of these unconscious symbollized experiences in
the symbolic discourse of the secondary process is not a translation step but a transformation
of the often visual and physical representation into linguistic symbols. Thus, the reported
dream is another product as the experienced dream in which the dream work seeks and finds
visual-bodily representational solutions for bodily experiences and emotional states.

Ogden and Bion

As a continuation of this thought Ogden (2005) describes the ability to dream as symbolic
activity that must be established in the course of development. This is not automatically the
case. Ogden views the ability to dream in relation to Bion’s concepts. According to Bion,
alpha function serves to digest the immediate experience (beta elements) and “metabolizes”
them into understandable symbols (alpha elements) such as a communicable form which can
be communicated. As a result of this process, a symbolic inner world of meaning within the
individual develops. For Odgen, the ability to dream is an indication of efficient alpha
function. The dream takes place in sleep (as a visual dream experience) as well as during the
waking state (as unconscious process).
Dreaming is, therefore, a continuous process that is granted a particular possibility of ex-
pression during sleep. If this symbolizing process is disturbed i.e., a transformation of the
immediate experiences (beta elements) into symbol carrying alpha elements is limited, it is
not possible for the individual to be really asleep or awake. Ogden is concerned how far
dreaming can be seen as an indicator for the specific human capacity to give unconscious
psychological experience via the symbolization and mentalization of psychological meaning.

A Case Study
A case study by Calef (1972) distinctly illustrates the interference of sleeping and waking.
It discusses the possibility that the feeling ‘to be awake’ could be content and affective
experience of a dream. Calef´s patient was irritated because he dreamed so little and could
hardly remember anything. He complained of being awake for hours before falling to sleep,
then waking up too early and being unable to fall asleep again.
Both, analyst and patient agreed that this was a sleep disorder. Without giving further details of the
case Calef focuses on a special situation where narcissistic resistances against a hostile transference
were at stake. In this situation the patient told a dream. There was a man who approached a woman
that had rejected him and threatened to kill him. She dismembered him and then he turned into a
woman carrying diapers. Only the torso remained.
The patient remarked that he, if he hadn´t remembered this dream, he would have told in his
analytic session that he awoke very early and could not sleep again. It seemed to be obvious that the
patient, in fact, had dreamt and slept. For the first time the analyst questioned his diagnostic hunch
(disturbance of sleep). In a manner more of a question rather than an interpretation the analyst
remarked: “Maybe you dream to be awake” (p.162). The patient responded that his sleeplessness his
that night has been not as tiring as he had thought. This was a surprise for him. He felt uneasy resting
in bed any longer. With repect to the dream, he thought that his conviction not to sleep woud have
helped him to avoid such nightmares full of aggression and retaliation. Now Calef focussed on the
patient´s shocked self-appraisal to be awake and understood it as an equivalent and defense of a
nightmare. “I am awake” would express the wish to sleep, and, therefore, it would be an affective
expression that wrongly judges the state of consciousness. Thus, dreaming would be denied and
forgetting be feasible.
In accordance with Calef, this distorting process would be stirred by the process of secondary
revision that belongs to the arsenal of dreamwork. He comments that the dream life of his patient
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started to change; it became more rich and more accessible. After the next reported dream, the patient
was convinced that his nightmare of sleeplessness was over (p.163): I dreamt that I was awake. In this
dream I really thought ‘everything is fine’, I really can dream and I will awake relaxed.
At the end of his papers Calef reminds the reader of Lewin´s (1953) ideas about the
forgetting of dreams: to remember a dream is a kind of prolongation of sleep” …. where as to
forget a dream stands for waking up and repeating it” (p.197).

5.6 Experimental Dream Research

The Discovery of the REM-Sleep

The discovery of REM-sleep by Aserinsky and Kleitman (1953) in a sleep laboratory in

Chicago provided new research possibilities for the study of dreams and dreaming under
experimental conditions. From the very beginning psychoanalysts like Charles Fisher, Harry
Fiss, George Klein, Stanley Palombo and Howard Shevrin were involved in this new
endeavour of experimental dream research. They courageously switched their position back
and forth - from behind the couch into the lab. Above all manifest dreams and unconscious
cognitions were under investigation. For some decades the findings from their studies in the
lab had some impact on our understanding of dreams and dreaming.
After Fisher´s first efforts to identify correlational patterns between dreams and physio-
logical parameters (Fisher 1957, Shevrin & Fisher 1967) soon the “activation-synthesis
hypothesis” dominated the field. Hobson and McCarley (1977) rejected any psychological
significance of dreams and instead termed dreams to be pure epiphenomena of deep brain
activity occurring in regular time-intervalls and being monitored by a biological clock.
Despite findings by Foulkes from the 1960s demonstrating that dreams occurred during all
sleep stages it took more than 30 years until the activation-synthesis hypothesis was seriously
questioned.
The ensuing debate between Allan Hobson and psychoanalyst Mark Solms had been quite
intensive and heated for some years. Hobson favoured a theory of proto-consciousness (2010)
but Solms (1997, 2000) demonstrated by neuro-anatomic studies that dreaming and REM-
sleep are controlled by different brain mechanisms. However, REM sleep and dream activity
are two different processes, which represent a correlative but not a causal relationship.
Dreaming is controlled by a network of frontal brain structures that in general represents
drive-related motivational connections. Panksepp (1998) postulated a biologically anchored
„seeking-system“ being responsible for generating dreams.

Dreaming as a Process
Today it seems more adequate to clearly stress dreaming as a process in rather than to use
the term „dream“ as a static mental event. Dreaming describes a dynamic process that appears
in various shapes. Mental activity takes place throughout the entire time of sleeping whereas
memories of ‚dreamlike’ sequences are occuring mainly after awakenings from REM-sleep
phases.
An important result of experimental dream research was the insight that there is no such
thing as the d r e a m. Dreams exist in many variations and they reveal different features. It is
feasible to differentiate various types of dreams i.e. dreams from REM-phases, NREM
dreams, hypnagogic dreams, white dreams, night-terrors, lucid dreams, wet dreams, day
dreams, etc.

Continuity versus Discontinuity Hypothesis

The long debate of continuity versus complementary of waking state and dream state
thinking is not yet decided. Arguments in favour for the continuity hypothesis argue with the
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continuous increase of affect expression and distortion from day dreams to phantasies in
hypnosis to the night dreams. Generally speaking the shape of dream content is seen as
corresponding in basic features to features of the personality. This perspective is supported by
longitudinal studies of Foulkes (cp. Foulkes 1999). He early demonstrated the parellism of
cognitive and emotional development.
However, other researchers identify also substantial differences between cognitive pro-
cesses in the waking state compared to dream states that endorse the discontinuity hypothesis
(Hobson et al. 1998; Revonsue 2000).
In dreams the capacity for logical thinking is lost which correlates to a frequence-specific
reduction of frontal activity in the brain during REM-sleep (Voss et al. 2009). Most likely
both perspective focus on different aspects of dream processes both may be viewed as
supplementary.

Dreaming and Attachment

The psychoanalyst Steve Ellman and his colleagues view REM-sleep and dreaming in
interdependency of attachment experience and discharge (Ellman & Weinstein 2012; Wein-
stein & Ellman 2012).
Based on a series of exciting experiments they tried to operationalize Freudian drive theory
as endogenuous (inner) stimulation. REM-sleep is of special importance because during this
sleep phase the brain activity is quite high. Many vivid dream experiences are occur during
REM-sleep even though dream activity can be detected in other sleep stages during the night.
The connection to drive processes is distinct as in mammals after REM-deprivation a REM-
rebound is observable, i.e., an increased REM-activity during undisturbed sleep phases. Therefore,
they see in REM-sleep the regulation for cognitions, phantasies and drives.
REM-activity is connected with a intracranial self-stimulation system (ICSS) in a reciprocal
way. Extended REM-sleep leads to decreased ICSS-activity in the waking state, and vice versa
after shortened REM-sleep an increased ICSS-activity can be registered.
They attribute an adaptive survival function to the dream. Wishfulfilment as well as
anxiety triggering situations may become starting points for dreaming. Thus dreams may seek
both, wishfulfilment as well as search for relation (Ellman & Weinstein 2012).
Also different activations in phasic resp. tonic RRP-episodes may be interpreted as
confirmation of this hypothesis (Wehrle et al. 2007).
In phasic REM-episodes a near complete stoppage of cortical responsivity to external acoustic
stimuli takes place, which is not true for tonic REM-episodes.
This leads to the conclusion of a connection between thalamo-cortical and limbic respectively
parahippocampal regions of the brain that are prominently active in phasic REM-episodes.
At the same time in phasic REM-episodes the capacity for reflective thinking is decreased, so
that the dream is experienced as real.
Therefore, the phasic REM-episodes may be regarded as times of increased endogeneuous
stimulation, in which inner psychic processes of excitation are worked through while at the same
time on with reduced reflective capacity for consciousness experiences.
These findings point to an activation of similar brain regions as they were recorded in states of
attachment relevant experiences (Amygdala and anterior temporal cortex as well as orbito-frontal
cortex). These regions are also active during REM-sleep.
A further clue was found in the distribution of oxytocin, a hormone that is connected to
attachment experiences (cp. Insel 1997). Its level reaches a climax approximately at 4 am in the
morning; this about then when the proportion of REM begins to exceed the proportion of NREM-
sleep.
The current working assumption is that during night as well as during the day, REM-activity is
periodically initiated and at the same time the limbic system is activated and oxytocin is distri-
buted.
Attachment experience and sleep respectively dreaming have in common that the interna-
lization of object images and relational experiences is supported; this influences the internal
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working models that are crucial for experiences in the waking state (Zyborowski &
McNamara, 1998).
Dreaming thus contributes to adaptation and restructuring of inner working models, and
thus may be relevant for such internalizations that are have turned to be soothing and helpful
in the reality of waking life.

A Critical Phase in Life

It seems that is a critical phase in life in which the REM-sleep phases are organized. This
is in the third month, a time which also is seen as relevant for the begin of attachment rela-
tionships. Exactly then when the child begins to organize its immediate states of experience in
a „second order“ representation.
Stern (1985) has described this process in the concept of RIGs (Representations of
interactions that have been generalised). These generalizing representations are supported by
the mirroring behaviour of the attachment person who contains and modulates the affects,
intentions and content of an interaction and – slightly modified - reflects them (Fonagy and
Luyten, 2009; Gergely and Unoka, 2008).
This developmental step also marks the beginning of the child´s immersion into the social
world of relationships (Fonagy et al. 2002). By this the child moves away from a pure endo-
genous stimulation as it takes place as part of the REM-sleep. The dream during the REM-
sleep may be viewed as a continuous inner stimulation for the representational work and for
internalisation processes whereas positive and negative life experiences are integrated into
already existing structures of internalized relationship models.
The studies of Ellman and Weinstein clearly illustrate that the effects of endogenous
stimulation during sleep have diverse impact on experience and mental activity.
Furthermore, other factors like individual defence patterns or the kind of self-experience in
dreams have an influence on how a dream is experienced and later reported. Also
developmental factors play a role in the issue whether a dream is pleasurable (wishfulfilling)
or displeasing. The neurophysiological findings are easily connected with psychoanalytic
concepts as the drive theory which to some extent supports the Freudian theory of dreaming.

Studies on Pre-Conscious Process

At the Sigmund-Freud Institute Frankfurt a study group of psychoanalysts for many years
implemented the experimental investigation of pre-conscious processes on dream production
and re-production by implementing methods of subliminal stimulation (Leuschner 2001;
Leuschner, Hau & Fischmann 2000). A major finding was that the mechanisms of dream
work described by Freud had to be supplemented as Leuschner (2004) summarized:
The analysis of the procedural steps for subliminally induced visual and acoustical stimulus
material revealed that Freud’s well known dream-mechanisms of displacement and condensation
have to be supplemented by processes that can be characterized as “fragmentation” and “blocking”.
By „blocking“ the concise meaning of fragmented material is prevented from further
processing. From a defence perspective blocking and fragmentation seem like a miniature edition
of what Freud had named „primal repression“. (p. 333)

Unconscious and Conscious Processes

Based on EEG-studies, pharmacological experiments, and theoretical considerations the
psychiatrist Koukkou and the neurologist Lehmann (1998a, 1998b) formulated a „state-shift-
model“ of the brain. The brain switches between different functional states in which different
memory stores are accessible.
With the different memory storages different time markers are connected, which may have
an impact on the altered experience of time in dreams. Events from various life phases can be
depicted in one dream, which contradicts Freud’s notion of timelessness of the unconscious.
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The model of different functional states of the brain by Koukkou and Lehmann (1998a)
suggests a fair number of formal characteristics on how dreams are the result of dream work
and primary process activity (p.347).

Dreaming and the Default Mode Network (DMN)

New research on the “Default Mode Network (DMN)” system of the brain makes it
necessary to work over our conceptualizations of dreaming (cp. Raichle, 2010; Domhoff,
2011; van den Heuvel & Hulsoff Pol, 2010). While sleeping certain brain regions are
especially active. This is also true for other mental states of relaxation without focussed
attention like daydreaming or meditation, in other words when taking mental promenades the
DMN turns to be activated. Thus the DMN is seen as responsible for a major part of intrinsic
activity during “resting-states” of the brain, i.e. while dreaming during sleep or while
daydreaming in the waking state.
The brain is by no means "switched off" in certain areas, instead a permanent background
activity exists with partly high activity levels. These findings fit well with the concept of a
permanently working mental system, in which assumptions and drafts of future events are
constantly formed.
As far as perceptions are concerned, a kind of interplay exists between expectations and
stimulus perception which constructs the perceptions in the long run. Expectations as well as
knowledge based experiences influence current perceptions, which can be understood as a
productive interplay when perception is constructed. This interaction is also conceivable for
the processes of integration and matching of current experiences and life events with the
previous "knowledge" or with the planning of future actions.
This seems particularly relevant for dream processes, for example when a "microworld" is
simulated in the dream, in which the experiences made in the wake state are set on stage
"offline" (see Moser & v. Zeppelin 1996) or when strong affects are woven in into more
everyday-like episodes (see E. Hartmann 2010).
Obviously, the consciousness network is heavily involved in the generation of dreams and
in influencing dream processes. It is already active while fallen asleep and during REM sleep.
The already mentioned wake-dream continuity hypothesis is important here. The content
of the dream life coincides largely with those of the waking life and speaking takes place in
dreams as complex and differentiated as in the wake state. Conversely, daydreams may
appear as fragmented as memories of dreams from the night (Foulkes & Scott 1973).

A Predominantly Active Network

These earlier findings from controlled studies are consistent with the results of a predo-
minantly active network while being conscious in the waking state. There are also parallels
between the activities of this consciousness network and the neurophysiological processes
during dream production. Andrews-Hanna et al. (2010) conclude that people tend to deal with
self-relevant, important internal cognitions that are mostly taking up past or future relevant
events, when being either undisturbed or showing no focused directed attention. These
findings are also well compatible with psychoanalytic dream concepts of processing of past
experiences and with the simulation of future relationship patterns (Moser 1999).
Neurophysiological evidence has also recently emerged from the discovery of the so-called
"concept cells" (Quiroga 2012). These isolated cells, formerly known as "Jennifer Aniston
neurons," could be detected in the human temporal lobe and could be linked to highly specific
contents of the declarative memory.
Quiroga assumes that these rare, explicit and often abstract representations that are
"contained" in these neurons are also involved in associative processes and in the trans-
formation or merge of similar concepts into episodic memories. The medial temporal lobes
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are assumed to contribute primarily to the creation, consolidation and recall of declarative
memory contents.
This correlative finding of neurophysiological brain research fits into the clinically
described reorganization and associative change processes during the integration of highly
affective, often traumatic memories into more everyday life (episodic) experiences and
memories. The declarative and specific content associated with the conceptual cells could be
an association reservoir for the transformation- and metaphorical change processes, which are
mainly characteristic for dreaming.
Until now, a clear separation between wake-state and sleep-state has been assumed, with
different sleep phases and states of consciousness. However, Nielsen (2000) demonstrated
that REM sleeping patterns can also be found in other sleep stages, albeit often hidden. The
fact that the transitions between the sleep stages are rather fluid and that different
consciousness processes can be entangled is also suggested by the investigations to lucid
dreaming.

Lucid Dreaming
Located in the borderland between waking state and sleep, EEG recordings of lucid
dreaming reveal to a large extent wave patterns which can be attributed to the wake state.
Psychologically speaking, a part of the conscious ego is active and can control the dreams.
This self-awareness in dreaming can also be induced experimentally (Voss et al., 2014). Two
different states of consciousness seem to exist simultaneously or interlaced.
While lucid dreaming takes place moments of self-awareness occur, in which not only the
dream is recognized as a dream, but also the possibility exists to control the identified dream
(or lucid dream) by conscious activity. Voss and her co-workers were able to generate this
double state of consciousness by experimentally stimulating the frontal cerebral region of
their subjects with impulses between 25 and 40 hertz. Subsequently, after awakening the test
persons reported more frequently of lucid dreams.
A further support for the assumption that different states of consciousness are active at the
same time and that the division of self-consciousness in the wake state and dreams in the
sleeping state must be questioned, was published by Tamami Nakano and her Japanese
Research team (Nakano et al. 2013).
People blink 15-20 times per minute, far more than would be necessary for the lubrication of the
cornea. This led to the hypothesis that short-term eye closure could be related to attention control and
internal processing. Nakano et al. demonstrated that when videos were watched by their subjects, the
default mode network was activated briefly during the blinking process. The attention directed at the
film was therefore interrupted briefly and unconsciously by activated, introspective processes.
Since at least parts of the default mode network are also active in the sleeping state or
while dreaming, the question arises as to whether internal processes are running "offline"
even parallel, if only for brief moments, during cognitive activities such as directed attention
in the waking state. Different impressions are connected and linked associatively, similar to
what has been describes as a feature for dream work.
This would mean that people are able to be active in different modes of consciousness at
the same time (simultaneously). The findings of Nakano et al. suggest that processes typical
for dreaming are already occurring during the day, in parallel and continuously to conscious
cognitive processes of the waking state. "Dreaming" would thus turn out to be a universal
process that cannot be limited only to periods of sleep.

Assessment
Today dreaming is understood as a multifunctional process (Fonagy et al., 2012, Pace-
Schott et al., 2003). The function of wish fulfilment, as described by Freud, is regarded as one
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of several dream functions. In addition, memory consolidation, problem solving, affect

regulation, coping with stress or conflict management are seen as further dream functions.
Dreams are also not finished products. The process of dreaming is not completed after
awakening. Dreams are constantly edited and changed. What is reported during psycho-
therapeutic treatments are selective products, which may not have much to do with what was
experienced during the night. If a dream is told a second time, it becomes clear that the dream
report has changed. Parts have been omitted, others have been added. The relationship to the
person to whom the dream is told plays also an important role in these change processes.

Dreams are Specific Psychological Products

Above all the extensive dream activity during sleep, the permanent continuous processing
of dreams already dreamed, and the serial processing of current conflicts and problems, make
it clear that the dreams reported in the treatment are highly specific psychological products
matching the current relationship context (Kächele & Deserno 2009). Besides this, working
with dreams itself has to be understood as part of the dream process, which influences the
recollection of dreams, the type and time of the dream report within the frame of the psycho-
analytic treatment as well as the joint interpretative work by the analyst and the patient.
An explanatory model of dreaming, which does not take into account the individual impor-
tance of dream content to the dreamer, remains incomplete, indicating the limits of the neuro-
physiological approaches and the cognitive-psychological investigations.
It is true that psychological studies have shown that dream content is influenced by life
events and, above all, by the concerns of a person; for the psychodynamic unconscious, as
conceived by Freud, however, no explanatory background or a structuring explanation of the
psychological meaning of dreams exist.

Interdisciplinary Collaboration is Lacking

Unfortunately, there is little interdisciplinary collaboration between cognitive psycho-
logists and psychoanalysts. Haskell (1986) even spoke of a "maginot line" between cognitive
psychology and psychoanalysis with regard to the psychodynamic unconscious, and argued
that the psychoanalytic concept of the dynamic unconscious is more of a hindrance than help-
ful for cognitive psychology.
Neurophysiological findings appear to be more relevant for psychoanalysis than the results
of cognitive-psychological dream research; they seem to be more compatible with psycho-
dynamic concepts such as that of the dynamic unconscious.
Even though cognitive-psychological research and the rich body of knowledge about the
formal possibilities of manifest dreaming might is of interest, progress in the understanding of
dream generation and dream functions was hindered by the rejection of a broader concept of a
dynamic unconscious, and instead of the restriction of the concept of the unconscious by a
descriptive phenomenological approach, accepting “measurable” dimensions only.
Cognition psychologists such as Domhoff (2002, 2005), Foulkes (1985), Hartmann (2008)
and Van de Castle (1996) investigated the symbolic language of the dream and come to the
result that most of the dreams seem rather banal.
This perspective is also supported by the investigations of Foulkes (1999). He had pointed
out the parallel cognitive and emotional development of waking state and dream state.
Thinking as a means of shaping the dream belongs to it as well as the sensual experiences; yet
thought processes in the dream are characterized more by simplicity and less sustainability
(Strauch and Meier 2004, p. 24).

"Top-down" Process
What is common to all is the perspective that dreaming is a kind of "top-down" process
that transforms an abstract, universal thought into concrete images. Content analyses of
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dreams reveal a continuity between the waking state and dream state (Foulkes, 1985). Emo-
tionality is related to dream content, and the dreams are characterized by individual affects
and actions (Domhoff 2002). There is a consistency of topics which appear in the dream and
can be observed over time (Bulkeley & Domhoff 2010).
The above mentioned aspects, as well as the activation of metaphors, are all features of the
waking state, which are transformed into the dream state and tend to prove the everydayness
of many dreams. The dream is thus understood as a linguistic process, which, as in the waking
state, works with metaphors, merging of concepts, and sometimes irony. Thereby the dream is
degraded to an epiphenomenon. Thus the "real" meaning only becomes apparent afterwards,
when the (life) situations prevailing in the waking life are interpreted. The dream itself, its
development and construction, therefore, is of no further importance.

Cognitive Oriented Dream Research

The problem with this kind of cognitive oriented dream research is that it refuses to accept
the psychoanalytic concepts of the concrete life experience as a prerequisite for a "day resi-
due" as well as the distinction between manifest and latent trauma or the investigation of indi-
vidual defenses or free associations following the dream.
Counting word numbers, certain emotions or content, with the aim of a good interrater
reliability, appears far from the attempts of the individual-centered complex work in the
treatment room, when past relationships experiences and current transference patterns are set
in relation to the content related understanding of dreams.
In contrast, the combination of cognitive-psychological research and neurophysiological
studies seems more fruitful for psychoanalysis. Solms (1997) uses findings from dreams of
NREM sleep stages for the detection of universal dream activity (cp. Foulkes 1962); This is
the reason why models get into serious explanative problems that attempt to devalue dreams
as meaningless processes which is based on a periodically cyclical recurrent processing of
neurophysiological states of arousal in the brain originating from the limbic system (Hobson
et al. 2000).

Neurophysiological Research
Neurophysiological research, on the other hand, produces findings which seem more inter-
esting for the psychoanalytic dream theory. For example, McNamara et al. have suggested
that neuroanatomic structures are selectively activated in the dream, and that REM sleep is a
necessary process to support biological attachment processes (McNamara et al. 2002).
The same brain systems (limbic system, amygdala) are activated both during attachment
processes as well as in REM sleep (Steklis & Kling 1985). However, the problem with most
neurophysiological studies is, that they often lead to simplistic assumptions and assume a
direct 1:1 relationship between physiological events and psychological experiences.
Often correlative relationships are confused with causal relationships. Because of the
intensity of psychological experience (for example anxiety), one seeks after appropriate
physiological activations, in a sense of an isomorphism, like in Hobson's AIM model (Hobson
2010). An individualized perspective is often lacking in the assessment of internal working
through processes.
Obviously, these neurophysiological models and their findings do not refer to unconscious
mental functioning. The psychoanalytic method, which is bound to the "light of conscious-
ness" without which we would be lost "in the dark of depth psychology" (Freud, 1933a, p.
76). It is interesting that Freud defined dream interpretations as “via regia” to the uncon-
scious:
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The dream is not "the unconscious," it is the form into which a thought superfluous from the
preconscious, or even from the consciousness of the awakening, could be overthrown by virtue of the
advantages of the sleeping state (1920a, pp. 164-165).
The royal road thus leads only to the unconscious. Based on the "specimen dream of
psychoanalysis" - the dream of Irma’s injection (1900a, chapter 2), Freud exemplified uncon-
scious psychic functions.
Nevertheless, the dialogue with both approaches is worthwhile as it helps to test, validate
or further develop the own models on dreaming. However, one must be aware that both
neurophysiological as well as cognitive psychological research are limited in that they run the
risk of underestimating or even ignoring the dream in its psychological significance for the
individual subject.

Present Psychoanalytic Dream Theory

For the present psychoanalytic dream theory, it is therefore necessary to take the newer
findings on dreams seriously into consideration, but at the same time to further develop the
clinical, individualized aspects of psychoanalytic dream research, otherwise important aspects
of dreaming remain unresolved.
Even if the dreamer alone is the inventor of his dream, he is nevertheless an unconscious,
non-knowing designer, since he neither can consciously choose the dream theme, nor can he
deliberately bring about the recollection of his dream.
In a comparative study Schott (1981) described Freud's path to dream interpretation. Even
if we are landing at the same starting point, since important postulates of the Freudian dream
theory and less of the dream interpretation process are still controversial, it must be stated that
physiological conditions on the one hand and psychological meanings on the other hand
belong to categorially different dimensions (cf. Fiss 1995).
In the future it is not to be expected that the proven practice of dream interpretation
developed by different psychotherapeutic schools will be influenced by the results of the
experimental dream research, since the dream in the therapeutic process has its own impor-
tance, even though the underlying dream theories have to be modified.
Over the past 60 years, systematic exploration of sleep and dreaming in the laboratory has
contributed much to the modification of our ideas of dreams and dreaming. It remains to be
demonstrated whether and how these results may influence on the practice of dream
interpretation. How psychoanalysts interpret dreams is still dependent on their theoretical
conceptions about the origin of the dreaming and about its functions.

5.7 Technique of Dream Interpretation

5.7.1 General Poins of View

With the concept of the dream as a means of self-representation, we would like to pave the
way for an expanded understanding of dreaming, which will lead us out of the irresolvable
contradiction inherent in wish theory. In latent dream thoughts and wishes we see
unconscious self elements which have a considerable share in the conflict and which also
contain a description of the problem, perhaps even an attempt at problem solving within the
dream. We also see the dreamer's ideas about himself, his body, his behavior patterns, etc.
The relationship between problem solving in the present and in the past, not only reveals
repressed wishes and conflicts, but also displays rehearsals of future actions. When the dream
is understood as self-representation in all its conceivable aspects, the analyst will be receptive
to what is most important to the dreamer and will measure the success of his interpretations
not only by how much they contribute to understanding how the patient currently functions,
but also, and more importantly, the extent to which the patient is able to acquire new and
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better ways of seeing things and to produce improved patterns of behavior.

Vitally important though the dreamer's past is, with all its obstacles to his development, his
life takes place in the here-and-now and is oriented toward the future. Dream interpretation
can contribute considerably to altering an individual's present and future.

Aspects of Memorizing Dreams and Narration of Dreams

Before we turn to dream interpretation in the stricter sense, we would like to raise a few
questions relating to the remembering of dreams and to the patient's dream reports. The
therapeutic usefulness of dreams is not, however, restricted solely to their interpretation with
the aid of associations, i.e., the revelation of the latent dream thought. Monchaux (1978)
regarded the function of dreaming and the reporting of dreams (in the sense of the
unconscious wish and defense in the transference relationship) as just as important for the
dreamer as the actual dream itself.
Let us begin with a practical question: Should we encourage patients to write out their
dreams, for instance directly upon waking? Freud (1911e) argued against this proposal, in the
belief that dreams are not forgotten when the basic unconscious content becomes capable of
being worked on. Abraham (1953 [1913]) shared this view, supporting it with an at times
amusing case history. Slap (1976) reports briefly how he requested a patient to record in
writing a part of one dream which she found very difficult to describe orally, and relates that
this course of action helped in understanding the dream.
The fact (which has often been critically noted) that a patient's dream reports bear or
acquire a distinct resemblance to his analyst's theoretical orientation is not evidence for the
analyst's theory, but for the fact that the patient and analyst influence each other. However,
Fischer and Kächele (2009) report an empirical study demonstrating that this resemblance
decreases as treatment progresses. The productivity of a patient with regard to his dream
reports is ,naturally, also largely determined by the way in which the analyst reacts to the
reports and to the extent, the patient feels that the analyst is interested. Thomä (1977) has
shown clearly that this congruence is not a result of therapeutic suggestion.
In order for a patient to report a dream, he must feel sufficiently secure in the therapeutic
relationship. In general, we have very few process studies on the frequency of dream
reporting and regularity of dream reports; we have studied a dream series of the first tape-
reccorded case Christian Y (Geist and Kächele 1979; Kächele and Deserno 2009) and a series of
dreams from our second tape-recorded case (Kächele and Leuzinger-Bohleber 2009). Hohage
and Thomä (1982) have given a brief account of the interplay between the transference
constellation and the patient's potential for concerning himself with dreams.
Grunert (1982) argues against the restrictions inherent in Freud's suggestion that
consideration of the manifest dream content alone, without including the dreamer's
associations, may be of no use in interpretation. She writes:
Contrary to Freud's practice, the analyst should not be afraid to give serious consideration to the
manifest imagery and events in the dream as well as to the accompanying or symbolized emotions and
affects” (p.206). It follows that he should interpret accordingly. (p.206)

5.7.2 Freud 's Recommendations and Later Extensions

After the numerous formulations of his advice on interpretation technique scattered

throughout The Interpretation of Dreams (1900a), Freud summarized his recommendations in
various publications. In Remarks on the Theory and Practice of Dream-lnterpretation (1923c,
p. 109) he wrote:
- In interpreting a dream during analysis a choice lies open to one between several
technical procedures.
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- One can (a) proceed chronologically and get the dreamer to bring up his associations
to the elements of the dream in the order in which those elements occurred in his account
of the dream. This is the original, classical method, which I still regard as the best if one is
analysing one's own dreams.
- Or one can (b) start the work of interpretation from one particular element of the
dream which one picks out from the middle. For instance, one can choose the most striking
piece of the dream, or the piece which shows the greatest clarity or sensory intensity; or,
again, one can start off from some spoken words in the dream, in the expectation that they
will lead to the recollection of some spoken words in waking life.
- Or one can (c) begin by entirely disregarding the manifest content and instead asking
the dreamer what events of the previous day were associated in his mind with the dream he
has just described.
- Finally, one can (d), if the dreamer is already familiar with the technique of
interpretation, avoid giving him any instructions and leave it to him to decide with which
associations to the dream he shall begin.
- I cannot say for certain that one or another of these techniques is more preferable or
will generally yield more favorable results.

These recommendations include all the essential elements of dream interpretation,

although the analyst has a great deal of latitude concerning relative importance and sequence
of application. The recommendations given 10 years later (1933a) are similar, but attach a
new importance to the day residue.
The analyst now has the material with which he can work. But how? Although the
literature on dreams has, in the meantime, grown to almost unmanageable proportions,
elaborate recommendations on interpretative techniques are rather rare.

French´s and Fromm´s Technique of Dream Interpretation

In light of their view on dreaming as problem solving, French and Fromm list three
conditions which interpretations should fulfill:
1. The various meanings of the dream should fit together.
2. They should fit the dreamer's emotional situation at the moment of dreaming.
3. It should be possible to reconstruct the thought processes in a way which is free of
contradictions.
French and Fromm (1964, p.66) describe these factors as the "cognitive structure" of the
dream, constituting the decisive test of the validity of the reconstruction and, thus, of the
interpretation. They emphasize that the ego in dreams not only has the task of solving
problems, but must also avoid too great an involvement in the focal conflict, which could
complicate problem solving. This avoidance should really be termed "distancing."
One well-established means of distancing is what French and Fromm call "deanimation": a
conflict with other people is de-emotionalized or technicized, to make it easier to find
solutions for the problem which now has the appearance of a merely technical obstacle.
"Cognitive structure of the dream" is the expression French and Fromm use to describe the
"constellation of intimately related problems" (p.94), in regard to the dreamer's current
everyday relationships, the relationship to the analyst, and the connection between these two.
Dream interpretation, like other forms of interpretation, must comprise three components:
a. the transference relationship,
b. the current external relationship,
c.and the historical dimension.
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This is necessary because the problem — a neurotic one — apparently cannot be solved by
the patient in all three of these areas. French and Fromm have been very rigorous in their
endeavor to come up with a recognizable, meaningful connection ("evidence") to the
material from the same (and previous) sessions. Gaps and contradictions have been useful
indicators that other, perhaps better hypotheses should be tested. Although they are by no
means opponents of intuition, they mistrust intuitive dream interpretation since it mostly
covers only one aspect of the dream and leads the analyst into the trap of the "Procrustean
bed" technique (1964, p.24), i.e., the temptation to fit the material to the hypothesis, and
not vice versa. The consideration of isolated aspects, is in their view, the most common
reason for differences of opinion in dream interpretation.
Their call for analysis of several dreams, in order, to achieve historical interpretations
(p.195) is interesting. Other authors have also urged investigation of series of dreams (e.g.,
Greenberg and Pearlman 1975; Cohen 1976; Greene 1979); however, as often happens in
psychoanalytic circles, there are more recommendations than actions.

Requirements
To ensure complete clarity we would like to list again the requirements which French and
Fromm believe dream interpretation should fulfill:

1. The various meanings of a dream must fit together.

2. They must ft the dreamer's emotional situation "at the moment of dreaming."
3. Beware of taking a part for the whole.
4. Beware of the Procrustean bed technique.
5. Two steps: a) current problem b) similar historical problem (remember the
transference aspect).
6. Testability: reconstruction of the cognitive structure of the dream, contradictions as
important indicators for new ideas (analogy: puzzles).
7. Several dreams are necessary for historical interpretations.

Lowy (1967) draws attention to one restriction on interpretation activity: he does not
interpret aspects which would be helpful and supportive for the dreamer. This corresponds
roughly to the technique of not interpreting mild, positive transference before it turns into
resistance. He warns urgently against making over-hasty interpretations:
The suppressing capacity of unconsidered interpretations is real, and this may result in depriving the subject
of needed explicit experiencing of certain self-created figures and scenes. (p.524)
A frequent subject of discussion is symbol interpretation, which occupies a special position
because of the general validity of symbols. However, this position is relativized by Holt's
(1967) illuminating definition of symbols as a special form of displacement. He argues that
symbols are to be treated as displacements of another kind:
I propose, therefore, that we consider symbolism a special case of displacement, with the following
characteristics: a symbol is a socially shared and structuralized displacement-substitute. The first
characteristic, its being used by a large number of people, implies the second one and helps explain it:
if any particular displacement-substitute were a purely ad hoc, transitory phenomenon, one would
indeed have to assume some kind of "racial unconscious" or other type of pre-established harmony to
account for the fact that many people arrive at the same displacement. (p.358)
Associations are prerequisites and the basis for the analyst's interpretations. They are the
bricks which he uses to build his understanding of the dream and of the problem and to
construct his alternative solutions for the dreamer, and which constitute an important part of
what is termed the "context" of the dream. Sand (in an unpublished manuscript entitled "A
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Systematic Error in the Use of Free Association," 1984) has discussed the significance of the
"context" from the scientific point of view. Reis (1970) investigated the forms taken by free
association regarding dreams and used an actual case to illustrate the specific problem where
patients are sometimes unable to associate to any dreams in particular.
Freud (1916/17) postulates a quantitative relationship between resistance and the
requirement for associations necessary to understand a dream element:
Sometimes it requires only a single response, or no more than a few, to lead us from a dream
element to the unconscious material behind it, while on other occasions long chains of associations
and the overcoming of many critical objections are required for bringing this about. We shall conclude
that these differences relate to the changing magnitude of the resistance, and we would probably turn
out to be right. If the resistance is small, the substitute cannot be too far from the unconscious
material; but a greater resistance would mean that the unconscious material is greatly distorted and
that the path will be a long one from the substitute back to the unconscious material. (pp.116-117)

Free Association
It is in the field of dream interpretations that the technique of free association was particularly
consolidated and refined (see Sect.7.2). At the same time, the technique obtained its
theoretical foundation from the assumed inverse symmetry between the dream work and the
genesis of free associations. Thus, Freud (1900a, p.102) defines free association as
"involuntary ideas." The dream is perceived as the product of a regressive process through
which the dream thought is transformed into a visual image.
Freud assumed that a patient who free-associates on the couch is in a regression similar to
that of the dreamer. The patient is thus in a particularly favorable position to describe the
dream images and also interpret them. It can be demonstrated that psychoanalysts who
developed special concepts “transfer them on other topics like it is the case with Kohuts
theory of narcissism and its application in the idea of “self-state-dreams. Deserno (2002) uses
a dream of Freud´s self-analysis (“closet in the open”) and constructs, that Freud undergoing
analysis with Kohut (Lewin, Pontalis, Morgenthaler and others) would have been confrontes
with his narcissistic transference on Wilhelm Fließ. Peterfreund (1983) would have criticized
this as a stereotypical approach instead of a more adequate heuristic approach).

Theme-Centered Association
We use the expression "theme-centered association" to describe the associations which the
dreamer, prompted by the analyst, has concerning the individual elements of the dream; these
are the associations which characterize classical dream interpretation. Although theme-
centered association is still employed occasionally, with positive consequences for the
interpretative work, the literature contains few such analyses of dreams.
We are not ashamed to be old-fashioned in this respect, and do not believe that the patient's
freedom is restricted by the focused dream interpretation derived from theme-centered
association. Naturally, in theme-centered association too, the question soon arises as to which
of the patient's associations are still connected with the manifest dream, and, most
importantly, which are linked with his latent thoughts and his specific unconscious wishes.
However, the association resistance, albeit circumscribed, gives some indication of the path to
pursue in the context of the dream.
At this juncture we would like to mention just one further point, namely that the technique
of dream interpretation described by Freud as "classical" (1923c, p.109; see above) has almost
fallen into oblivion. Kris (1982) does not give a single example of this technique. He has a
comprehensive understanding of the method and the process of free association: it is a
common process whereby the dreamer attempts to express all his thoughts and feelings in
words, and the analyst, prompted by his own associations, helps him fulfill this task (pp.3,
22).
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The Intervention of the Analyst

The patient's ability to associate freely, or more freely, can be regarded as an expression of
inner freedom, and thus as a desirable goal of treatment. However, it is not the analyst's own
associations, or his evenly suspended attention as such, which help the patient to open up; the
essential factor is how the analyst arrives at useful interpretations and what effect these have
on the patient. Directly after every intervention — every interruption of the patient's flow of
words — the session becomes centered on this one theme. Even total absence of response to
an interpretation is a reaction which the analyst will note. The analyst's evenly suspended
attention then operates in a theme-centered fashion to the same degree as the patient centers
on one theme, i.e., reacts to his interventions rather than ignores them.
How the analyst derives his interpretations from the patient's associations, how he finds the
right words — in a nutshell, psychoanalytic heuristics — is not the subject of this section (see
Chap.8). The more varied the patient's associations are, and the more he goes into detail, the
more difficulty the analyst has in making his selection and also in justifying it on the basis of
patterns or configuration in the material. It is, therefore, expedient on the one hand to consider
what the patient is saying from the point of view of continuity — which of the last session's
themes is being continued today? — and on the other hand to regard the current session as a
unit — which problem is the patient trying to solve?

Primary and Secondary Associations

It seems to be useful dividing associations into "primary" and "secondary" in order to
arrive at the "transformation rules" the analyst wants to establish. The basis for the use of
association is the "correspondence postulate" which we mentioned above (Spence 1981,
p.387): the associations correspond to the dream thoughts because the regression during
association corresponds to the state of "benign regression" during sleep or when in love.
Primary associations are those which are causally linked to the dream; they lead to the
details of the dream. Secondary associations are those prompted by the dream itself; they lead
away from the dream. Because of the significance of this differentiation, and in order to show
his argument more clearly, we would like to quote Spence at some length:

1. We must partition the dreamer's associations into a primary set (the presumed causes of the
dream) and a secondary set (triggered by the dream as dreamt but having no significant relationship to
the creation of the dream). The primary associations should all come from about the same time period
in the patient's life as a working hypothesis, let us take the twenty-four hours preceding the dream. The
more restricted this time period, the more confidence we can have that we have identified truly
primary associations. If, on the other hand, we significantly increase the size of our search space (to
include, for example, the patient's total life), we, thereby, reduce the chances of finding anything
significantly related to the cause of the dream and increase the chances of capturing only secondary
associations.
2. We need to rewrite the primary associations as a minimum set of propositions. The purpose of
this step is to represent each association in some standard canonical form, making it easier for us to
discover the underlying similarity of the set and paving the way for a discovery of the rules of
transformation.
3. We have to reduce the causative propositions to a restricted set of one or more transformation
rules. Each rule (or rules), applied to the canonical proposition, should generate one or more of the
details of the actual dream; the complete set of rules, together with the full set of propositions, should
account for all details in the dream. Thus, at the end of this procedure, we will have reduced the
manifest dream to (a) a set of underlying propositions, and (b) a set of one or more transforming rules.
The transforming rules might share some of the same primary-process mechanisms. (1981, p.391)

Limitations of Interpretation
Spence's essential concern is to reduce the multiplicity of meanings which led Specht
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(1981) to ask how interpretation of dreams differs first from astrology and the interpretation
of oracles, and second from the schematic interpretation of symbols on which popular books
on dream interpretation are based. Let us address first the criticism of arbitrariness, which
appears to receive support even from within our own ranks. Waelder (1936), discussing
theories of neurosis, writes:
If one were to unearth such possible theories - theories which view the neurosis as the simultaneous
solution of three or more problems — and in addition to consider the possibility of subordinating one
problem to the other, the number of such theories of the neurosis would reach many tens of thousands.
(p.55)
A little later, he continues:
Finally, we may look for the operation of this principle even in dream life; the dream is the sphere
wherein over-determination was originally discovered. Nevertheless, the general character of dreams
remains the reduction of the psychic experience as well in relation to its content (receding of the
superego and of the active problems of the ego) as in relation to the way of working (substitution of
the manner of working of the unconscious for the manner of working of the conscious in attempted
solutions) and finally in the chronological sense (receding of the actual in favor of the past).
In consideration of all these reduction or regression developments which mean a change in the
problems and a reversion in the specific methods of solution from the manner of working of the
conscious to the manner of working of the unconscious, the dream phenomena can also be explained
through the principle of multiple function. Every occurrence in the dream appears then likewise in
eightfold function or clearly in eight groups of meaning. The distinction of the dream is characterized
only through the change or the shifting of the problems and through the relapse in the manner of
working. (pp.58-59, emphasis added)

Implicit in this is that if several factors are taken into account, the number of possible
interpretations of a dream runs, as a matter of principle, into the "tens of thousands." The
dream is thus a "concentration" of many different endeavors and has an infinite number of
potential meanings. According to Specht (1981), however, the possible tentative
interpretations of a dream are not unlimited.
The German philosopher and psychoanalyst Specht formulates and tests a theory of
dream interpretation, referring to the "indistinct horizon" of psychoanalytic concepts and
interpretation rules (p. 776). He proposes, in conformity with similar problems of scientific
theory, that "dream interpretations should also be comprehended as recommendations and not
as descriptive statements" (p.783). He proposes understanding the dream in the sense of the
assumed wish, even if the dreamer is not aware of the wish.
He defines a wish as "a tendency, founded in the concrete life situation, which the dreamer
has not yet been able to accept" (p. 784). He works with the concept of "antecedent
constellation" (p.765), by which he means "the psychic situation preceding the dream."
Following Roland (1971), he emphasizes — like Sand (see above) but independently — the
decisive importance of the "relevant context." Both concepts — rightly, we believe — leave
the temporal dimension entirely open, so that both the day residue and traumas occurring
decades earlier can be included.
Specht comes to the conclusion that the possibilities for dream interpretation are limited by
(I) the rules of interpretation, (2) the dreamer's free associations, and (3) the number of wishes
which are anchored in the antecedent constellation and which are prevented (by
countermotives, which remain to be specified) from attaining the level of conscious
awareness.
If in the majority of the dreams, no correspondence can be determined between the
possible tentative interpretations for a dream and the wishes anchored in the antecedent
constellation, Specht would reject the theory as false. "The theory of dreams is thus in
principle falsifiable, in sharp contrast to the interpretation of oracles" (p.775).

Criteria for scientific Dream Interpretation

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He lays down the following criteria for scientific dream interpretation:

1. Description of the antecedent constellation

2. Application of the rules of interpretation
3. Reporting of the patient's free associations
4. Description of the countermotives (with psychogenesis?)
5. Consideration of various dream wishes
6. Justification of the choice of the "right" interpretation
7. Elaboration into interpretations
8. Their effect (taking account of the criteria for the "right” interpretation — among
others, the emergence of new material)
In disputes over scientific theory, we should not allow ourselves to forget that dream
interpretation has a practical origin in the patient's wish for such interpretation (Bartels 1979):
he wants to close the breach between his dreams and his conscious life, in order to preserve
his identity (Erikson 1954).