Conversations

• Irma Dream References by Vic Comello, 4/8/99
  • Thank You, Vic. Please Go On by Doug W, 4/9/99
    
    

Freudian theory was in a constant state of development. That was particularly true in the early years, when he was trying to root his psychological notions in physiological concepts. That effort came to a crescendo a few months after the Irma dream, with his Project for a Scientific Psychology.

It's a little hard to tell at this point how detailed this discussion will get. If it gets very detailed, I will want to discuss his theory as it existed at the time of the Irma dream, which would lead to confusion, I feel, if I detailed his later theory as well. Feel free to bring up aspects of Freudian dream theory whenever you wish in reacting to what I might say. I will make no use of it. As far as I am concerned, Freud's id is a fiction. This will be an entirely rational concept of dreaming, because dreams are entirely rational in themselves, I feel. When one encounters a seemingly chaotic phenomenon such as dreams, one can either posit a chaotic cause or take the position that their irrationality is an appearance due to incomplete analysis. I take the latter position, although I can certainly understand how someone could think otherwise.

As for what I am doing--I have developed this theory in isolation and therefore feel I have no way of gauging how other people will react to aspects of it. So I welcome comments, criticisms, alternate points of view, etc, by way of valuable feedback. That was the spirit in which the Black Box posts were offered, too.

As for the conversation at Joe Weiss's home, it involved Jessica, her physicist husband, their son, Joe, and his wife. Not surprisingly, it didn't go into any subject in any great detail. Joe did mention, however, that dreams are sometimes dreamed to be remembered, and offered a soldier's blissful dreams as an example.

The quote below goes into that subject in more detail than was discussed. It also touches upon Freud's dream theory. The quote is from "The Psychoanalytic Process," by Weiss and Harold Sampson.

"Immediately after capture a soldier typically produced traumatic dreams in which he relived the circumstances of his capture. However, after prolonged internment (in which the soldiers were treated badly) he produced blissful dreams of gratification, of power, or of being serene.

The theory presented in The interpretation of Dreams is able to some extent to explain the captured soldiers production of blissful dreams, but it cannot explain it completely. The theory of The interpretation of Dreams assumes that dreams are produced when powerful unconscious wishes that cannot find gratification in action find gratification instead in hallucinatory wish fulfillment. That theory assumes, moreover, that the process by which dreams are formed (the flowback of excitation to perception) is regulated automatically by the pleasure principle without regard for the dreamer's unconscious beliefs or his unconscious assessments of his current reality. That theory accounts well for the content of the captured soldier's blissful dreams. A soldier, after a prolonged and tortured stay in prison camp, no doubt felt intensely deprived and frustrated. He no doubt longed to be gratified, powerful, or serene. He could not satisfy this wish in reality. He could satisfy it in his dreams by depicting it as fulfilled.

The theory presented in The Interpretation of Dreams, however, cannot account for the observation that a soldier did not produce blissful dreams either before his capture or after he had escaped. The soldier in the field who was in danger of being captured should have had as strong a wish to be gratified, powerful, or serene as the soldier after his capture, yet he produced not blissful dreams but warning dreams.

Moreover, both the content and the timing of the captured soldier's blissful dreams are well explained by the concept that the dreamer (or his ego) regulates the production of dreams and does so for an adaptive purpose. The dreamer, according to my formulation, assesses his situation. He concludes that he cannot change it; his fate has been taken out of his hands, so that he has nothing to lose by temporarily relinquishing any efforts to further his cause. The dreamer then decides to permit a blissful dream. He carries out a policy of denial. By producing such a dream, the dreamer not only denies his present situation, he offers himself consolation and a measure of hope. The decision of the dreamer to produce such a dream is adaptive, and its value does not depend on the dreamer's conscious understanding of it."

• Help! I Want to Participate, but Where to Start? by Doug W., 4/13/99