Freud - Complete Works (142 page)

  
¹⁰
The
branch had long since come to stand for the male genital organ;
incidentally it also made a plain allusion to her family
name.

  
¹¹
This, as well as what next follows, related
to marriage precautions.

The Interpretation Of Dreams

817

   This dream, which I have brought
forward on account of its symbolic elements, may be described as a
‘biographical’ one. Dreams of this kind occur
frequently during psycho-analysis, but perhaps only rarely outside
it.¹

   I naturally have at my disposal a
superfluity of material of this kind, but to report it would
involve us too deeply in a consideration of neurotic conditions. It
all leads to the same conclusion, namely that there is no necessity
to assume that any peculiar symbolizing activity of the mind is
operating in the dream-work, but that dreams make use of any
symbolizations which are already present in unconscious thinking,
because they fit in better with the requirements of
dream-construction on account of their representability and also
because as a rule they escape censorship.

  
¹
[
Footnote added
1911:] A similar
‘biographical’ dream will be found below as the third
of my examples of dream-symbolism. Another one has been recorded at
length by Rank, and another, which must be read ‘in
reverse’, by Stekel (1909, 486).

The Interpretation Of Dreams

818

(E)

REPRESENTATION BY SYMBOLS IN
DREAMS

- SOME FURTHER TYPICAL DREAMS

   The analysis of this last,
biographical, dream is clear evidence that I recognized the
presence of symbolism in dreams from the very beginning. But it was
only by degrees and as my experience increased that I arrived at a
full appreciation of its extent and significance, and I did so
under the influence of the contributions of Wilhelm Stekel (1911),
about whom a few words will not be out of place here.

   That writer, who has perhaps
damaged psycho-analysis as much as he has benefited it, brought
forward a large number of unsuspected translations of symbols; to
begin with they were met with scepticism, but later they were for
the most part confirmed and had to be accepted. I shall not be
belittling the value of Stekel’s services if I add that the
sceptical reserve with which his proposals were received was not
without justification. For the examples by which he supported his
interpretations were often unconvincing, and he made use of a
method which must be rejected as scientifically untrustworthy.
Stekel arrived at his interpretations of symbols by way of
intuition, thanks to a peculiar gift for the direct understanding
of them. But the existence of such a gift cannot be counted upon
generally, its effectiveness is exempt from all criticism and
consequently its findings have no claim to credibility. It is as
though one sought to base the diagnosis of infectious diseases upon
olfactory impressions received at the patient’s bedside -
though there have undoubtedly been clinicians who could accomplish
more than other people by means of the sense of smell (which is
usually atrophied) and were really able to diagnose a case of
enteric fever by smell.

The Interpretation Of Dreams

819

   Advances in psycho-analytic
experience have brought to our notice patients who have shown a
direct understanding of dream-symbolism of this kind to a
surprising extent. They were often sufferers from dementia praecox,
so that for a time there was an inclination to suspect every
dreamer who had this grasp of symbols of being a victim of that
disease. But such is not the case. It is a question of a personal
gift or peculiarity which has no visible pathological
significance.

   When we have become familiar with
the abundant use made of symbolism for representing sexual material
in dreams, the question is bound to arise of whether many of these
symbols do not occur with a permanently fixed meaning, like the
‘grammalogues’ in shorthand; and we shall feel tempted
to draw up a new ‘dream-book’ on the decoding
principle. On that point there is this to be said: this symbolism
is not peculiar to dreams, but is characteristic of unconscious
ideation, in particular among the people, and it is to be found in
folklore, and in popular myths, legends, linguistic idioms,
proverbial wisdom and current jokes, to a more complete extent than
in dreams.

   It would therefore carry us far
beyond the sphere of dream-interpretation if we were to do justice
to the significance of symbols and discuss the numerous, and to a
large extent still unsolved, problems attaching to the concept of a
symbol.¹ We must restrict ourselves here to remarking that
representation by a symbol is among the indirect methods of
representation, but that all kinds of indications warn us against
lumping it in with other forms of indirect representation without
being able to form any clear conceptual picture of their
distinguishing features. In a number of cases the element in common
between a symbol and what it represents is obvious; in others it is
concealed and the choice of the symbol seems puzzling. It is
precisely these latter cases which must be able to throw light upon
the ultimate meaning of the symbolic relation, and they indicate
that it is of a genetic character. Things that are symbolically
connected to-day were probably united in prehistoric times by
conceptual and linguistic identity.²  The symbolic
relation seems to be a relic and a mark of former identity. In this
connection we may observe how in a number of cases the use of a
common symbol extends further than the use of a common language, as
was already pointed out by Schubert (1814).³ A number of
symbols are as old as language itself, while others (e.g.
‘airship’, ‘Zeppelin’) are being coined
continuously down to the present time.

  
¹
[
Footnote added
1911:] Cf. the works
of Bleuler and of his Zurich pupils, Maeder, Abraham], etc., on
symbolism, and the non-medical writers to whom they refer
(Kleinpaul, etc.). [
Added
1914:] What is most to the point
on this subject will be found in Rank and Sachs (1913, Chapter I).
[
Added
1925:] See further Jones (1916).

  
²
[
Footnote added
1925:] This view
would be powerfully supported by a theory put forward by Dr. Hans
Sperber (1912). He is of the opinion that all primal words referred
to sexual things but afterwards lost their sexual meaning though
being applied to other things and activities which were compared
with the sexual ones.

  
³
[
Added
1914:] For instance,
according to Ferenczi, a ship moving on the water occurs in dreams
of micturition in Hungarian dreamers, though the term
‘
schiffen
’ is unknown in that language. (See
also
p. 829 f.
 below.) In
dreams of speakers of French and other Romance languages a room is
used to symbolize a woman, though these languages have nothing akin
to the German expression
‘
Frauenzimmer
.’

The Interpretation Of Dreams

820

   Dreams make use of this symbolism
for the disguised representation of their latent thoughts.
Incidentally, many of the symbols are habitually or almost
habitually employed to express the same thing. Nevertheless, the
peculiar plasticity of the psychical material must never be
forgotten. Often enough a symbol has to be interpreted in its
proper meaning and not symbolically; while on other occasions a
dreamer may derive from his private memories the power to employ as
sexual symbols all kinds of things which are not ordinarily
employed as such. If a dreamer has a choice open to him between a
number of symbols, he will decide in favour of the one which is
connected in its subject-matter with the rest of the material of
his thoughts - which, that is to say, has individual grounds for
its acceptance in addition to the typical ones.

   Though the later investigations
since the time of Scherner have made it impossible to dispute the
existence of dream symbolism - even Havelock Ellis admits that
there can be no doubt that our dreams are full of symbolism - yet
it must be confessed that the presence of symbols in dreams not
only facilitates their interpretation but also makes it more
difficult. As a rule the technique of interpreting according to the
dreamer’s free associations leaves us in the lurch when we
come to the symbolic elements in the dream-content. Regard for
scientific criticism forbids our returning to the arbitrary
judgement of the dream-interpreter, as it was employed in ancient
times and seems to have been revived in the reckless
interpretations of Stekel. We are thus obliged, in dealing with
those elements of the dream-content which must be recognized as
symbolic, to adopt a combined technique, which on the one hand
rests on the dreamer’s associations and on the other hand
fills the gaps from the interpreter’s knowledge of symbols.
We must combine a critical caution in resolving symbols with a
careful study of them in dreams which afford particularly clear
instances of their use, in order to disarm any charge of
arbitrariness in dream-interpretation. The uncertainties which
still attach to our activities as interpreters of dreams spring in
part from our incomplete knowledge, which can be progressively
improved as we advance further, but in part from certain
characteristics of dream-symbols themselves. They frequently have
more than one or even several meanings, and, as with Chinese
script, the correct interpretation can only be arrived at on each
occasion from the context. This ambiguity of the symbols links up
with the characteristic of dreams for admitting of
‘over-interpretation’ - for representing in a single
piece of content thoughts and wishes which are often widely
divergent in their nature.

The Interpretation Of Dreams

821

   Subject to these qualifications
and reservations I will now proceed. The Emperor and Empress (or
the King and Queen) as a rule really represent the dreamer’s
parents; and a Prince or Princess represents the dreamer himself or
herself. But the same high authority is attributed to great men as
to the Emperor; and for that reason Goethe, for instance, appears
as a father-symbol in some dreams (Hitschmann, 1913.) - All
elongated objects, such as sticks, tree-trunks and umbrellas (the
opening of these last being comparable to an erection) may stand
for the male organ - as well as all long, sharp weapons, such as
knives, daggers and pikes. Another frequent though not entirely
intelligible symbol of the same thing is a nail-file - possibly on
account of the rubbing up and down. - Boxes, cases, chests,
cupboards and ovens represent the uterus, and also hollow objects,
ships, and vessels of all kinds. - Rooms in dreams are usually
women (‘
Frauenzimmer
’); if the various ways in
and out of them are represented, this interpretation is scarcely
open to doubt.¹ In this connection interest in whether the
room is open or locked is easily intelligible. (Cf. Dora’s
first dream in my ‘Fragment of an Analysis of a Case of
Hysteria’, 1905
e
.) There is no need to name explicitly
the key that unlocks the room; in his ballad of Count Eberstein,
Uhland has used the symbolism of locks and keys to construct a
charming piece of bawdry. - A dream of going through a suite of
rooms is a brothel or harem dream. But, as Sachs has shown by some
neat examples, it can also be used (by antithesis) to represent
marriage. - We find an interesting link with the sexual researches
of childhood when a dreamer dreams of two rooms which were
originally one, or when he sees a familiar room divided into two in
the dream, or
vice versa
. In childhood the female genitals
and the anus are regarded as a single area - the
‘bottom’ (in accordance with the infantile
‘cloaca theory’); and it is not until later that the
discovery is made that this region of the body comprises two
separate cavities and orifices. - Steps, ladders or staircases, or,
as the case may be, walking up or down them, are representations of
the sexual act.² - Smooth walls over which the dreamer climbs,
the façades of houses, down which he lowers himself - often
in great anxiety - correspond to erect human bodies, and are
probably repeating in the dream recollections of a baby’s
climbing up his parents or nurse. The ‘smooth’ walls
are men; in his fear the dreamer often clutches hold of
‘projections’ in the façades of houses. Tables,
tables laid for a meal, and boards also stand for women - no doubt
by antithesis, since the contours of their bodies are eliminated in
the symbols. ‘Wood’ seems, from its linguistic
connections, to stand in general for female ‘material.’
The name of the Island of ‘Madeira’ means
‘wood’ in Portuguese. Since ‘bed and board’
constitute marriage, the latter often takes the place of the former
in dreams and the sexual complex of ideas is, so far as may be,
transposed on to the eating complex. - As regards articles of
clothing, a woman’s hat can very often be interpreted with
certainty as a genital organ, and, moreover, as a
man’s
. The same is true of an overcoat [German
‘
Mantel
’], though in this case it is not clear
to what extent the use of the symbol is due to a verbal assonance.
In men’s dreams a necktie often appears as a symbol for the
penis. No doubt this is not only because neckties are long,
dependent objects and peculiar to men, but also because they can be
chosen according to taste - a liberty which, in the case of the
object symbolized, is forbidden by Nature.³ Men who make use
of this symbol in dreams are often very extravagant in ties in real
life and own whole collections of them. - It is highly probable
that all complicated machinery and apparatus occurring in dreams
stand for the genitals (and as a rule male ones - in describing
which dream-symbolism is as indefatigable as the
‘joke-work.’ Nor is there any doubt that all weapons
and tools are used as symbols for the male organ: e.g. ploughs,
hammers, rifles, revolvers, daggers, sabres, etc. - In the same way
many landscapes in dreams, especially any containing bridges or
wooded hills, may clearly be recognized as descriptions of the
genitals. Marcinowski has published a collection of dreams
illustrated by their dreamers with drawings that ostensibly
represent landscapes and other localities occurring in the dreams.
These drawings bring out very clearly the distinction between a
dream’s manifest and latent meaning. Whereas to the innocent
eye they appear as plans, maps, and so on, closer inspection shows
that they represent the human body, the genitals, etc., and only
then do the dreams become intelligible. (See in this connection
Pfister’s papers on cryptograms and puzzle-pictures.) In the
case of unintelligible neologisms, too, it is worth considering
whether they may not be put together from components with a sexual
meaning. -Children in dreams often stand for the genitals; and,
indeed, both men and women are in the habit of referring to their
genitals affectionately as their ‘little ones.’ Stekel
is right in recognizing a ‘little brother’ as the
penis. Playing with a little child, beating it, etc., often
represent masturbation in dreams. - To represent castration
symbolically, the dream-work makes use of baldness, hair-cutting,
falling out of teeth and decapitation. If one of the ordinary
symbols for a penis occurs in a dream doubled or multiplied, it is
to be regarded as a warding-off of castration. The appearance in
dreams of lizards - animals whose tails grow again if they are
pulled off - has the same significance. (Cf. the lizard-dream on
p. 525 f.
) - Many of the beasts
which are used as genital symbols in mythology and folklore play
the same part in dreams: e.g. fishes, snails, cats, mice (on
account of the pubic hair), and above all those most important
symbols of the male organ - snakes. Small animals and vermin
represent small children - for instance, undesired brothers and
sisters. Being plagued with vermin is often a sign of pregnancy. -
A quite recent symbol of the male organ in dreams deserves mention:
the airship, whose use in this sense is justified by its connection
with flying as well as sometimes by its shape.