WE have already seen that a repressed impulse or complex may find a way out for itself in some disguised form. For example, we may recall the woman who was jilted by the shoemaker, and who constantly made movements similar to those involved in cobbling shoes; or the father complex that revealed itself through excessive irritability in small matters.

The theory that dreams are a means by which repressed wishes are fulfilled is the part of Freud's work which has perhaps attracted most attention; and, as we have seen, the analysis of dreams has actually led to the discovery of lost memories, and of the existence of severe mental conflict and repressions. Unfortunately, Freud allows himself to make very sweeping generalisations in reference to dreams. Some of these generalisations, it is true, appear much more reasonable when Freud's view is thoroughly considered. For example, at first we are astonished at Freud's assertion that "the dream never deals with the trivial," for dreams constantly appear to be concerned with most trivial affairs. Now this is true of what is obvious in the dream„ which Freud calls the manifest content." He claims, however, that it has a deeper meaning, a latent content which is not trivial. In some dreams, as we have already seen, this does seem to be the case; deeper significance can be found through analysis, by getting associations or interpreting symbols. But we have no proof that all dreams are thus significant, or that the unconscious is always expressing itself in the dream. And, indeed, we shall see later that even the latent content of some dreams, their significance when the symbols and associations are interpreted, is still somewhat trivial.

Again, Freud says that all dreams have ultimately a sexual significance; yet some of the dreams which he himself gives are concerned with quite other things.

He asserts that dreams are ultimately traceable, in part, at least, to the experiences of childhood, which again seems too sweeping, though certainly the very great influence which early experiences may have upon the mental life of adults does seem to betray itself occasionally in their dreams. Finally, Freud, in his book "Traumdeutung," made the assertion that all dreams are the fulfilment of wishes more or less repressed, except in the case of some dreams of infants. This is not so absurd as it seems at first, because, in the first place, a careful analysis of some dreams shows their significance to be quite different from what we at first imagine; and it is still more credible if we hold, with Freud, that the unconscious indulges in many "wishes" which we should indignantly repudiate as not being genuine or even possible wishes of our own. Dreams, which are the obvious fulfilment of wishes, are characterised as infantile, being typical of the dreams of childhood, though occurring also in adults. There is, I think, no doubt that some dreams cannot be explained as the obvious or disguised fulfilment of either repressed or unrepressed wishes, and Freud even gives some examples himself in the "Traumdeutung."*

In view of these extreme generalisations, it is curious to find Freud writing in his introductory chapter that in the analysis of the dream life we are reminded at every step that it is inadmissible to frame general rules "without qualifying these by such terms as "frequently," "as a rule," "in most cases."

* Mr. Flugel informs me that Freud has more recently abandoned the view that all dreams are the fulfilment of repressed wishes.

Perhaps we may best interpret Freud's doctrine of dreams by saying that, just as in day-dreams we let the mind wander and imagine our wishes came true, so in our actual dreams the repressed wishes in the unconscious self, of which we may be quite unaware, have free play. These are normally kept in check in waking life by what Freud calls the "censor" - an aspect of mental activity whose work includes that of the conscience, and also of a judgment of value, inhibiting the unpleasant. In sleep, the censorship is supposed to be relaxed, and the repressed impulses and thoughts have their opportunity; and yet it is not entirely relaxed, so that even in sleep, repressed wishes may have to find their satisfaction in some disguised form, often through mysterious symbols.

Freud based this theory of dreams on the analysis of large numbers of the dreams of his patients and of others, and on the inter-connections between these dreams and important elements of their waking life; and this view of dreams has been generally acclaimed as one of the most original parts of Freud's work. It is, however, anticipated in a striking way in Plato's "Republic." Freud refers* to Plato's view that the virtuous man "contents himself with dreaming that which the wicked man does in actual life," but I believe he nowhere shows a knowledge of the following passage in the "Republic"+: "Some of the unnecessary pleasures and appetites are, if I mistake not, unlawful; and these would appear to form an original part of every man; though, in the case of some persons, under the correction of the laws and the higher appetites aided by reason, they either wholly disappear, or only a few weak ones remain; while, in the case of others, they continue strong and numerous.

The Censor.

"And pray, what are the appetites to which you refer?

"I refer to those appetites which bestir themselves in sleep; when, during the slumbers of that other part of the soul, which is rational and tamed and master of the former, the wild animal part, sated with meat and drink, becomes rampant, and, pushing sleep away, endeavours to set out after the gratification of its own proper character.

Plato's View of Dreams.

* Traumdeutung, English translation, p. 493. +Republic, 571.

You know that in such moments there is nothing that it dares not do, released and delivered as it is from any sense of shame and reflection."