Dream Work: A Psychoanalytic Perspective ______________________________________________________
critics and supporters alike have evolved from Freud’s scien- tific approach to the study of dreams, an approach that was influenced by Charles Darwin, Ernst von Brücke, and other great scientific minds.
With experience in private practice in hand, Freud began lecturing and writing on the origin and treatment of psycho- neuroses and hysteria. In an 1896 presentation for Vienna’s Society of Psychiatry and Neurology, he confidently announced that all hysterias are founded in repression, always with a sexual content. Expanding this argument, Freud declared that hysteri- cal illnesses originate with a passive sexual experience (i.e., a seduction) that occurs before puberty, usually at 3 or 4 years of age. He based his conclusion on 13 successful cases, all care- fully documented. He stated that students of hysteria are like explorers discovering the remains of an abandoned city, and when obscured inscriptions (i.e., clients’ repressed memories and feelings) can be uncovered and read, then the truth and symptom relief will follow. Freud found much criticism and little support for this assertion, however. Dismayed, angered, and discouraged, Freud experienced a period of pessimism. He continued treating neurotic clients successfully and maintained his belief in the sexual origin of their illnesses. Bolstered by Fliess and spurred by his own practice of observation and common sense, Freud eventually re-examined his initial conclusions and found a deeper truth. He recognized that his clients’ reports were serious but not literal communications, and he began to listen more intently. He came to read these reports as messages that were coded: distorted, censored, and meaningfully disguised [11]. Helping his clients to discover and meaningfully illuminate these unconscious activities formed the basis for Freud’s theory of the mind. Spurred by the death of his father in 1896, Freud began an intense self-analysis. He knew that what he was learning from his work with clients revealed information basic to all human psychologic development, and he realized that his own develop- ment could be no exception. Armed with the same objectivity that he brought to dissections in von Brücke’s laboratory, Freud analyzed his dreams, his physical symptoms, his inhibitions, and his wishes. In this way, he became a model for future psy- choanalysts and set the standard for competency: to analyze, one must first submit to analysis. FREUD’S APPROACH TO DREAMS Freud’s approach to dreams includes the assertion that their meanings are hidden; they are disguised expressions of sup- pressed wishes [1; 2]. Exploring unconscious mental activity was at the heart of Freud’s approach. In his view, dreams are the direct result of unconscious activity that helps determine a dream’s production and its final form. It is by uncovering these unconscious thoughts that a dream’s meaning can be revealed, a process that requires the dreamer to willingly suspend self- criticism and censorship. Censorship is the agency that watches critically during sleep, rejecting many thoughts and forbidding expression. It regulates which thoughts and wishes are permitted to reach conscious- ness. Wishfulness is the psychologic agency that presses for expression against censorship. A third psychologic agency, the
A HISTORY OF FREUD AND THE PSYCHOANALYTIC TRADITION
Freud was an accomplished neurologist with 28 publications to his credit before he began psychoanalytic work, but in spite of his achievements, he was frustrated in his efforts to gain an appointment as full professor at the University of Vienna. He was Jewish, and anti-Semitism stifled academic and professional advancement in 19th century Vienna. Eager to marry, and pressed by financial responsibilities, Freud needed a reliable income. His colleagues advised private practice. Unprepared for clinical work, however, he returned to study, traveling to Paris to work under renowned neurologist and psychiatrist Jean Martin Charcot. Charcot was a commanding and masterful teacher, challeng- ing prevailing theories of the day. In an era when hysterical symptoms were dismissed as a form of malingering, Charcot experimented, and obtained remarkable results, with hypnosis. He recognized hysteria as a real ailment afflicting both men and women. His methods also demonstrated that hypnotic states were genuine phenomena that could be used to heal otherwise intractable complaints. Charcot insisted that everything about his clients’ hypnotic reactions was significant, including a pecu- liar “magnetic passion” developed for the hypnotist. (Freud eventually understood and named this behavior, transference, one of the most powerful of psychoanalytic phenomena.) What interested Freud most about Charcot, however, was his confi- dence in plain, observable facts as opposed to dogma. Charcot taught Freud that the “scientist’s submissive obedience to facts is not the adversary, but the source and servant of theory” [11]. Returning from Charcot’s clinic in 1886, Freud began a practice in neuropathology. With it began discoveries that would change the scientific understanding of human behavior. Like any young physician, Freud looked to established col- leagues, such as Josef Breuer, for referrals. Breuer was a reputable neurologist (credited with discovering the role of the vagus nerve in controlling respiration) who, like Freud, had abandoned the laboratory for private practice. Breuer and Freud also shared interests in psychopathology. Their 1895 publication Studies On Hysteria introduced the cathartic “talking cure,” which gradually evolved into psychoanalysis. Another physician friend, Wilhelm Fliess, became increasingly important to Freud. Fliess (an ear, nose, and throat specialist) was indispensable to Freud, especially as Freud was writing The Interpretation of Dreams . Fliess had a sound understanding of Freud’s theories as well as an appreciation for psychologic themes common across cultures. Freud prized Fliess’ ability to accept as scientific evidence all types of human behavior, including folklore, legends, and dreams [11].
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