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1 results

  • 3 - The Interpretation of Dreams (1900), Chapter VII

  • from Part I - The Interpretation of Dreams (1900)
  • Susan Sugarman, Princeton University, New Jersey
  • Book:
    Freud’s <i>Interpretation of Dreams</i>
    Published online:
    18 November 2022
    Print publication:
    01 December 2022, pp 61-79

  • Summary

    In his final chapter, Freud tries to show that his dreams theory follows from larger principles about the way our minds work.

    Wish-fulfillment, he argues, is a very old function, embodied, even, by the nervous system, which operates to discharge excitation. Dreaming, as psychically primitive, realizes that function, and only that function. It is set in motion by a wish that, if unattended, would wake us. A dream, fulfilling such a wish, allows us to sleep on. It hallucinates the fulfillment, hallucination of the mental equivalent of a reflex, serving the purpose of discharging an irritant.