The Psychoanalytic Theory of Dreaming—1968

The psychoanalytic theory of dreaming is distinguished from the psychoanalytic theory of dreams in that the former concerns the processes of dream formation and the latter those of dream interpretation. Freud's theory of dreaming originates in 1) observations of spontaneously recalled and reported dreams, 2) extrapolations from dream interpretations, 3) analogies supplied by the theory of symptom formation, 4) assumptions regarding the nature of sleep made prior to the discovery of electroencephalographic (EEG) sleep monitoring methods and 5) Freud's prior commitment to an energic instinct theory. Recent theoretical refinements and empirical findings about each of these sources (most notably, increased knowledge of the neurophysiology of sleep) suggest the following tentative revisions in the psychoanalytic theory of dreaming. 1) Dreaming is the augmentative response of the human psyche to the distinctive neurophysiological conditions of the mammalian D-state. 2) Wish fulfillment is a consequence rather than a cause of dreaming. 3) Symbolic transformation is the general function of the dream work, with distortion as a possible retrospective waking appraisal of specific transformations. 4) Day residue may perform both organizing and organized functions in the processes of dream formation. 5) The ubiquitous and distinctive conditions of the D-state (“dreaming sleep”), especially increased visual and cortical activity and diminished muscle tonus, may be conducive to an equally distinctive set of psychological relations between the preconscious and conscious systems. 6) Dreaming may serve both adaptive and cathartic psychological functions.