Sigmund Freud: Die Traumdeutung (The Interpretation of
Dreams) 1899
Repression occurs when there is a clash between an individual’s
repressed wishes and his social conscience: a clash between
what Freud calls the Real-Ich (the socially and morally upright
person) and the Lust-Ich (the desiring self that is repressed /
censored by the Real-Ich).
Our social conscience is less powerful when we are sleeping,
thus repression is weaker. In the dream, our unconscious wishes
become conscious in a distorted form, thus the dream allows us
access to our unconscious desires:
“…a dream is a (disguised) fulfilment of a (suppressed or
repressed) wish”. (Freud)
How does the dream convert morally unacceptable desires into
something more “acceptable”?
 Symbolization: things, persons, activities are turned into
symbols that stand for these things, persons and activities
(the wound; the worms; the groom; the house; the pig-sty)
 Displacement: displacing an idea concerning one person
onto another (the doctor and the groom)
 Condensation: taking a number of ideas and blending them
together in a single image (Rosa / Rose)