Chapter two: The method of interpreting dreams and
analysis of a specimen
dream
(¶ 2.4)
The second of ... two popular methods of dream-interpretation ... might be
described as the cipher method, since it treats the dream as a kind of
secret code
in which every sign is translated into another sign of known
meaning, according to an established key. For example, I have dreamt of a
letter, and also of a funeral or the like; I consult a "dream-book," and I
find that "letter" is to be translated by "vexation" and "funeral" by
"engagement." It now remains to establish a connection... The essential
point ... in this procedure is that the
work of interpretation is not applied to the entirety of the dream,
but to each portion of the dream-content severally, as though the
dream were a conglomerate in which each fragment calls for special
treatment.
(¶ 2.7) For years I have been occupied with the resolution of certain
psycho-pathological structures-
hysterical
phobias,
obsessional
ideas, and
the like- with therapeutic intentions. I have been so occupied, in fact,
ever since I heard the significant statement of Joseph Breuer, to the
effect that in these structures, regarded as morbid symptoms, solution and
treatment go hand in hand.
Where it has been possible to trace a
pathological idea back to those elements in the psychic life of the patient
to which it owed its origin, this idea has crumbled away, and the patient
has been relieved of it.
In view of the failure of our other therapeutic
efforts, and in the face of the mysterious character of these pathological
conditions, it seemed to me tempting, in spite of all the difficulties, to
follow the method initiated by Breuer until a complete elucidation of the
subject had been achieved. I shall have occasion elsewhere to give a
detailed account of the form which the technique of this procedure has
finally assumed, and of the results of my efforts.
In the course of these
psycho-analytic
studies, I happened upon the question of
dream-interpretation. My patients, after I had pledged them to inform me of
all the ideas and thoughts which occurred to them in connection with a
given theme, related their dreams, and thus taught me