ABSTRACT
It has so far been my object to consider the processes or, as they are sometimes called, the mechanisms of the dream, the processes by which mental conflicts, wishes, anxieties or other states find expression in sleep. I have described and given examples of such processes as symbolisation, dramatisation and condensation through which these mental states receive concrete representation in the dream. I have tried to find how far we are justified in accepting a process of displacement as a fourth element in the dream-work, and have considered how far we can ascribe to this and the other elements of the dream-work the function of disguise and distortion in the interests of the continuance of sleep. The conclusion to which I have been led is that the special character of the dream is not due, as Freud supposes, to the activity of a process of censorship leading to a distortion of the real meaning of the dream, so that this meaning shall not be recognised by the dreamer, but is the result of the fact that the dream depends on the coming into activity in sleep of early modes of mental functioning. I have regarded the symbolisation and dramatisation of the dream as processes characteristic of childhood and youth, which come into activity in sleep, because more recent modes of mental functioning have passed into abeyance in sleep, with the consequent removal of the control which in the waking life they normally exert on older activities. From this point of view the dream may be regarded as a regressive state, including under the word all the earlier phases of mental development.
