ABSTRACT
Freud considered affects in dreams as one of the most reliable means towards the understanding of the meaning of dreams, since they undergo less modification than the ideational content of dream-thoughts, and are less influenced by the censorship. The detachment of affects from the ideational material which generated them is the most striking thing which occurs to them during the formation of dreams; but it is neither the only nor the most essential alteration undergone by them on their path from the dream-thoughts to the manifest dream. For the sake of clarity, the qualitative and quantitative changes undergone by affects in dreams are discussed separately. Freud ascribes the quantitative reduction of affect to three possible causes, namely, the state of sleep itself, the censorship, and the inhibitory effect of contradictory affects. In the case of intense affects of a distressing nature which threaten to overwhelm the censor anxiety may be developed and lead to awakening.
