ABSTRACT
Distortion is the term used by Freud to refer to the process of disguise or dissimulation which occurs before unconscious and preconscious material can gain access to consciousness in the form of a manifest dream. In the dreams of young children distortion may be minimal, the dreams being 'simple and undisguised wish-fulfilments'. When anxiety is avoided by successful distortion of the repugnant material, sleep can continue undisturbed. Distortion in dreams becomes necessary because it is a function of the censorship 'to prevent the generation of anxiety or other forms of distressing affect'. Distortion can occur at all stages in the formation of a dream and even in the attempt to remember the manifest dream after waking. The forgetting of dreams, as well as difficulties in the interpretation of them, arises from the continuing resistance of the censorship which was responsible for the distortion in the first place.
