ABSTRACT
The question of why we dream and how dreams are created has fascinated people through the centuries. The conscious system copes in very limited ways with highly emotional experiences; the deep unconscious system responds far more extensively, and knowingly, as well. The transformation subsystem, then, stands fast at the exit gate of the deep unconscious system. It is a protective mechanism, guaranteeing that with few and unusual exceptions, none of the raw and extremely painful images that are processed and dealt with in the deep unconscious system will emerge directly in the realm of conscious experience. Disguise, or symbolism, is the other mechanism that safeguards the reports from the deep unconscious system. A particular person or event is represented by someone else or even by some other experience. This is not the same thing as displacement, which simply transfers an experience from one arena to another.
