ABSTRACT
In ‘Two Principles of Mental Functioning’ [1911b] Freud speaks of a capacity for attention as associated with the development of the reality principle; he did not follow up this theme. The name seems peculiarly appropriate to a phenomenon I wish to discuss, but I am loath to take over and possibly distort any scientific term already serving a useful function. For this reason I have discarded the term, ‘dreamwork’, which in some respects covered a number of phenomena bearing an apparent similarity to those I wished to discuss. I considered employing some term such as ‘dream-work-α’, or simply ‘α’, but the first only obviated some of the objections implicit in the use of ‘dream-work’, and the second, though avoiding too strong a penumbra of already-existing associations, erred on the side of being too abstract. The term, ‘reverie’, had many virtues but carried an implication of divorce from practicality or action, which was alien to my purpose. I hope to avoid a greater number of the possible objections than is possible in the use of any other terms I have considered by using the term, ‘attention’. The word does not seem to have been used sufficiently by Freud to make my use of it liable to debase a meaning it already has and so to destroy precision. At the same time it is possible that my use of it may be a legitimate extension of an opening for investigation which Freud made but did not follow up.
