ABSTRACT
In the preceding chapter we learned that the manifest content of the dream is formed from the unconscious dream-thoughts by the operation of certain techniques or processes which were designated by the not altogether satisfactory name of “Mechanisms.” Now, the same or similar mechanisms participate in like manner in the formation of still other phenomena which occur in consciousness but have origin in the unconscious processes. Chief among these are the neurotic symptoms. These mechanisms likewise play a rôle in the mental activities of even the most normal people, on the one hand, and in the abnormal productions of the insane, on the other. They are not in themselves abnormal though they take part in the formation of all sorts of psycho-pathological manifestations.
