§ 26. Concept and Classification of the Dream-Formations

§ 26. Concept and Classification of the Dream-Formations.

While every individual representation as such, that is, every image-datum of the dream, taken by itself, presents only a part of the dream-material to be linked together, it is many dream-images hanging together, interwoven with or beneath one another into a total fabric, that constitute what we understand by a "dream-formation," or by a dream-thought, which, in turn, corresponding to the period of thought in waking life, can expand itself into a multiplicity of branch-formations. It is, therefore, the manifold dream-thought, or the developed dream-period, that contains what "dream-formation in the full sense" means. In the life of the dream, however, very many psychic forces are active, and since, in the absence of the ego's spontaneity during sleep, each appears as a power of its own, each appears active in its own particular manner, and the dream-formations correspondingly set apart each represent the force particularly at work within them; hence there arise a multitude of variously constituted dream-formations. Each of these holds fast, together with its determinate cause, its determinate character of appearance as well, and since the effective forces of the dream remain the same, the character of appearance, too, becomes a typical one. The formative and lawful essence underlying each type of dream, however, is the "form of formation" of the dream-formation. If, now, there are many such formative forms present, each resting upon its own particular cause and hence each independent in itself, they stand in a coordinated relation to one another, and out of this there form the several genera of dream-formation, or, in short, the principal groups of dreams; while out of the essential particularizations of formation within the dream-genus arise the several species or subdivisions thereof. The entire realm of dream-formations accordingly falls into a multitude of genera and of species participating in them, and the question now arises, in what order are the various genera to be set forth? The determining ground for the constitution of the dream-genus was the particular formative force at work within it, which, according as it represented a higher or lower power of spirit, or, in general, psychic force (taken in the widest sense), bore within itself a greater or a lesser perfection. Accordingly, the dream-formations themselves divide into higher and lower, according to the more or less spiritual worth of the force at work within them; they must, therefore, be grouped in a progressive ascent from the lower to the higher. This, however, cannot be carried through in an absolute manner, because certain formative forces, low in spiritual worth, are combined with a very perfect mode of representation of the dream-formation, and thus contest the ideal worth of the operative formative force with their perfection of form, and thereby hold the balance against it; accordingly, while the ascending order from the lower to the higher worth of the formative force is essentially followed, a modification in the sense of the perfection of form must at the same time come into play. Next, we encounter, among the various kinds of dream-formation, the difficulty that, because the manifold psychic forces of the dream lack the spontaneous binding force of the ego, they also strive, in every kind of dream-formation, to steal in altogether together and to make themselves active jointly, so far as they have energy; hence we find, in most dreams, a mixture of the activities of various formative forces. Nevertheless, in all cases the a priori effective, that is, the essential, formative force can easily be distinguished from the others that merely join in unessentially, bringing in mere ornamentation, and the rank order in the ascending classification can accordingly be determined without difficulty. Where, however, despite the decided stamp of the a priori effective formative force, another, or even a third, joins in actively to such a degree that the resulting dream-formation essentially represents the character of both, or of all three, at once, there it will be requisite, for the sake of clarity, to consider the dream-formation from the standpoint of both, or of all three, formative forces severally, and to attribute one and the same kind of dream to several different fundamental forces. — Finally, all genera of dream must receive a nomenclature designating them, and since no such nomenclature has hitherto existed, it must be made; but no name is such a name unless it expresses the characteristic essence of the thing itself; the designations of the kinds of dream must accordingly be chosen according to their characteristic content, or rather according to the essential moments that most concisely express the character of the kind of dream.