§ 29. Third Principal Group: The Marked Dreams

§ 29. Third Principal Group: The Marked Dreams.

These belong, like the association-dreams, to the life of images itself, for they too are essentially formed by the images themselves. But they consist essentially of such images as possess an outstanding intensity of impression, and hence they stand, a priori, within the sphere of images as princes, or as a mighty aristocratic lineage, to the countless remaining weak moments of imagery. They were born so strong through the powerful impression that the reality underlying them made upon the perceiving or sensing soul, in whatever kind of interest. Accordingly they have, in themselves, far more energy to stir within the dream-sphere; they assert their associations against those of the countless remaining masses of images and thrust all weaker connections into the background; and, by virtue of the power lying within them, they are able to draw a multitude of weaker images into their service, or into secondary associations. On account of this intensity of theirs, set off before the rest of the images, I call these images “marked,” and the dream-formations arising from them “marked” dreams. If one wished to call the strong impressive force, or the image, of such a kind, par excellence, “impression,” one could with equal right choose the name “impression-dreams” for the above; but the above name is preferable for the sake of more precise distinction. If one now compares the marked dreams with the ordinary association-dreams, it results:

1. They possess, far more than the association-dreams, content interesting to the soul, and therefore content more sharply stamped in perception.