Insight and Distortion in Dreams: Thomas M. French. Int. J. Psa., XX, 1939, pp. 287–298.

The ability to postpone the tendency to discharge every tension immediately is the prerequisite for a correct judgment of reality. This basic concept of the structure of the reality principle is proved again by French in a new way. French discusses dreams in which an important interpretation of the analyst is stripped by the patient 'of all intellectual content by reacting to it, not as an interpretation, but as a disturbing noise or some other kind of disagreeable stimulus'. He relates two dreams of this type from the same patient. In the first dream the insight in question appears in a projected form as the dreamer's brother; in a second dream, the insight is denied much more decisively. The ego of the patient was still not able to accept the interpretation. The tendency to repress had made some progress in the interval between the first and second dream. The author believes that the synthetic function of the ego is subject to quantitative limitations. The fact that the ego, influenced by repressive forces, is still incapable of complete insight and tries to accept this insight only 'on simpler and less conflictful terms' is then discussed in more detail. The most interesting factor is that the second dream has a much greater motor orientation than the first; it is more distorted and more directly aimed at discharge. 'It is interesting to take note of the fact that such an alternation between insight and discharge of tension also plays an important rôle in waking life. Planning alternates with activity. In favorable cases one first plans, then executes one's plan. In other cases one becomes impatient of planning and discharges tension in motor activity before one has decided upon a rational course of action.' Rational behavior postpones discharge until the synthetic function of the ego can grasp the conflict; irrational behavior acts too quickly without insight.