Two Dreams

At different times during our development we use different ways of thinking, different scales of value and different goals of achievement, and we are always very happy to prove and feel that we are right under the particular circumstances of the particular time. But if, in a state of reduced vigilance of the present-day-superego, unconscious associations construct a situation that is apparently correct, approved of by the superego of a past time, but requiring closer scrutiny by the superego of the present and unappealing to conscious thinking, tension is created that is nourished by the fear of not being in command of one's own thinking. The ego, the superego or even the relationship between them is felt as strange. We laugh, we feel relieved of a danger, we feel superior and secure again if the situation has proved witty or comical when the logical mistake is due to an incongruency of logical systems that do not belong to the same time, place or developmental situation.

If a lack of ego strength prevents the feeling of secure connection with reality, however, fear of repressed and developmentally old material develops. For this reason, as Bornstein (1) points out, children will avoid associative thinking during the latency period because the fear of insanity is proportional to the ability to associate with such archaic material.

On regression to atavistic forms of dissatisfaction, the mechanism of the conditioned reflex appears to connect displeasure and wishfulfillment, as Freud (3) explains. Originally, sensory impulses went directly to motor cells. Suprasegmental centers, inhibiting immediate response, developed later. That would make the age of the displeasure emerging in the dream at the end of an associative row a decisive factor in the request for immediate motility and waking up. If the wish is not neutralized by fulfillment, then the secondary process starts in the direction of reality with the wish getting hold of the motoric possibilities of wish-fulfillm