The Interpretation of Dreams

In this longer chapter, Freud discusses the myriad sources of the manifest content in dreams. This chapter divides into several lettered subsections that each focus on one source, and this structure is maintained here.

A. Recent and Indifferent Impressions in the Dream

Dreams focus on stimulus "on which one has not yet slept" (117). Very recent memories, and particularly insignificant aspects of these memories, appear often in dreams. This emphasis on insignificant content guises latent content that is much more emotionally or philosophically significant and also often thought upon during the previous day.

Freud gives several examples, including again one extended example of his own dream, which demonstrates that both manifest and latent content can be linked to experiences of the previous day and that insignificant content is, in fact, quite significant when linked to the latent concerns of the dream: “[W]e take pains to dream only in connection with such matters as have given us food for thought during the day” (122). Where manifest content is usually recent, the latent content it expresses may be much older, as long as the subconscious mind finds a way to link it to recent memories through linguistic or symbolic associations. Dream interpretation allows us to see the significant latent content through the insignificant manifest content.