PSYCHOANALYSIS
SLEEP and DREAMS
PSYCHOANALYSIS AND BEHAVIOR
By André Tridon
“Tridon applies the psychoanalytical doctrine to a number of everydayproblems, a business that ought to be undertaken on a far more extensivescale. His chapters on the psychology of war hysteria and of comstockeryare acute and constructive.”—H. L. Mencken.
“His presentation of psychoanalysis is admirable.”—New York MedicalJournal.
$2.50 net at all booksellers
ALFRED A. KNOPF, PUBLISHER, N.Y.
PSYCHOANALYSIS
SLEEP and DREAMS
BY
ANDRÉ TRIDON
Author of
“Psychoanalysis, its History, Theory and Practice”
and “Psychoanalysis and Behavior”
“Nothing is more genuinely
ourselves than our dreams.”
Nietzsche.
NEW YORK
ALFRED A. KNOPF
1921
COPYRIGHT, 1921, BY
ALFRED A. KNOPF, Inc.
PRINTED IN THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA
FOR
ADÈLE LEWISOHN
I wish to thank Dr. J. W. Brandeis, Dr. N. Philip Norman, and Dr. GregoryStragnell, for valuable data and editorial assistance, and Mr. Carl Dreherwho lent himself to many experiments.
PREFACE
St. Augustine was glad that God did not hold him responsible for hisdreams. From which we may infer that his dreams must have been “human, alltoo human” and that he experienced a certain feeling of guilt on accountof their nature.
His attitude is one assumed by many people, laymen and scientists, some ofthem concealing it under a general scepticism as to dream interpretation.
Few people are willing to concede as Nietzsche did, that “nothing is moregenuinely ourselves than our dreams.”
This is why the psychoanalytic pronouncement that dreams are thefulfilment of wishes meets with so much hostility.
The man who has a dream of gross sex or ego gratification dislikes to haveothers think that the desire for such gross pleasure is a part of hispersonality. He very much prefers to have others believe that someextraneous agent, some whimsical power, such as the devil, forced suchthoughts[Pg x] upon him while the unconsciousness of sleep made himirresponsible and defenceless.
This is due in part to the absurd and barbarous idea that it is meet toinflict punishment for mere thoughts, an idea which is probably as deeplyrooted in ignorant minds in our days as it was in the mind of the Romanemperor who had a man killed because the poor wretch dreamed of theruler’s death.
We must not disclaim the responsibility for our unconscious thoughts asthey reveal themselves through dreams. They are truly a part of ourpersonality. But our responsibility is merely psychological; we should notpunish people for harbouring in their unconscious the lewd or murderouscravin