Dream Psychology | by Maurice Nigoll
The dream is so common an experience that it is not surprising that the analytical spirit of the present age seeks to understand it. The genius of Hughlings Jackson, which has now begun to inspire English neurologists, foresaw that the dream was the key of approach to many problems of psychiatry. In the following pages I have attempted to present, as simply as possible, a view of dreams that is not purely deterministic. Interpretation must necessarily be a personal matter, and therefore I cannot claim that all the views expressed in this book would be supported by the Swiss school.
| Title | Dream Psychology |
| Author | Maurice Nigoll |
| Publisher | Henry Frowde and Hodder Stoughton |
| Year | 1917 |
| Copyright | 1917, Henry Frowde and Hodder Stoughton |
| Amazon | Dream psychology |
By Maurice Nigoll, B.A., M.B., B.C. (Cams.), Capt. (Temp.) R.A.M.C.
Preface- The dream is so common an experience that it is not surprising that the analytical spirit of the present age seeks to understand it. The genius of Hughlings Jackson, which has now begun to inspire Eng...
- Chapter I. The Psyche
- The dream arises somewhere out of the psyche, and appears as a highly complex and often brilliant and very dramatic structure, which no one in his waking senses could imagine to himself, save after a ...
- Chapter II. The Problem Of The Neurotic
- It is customary to think that functional nervous disease is something unusual, and that is because it is associated in people's minds with palsies and convulsive seizures and other dramatic forms. But...
- Chapter III. Mental Background
- There is a method of looking at personality adopted instinctively by all people. The story-teller, the talker, the speaker, the witness—anybody, in fact, who dominates the moment—is regarded by the mo...
- Mental Background. Continued
- In this way it becomes possible to recognize in some degree the relativity of symbolism, and the recognition is important because it has become a preoccupation of some people to attempt to draw a shar...
- Chapter IV. Dreams And Cartoons
- To record an event by drawing the idea of it in your mind is simple so long as the idea is simple. If the idea is that the king of Assyria smote a certain city, you have only to draw the city, and the...
- Dreams And Cartoons. Continued
- The dream, then, seems to arise out of individual interests, in that its component parts are people, events, and places that are familiar, but its method of combining these parts is distinctive and fu...
- Chapter V. Interpretation
- In the dream, as in the cartoon, you survey a picture whose elements do not lie in the same plane of focus. It is drawn, as it were, in three dimensions, and the meaning of some of its features does n...
- Interpretation. Part 2
- We become accustomed to our fantasies, but we do not become accustomed to our dreams. For in our dreams we do things more strange and unexpected than anything we do in fantasy. And while fantasy seems...
- Interpretation. Part 3
- In the above cases the symbolism is of some interest. The association of water with birth finds many parallels in mythology. This is natural, forj the sources of mythology and the sources of the1 drea...
- Interpretation. Part 4
- At the beginning of the war a great many people dreamed that enemy troops were in the back garden, or down the street, and in the house, or knocking at the door for admittance. They dreamed that enemy...
- Interpretation. Part 5
- I have said enough to outline how it is possible to understand the symbol of the enemy troops in the first case. Superficially, if necessary, one can see in the dream some more literal application, bu...
- Chapter VI. Compensation
- It is possible to look on some dreams as if they were compensatory. A man who experiences some dislocation of affairs that renders him despairing may find comfort in his dreams. What is lacking in rea...
- Chapter VII. Over-Compensation
- The protective influences in the mind differ from the protective influences in the body, in the sense that they are capable of greater abuse. The woman whose husband is missing may by some conscious p...
- Chapter VIII. Under-Compensation
- In the morbid and pessimistic person there is something wrong with the fantasy-building system. It does not furnish a constant supply of pleasant and beneficial illusions, but it seems in some cases t...
- Chapter IX. Fantasy And Rumour
- Fantasy has a peculiarity that distinguishes it from rumour. Fantasy is private ; people do not speak of their fantasies save under very special conditions, for there is some check in consciousness th...
- Chapter X. The Unconscious Motive And Interest
- We must now consider dreams in a more intimate manner. We must look for motives that are more personal. The unconscious motive behind the dream is comparable to the conscious motive behind an actio...
- The Unconscious Motive And Interest. Part 2
- But it may be said that a great many spinsters stay indoors and do nothing and never dream of stagnant water or of anything at all. That is perfectly true. A great many people have little interest to ...
- The Unconscious Motive And Interest. Part 3
- This view, though it may seem simple, and one that is borrowed from physical science, is of the greatest value in practical work, for it is at once apparent that interest flowing excessively in one di...
- The Unconscious Motive And Interest. Part 4
- Now there is some relationship between the kind of accident the rider experienced and the accident that forms the nucleus of the dream. As a rider he was nervous, and his nervousness causes him to tak...
- The Unconscious Motive And Interest. Part 5
- The boy holds the rope, from which the dreamer is suspended over the void. The boy is small; if he let the rope go, presumably the dreamer falls. Therefore, with these considerations, we may say the s...
- The Unconscious Motive And Interest. Part 6
- It would be a violation of the spirit of the cartoon. Such symbols might satisfy objective values but not the intrinsic demands of the newly created picture, which like every creation becomes more tha...
- The Unconscious Motive And Interest. Part 7
- Now the figure at the top of the cliff is on firm ground, and may thus symbolize the forces of sane habit and custom that exist in the morphinist and from which he has departed over the edge of the cl...
- Chapter XI. The Control Of Interest
- Conditions may arise in the psyche in which interest is held up abnormally. The will strives in vain to direct it along a particular path, and the cause of failure is not manifest to the conscious min...
- The Control Of Interest. Part 2
- II. I was aiming at a target. It was placed high up. I had a nice rifle, well-made save in one respect. The sights were not properly adjusted. I could only see the bull's-eye along one sight. Neithe...
- The Control Of Interest. Part 3
- It will at once be said that if an interpretation is put on these dreams that they contain valuable advice as to the path interest should be allowed to flow along—which for the moment I will call mudd...
- Chapter XII. The Growth Of Interest
- We have seen that a possible view of the case of the patient R. is that interest was no longer under his control, but was controlled by a region of the pysche beyond consciousness. This can be called ...
- The Growth Of Interest. Continued
- In the case of the patient 0. the wall is not quite so easy of interpretation, and must be approached simultaneously from several points. The common expression that a man is running his head against a...
- Chapter XIII. Complexes
- When a mass of ideas and emotions collects round a common nucleus in the mind, a system is formed which will react in a particular way to incoming stimuli. This system is called a complex. The concept...
- Chapter XIV. Extroversion
- The pushing out of interest on to life is termed extroversion by the Zurich School. The study of the difficulties that hedge about successful extroversion constitutes one of the main tasks of psycholo...
- Chapter XV. Introversion
- The withdrawal of the interest from life is termed introversion. Life is not regarded with confidence, but with suspicion. The assault on life does not occur naturally, as a joyous impulse towards exp...
- Introversion. Part 2
- The following are extracts from the associations the patient made upon the dream. I am afraid of heights. I remember when I was quite small climbing up a bank and becoming paralyzed by fear when I l...
- Introversion. Part 3
- The patient in question experienced the dream in the early stage of treatment. It is necessary to look for a moment at the factors implied in such an investigation. A patient who undertakes to search ...
- Introversion. Part 4
- In reflecting on the dream the patient picked out the rare old official document and linked it up with the red lacquer cabinet. They were both symbols of something rare and perfect. Concerning Colonel...
- Chapter XVI. Balance
- The study of physical functions shows in a dim way that in bodily activities there is an ideal mean. Both over-use and under-use may produce disorder. Stimulation of any organ up to a certain point ca...
- Chapter XVII. Regression
- The retreat of interest from reality may occur at any time and assume a pathological form. Whenever reality becomes formidable, interest at first becomes sharpened in normal individuals. If a man has ...
- Chapter XVIII. The Nature Of The Unconscious
- We can conceive of a preparatory stage in the history of an idea that precedes its appearance in consciousness. In previous chapters we have spoken of nascent or unfocussed interest in the unconscious...
- Chapter XIX. Responsibility
- In treating the neurotic it is necessary to furnish him with some kind of plan. The nature of this plan differs considerably in different schools of teaching. Some practical psychologists frequently d...
- Bibliography
- The Interpretation of Dreams. By Prof. Sigmund Freud. LL.D. Trans, by A. A. Brill, M.D. (Allen & Co., 1913.) Selected Papers on Hysteria. By Prof. Sigmund Freud. LL.D. Trans, by A. A. Brill, M.D. (...
