As the founder of psychoanalysis, Sigmund Freud had many fascinating theories about the mind. One of the most engrossing of these was his theory on dream interpretation, which he describes in detail in The Interpretation of Dreams. It is clear that his beliefs on dream interpretation have strong ties to the cultural movement of Surrealism. Freud strongly believed that significant information about a person could be gleaned from that person’s dreams. He noted that, while many people think of dream interpretation as ridiculous, “on the contrary, they are psychical phenomena of complete validity.” He believed that dreams, once carefully examined and analyzed, had the power to reveal inner truths about a person, truths which he called “wish-fulfillments.”
He explains that dreams are much more than their “manifest content,” or the actual images seen in the dream. What concerned him more was the “latent content” of the dream- that is, the “dream-thoughts” through which one could determine the true meaning behind the dream. He states that “if we attempt to read these characters according to their pictorial value instead of according to their symbolic relation, we should clearly be led into error.” In other words, if one merely analyzes the images of a dream at the surface level, one cannot discover the actual meaning of the dream; one must look into the possible meanings behind what these images stand for in order to “reveal still more thoughts concealed behind the dream.” The same is true for Surrealist works of art, whose meaning cannot be understood just by examining the images at face value.
Freud had many…fascinating theories, like the Oedipus Complex
The idea that dream analysis can lead to the revelation of inner human truths is a tenet of psychoanalysis, which concerns itself with the unconscious mind. Freud believed that the unconscious mind was where repressed memories from childhood were held, and that these memories must be brought into consciousness and worked through in order for a person to move forward. This is very similar to the goal of Surrealist works, which, according to Andre Breton in his “First Manifesto of Surrealism,” are “psychic automatism in its pure state, by which one proposes to express…the actual functioning of thought. Dictated by thought, in the absence of any control exercised by reason, exempt from any aesthetic or moral concern.” In other words, like dreams, Surrealism is art created without any conscious thought, so as to produce a result that is as close as possible to true thought.
This way of creating art does away with logic; in fact, it embraces the illogical. Breton wrote that “logical methods are applicable only to solving problems of secondary interest…Under the pretense of civilization and progress, we have managed to banish from the mind everything that may rightly or wrongly be termed superstition, or fancy; forbidden is any kind of search for truth which is not in conformance with accepted practices.” This search for truth is what Freud encouraged through the interpretation of dreams, and the illogical images within them. Breton explained that, by looking into these parts of the mind, “the human explorer will be able to carry his investigations much further” as he will no longer “confine himself solely to the most summary realities.” Just as Freud believed that dream interpretation could reveal the truths of the mind, Breton believed that Surrealism would be able to reveal truths about artists’ minds and lead them to reach their imaginative potential: “The imagination is perhaps on the point of reasserting itself, of reclaiming its rights.”
Furthermore, Breton claimed that “the resolution of these two states, dream and reality, which are seemingly so contradictory, into a kind of absolute reality, a surreality” was necessary. This parallels Freud’s belief that dreams can uncover truths about an individual’s real-life desires and emotions. This is what Surrealism is all about: evoking a combination of dreams and reality, and considering words and images not for their logical meanings, but for the symbolic meaning behind them. In doing so, one would be able to unleash true freedom of thought and imagination.
Note: I am a psychology major who has studied Freud’s theories, and honestly find most of them ridiculous. That being said, he proposed revolutionary theories that are still believed today (he was the first to propose that mental health problems in adulthood could arise from experiences encountered during childhood.) What do you think of his thoughts on dream interpretation? Do they sound legit or completely out there? Let me know in the comments!
Engl 213: Modernist Lit & Culture 