What is Dream Analysis
There is also the often quoted proposition from Freud that, ” he interpretation of
dreams is the royal road to a knowledge of the unconscious activities of the mind”
(SE, V.608). Freud distinguished between two different layers of a dream. he
manifest content is the dream as consciously remembered, the “surface” of the
dream; latent content is the hidden, underlying meaning of the dream. Using a
writing analogy, latent content represents the original draft, while manifest
content refers to the published text, in a form which the editor approves of or
cannot understand. he latent content is, of course, unconscious and comprises a
repressed wish – especially infantile and typically lustful, incestuous or aggressive –
unacceptable to the ego. he manifest content is conscious and represents a
disguised, hallucinatory wish-fulfilment. It is the outcome of the defensive,
distorting work of the ego and serves to reduce instinctual tension. hus, dreams
and neurotic symptoms are the outcome of similar processes.
The conversion of latent into manifest content is termed the dreamwork, which
makes use of tactics of censorship, disguise, redrafting and compromise. More
specifically, several processes are utilised in the dreamwork.
