The Interpretation of Dreams

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{I|B ^paragraph 40}
* That every impression, even the most insignificant, leaves an
ineradicable mark, indefinitely capable of reappearing by day.
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It might even occur to one to reduce the phenomenon of dreaming to
that of remembering, and to regard the dream as the manifestation of a
reproductive activity, unresting even at night, which is an end in
itself. This would seem to be in agreement with statements such as
those made by Pilcz, according to which definite relations between the
time of dreaming and the contents of a dream may be demonstrated,
inasmuch as the impressions reproduced by the dream in deep sleep
belong to the remote past, while those reproduced towards morning
are of recent origin. But such a conception is rendered improbable
from the outset by the manner in which the dream deals with the
material to be remembered. Strumpell rightly calls our attention to
the fact that repetitions of experiences do not occur in dreams. It is
true that a dream will make a beginning in that direction, but the
next link is wanting; it appears in a different form, or is replaced
by something entirely novel. The dream gives us only fragmentary
reproductions; this is so far the rule that it permits of a
theoretical generalization. Still, there are exceptions in which an
episode is repeated in a dream as completely as it can be reproduced
by our waking memory. Delboeuf relates of one of his university
colleagues that a dream of his repeated, in all its details, a
perilous drive in which he escaped accident as if by miracle. Miss
Calkins mentions two dreams the contents of which exactly reproduced
an experience of the previous day, and in a later chapter I shall have
occasion to give an example that came to my knowledge of a childish
experience which recurred unchanged in a dream. *
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* From subsequent experience I am able to state that it is not at
all rare to find in dreams reproductions of simple and unimportant
occupations of everyday life, such as packing trunks, preparing food
in the kitchen, etc., but in such dreams the dreamer himself
emphasizes not the character of the recollection but its "reality"- "I
really did this during the day."

{I|C
C. Dream-Stimuli and Sources
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What is meant by dream-stimuli and dream-sources may be explained by
a reference to the popular saying: "Dreams come from the stomach."
This notion covers a theory which conceives the dream as resulting
from a disturbance of sleep. We should not have dreamed if some
disturbing element had not come into play during our sleep, and the
dream is the reaction against this disturbance.
The discussion of the exciting causes of dreams occupies a great
deal of space in the literature of dreams. It is obvious that this
problem could have made its appearance only after dreams had become an
object of biological investigation. The ancients, who conceived of
dreams as divine inspirations, had no need