The Interpretation of Dreams

and after him Volkelt, endeavoured to discover the more
intimate relations between physical sensations and dream-pictures; but
we shall reserve the discussion of this point for our chapter on the
theory of dreams.
As a result of a singularly logical analysis, the psychiatrist
Krauss referred the origin of dreams, and also of deliria and
delusions, to the same element, namely, to organically determined
sensations. According to him, there is hardly any part of the organism
which might not become the starting-point of a dream or a delusion.
Organically determined sensations, he says, "may be divided into two
classes: (1) general sensations- those affecting the whole system; (2)
specific sensations- those that are immanent in the principal
systems of the vegetative organism, and which may in turn be
subdivided into five groups: (a) the muscular, (b) the pneumatic,
(c) the gastric, (d) the sexual, (e) the peripheral sensations (p.
33 of the second article)."
The origin of the dream-image from physical sensations is
conceived by Krauss as follows: The awakened sensation, in
accordance with some law of association, evokes an idea or image
bearing some relation to it, and combines with this idea or image,
forming an organic structure, towards which, however, the
consciousness does not maintain its normal attitude. For it does not
bestow any attention on the sensation, but concerns itself entirely
with the accompanying ideas; and this explains why the facts of the
case have been so long misunderstood (p. 11 ff.). Krauss even gives
this process the special name of "transubstantiation of the sensations
into dream-images" (p. 24).
{I|C ^paragraph 65}
The influence of organic physical stimuli on the formation of dreams
is today almost universally admitted, but the question as to the
nature of the law underlying this relation is answered in various
ways, and often obscurely. On the basis of the theory of physical
excitation the special task of dream-interpretation is to trace back
the content of a dream to the causative organic stimulus, and if we do
not accept the rules of interpretation advanced by Scherner, we
shall often find ourselves confronted by the awkward fact that the
organic source of excitation reveals itself only in the content of the
dream.
A certain agreement, however, appears in the interpretation of the
various forms of dreams which have been designated as "typical,"
because they recur in so many persons with almost the same content.
Among these are the well-known dreams of falling from a height, of the
dropping out of teeth, of flying, and of embarrassment because one
is naked or scantily clad. This last type of dream is said to be
caused simply by the dreamer's perception, felt in his sleep, that
he has thrown off the bedclothes and is uncovered. The dream that
one's teeth are dropping out is explained by "dental irritation,"
which does not, however, of necessity imply a morbid condition of
irritability in the teeth. According to Strumpell, the flying dream is
the adequate image employed by the mind to