Absurdity, in other words, becomes a means whereby dream-work represents contradiction – reversal of a material relationship between dream-thoughts and dream-content, for instance, or exploitation of a feeling of motor inhibition. However, the absurdity of a dream should not be translated by a simple ‘no’; it is intended to reflect the arrangement of the dream-thoughts at the same time as deriding or laughing at the contradiction. This is the only purpose for which dream-work comes up with something ridiculous. Here again it turns a portion of the latent content into a manifest form.9
