The Interpretation of Dreams (AmazonClassics Edition)

by Sigmund Freud

Besides, the dream manifests a consciousness of space by transferring the sensations and pictures, just as in the waking state, into an outer space. It must therefore be admitted that the mind in the dream is in the same relation to its pictures and perceptions as in the waking state. If, however, it is thereby led astray, this is due to the fact that it lacks in sleep the criticism which alone can distinguish between the sensory perceptions emanating from within or from without. It cannot subject its pictures to the tests which alone can prove their objective reality. It furthermore neglects to differentiate between pictures that are arbitrarily interchanged and others where there is no free choice. It errs because it cannot apply to its content the law of causality. In brief, its alienation from the outer world contains also the reason for its belief in the subjective dream world.