{"product_id":"2940015634488","title":"Dreams","description":"INTRODUCTION\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eBefore the dawn of history mankind was engaged in the study of dreaming.\u003cbr\u003eThe wise man among the ancients was preëminently the interpreter of\u003cbr\u003edreams. The ability to interpret successfully or plausibly was the\u003cbr\u003equickest road to royal favor, as Joseph and Daniel found it to be;\u003cbr\u003efailure to give satisfaction in this respect led to banishment from\u003cbr\u003ecourt or death. When a scholar laboriously translates a cuneiform tablet\u003cbr\u003edug up from a Babylonian mound where it has lain buried for five\u003cbr\u003ethousand years or more, the chances are that it will turn out either an\u003cbr\u003eastrological treatise or a dream book. If the former, we look upon it\u003cbr\u003ewith some indulgence; if the latter with pure contempt. For we know that\u003cbr\u003ethe study of the stars, though undertaken for selfish reasons and\u003cbr\u003epursued in the spirit of charlatanry, led at length to physical science,\u003cbr\u003ewhile the study of dreams has proved as unprofitable as the dreaming of\u003cbr\u003ethem. Out of astrology grew astronomy. Out of oneiromancy has\u003cbr\u003egrown--nothing.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eThat at least was substantially true up to the beginning of the present\u003cbr\u003ecentury. Dream books in all languages continued to sell in cheap\u003cbr\u003eeditions and the interpreters of dreams made a decent or, at any rate, a\u003cbr\u003ecomfortable living out of the poorer classes. But the psychologist\u003cbr\u003erarely paid attention to dreams except incidentally in his study of\u003cbr\u003eimagery, association and the speed of thought. But now a change has come\u003cbr\u003eover the spirit of the times. The subject of the significance of dreams,\u003cbr\u003eso long ignored, has suddenly become a matter of energetic study and of\u003cbr\u003efiery controversy the world over.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eThe cause of this revival of interest is the new point of view brought\u003cbr\u003eforward by Professor Bergson in the paper which is here made accessible\u003cbr\u003eto the English-reading public. This is the idea that we can explore the\u003cbr\u003eunconscious substratum of our mentality, the storehouse of our memories,\u003cbr\u003eby means of dreams, for these memories are by no means inert, but have,\u003cbr\u003eas it were, a life and purpose of their own, and strive to rise into\u003cbr\u003econsciousness whenever they get a chance, even into the\u003cbr\u003esemi-consciousness of a dream. To use Professor Bergson's striking\u003cbr\u003emetaphor, our memories are packed away under pressure like steam in a\u003cbr\u003eboiler and the dream is their escape valve.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eThat this is more than a mere metaphor has been proved by Professor\u003cbr\u003eFreud and others of the Vienna school, who cure cases of hysteria by\u003cbr\u003einducing the patient to give expression to the secret anxieties and\u003cbr\u003eemotions which, unknown to him, have been preying upon his mind. The\u003cbr\u003eclue to these disturbing thoughts is generally obtained in dreams or\u003cbr\u003esimilar states of relaxed consciousness. According to the Freudians a\u003cbr\u003edream always means something, but never what it appears to mean. It is\u003cbr\u003esymbolic and expresses desires or fears which we refuse ordinarily to\u003cbr\u003eadmit to consciousness, either because they are painful or because they\u003cbr\u003eare repugnant to our moral nature. A watchman is stationed at the gate\u003cbr\u003eof consciousness to keep them back, but sometimes these unwelcome\u003cbr\u003eintruders slip past him in disguise. In the hands of fanatical Freudians\u003cbr\u003ethis theory has developed the wildest extravagancies, and the voluminous\u003cbr\u003eliterature of psycho-analysis contains much that seems to the layman\u003cbr\u003equite as absurd as the stuff which fills the twenty-five cent dream\u003cbr\u003ebook.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eIt is impossible to believe that the subconsciousness of every one of us\u003cbr\u003econtains nothing but the foul and monstrous specimens which they dredge\u003cbr\u003eup from the mental depths of their neuropathic patients and exhibit with\u003cbr\u003esuch pride.","brand":"SAP","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":47146302570736,"sku":"2940015634488","price":0.99,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"url":"https:\/\/shop-qa.barnesandnoble.com\/products\/2940015634488","provider":"Barnes \u0026 Noble (DEV)","version":"1.0","type":"link"}