Träume und Übertragung

Freud begründet ausdrücklich sein Interesse am manifesten Traum damit, dass dieser uns mit Hilfe der Tagesreste und der freien Assoziation den "königlichen Weg' (S. Freud, 1900a, S. 613) öffnet zu dem, was uns nicht bewusst ist, zum "latenten Traumgedanken'. Zum manifesten Trauminhalt bemerkt Freud (1916- 17, S. 184): "Es ist natürlich, dass der manifeste Traum für uns an Bedeutung verliert... Im allgemeinen muss man sich dessen enthalten, einen Teil des manifesten Traumes aus einem anderen erklären zu wollen, als ob der Traum kohärent konzipiert und eine pragmatische Darstellung wäre.' Der Betonung der Bedeutung des manifesten Traumes lassen sich gegenteilige Äußerungen in seinem Werk gegenüberstellen. Doch sind solche Widersprüche nur zu verständlich, bedenkt man die Breite des Freudschen Werks und seine je neue Suche nach der Wahrheit. Widersprechende Aussagen sind zugleich die Ansatzpunkte für neue Forschungen, für ein vertieftes Verständnis und für Präzisierungen. Mit der Deutung des ersten Traumes von "Dora' (Bruchstück einer Hysterie-Analyse, S. Freud, 1905e, G.W. 5, S. 225-255) widerspricht Freud der positiven Bewertung des manifesten Traumes. J. Spanjaard hat nach Erik H. Erikson dem manifesten Traum seine Bedeutung wieder zurückgegeben, wenn er die Deutung des an der Oberfläche liegenden aktuellen Konflikts dem Inhalt des manifesten Traumes gleichstellt.

Freud (1915-16, p. 181f.) states: "It is natural that we should lose some of our interest in the manifest dream... In general we must avoid seeking to explain one part of the manifest dream by another. as though the dream had been coherently conceived and was a logically arranged narrative.' For Fromm (1951a, p. 28) man has two poles of experiencing: on the one hand those pertaining to his waking state and his dreams are the other pole; our waking experinece will help us understand the latent, unconscious content of our dreams, and our dreams will help us comprehend the unconscious motivations of our waking lives. For him (cf. 1951a and 1979a), it is true that the ideographs of the manifest dream may often seem absurd, confused, incoherent, but it does lead us to their coherent intrinsic logic. The manifest dream allows us to formulate some tentative affirmations, but above all, it imposes questions whose answers will emerge in our continued dialogue with the dreamer, for he alone has the answer that will allow us to grasp the intimate over-all symbol of his dreams. The totality of the dream must be appraised as a global symbol that represents at the same time an "instantaneous snapshot' of the moment of his being. From a teleological perspective, it is as if the sites presented, the actors and the rest of the cast, other living beings (be they animals, plants, nature) and diverse objects have all been chosen for what they reveal of the dreamer, thus objectifying and de-mystifying him. Each dream symbol represents a condensation, thus it is a mistake to jump to the conclusion that such a figure is of necessity mother or father or that another is a penis or a vagina; maybe it will all turn out to be so, but we can wait until all is unequivocally clear. As Freud (1900a, p. 608) stated, the understanding of dreams leads us along "the royal road' to what has been unconscious to the dreamer. Only a few dreams fulfill wishes (cf. E. Fromm, 1979a, p. 72 and p. 95f.); the vast majority tend to objectify our present situation and, not too infrequently, they allow us insight into the personality of others. This paper presents some aspects of the humanist psychoanalytic concept of conscious - unconscious and its import for the understanding of transference phenomena and the process of transcending it. Since our dreams clarify our Here and Now it stands to reason that dreams will clearly reveal the state of the "dream-day' transference. By-and-large, the manifest dream reveals the unconscious relationship to significant individuals of the dreamers environment, which always includes the therapist whether or not he (she) is present in the dream. Quite often one can see the waking relationship to the analyst and quite another what is evinced in the analysands dreams... We must never loose sight of what these latter reveal, for in our dreams we are free and candid. - This paper also presents clinical material.