The phenomenon which Freud has designated as “displacement” also indicates an attempt at repressing certain important facts by harping on other facts of lesser importance.
A child surprised in a part of the house where his presence is suspicious is not likely to reveal abruptly his plans. He will in all likelihood tell some story from which the real reason for his presence is carefully excluded. A young pie fiend found in the pantry would never mention the word pie but make great ado over the “fact” that his ball has rolled under the cupboard.
And likewise it is very often the part of a dream which a patient has not told which holds the key to the enigma of the patient’s mental disturbance.
One of my hypnagogic visions which I have already mentioned, simple as it is, reveals my entire attitude, not only to sleep, but to life in general.
I do not feel overwhelmed by sleep. I give myself up to sleep as voluntarily as I wade into the sea or plunge into a swimming pool. Sleep will refresh me as a swim would. When the proper depth is reached I swim out, conscious of my ability and experiencing no fear.
I use sleep as a means to exercise my mental activities as I enjoy the muscular exertion necessary for swimming.
Finally there is no one in the picture but myself. I am the central figure of the dream.
To go into more details, I may confide to the reader that I have never enjoyed any form of sport, indoor or outdoors in which I do not play an important, if not the leading part, or which prevents me from indulging my own whims. Witnessing some one else’s athletic performances bores me to extinction and games such as cards, checkers or golf which are surrounded with iron clad regulations appear to me not as a relaxation but as a useless form of hard work.
Readers may think that these self-revelations are prompted by egotism, but an analyst should analyse himself as ruthlessly as he analyses others and egotism happens to be the dominant feature of my attitude to life.
The following dream draws a remarkable picture of uncertainty, indecision and gloom: