deal of condensation in dreams. Unfortunately I am unable to discuss in extenso the extent and extremely valuable psychologic material of this as yet hardly recognized investigator. It would lead too far.
A knowledge of this valuable book is presupposed. No real refutation of the ideas of Freud have to my knowledge been advanced. I confine myself to the affirmation that dreams having already many analogies to disturbance of the associations of dementia præcox, possesses also the special speech condensations in the sense of contaminations of whole sentences and situations. Kraepelin too was struck by the resemblance between the speech of dreams and of dementia præcox.[1] From the numerous examples which I observed in my own and other's dreams, I will mention only a very simple one, illustrating at the same time condensation and neologism. One in his dream wishes to express approval of a certain situation and says: "That is fimous."
- ↑ Arch. f. Psych., XXVI, p. 595. Compare also Psych. Arbeiten, Bd, V, H. I, p. 79, where Kraepelin says: "It should perhaps be kept in mind that the peculiar expressions of the patients (dementia præcox) are not simple 'nonsense,' nor still less do they represent intentional productions of overbearing moods, but they are the expression of a peculiar disturbance of word findings which must be nearly related to those found in dreams." Kraepelin also expresses the view that "in confusion of speech, besides disturbances of word selecting and the speech expression of thought, there are even such disturbances of the process of thought which in part resemble those of dreams."
does not differ much from the views developed here. Thus he says on p. 10: "The appearance of speech disturbances in dreams is certainly very closely dependent upon the obnubilation of consciousness and the diminution in clearness of ideas conditioned by it."
What Paul Meringer, Mayer and others designate as contamination, and Freud as condensation, Kraepelin names "ellipse" ("mixture of different series of ideas," "en elliptical concentration of several simultaneous series of thoughts"). Here I wish to call attention to the fact that as early as in the 80's Forel used the expression "ellipsis" for the condensations and new word formations in paranoid states. It escaped Kraepelin that Freud had already, in 1900, treated dream-condensations in a detailed manner.
By condensation Freud designates the blending together of situations, pictures, and elements of speech. The linguistic expression "contamination" concerns only the blendings of speech, and is, therefore, a special idea which is subordinate to Freud's idea of condensation. The retention of the term contamination is to be recommended for condensation of speech.
