11. Freud claimed dreams contained connections with the present and the infantile past
Both happenings of the preceding day and from the infantile past are included in every dream, according to Freud, who used this interpretation to explain what he called the Oedipal complex, now known primarily as the Oedipus complex. The development of the Oedipus complex is in essence a compromise, in which some infantile impulses of affection and hostility are surrendered as a result of certain taboos, such as incest and the killing of one’s parent or sibling. When using dreams during free association, Freud discovered the same issues present while one was awake, which were often seen in symptoms such as anxieties and phobias.
To Freud, waking events reflected the same activity as occurs during dreaming in several ways. The accidental misspeaking known today as the Freudian slip was one. Thoughts which seemingly pop up from nowhere were another, and temporary memory lapses, such as the inability to remember a name or word, were yet another. To Freud, many actions considered to be mistaken were in fact deliberately chosen, not in error, but in the impulses resulting from the conflict between the infantile and present day wants. “To our surprise, we find the child, with its impulses, living on in the dream,” he wrote.