Dream work and remembering in the light of dissociation and reassociation processes in the pre-conscious

Journal/Book: Psyche Z Psychoanal Anwend. 2000; 54: Rotebuhlstrasse 77, D-7004 9 Stuttgart 1, Germany. Klett-Cotta Verlag. 699-720.

Abstract: The author contends that the mechanisms of dream work can be traced back to a process of alternation in the psyche between dissociation and reassociation. Drawing on findings from stimulation experiments in the sleep lab, the author first discusses dissociative processes in dreams. He marshals evidence suggesting that blockading (of concise meaning) and sequentialization qualify for definition as dream work mechanisms alongside fragmentation. Indissolubly bound up with the dissociation process is a process of reassociation, in which the fragments are reassembled into a whole. The author sees dissociation and reassociation as operations of the pre-conscious and the unconscious. An initial attempt is made to extend these findings to remembering and memory. The author appeals to the work of Maurice Halbwachs to substantiate his thesis that the external world is an indispensable actualizing reassociation factor making remembering possible in the first place.

Note: Article Leuschner W, Sigmund Freud Inst, Myliusstr 20, D-60322 Frankfurt, GERMANY

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