35. Freud, "Selected Papers on Hysteria and other Psychoneuroses;" trans.
A. A. Brill, Monograph, Journ. Nerv. and Ment. Dis. Co., 1909, New York; pp.
5, and 177.
36. Spencer's conception of the escapement of nervous excitation is
fundamental in connection with the dream theory here sketched: see the
essays on Laughter and on Music, also many passages in the Synthetic
Philosophy (Biology, Psychology). This conception is not to be confused with
Janet's idea of "derivation," as stated in "Obsessions et Psychasthenie."
The present formulation of the meaning of "apperceptive delay" in dreaming
is based on the neurographic hypothesis, ("The Unconscious," Chapt. V.), and
may be more precisely stated as follows:--
In the given instance, the original or primary neurogram possessed a certain
passive inertia in responding to the stimulus, and it took a relatively long
time for the excitation to raise the neurogic tonus of this primary
neurogram so as to attain the level requisite for conscious imagination. But
it was otherwise with the secondary or sequential neurograms, whose inertia
had already been overcome by the facilitation (Bahnung) of the recent
conversation about scratch-reflexes. For these neurograms to flash their
imaged (conscious) equivalents into the dream-thought, it was enough that
there should be a slight spill-over of excitation from the original
neurogram.
Many examples could be cited from dreams, drowsy states and lapses of
thought, showing the ways in which sequential neurograms produce trial
apperceptions, pending the final revelation, through consciousness, of the
original neurogram. The phenomenon of mental groping, here alluded to, is
familiar in certain aspects; but, as an explanation of cryptic dreams, has
not received the recognition that it deserves. Hence, the trial-and-error
theory of dreams.
37. "Perplex," neologism of the writer; used to indicate a phenomenon
frequent in both normal and psychopathic subjects; to wit, a group of
delimitable stimulus-ideas, persisting as such, and unadjusted--a complex of
persisting and unadjusted stimulus-ideas, demanding resolution; not the same
as "complex" in Psycho-analysis. Cf. Prince's definitions of the varieties
of complexes ("The Unconscious").