“In what we may term ‘prescientific days’ people were in no uncertainty about the interpretation of dreams. When they were recalled after awakening they were regarded as either the friendly or hostile manifestation of some higher powers, demoniacal and Divine.”

Freud asserts that dreams are subject to analysis, rejecting the idea that they are imparted by heavenly figures. Instead, dreams are about wish fulfillment, contributing to the theme of Dreams as Expressions of Desire. For Freud, dreams represent erotic desires left over from infantile sexuality.

“Before all there is the question as to the meaning of the dream, a question which is in itself double-sided.”

Dreams are double-sided because they represent the physical world and the unconscious mind. Dreams are influenced by the outside world, but they also present unconscious desires. They consist of myriad symbols, which can have multiple interpretations and meanings.

“Obsessions and those peculiar sensations of haunting dread remain as strange to normal consciousness as do dreams to our waking consciousness; their origin is as unknown to consciousness as is that of dreams.”

Dreams undergo a process of condensation or compression and then are filtered through censorship. Freud asserts that repressed desires are unknown to consciousness and that the mind transfers desire into various symbols. This quotation contributes to the theme Repression and the Unconscious. Erotic desires are repressed, especially those that are deemed inappropriate or against social norms. They are housed in the unconscious mind but sometimes manage to escape the process of censorship.