The Introjective Function of Dreaming and Its Impact on the Theory of Technique

The author proposes for debate the thesis that the main function of the process of "dreaming" (Träumen) is a daily reactivation of the process of introjection. He itemizes and discusses the epistemological obstacles that apparently prevented Freud from taking this hypothesis under consideration. He goes on to examine the arguments and assumptions supporting the hypothesis that he discerns in Freud's development of the theory of the dream and in the posthumous publications of Ferenczi. After demonstrating the affinities between his own conception of the introjective function of dreaming and Jean Laplanche's "general theory of seduction," he evokes a few of the effects of his thesis on the practice and metapsychology of analytic technique.