If someone reports that he had been thinking that he would very much like to seduce his sister, an appropriate comment might be: “Shame on you for having such a nasty idea.” But if one reports that he dreamt he seduced his sister the situation appears quite different, for while we might be repulsed by the dream shaming seems, to say the least, far less appropriate.We do not ordinarily, if ever, say things like, “It was bad of you to dream (...) that.” A child may be sent to bed without supper for saying that he hates his father, but not for reporting a dream which clearly expresses hate for his father. (shrink)

In comments on my “Moral Responsibility for Dreams,” J. F. M. Hunter claims that I fail to see that “‘Dreaming is not an action’ is a grammatical remark, [not an “empirical” one] and as such makes no assertion as to what is or may be the case in our souls, but only about how we may talk about certain psychological goings-on.” Hunter argues that ‘Dreaming is not an action’ is a logical remark in the way that ‘Bachelors are unmarried’ is (...) a logical remark. “It is not something that we notice about dreams, that they happen, as it is not something we notice about bachelors that they have no wives. It is part of the concept of a dream; and no matter what characteristics a phenomenon shares with a dream, such as being experienced while asleep, if it does not happen it is for that reason alone not a dream.”. (shrink)

Are some mental activities rational but unconscious? Psychopathological symptoms, it is said, have a sense — they are seen as compromise-formations which express the intentions of agents even though the agents are totally unaware of bringing about such symptoms. Philosophers, who often claim that such a conception is simply contradictory or incoherent, have shed little light on the puzzles and apparent paradoxes that surround the issue. It is argued here that Freud's two models of explanation — the mechanistic and the (...) intentionalistic — each fail to provide a basis for an explanatory account of the phenomenon of unconscious defense. An examination of the problem of dream composition helps explain why Freud's dependence upon rational homunculi is inappropriate and misleading. Finally, an alternative model which depends neither upon Freud's version of mechanism nor upon his lavish anthropormorphism is suggested.Ladies and Gentlemen, — It was discovered one day that the pathological symptoms of certain neurotic patients have a sense. On this discovery the psychoanalytic method of treatment was founded. It happened in the course of the treament that patients, instead of bringing forward their symptoms, brought forward dreams. A suspicion thus arose that the dreams too had a sense. (shrink)