DREAMS
BY
HENRI BERGSON
TRANSLATED, WITH AN INTRODUCTION, BY
EDWIN E. SLOSSON
NEW YORK
B. W. HUEBSCH
1914
Copyright, 1913, By THE INDEPENDENT
Copyright, 1914, By B. W. HUEBSCH
First printing, April, 1914
Second printing, November, 1914
Printed in U. S. A.
CONTENTS
INTRODUCTION
Before the dawn of history mankindwas engaged in the study of dreaming.The wise man among the ancients waspreëminently the interpreter of dreams. Theability to interpret successfully or plausibly wasthe quickest road to royal favor, as Joseph andDaniel found it to be; failure to give satisfactionin this respect led to banishment from courtor death. When a scholar laboriously translatesa cuneiform tablet dug up from a Babylonianmound where it has lain buried for five thousandyears or more, the chances are that it willturn out either an astrological treatise or adream book. If the former, we look upon itwith some indulgence; if the latter with purecontempt. For we know that the study ofthe stars, though undertaken for selfish reasonsand pursued in the spirit of charlatanry, led atlength to physical science, while the study ofdreams has proved as unprofitable as the dreamingof them. Out of astrology grew astronomy.Out of oneiromancy has grown—nothing.[Pg 6]
That at least was substantially true up tothe beginning of the present century. Dreambooks in all languages continued to sell in cheapeditions and the interpreters of dreams made adecent or, at any rate, a comfortable living outof the poorer classes. But the psychologistrarely paid attention to dreams except incidentallyin his study of imagery, association andthe speed of thought. But now a change hascome over the spirit of the times. The subjectof the significance of dreams, so long ignored,has suddenly become a matter of energetic studyand of fiery controversy the world over.
The cause of this revival of interest is thenew point of view brought forward by ProfessorBergson in the paper which is here made accessibleto the English-reading public. This is theidea that we can explore the unconscious substratumof our mentality, the storehouse of ourmemories, by means of dreams, for these memoriesare by no means inert, but have, as it were,a life and purpose of their own, and strive torise into consciousness whenever they get achance, even into the semi-consciousness of adream. To use Professor Bergson's strikingmetaphor, our memories are packed away underpressure like steam in a boiler and the dreamis their escape valve.[Pg 7]
That this is more than a mere metaphor hasbeen proved by Professor Freud and others ofthe Vienna school, who cure cases of hysteria byinducing the patient to give expression to thesecret anxieties and emotions which, unknownto him, have been preying upon his mind. Theclue to t