Sample Freudian Dream Analysis: "The Oprah Dream"

Read the following dream and its analysis.  Then try to locate examples of these Freudian Dream-Work mechanisms:

1. Condensation

2. Displacement

3. Considerations of Representability

4. Secondary Revision 

Reminder: 

In condensation, multiple dream-thoughts are combined and amalgamated into a single element of the manifest dream; according to Freud, every situation in a dream seems to be put together out of two or more impressions or experiences. Think about how people and places tend to meld into composite figures in our dreams.

In displacement, the emotions associated with threatening impulses are transferred elsewhere (displaced), so that, for example, apparently trivial elements in the manifest dream seem to cause extraordinary distress.

The dream (by "Jane Doe")+ her commentary

People were gathered around a table with lots of food on it. We were inside a home. Oprah is there and begins to make herself a chocolate cake sandwich, with lots of chocolate sauce in the middle. She cuts out the round center of the cake sandwich and starts to eat it. Then she walks around the table eating and talking to people . Sitting at one end of the table a daughter has made her mom this large sandwich made of cornbread, chili, and cheese. The mother says she can't eat anything this big. She begins to take it apart.  I leave the table and come back and all the food and people are gone, except one friend. All I find left on the table is some cornbread and I begin cutting a slice so that I could put syrup on it.   I cut one slice that is too small so I cut another larger piece.  The friend at the table comes over to me and asks me to marry him.

People were gathered around a table with a lot of food on it.   My thoughts during that particular day were to try and have a dinner party sometime before Thanksgiving. It wasn't a plan, but just a comment or mental note I made to myself. I hadn't seen my friends in awhile and this would be a good opportunity to relax and have fun.

We were inside a home. Oprah is there and begins to make herself a chocolate cake sandwich, with lots of chocolate sauce in the middle.  I gave this portion of my dream careful thought.  The day before I was thinking about the chocolate cake mix I have in my cabinet.  I kept thinking I should make this cake, but couldn't decide when.  I delayed making the cake because I know I would be the one that would end up eating most of it.  So it remained in the cabinet.  I feel Oprah was me whereby, my wish to make the chocolate cake and eat it was fulfilled in the dream.  Oprah didn't eat all the cake, just the middle portion.  I think that may have been my unconscious thought of not wanting to be the one eating all of the cake.  The cutting of the cake meant that I did not want to eat the entire cake.

Sitting at one end of the table a daughter has made her mom this large sandwich made of cornbread, chili, and cheese. The mother says she can't eat anything this big. She begins to take it apart.  These sentences really blew my mind, because I was thinking about my mother earlier in the day and that I should really call her.  I was also thinking of fixing chili with cheese sprinkled on top and cornbread for dinner that day.  I had asked my mom a month ago about coming out to visit us for the holidays. She said she'd have to wait and see how the weather was and if it was the right time for her to come out and visit.

The mother says she can't eat anything this big.  She begins to take it apart represents my problem of accepting my mother's excuses for not coming out here to visit.  We have been here for over four years and she hasn't come to visit.  My feelings of frustration are represented by the mother taking apart the sandwich that the daughter has made which is too big for her to eat.

I leave the table and come back and all the food and people are gone, except one friend..leaving the table could mean that for the moment I wouldn't bother my mother about coming out to visit.  The friend is my husband who has said earlier that maybe this wasn't the right time for mom to visit. All I find left on the table is some cornbread and I begin cutting into a slice so that I could put syrup on it...  I'm not sure what this part of the dream represented. However, as I thought more about what was being played out in the dream, I'm sure my thoughts were on portions of what my husband said about my mother. And it came out as cutting slices of cornbread.

The friend at the table comes over to me and asks me to marry him.  I'm sure this sentence is my husband showing his love and support for how I feel about my mom not coming out to visit.