Other more “obvious” symbols include dreams in which trains are entering or exiting a tunnel, a large flagpole is being erected or climbed, or a sword is being unsheathed and engaged in battle. Frank finds that he awakes with an erection when he has been dreaming about climbing a mountain, rowing a long thin boat (often in a race), or pulling hard on a rope that is attached to a horse he is trying to move into its stall. For Frank, sexuality seems to be related to physical action and specifically to the use of muscles in his loins. Obvious and not very symbolic!!
Other dreamers offer even more interesting and widely diverse symbolizations of sexuality. They may dream of an awakening Spring in which fauns are cavorting around the meadows (very Grecian!). Or the dream can be one in which a tornado sweeps one up in the air—only to fall into a land of beautiful witches. Or is this just a “perverted” version of the Wizard of Oz? Wait, maybe this movie is appealing to us because it actually is a sexual fantasy (with Dorothy coming of age sexually). Too much?? Too Freudian?? Probably.
Perhaps the most elaborate and creative symbolic expressions of sexuality are to be found in the dreams that Carl Jung and his Jungian colleagues write about and portray in pictures that they draw—see Carl Jung’s Red Book (Jung, 2009). In the realm of Jungian dream interpretation, sexuality is often portrayed in an image of unity (a mandala) or the joining of two primal forces (ying and yang) such as water and sky, or heaven and earth. For Frank, the dream of making love to a beautiful woman he meets on a foggy beach holds many archetypal images for a Jungian interpretation of dreams (Bergquist,2023b).
While all of these symbolic representations of sexuality play well to an audience of dream interpreters who never get much further than Dr. Freud’s coach, there are several alternative conceptions of what occurs with the expression of sexual desires in dreams. I offer two concepts that branch out from and refine a Freudian focus on sexuality and sexual repression. One of these concepts centers on a process called Sublimation, while the second concept centers on a process called Secondary Autonomy. I offer a brief exposition of these somewhat obscure terms and suggest how each concept might provide a somewhat different (and hopefully illuminating) perspective on sexuality and dreaming.
Sexuality and Sublimation
Many conceptual descendants of Sigmund Freud (including his daughter Anna) have focused on the defensive structures that come into play when dealing with potentially anxiety-provoking or threatening issues such as sexuality. These so-called “ego” psychologists focus on the adaptive functions served by our “psyche” rather than the more primitive impulses we encounter. Sublimation is one of these higher-order adaptive functions. This defensive mechanism is engaged when we displace our more “primitive” urge (such as sexuality) on an activity that is socially acceptable (such as providing a charitable act or engaging in a creative act). Dreams are wonderful venues for engaging in sublimation.
For Anna Freud, the sublimation process begins during childhood when we engage in play and fantasy in preparation for adult life. For example (A. Freud, 1966, p. 85):
“. . . Dolls, besides being useful for all sorts of other games, create the fiction of motherhood, while railways, motors, and bricks not only serve to fulfill various wishes and provide opportunities for sublimation but produce in the minds of children the agreeable fantasy that they can control the world.”
