Several important insights are contained in this summary statement. First, the stress associated with the “real” (awake) situation centered more on the emotions associated with situation than with the events occurring in this situation. It may be that we are stressed about our stress more than we are stressed about a threatening situation. We don’t like the experience of feeling angry, frightened or confused. In preparation for a potentially threatening event (such as surgery), we may be more concerned about how we handle our emotions regarding this event than we are about the event itself.
Another important insight concerns the dream itself. Breger and his associates found that the surgery was not directly addressed; rather there were indirect associations with this event. This would seem to be in alignment with Freud’s premise that dreams are mostly in the business of indirection and covering over potentially anxiety-provoking experiences—though Breger and his colleagues frame this function of dreams more as an assimilative process. Borrowing from Piaget (1923/2001), they thought of the dream as taking in outside experiences (such as impending surgery) and incorporating (assimilating) these experiences within existing frameworks, themes and strategies. Furthermore, while Freud was focused on the threat of sexual arousal, Breger’s subjects were focusing on and assimilating the threat of the surgery—or the emotions associated with this impending intrusive event.
Assimilation and Testing
An additional insight offered by Breger and his colleagues (1971, p. 182) concerns another aspect of the assimilating process of dreams. They suggest that there is a broad representation in the subjects’ dreams of feelings associated with the impending surgery. A recoding, transforming or assimilating process:
“. . . is central to the adaptive function of dreams. The thoughts and feelings aroused by surgery are integrated with, or assimilated into, an organized network of memories. This process of assimilation not only transforms the stress stimuli into forms which are familiar to the dreamer, but opens up psychological means of coping with the threat. For example, in his dreams Al tackled the job of repairing damaged objects on his own, rather than having to depend helplessly on the skill of a surgeon to restore his mobility.”
It is in this statement that the doorway is opened to the engagement of dream-related themes and strategies to the outside world. We “test out” the theme or strategy in the dream and then can engage it in addressing the real-world conflict—particularly if it is a long-enduring focal conflict (French and Fromm, 1964). Breger, Hunter and Lane (1971, p. 188) made the appearance of this doorway quite clear and critical to the adaptive function of dreams:
“Dreams . . . provide the possibility of integrating contemporary material into the adaptive “solutions” worked out in the past. This idea is central to our hypothesis concerning the integrative function of dreams. Consider, for example, the patterns of relating to other people that become established within the family. These patterns, together with their very important emotional effects, persist, and guide later relations with other people. . . . It is not surprising that what our subjects dream about is . . . in relationships with those others, past and present, that they feel strongly about.”
It is at this point that the doorway is flung wide open, with the process of accommodation being linked with the process of assimilation (Breger, Hunter and Lane, 1971, p. 191):
“But such assimilation, no matter how creative, will have no effect if dreams remain private; if they are not integrated into the person’s waking conception of himself. In Piaget’s terms, dreaming is “pure assimilation,” which means it plays no role in adaptation to the world, since adaptation must always involve a balance between assimilation and accommodation. In psychoanalytic terms, we can speak of dreams as “pure regression,” making essentially the same point as Piaget. Both pure assimilation and pure regression imply that something more must be done with dreams if they are to have an effect on the person’s life. As dissociated fantasies which “come to the person” they may be interesting, but they remain essentially foreign intruders on the mind.”
