The Unconscious

Freud makes an important distinction between the conscious and the unconscious mind. The concept of the "unconscious" was not itself Freud's invention and had already been in use at the time of his writing. However, Freud developed his theory of the unconscious far beyond any previous understanding of it. He makes a distinction between "manifest," or conscious, dream content—the surface-level content of the dream, which can be described by the dreamer upon waking—and the "latent," or unconscious, "dream thoughts," which are only revealed upon analysis. He demonstrates that, through dream analysis, it is possible to access the workings of the unconscious mind, which is less accessible in the waking thought process.

Childhood Experiences

One of Freud's original insights was his assertion of the importance of early childhood experiences on the unconscious mind, as expressed in dream thoughts. He observed that, while dreams draw manifest material...