Dreams and Their Interpretation

Abstract

This is the third time that I have been honored by the executive committee of the venerable Abernethian Society, founded 1795, to address its members and visitors. Upon the first occasion we discussed the question of temperaments, on the second the relationship of genius and insanity, and on this I have been requested to bring before you the subject of dreams. John Abernethy (1764-1831), whom this society commemorates was no dreamer, although Sir James Paget described him as naturally indolent, and he never disdained facts which were within the range of physiological and anatomical experience. He possessed in no small degree a vivid and attractive power of exposition as was testified by a great and appreciative audience of St. Bartholomew’s men who crowded to hear his lectures at his house in Bartholomew Close. It may seem out of place, whilst we are face to face with so grim a reality as war, which has affected us at St. Bartholomew’s (there are 1400 Bartholomew’s men serving) here as much if not more than any other institution or industry, that we should be discussing the realms of the unconscious, but we can claim that such a discussion is a relief to the strain and stress of reality and that the “Bowmen” in the early days of the war laid particular emphasis upon dreams of the “Angels of Mons.” Moreover, dreams have been regarded as one of the strongest forces wherewith to unravel the mysteries of the unconscious mind and it is claimed that their interpretation may bring out of the unconscious mind what is perplexing and hidden and may restore the balance in an unstable and wandering mind.