Sind vergessene Träume verdrängt worden? Ein experimenteller Zugang zur Freudschen Traumlehre

Abstract

! An experiment was carried out to test whether forgetting of dream material is due to repression. Under this assumption one would expect that free associations starting from forgotten ele− ments encounter successively growing resist− ance. Subjects brought along notes of dreams and were later tested for recognition of short se− quences of their dreams. In addition, they pro− duced free associations to 5 elements they had remembered and to 5 elements not identified in the recognition test. Skin conductance responses (SCR) and perceived unpleasantness were re− corded. The main results were: In comparison to recognized dream material, unrecognized ele− ments elicited associations accompanied by greater psychophysiologic activation. During as− sociations to the latter stimuli, increase of SCR was more frequent. Our findings are in line with Freud’s assumption that forgetting of dreams is an effect of repression.