Freud

I think the parallel that is trying to be drawn here is that literature and dream-work as Freud puts it are two things that are a lot alike. He writes “It is possible, naturally, to make a composite structure out of things and places in the same way as out of people, provided that the various things or places have in common something which is emphasized by the latent dream.” Here I think it refers to what writers use as symbols. Freud here basically tells you how to make a character in a story. You take a bunch of things you want the character to be and put them together. This character then takes on those qualities. Then you get to the next level where the character is then equal to those attributes. For instance you could say Superman stands for justice, courage, and strength which he then becomes. He also writes that “You will only be able to form an idea of the further significance of these discoveries when you learn that the mechanisms of dream construction are the model of the manner in which neurotic symptoms arise.” I think that if you parallel dream sequencing with literature you get insight into what makes people tick. Now being that stories were around way before psychoanalysis this is saying that stories give insight into the human condition (which Freud goes into trying to explain it with the unconsciousness) and tell us about how people as a collective function (for lack of a better word).