Multiple ideas or people are compressed into a single image.

Sigmund Freud’s The Interpretation of Dreams (1900) didn’t just change psychology; it fundamentally altered how we view the human experience. Before its publication, dreams were often dismissed as biological noise or divine messages. Freud, however, proposed that they are the "royal road to a knowledge of the unconscious." The Core Premise: Wish Fulfillment

At the heart of the essay is Freud’s bold claim: every dream is a form of . Even nightmares or anxiety dreams, he argued, represent the satisfaction of a repressed desire. However, because these desires are often socially or morally unacceptable, the mind "censors" them. The Mechanics of Dreaming

The emotional weight of a significant person or event is shifted onto something trivial to avoid direct confrontation.