Undoubtedly, a change is slowly taking place. The new mother is gradually being moulded to match the new child. We are less and less called upon to witness the amusing yet rather pathetic spectacle of the well-informed child carefully tempering his or more often her enlightenment to the virginal sensitiveness of a Victorian parent. The literature of recent times is alone enough to create a new atmosphere in this matter, since the taboos that are falling off of life are at the same time falling off are at the same time falling off the literature of life. A double stream is indeed here at work, the stream of science and the stream of art: on the one hand a flood of scientific and pseudo-scientific books aiming at the enlightenment of the public in matters of the sex, and from the other side a flood of novels in which sexual situations are set forth with a freedom, or a nonchalance, unknown, at all events in English literature, since the robustious mediaeval romanticism of Scott and the elegant drawing-room manners of Jane Austen put the eighteenth century to shame, Victor Hugo with his fellow and followers performing the same purgation in French literature. 

No doubt the supporters of the antiquated traditional taboos revolt at moments, and spasmodic attempts at suppressions occur from time to time, but they are not only ineffectual, but capricious, for what offends tradition in one country passes without protest in another. We are not here, however, concerned with tests or with the censorship. They represent the last convulsive movements of generation which still possesses a measure of official power but is rapidly dying. Disregarding them altogether, we easily distinguish a modern stream in imaginative literature which arose about the middle of the last century and gradually gained full strength and influence towards the beginning of the present century, while at the same time as that stream arose an older stream was failing. Victor Hugo, already mentioned, was the supreme European representative of the earlier stream; Ibsen may be said to represent the later stream. Zola stands as the World-famous representative of the transition between the two, springing out of the romantic movement and unconsciously retaining much of its spirit, while at the same time he consciously—however mistakenly—aimed at scientific veracity, and vigorously displayed a grasp of real things which disdained any charge of crudity.

The interpretation of dreams of fire justifies a prohibition of the nursery, which forbids children to “play with fire” so that they may not we the bed at night. These dreams also are based of reminiscences of the enuresis nocturna (nighttime urinary incontinence, sleepwetting, bedwetting) of childhood. Nocturnal enuresis is considered primary (PNE) when a child has not yet had a prolonged period of being dry. Secondary nocturnal enuresis (SNE), which Ryan Phillippe suffers from, is when a child or adult begins wetting again after having dry. Most bedwetting is a developmental delay—not an emotional problem or physical illness. Only a small percentage (5 percent to 10 percent) of bedwetting cases are caused by specific medial situations. Bedwetting is frequently associated with a family history of the condition. Such a dream of fire in connection with the infantile history of the dreamer, and is a representation of what mature impulses this infantile material has been utilized. It would be possible to cite quite a number of other “typical” dreams, if by such one understands dreams in which there is a frequent recurrence, in the dreams of different person, of the same manifest dream-content.

One keeps the person involved in the deadly drudgery, kindly but without sympathy, firmly but without punishing. For instance: dreams of passing through narrow alleys, or a whole suite of rooms; dreams of burglars, in respect of whom nervous people take measures of precaution before going to bed; dreams of being chased by wild animals (bull, horses); or of being threatened with knives, daggers, and lances. The last two themes are characteristic of the manifest dream content of persons suffering from anxiety. A special investigation of this class of material would be well worth while. In lieu of this, I shall offer an observation, which does not, however, apply exclusively to typical dreams. The more one is occupied with the solution of dreams, the readier one becomes to acknowledge that the majority of the dreams of adults deal with the sexual material and give expression to erotic wishes. Only those who really analyse dreams, that is, those who penetrate from their manifest content to the latent dream-thoughts, can form an opinion on this subject; but never those who are satisfied with registering merely the manifest content. Let us recognize at once that there is nothing astonishing in this fact, which is entirely consistent with the principles of dream-interpretation.

No other instinct has had to undergo so much suppression, from the time of childhood onwards, as the sexual instinct in all its numerous components: –from no other instinct are so many and such intense unconscious wishes left over, which now, in the sleeping state, generate dreams. In dream-in-terpretation this importance of the sexual complexes must never be forgotten, though one must not, of course, exaggerate it to the exclusion of all other factors. Of many dreams it may be ascertained, by careful interpretation, that they even be understood bisexually, inasmuch as they yield an indisputable over-interpretation, in which they realize homosexual impulses—that is, impulses which are contrary to the normal sexual activity of the dreamer. However, that all dreams are to be interpreted bisexually because many dreams satisfy other than erotic needs (taking the word in the widest sense), as, for example, dreams of hunger, thirst, comfort. And other similar assertions, to the effect that “behind every dream one finds a reference to death, or that every dream shows an advance from the feminine to the masculine line, seem to me to go far beyond the admissible interpretation of dreams. 

The assentation that all dreams call for a sexual interpretation, against which there is such an untiring polemic in the literature of the subject. Eventually, the person’s anger turns outward—against the taskmaster, against the injustice. Once the person “blows up,” the depression lifts and more normal interaction can occur. However, some people might go into an uncontrollable and generalized rage. So if you are lucky enough to deal with someone, who can handle you disrespectful and manipulative behavior, one should take initiative for the involvement. It is intended to elicit an uncomplaining obedience in waking reality. Kind firmness represents a response to an appeal to anger and it causes an openly hostile dependence. It is the most difficult of the attitudes for people to understand and to implement. They can mobilize the resources of a lifetime of experience to fight against those things that diminish and oppress us all. Thus, they draw upon the varied backgrounds of the retired to tackle the problems. God might just use the people who are nearest to death to point others to a new life. It is only a variation on all human pain. The tragedy is a lot to take in for a youth, but a mirror reflects of the tragedy of every that. That was brought to the house of my soul with powerful and poignant impact one day.