Chapter 1 THE SCIENTIFIC LITERATURE DEALING WITH THE PROBLEMS OF DREAMS

第一章 有关梦的问题的科学文献

(D) Why Dreams are Forgotten after Waking

Ⅳ 为何醒来后会忘记梦

It is a proverbial fact that dreams melt away in the morning. They can, of course, be remembered; for we only know dreams from our memory of them after we are awake. But we very often have a feeling that we have only remembered a dream in part and that there was more of it during the night; we can observe, too, how the recollection of a dream, which was still lively in the morning, will melt away, except for a few small fragments, in the course of the day; we often know we have dreamt, without knowing what we have dreamt; and we are so familiar with the fact of dreams being liable to be forgotten, that we see no absurdity in the possibility of someone having had a dream in the night and of his not being aware in the morning either of what he has dreamt or even of the fact that he has dreamt at all. On the other hand, it sometimes happens that dreams show an extraordinary penistence in the memory. I have analysed dreams in my patients which occurred twenty five and more ycan earlier; and I can remember a dream of my own separated by at least thirty-seven ycan from to-day and yet as fresh as ever in my memory. All of this is very remarkable and not immediately intelligible.

众所周知，梦在早晨就会“消失”。当然，梦是可以回忆起来的，因为我们知道梦，正是通过醒后的回忆。不过，我们通常认为，回忆起来的梦并不完整，夜里真实发生的梦内容更丰富。我们还可以观察到，清晨回忆的梦还栩栩如生，白天就会慢慢消失，最后就只剩下零星的片段了。我们经常知道自己做了梦，但不记得梦到了什么。梦是很容易忘记的，对此我们已经习惯了。一个人夜里做了梦，次日清晨不仅忘了梦的内容，而且也不清楚自己究竟是否做了梦，这种情况我们并不觉得荒谬。另一方面，梦又能够长时间地保存在记忆中。我给自己的病人分析过他们二十五年前及更早前做的梦，我也能回忆起自己做过的某个梦，它距今至少已有三十七年，依然历历在目。这一切非常奇特，初看起来难以理解。

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In the fint place, all the causes that lead to forgetting in waking life are operative for dreams as well. When we are awake we regularly forget countless sensations and perceptions at once, because they were too weak or because the mental excitation attaching to them was too slight. The same holds good of many dream-images: they are forgotten because they are too weak, while stronger images adjacent to them are remembered. The factor of intensity, however, is certainly not in itself enough to determine whether a dream-image shall be recollected. Strtimpell [ 1877, 82] admits, as well as other writers (e.g. Calkins, 1893, 312), that we often forget dream-images which we know were very vivid, while a very large number which are shadowy and lacking in sensory force are among those retained in the memory. Moreover when we are awake we tend easily to forget an event which occurs only once and more readily to notice what can be perceived repeatedly. Now most dream-images are unique experiences; 1 and that fact will contribute impartially towards making us forget all dreams. Far more importance attaches to a third cause of forgetting. If sensations, ideas, thoughts, and so on, arc to attain a certain degree of susceptibility to being remembered, it is essential that they should not remain isolated but should be arranged in appropriate concatenations and groupings. If a short line of verse is divided up into its component words and these arc mixed up, it becomes very hard to remember. 'If words are properly arranged and put into the relevant order, one word will help another, and the whole, being charged with meaning, will be easily taken up by the memory and retained for a long time. It is in general as difficult and unusual to retain what is nonsensical as it is to retain what is confused and disordered.' [Strumpcll, 1877, 83.) Now dreams arc in most cases lacking in intelligibility and orderliness. The compositions which con� stitute dreams arc barren of the qualities which would make it possible to remember them, and they arc forgotten because as a rule they fall to pieces a moment later. Radestock (1879, 168 ), however, claims to have observed that it is the most peculiar dreams that are best remembered, and this, it must be admitted, would scarcely tally with what has just been said.

首先，导致我们在清醒生活中遗忘事情的所有因素，对梦也同样有效。在清醒时，我们通常会很快忘掉许多感觉、知觉，因为它们太微弱了，与它们相连的精神刺激强度太低了。这个道理也适用于许多梦中形象，它们被遗忘也是因为它们太微弱了，而那些较强烈的形象就会被记起来。不过，强度本身肯定不是能否记住梦中形象的决定性因素。斯特伦佩尔和其他一些学者都承认，我们经常会很快忘记一些非常生动的梦中形象，但记忆中却保留了许多模模糊糊、感觉微弱的形象。此外，我们清醒时很容易忘记只发生过一次的事情，而可以反复感知的内容会更容易记住。大部分的梦中形象都是一次性的体验，这一特点也会导致梦逐渐被遗忘。第三个原因的意义则重要得多——感觉、想象、观念等要想在某种程度上被回忆起来，就不可分散独存，而要适当地相互联系、结合在一起。如果将一行短诗分解成孤立的词语，再将它们胡乱拼在一起，就很难再记住了。“有序、恰当排列的词语之间会有互助效果，从而组成一个有意义的整体，就容易长久保存在记忆中。一般说来，我们很难或很少记住不合情理的内容，杂乱、无序的东西也是如此。”大部分的梦恰恰都是难以理解、没有秩序的，梦的结构本身就不利于记忆，它们通常随即就会瓦解，从而被忘记。而拉德斯托克却认为，我们记得最清楚的恰恰是那些最离奇的梦，这观点与上面的说法并不那么合拍。