On Dreams

Human life does not consist solely of occurrences in the external world. While a human being is an entity living in the visible world, establishing relationships, working, speaking, and making decisions, they simultaneously possess an invisible inner world. Consequently, almost all profound intellectual traditions aimed at understanding human life address human existence through two fundamental dimensions: the external and the internal. The external is the realm of human behavior, relationships, and social visibility, whereas the internal encompasses the invisible aspect of the human being, namely, the spiritual and cognitive structure. In classical thought traditions, this distinction is expressed as zahir (the manifest) and batin (the hidden). The zahir represents the facet of the human being oriented toward the world, while the batin is the side that opens inward toward oneself. However, the internal life is not monolithic in its own right. The human inner world contains at least two distinct layers: the psychological layer and the divine layer, situated at a deeper level.

The psychological layer represents the human being's appetitive world (the realm of the nafs). Memories, desires, fears, repressed emotions, habits, and personality structures reside at this level. Modern psychology largely examines this particular domain. A significant portion of human behavior is shaped by this psychological layer. This layer is highly dynamic; it undergoes continuous transformation in response to an individual's life narrative, traumas, expectations, and unconscious processes.

In the present day, when human interiority is mentioned, the layer most commonly understood and diagnosed at first glance is the psychological layer. This is because humans, especially today, are generally psychological beings.

The second layer of inner life, however, possesses a different essence. This layer pertains to the primordial (fitra) or spiritual aspect of the human being. Within the tradition of gnosis (ta'arruf), this realm is often expressed through concepts such as the spirit (ruh), the secret (sirr), or the heart (qalb). This layer represents a more primordial dimension embedded within human creation. What is at stake here, distinct from psychological processes, is a more fundamental potential (imkan) and orientation (istiqama) belonging to human existence.

In worldly life, this layer is a domain and a ground that has been lost, requiring a price to be paid for its reclamation.

Conflating these two layers in terms of interiority can lead to profound misconceptions in understanding the human inner world. This is because the psychological and divine realms are not identical. The psychological is often influenced by personal history, desires, and fears, whereas the divine represents a deeper orientation (istiqama) belonging to human primordial nature (fitra). Therefore, the ability to discern the source of internal experiences remains one of the most critical issues in both psychological and gnostic (ta'arrufi) thought, and particularly regarding the individual's orientation toward the self.

Now, dreams are among the experiences that bear the traces of these internal layers. When an individual dreams, they often encounter an internal stage partially liberated from the control of the conscious mind. On this stage, elements of the psychological layer frequently become visible. The impacts of daily life, repressed emotions, fears, desires, or mental tensions may manifest in dreams through symbolic forms. However, certain traditions also acknowledge that dreams are not merely the products of psychological processes. Within the gnostic (ta'arrufi) orientation, it is accepted that a portion of dreams may be rooted in a deeper source. Yet, there is a crucial condition here: for a dream to originate from this deeper layer, the individual must establish an authentic contact with one's own existence.

In other words, for a dream to carry a divine significance, the dreamer must have undergone a specific transformation toward becoming an authentic human being. An authentic human being is one who lives in accordance with their primordial nature (fitra) and has established a certain degree of purification and order within their inner world. In the inner world of such an individual, psychological turmoils subside, and the possibility of establishing contact with the deeper dimensions of human existence emerges.

Nevertheless, the existence of this possibility also necessitates a cautious approach toward regarding dreams as reliable sources of knowledge. From an epistemological perspective, dreams constitute a realm that must be treated with utmost prudence. The reason for this lies in the inherent difficulty of definitively discerning the dream's origin. The most fundamental cause of this difficulty is that human psychology possesses a symbolic production capacity powerful enough to mimic divine experience. Consequently, making major life decisions based on dreams has been deemed objectionable in many classical thought traditions. Even within the gnostic (ta'arruf) tradition, it is frequently emphasized that dreams should be evaluated as individual experiences rather than definitive sources of knowledge for determining the direction of life; it should not be difficult to see that this matter entails issues requiring profound, meticulous attention.

Indeed, the human capacity to interpret one's own inner world is limited. More often than not, an individual is inclined to interpret their own desires, fears, or expectations as absolute truths. Therefore, haste in dream interpretation can lead to the production of new misconceptions within one's internal world.

The human being is not an entity that can easily recognize the entirety of their own inner life. Thus, internal experiences, especially dreams, may serve as fields of inquiry for the individual; however, using them as direct sources of knowledge often leads one to one's own internal illusions rather than to the truth. For this reason, the matter of dreams must be approached with a careful consciousness of discernment, both from a psychological and a gnostic (ta'arrufi) perspective. Deeming dreams entirely worthless is just as problematic as transforming them into an absolute source of truth. The core issue is the individual's ability to distinguish between the layers of their inner world and to develop an epistemological prudence while engaging with this realm. By moving in this direction, one can better know and limit oneself, and naturally, as one knows oneself, they gain the opportunity to more accurately evaluate which layer a dream originates from. Yet, this path requires much more than a brief skill of interpretation. It necessitates the individual to encounter, confront, and perhaps even transform themselves within the relationship they establish with their own existence.

It must be remembered that, particularly for the present day, it is a prevailing necessity to accept the psychological level as the primary layer of human interiority. This should be an acknowledgment understood both in terms of the general concept of the universal individual and regarding our contemporary mode of living, which is nourished by unfounded sources.

At birth, the human individual falls into the psychic agent (psychic actor) described through psychic mechanisms, and this agent, in terms of interiority, is essentially inverted; it is blurred and enclosed. It possesses no genuine interior.

A genuine interior can only be conceived if the person becomes an 'interiorized agent' (iç'li fail). The formation of an interiorized agent requires an endeavor that transcends psychic dynamics, a success that is exceedingly rare. It depends on being a natural human being: one who inherently relies upon and preserves their primordial birth (fitra).

On the other hand, in an environmental world filled with unfounded influences, finding the resources that would direct a human being toward the primordial agent, and even if found, pursuing them, is difficult and is only rarely achieved. For this reason, the most prevalent type of human is the psychological individual. That is to say, human interiority is most commonly experienced as psychological interiority. This layer, generally and simply put, is shaped by the individual's personal history, desires, fears, habits, and unconscious processes. Modern psychology has extensively examined this domain. It is well known that Sigmund Freud, in particular, revealed that a significant portion of human behavior is driven by unconscious processes, and this approach is of considerable importance. According to Freud, the visible part of human interiority, the conscious side, constitutes only a small fraction of the whole. The truly decisive factor is the unconscious realm. Therefore, by bringing this area into full view, Freud opened an important and striking window. Concerning the psychological layer, the window opened by Freud must not be ignored.

According to psychoanalytic theories, this unconscious realm houses repressed desires, unresolved conflicts, and the traces left by early-life experiences. Individuals are often unaware of these contents; yet, these elements influence their behaviors, emotions, and even their modes of thought. Dreams are one of the stages where this realm expresses itself and hold fundamental importance in understanding the unconscious. Therefore, within the psychoanalytic approach, the dream region of the psychological individual is of significant consequence.

In Freud's dream theory, the dream is a stage where repressed desires manifest symbolically. Consequently, dreams frequently express, albeit indirectly, psychological contents that the individual finds difficult to accept consciously.

Following Freud, Carl Gustav Jung approached the concept of the unconscious within a different framework. According to Jung, the human inner world contains not only a personal unconscious but also a collective unconscious. While the personal unconscious stems from the individual's own life narrative, the collective unconscious comprises the shared symbols and archetypes of human history. Jung's approach demonstrated that dreams are not merely products of individual psychological processes but may also be linked to the deep symbolic patterns of humanity's history. However, Jung himself maintained a cautious stance toward treating the dream experience as direct knowledge of truth. This is because, unless the individual reaches their own deep essence, dreams often remain merely reflections of psychological mechanisms and external influences.

In this regard, it is essential to understand that the psychological layer of inner life is extremely dynamic and volatile. While living within this layer, an individual is often under the powerful influence of external factors, externally driven internal effects, and autonomous, interiorless psychic dynamics. Social expectations, personal fears, repressed desires, and unconscious defenses determine the dynamics of this realm. The inner world of a person living at this level often exhibits a structure that is open to external influences and susceptible to being tossed about.

However, as stated above and as is evident from a gnostic (ta'arrufi) perspective, the human inner world does not consist solely of the psychological layer. There exists a deeper layer of internal life. This layer pertains to the primordial (fitra) or spiritual aspect of the human being. On a gnostic ground, this realm has often been expressed through concepts such as the spirit (ruh), the heart (qalb), or the secret (sirr). What is at stake here is a dimension of existence distinct from human psychological processes. Accordingly, a human being is certainly not merely a psychological entity; they also carry a primordial nature (fitra) brought from creation. Fitra represents the most primordial aspect of the human being. This dimension resides deeper than social conditioning, psychological defenses, and the turmoil of personal desires. When an individual establishes contact with this aspect, a different kind of order begins to emerge in their inner world. However, this direction, this orientation, as emphasized above and detailed in our other writings, is not something that can be easily attained or made functional. The activation of this dimension depends on becoming an authentic human being. And this, in turn, depends on transcendence, transformation, and their infernal costs.

In short, the key point to consider is this: An authentic human being is one who has not abandoned their inner world solely to the flow of psychological processes. Such an individual has been able to establish a certain degree of lucidity and order within their internal realm. Thanks to this order, one can more clearly discern the distinction between psychological contents and their primordial (fitra) aspect. When this distinction is not made, the individual's inner world remains entirely at the psychological level. In such a state, internal experiences often become a mere mixture of external influences and internal tensions. One may easily interpret these contents as divine or genuine experiences; yet, in reality, what is at stake are often the symbolic expressions of psychological mechanisms, among other things.

For this reason, the question of which layer the inner life is rooted in is of paramount importance. If a human being does not actively rest upon the divine or primordial layer, their inner life remains largely at the psychological level. Such an inner life exhibits a structure that is externally dependent, volatile, and susceptible to being tossed about; it remains under the governance of psychic dynamics from which it is difficult to escape.

At this point, the dream experience, as one of the most vital components of inner life, must be evaluated and handled with care within this same distinction. Unless an authentic ground has been reached or a path requiring serious endeavor has been embarked upon, the vast majority of dreams should be understood as products of the psychological layer. For only when a human being can establish a deeper order within their inner world does the possibility emerge for the dream experience to be rooted in a different source. Moreover, even this possibility must be approached with prudence.

This is because even if the ground for more primordial, authentic, and 'truthful' dreaming is reached, the dream remains a riddle.

Within this framework, we can provide a general classification of dreams as follows:

The Truthful Dream (Ruya'ı Sadıqa): This is the dream that points toward truth and is accepted as being rooted in a divine source. The most significant characteristic of such dreams is that, even when symbolic, they leave the individual with a sense of clarity and tranquility in their inner world. Truthful dreams often arise not from intense psychological turmoil, but from a more orderly internal ground.

The Inspirational Dream (Ruya'ı Ilham): A second type is linked to inspiration. Rather than being a direct proclamation of truth, these dreams can manifest an orientation or a sign within the inner world. The manifestation of inspiration in a dream often carries a meaning that strengthens one's internal direction.

The Discourse of the Soul (Hadis-i Nefs): The third type, consistent with the psychological level, is called hadis-i nefs. These are dreams that are products of the individual's own psychological world. The impacts of daily life, anxieties, desires, fears, and mental tensions constitute the primary source of these dreams. The vast majority of dreams people experience fall into this category.

The occurrence of truthful and inspirational dreams depends on an authentic endeavor. An authentic endeavor means embarking on the path of transcendence and transformation; furthermore, it involves becoming the conqueror of one's own individuality and discerning the sources that are not authentic. Otherwise, a dream will, at best, be hadis-i nefs, which is closely aligned with the framework of contemporary psychological theories. We shall not go into further detail.

Another crucial point must be understood with great care here: The truthful dream is something that even an authentic human being must read with caution. Authentic individuals do not immediately immerse themselves in the dream.

In Sufi gnostic (ta'arruf) orientations, people who have reached internal maturity are described with meticulousness, and these descriptions contain their own internal hierarchies. However, the general condition for all of them is grounded in the foundational idea of being an authentic human being. The term 'authentic human being' denotes not only moral maturity but also a state in which the relationship one establishes with one's own existence has reached a certain equilibrium. Such a person is one who can carry both their manifest (zahir) and hidden (batin) aspects in a specific harmony. They have established a certain order between their life in the external world and the orientations of their inner world. In this respect, an authentic human being is not merely someone who performs religious practices. An authentic human being is an individual who has gained a specific lucidity within their internal world. They are the ones who can discern, to a certain extent, the distinction between psychological contents and their primordial (fitra) aspect. In the inner world of such a person, psychological turmoil has subsided to a degree, allowing them to establish contact with the deeper dimension of their existence. This individual, as stated above, is engaged in a serious endeavor, and they are a 'distinct individual' (Ferd).

However, even this situation does not mean that for the authentic and distinct individual, the dream is a directly reliable source of knowledge. This is because an authentic human being is one who has also awakened to the ways they can deceive themselves, and who has carried this sensitivity to dreams to an advanced level.

Indeed, as has been evident from the beginning of this text, we are saying that a person can easily interpret an experience in their inner world as a divine sign. Yet this interpretation can often reflect the individual's own psychological expectations. For this reason, even in our gnostic traditions, the interpretation of dreams has generally not been seen as a task an individual can perform on their own. This is because interpreting a dream does not consist merely of deciphering symbols; it requires a correct evaluation of the dreamer's internal state---and more importantly, it necessitates looking at who they are and upon which ground they stand. And this evaluation is performed, first and foremost, by the authentic human beings themselves.

This approach is consistent with the epistemological prudence inherent in Islamic thought. According to Islam, knowledge that directly concerns an individual must be based on reliable sources. Major decisions that direct human life must be made upon sound intellectual foundations. Dreaming, by its very nature, belongs to the realm of interpretation and probability. Therefore, making definitive decisions based on dreams can mean relying on an intellectually weak foundation---especially when the nature of one's internal constitution remains ambiguous.

This situation is addressed similarly not only in Islamic thought but also in philosophical anthropology. According to these perspectives, the human inner world possesses an extremely powerful structure regarding the production of symbols. The human mind can sometimes experience its own internal processes as if they were an external reality. Thus, maintaining the distinction between internal experiences and objective knowledge is of paramount importance.

At this point, one area that requires particular attention is making major life decisions based on dreams. For instance, for an individual to undergo a significant change of direction, enter into a new religious affiliation, or radically alter their life based solely on a dream is, in every sense, an epistemologically problematic situation.

At this point, one area that requires particular attention is making major life decisions based on dreams. For instance, for an individual to undergo a significant change of direction, enter a new religious affiliation, or radically alter their life solely on the basis of a dream is, in every sense, an epistemologically problematic situation.

Within the gnostic (ta'arruf) tradition, making such decisions based on dreams has often been deemed inappropriate. This is because a dream is a symbolic experience formed within the individual's inner world. It is frequently impossible to definitively determine whether this experience is rooted in a divine source.

Therefore, attempting to affiliate with divine matters, making major spiritual decisions, or determining the direction of one's life through dreams has been considered an amateurish approach, both in Islamic thought and in philosophical anthropology. Such an approach often entangles the individual in their own internal illusions rather than bringing them closer to the truth.

At this stage, the healthiest approach is to evaluate the dream within its own boundaries. A dream may provide clues regarding the individual's inner world. Through their dreams, a person may better understand their psychological state or internal orientations. However, treating the dream as a direct proclamation of truth can lead the individual to a flawed foundation, both epistemologically and spiritually.

Therefore, the primary measure regarding dreams is the relationship an individual establishes with their own existence before the dream itself. Only when an individual establishes an authentic ground within their inner world can they more accurately evaluate the meaning of dreams. Seeking truth through dreams before this ground is established often leads to the loss of the boundary between truth and the images produced within one's own internal realm.

Now, let us proceed toward the conclusion by touching upon a lesser-known point. As an authentic human being draws closer to truth and to themselves, they become an individual for whom the distinction between sleep and wakefulness begins to dissolve.

What is at stake here is the human consciousness attaining a different order. Ordinary consciousness is often fragmented. An individual may constantly change direction under the pressures of daily life, desires, fears, and mental fluctuations; consequently, the human inner world often exhibits a scattered structure. However, when an individual can more deeply connect to the center of their own existence, this fragmentation begins to subside to a certain extent. The individual gains a more integral orientation within their inner world. Through this wholeness, human consciousness no longer remains solely dependent on the shifting conditions of the external world, and its internal principles progressively cease to belong to 'another universe.

As the human vision attains unity, the distinctions between bodily-based sleep and wakefulness, as well as psychodynamically-based fragmentation, begin to dissolve.

At this point, the relationship between dreaming and wakefulness gains a different meaning. For the ordinary person, dreaming is often an unconscious process, or rather, the state of consciousness during a dream corresponds to a state of unconsciousness regarding the external world. Their sleep is essentially subject to the dichotomy between consciousness and unconsciousness.

However, as the authentic human being matures, they are liberated from this distinction during sleep. Through this wholeness, human consciousness no longer remains confined solely to moments of wakefulness but begins to carry a certain lucidity in other states of consciousness as well. This does not mean that dreams become more 'real.' To express it more accurately, the fundamental orientation of the individual's consciousness changes. For, in essence, this wakefulness is not a biological one; it is an existential awareness.

However, this is merely the transition from crawling to walking slowly. In fact, the authentic human being who has stood up and made progress on the path ceases to dream altogether. For the awakened (agâh) one, there is no dream. Attaining this point extends even beyond being an authentic human being.

Conclusion and Evaluation

To correctly understand human existence, one must accept that human life does not consist solely of events occurring in the external world. The human being possesses a two-fold existence: the manifest (zahir) and the hidden (batin). The manifest encompasses the social, biological, and behavioral aspects of the individual, while the hidden represents the internal life---the deeper layers of existence. This internal life is not a homogeneous structure; rather, it is composed of distinct layers. The first layer is the psychological layer. This layer includes unconscious processes, desires, fears, habits, and mental structures shaped by social influences. The vast majority of people experience their internal lives at this level. The second layer can be termed the divine or primordial (fitra) layer. This layer corresponds to the deeper and more essential dimension of human existence. Within the gnostic (ta'arrufi) tradition, this realm is handled in relation to the human spirit and fitra. When an individual establishes contact with this layer, they begin to experience their existence not merely through psychological impulses or social influences, but within a deeper horizon of meaning. This distinction is not unique to mystical thought. In fact, in many mystical traditions, these matters are quite conflated. Nevertheless, there are traditions of 'true orientation' that stand upon these foundations. Alongside these, modern psychology also acknowledges the multi-layered structure of the human inner world. The psychoanalytic tradition has revealed the impact of unconscious processes on human behavior. Sigmund Freud and Carl Gustav Jung, in particular, demonstrated that the human mind possesses a structure far more complex than the surface-level conscious state. Similarly, philosophical anthropology has emphasized that the human being is not merely a biological or psychological entity, but also a being related to a world of values and meaning. In this approach, the human being is not an organism driven solely by impulses, but a being in search of meaning.

The matter of dreams occupies a significant place at this point. This is because dreams are one of the realms where the individual's inner life becomes visible. A dream is like a symbolic stage for the processes operating within the human internal world. On this stage, sometimes psychological contents and at other times deeper symbolic structures may emerge. However, the source of dreams is not always the same. The vast majority of dreams people experience are products of psychological processes. The impacts of daily life, repressed desires, anxieties, and mental tensions can take symbolic form in the dream world. Therefore, interpreting dreams directly as divine messages often leads to erroneous conclusions. In essence, attributing experienced dreams to divine affairs is a transgression of one's limits and is one of many examples of the ego's tendency toward self-exaggeration.

Within the Sufi (ta'arrufi) tradition, it has been emphasized that dreams must be handled with great caution for this reason.

At this juncture, the concept of the authentic human being gains importance. An authentic human being is one who is in contact with their fitra and has gained a specific clarity within their inner world---certainly by paying the necessary prices.

The dream of such an individual may differ from others in terms of its potential to carry a divine meaning. This is because the inner world of the authentic human being possesses a structure that is, to a certain extent, purified of psychological turmoil.

Nevertheless, within the Sufi gnostic (ta'arruf) tradition, even for the authentic human being, acting upon a dream is not recommended. This is because a dream, by its very nature, is an experience that requires interpretation in many respects. An individual can easily interpret a symbolic experience within their inner world as the truth. Consequently, accepting the dream as a definitive guide is an epistemologically problematic approach.

The truth of the matter is that the act of interpretation itself is a highly uncanny and unreliable territory in a broad sense.

Even with such a conclusion, making major decisions based on dreams, and especially regarding spiritual or divine orientations, can often yield misleading results. For this reason, a serious prudence has developed within Islamic thought and the Sufi tradition regarding decision-making based on dreams.

However, contrary to this necessary caution, many beliefs and practices that have the exact opposite effect are quite prevalent and active within various Sufi circles that ought to be the most circumspect. We shall elaborate on the reasons and details of this situation later.

The healthiest way to understand the dream is not to center the dream itself, but to deepen one's own existence. When an individual establishes an authentic ground in their inner life, dreams find their proper place. Yet, regarding the dream as a direct expression of truth before this ground is established carries the risk of dragging the individual into internal illusions rather than bringing them closer to the truth.

In this respect, the dream is a mirror of one's inner life, but it is not the truth itself. Truth emerges in the wholeness of human existence. As one approaches this wholeness, the distinction between dreaming and wakefulness gradually loses its meaning, and the individual attains the possibility of a clearer vision within existence.

For those who attain the station of Awareness (Agah), it is impossible to speak of a 'dream'. Those who are awakened begin to awaken those who come to them with dreams---not through the medium of the dream, but by warning them toward the purpose of waking up from the dream altogether.

For the Awakened One (Agah), neither falls for a dream themselves nor casts a glance at those captivated by dreams.

For that which comes by a dream, departs by a dream. And one who comes and goes by a dream is merely degraded.

Appendix:

Regarding dreams, we find it essential to consider the individual from a psychoanalytic perspective. To provide insight, let us present a summary of a significant observation by Sigmund Freud, the founder of psychoanalysis, about dreams.

According to Freud, dreams are the indirect staging of desires that are repressed or cannot be directly expressed by the human mind. Therefore, a dream must be handled on two distinct levels: the first is the latent dream content, and the second is the manifest dream content.

Latent dream content represents the totality of the individual's actual thoughts, desires, and emotions residing in the unconscious. This content cannot emerge directly into consciousness; it is often blocked by the individual's moral structure, social norms, or ego defenses. At this point, the mind's unique transformation mechanism comes into play.

Freud calls this transformation process 'dream-work' (Traumarbeit). Dream-work is the set of psychological operations that ensure the latent unconscious content is transferred onto the dream stage, not directly, but in an altered form. Through this process, the latent dream content is transformed into the manifest dream, the version that the sleeper remembers, which often appears complex or fragmented.

Freud states that dream-work operates primarily through three fundamental tools: condensation, displacement, and secondary revision.

Condensation (Verdichtung) is one of the most prominent mechanisms of dream-work. In this process, multiple elements from the latent dream are brought together and concentrated into a single dream image. In other words, a single person or object seen in a dream is actually a combined manifestation of several different unconscious elements. While some elements are omitted entirely, others are brought together in fragments to form a new whole.

For instance, an individual might harbor various fear-inducing male figures in their unconscious, such as a father, a teacher, or an employer. In the manifest dream, these figures may merge into a single character. The man in the dream might have hair like the father's, a face reminiscent of the primary school teacher, and clothing reminiscent of the employer's style. Thus, different sources of fear in the unconscious are condensed into a single symbolic figure.

Similarly, an emotional experience can be condensed through spatial imagery. For example, a person's feelings of abandonment or loneliness might be tied to various memories. However, in the dream, this may appear as a single image of a house. The roof of this house might evoke a past unhappy memory, its windows another location, and its rooms yet another emotional experience. A single structure in the manifest dream is, in fact, the combined state of many different emotional recollections.

From this perspective, dreams utilize a psychodynamic-symbolic language. In daily life, the external differences between objects and people may be important. However, in internal psychological reality, what matters is which emotional experience these elements represent. If different people have left the same emotional trace, the dream may unite them within a single image.

The second important mechanism of dream-work is displacement (Verschiebung).

In the process of displacement, an important thought or emotion from the latent dream is represented through another element that appears insignificant in the manifest dream. Thus, the true meaning of the dream is rendered invisible. For this reason, minor details that go unnoticed in a dream often carry its most significant meaning. An object, a word, or a small event that seems trivial on the dream stage may actually be a displaced form of a powerful unconscious emotion. This mechanism allows unconscious desires to pass through censorship and emerge in the dream.

The third process Freud highlights is secondary revision (Sekundäre Bearbeitung). This process is the mental organizing activity that kicks in the moment we remember the dream. The human mind attempts to transform the scattered, irrational images in a dream into a meaningful narrative. Therefore, the dream we remember in the morning is actually a somewhat edited and 'story-fied' version of the raw dream experience of the night.

In conclusion, according to Freud, the dream is not a direct but a symbolic and transformed expression of the unconscious. Thanks to dream-work, repressed desires bypass the censorship mechanism and become visible on the dream stage through symbols, condensed images, and displaced meanings.

The point that must be particularly underscored here is 'displacement.'

The human being is a creature that hides from itself. It is essential not to look at what a creature hiding from itself brings to the fore, but at its simplest, most ordinary aspects and directions.

In other words, there is no great significance in looking at the most exaggerated, meaningful, or striking scenes of the psychological individual; what must be examined are the things rendered most mundane, most ordinary, and kept in the furthest corners. For the true face that one wishes to hide is concealed in the very places one wishes to be overlooked, and especially in dreams.