ABSTRACT
Condensation is one of the most important mechanisms characteristic of the dream-work. The function of condensation as part of the dream-work is to intensify certain ideas amongst the latent dream-thoughts, a process which is repeated several times and through which the intensity of a whole train of thought may eventually be concentrated in a single ideational element. The latent dream-thoughts are thus transformed into a collection of sensory images and visual scenes. The primary psychical process is brought to bear on these memories, till, by condensation of them and displacement between their respective cathexes, it has shaped the manifest dream-content. The dream-work makes use of such cases as a foundation for dream-condensation, by bringing together everything that shows an agreement of this kind into a new unity. The outcome of the activity of condensation is the achievement of the intensities required for forcing a way through into the perceptual systems.
