Verbal language in dreams "dream work" proper. The dream-like features which one experiences in dreams, such as condensations, displacements (symbolism), and reversals, are the manifestations of the primary-process input to the dream generation process. Yet the dreams of Freud's own and those of his patients, which he provides in "The Interpretation of Dreams" and elsewhere, typically abound in verbal dialogue, which is always syntactically well-formed, often complex (containing subordinate clauses) and usually, though not always, semantically well-formed and appropriate to the context of the dream. As an example, Heynick cites, among others, the "dream of Irma's injection, which Freud himself considered to be of
Dream interpretation waking beliefs and desires. The ancient Sumerians in Mesopotamia have left evidence of dream interpretation dating back to at least 3100 BC. Throughout Mesopotamian history, dreams were always held to be extremely important for divination and Mesopotamian kings paid close attention to them. Gudea, the king of the Sumerian city-state of Lagash (reigned 2144–2124 BC), rebuilt the temple of Ningirsu as the result of a dream in which he was told to do so. The standard Akkadian "Epic of Gilgamesh" contains numerous accounts of the prophetic power of dreams. First, Gilgamesh himself has two dreams foretelling the arrival of Enkidu.