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[[Condensation]], along with [[displacement]], is an essential process in [[Dream Work|dream work]] and more generally in [[primary process|primary-process]] thinking.

[[Condensation]] is one of the methods by which the [[repression|repressed]] [[return]]s in hidden ways.

According to [[Freud]], every situation in a [[dream]] seems to be put together out of two or more impressions or experiences.

One need only think about how people and places tend to meld into composite figures in our dreams.

The same sort of [[condensation]] can occur in [[symptom-formation]].

The other method whereby the [[repression|repressed]] hides itself is [[displacement]].

In a [[dream]], a single idea or [[image]] may represent the [[nodal point]] at which a number of chains of associations or ideas intersect, and can thus be a [[condensation]] of both their multiple [[unconscious]] [[meaning]] and their quota of [[affect]] or [[emotion]]al charge.

The mechanism of [[condensation]] explains why the [[manifest content]] of a [[dream]] is often so laconic or [[fragmentation|fragmentary]]: it is an abridged translation of the [[latent content]].

The second basis mechanism of the [[Dream Work|dream-work]] is [[displacement]].

Both mechanisms can be observed in other [[unconscious]] formations, and notably in [[symptom]]s of [[hysteria]] and [[neurosis]]; they are also important features of [[jokes]].

Following [[Jakobson]], [[Lacan]] likes [[condensation]] and [[displacement]] to the [[linguistics|linguistic]] mechanisms of [[metaphor]] and [[metonymy]].

We tend to view it as a way of attributing, to a person or representative [[object]], characteristics and properties that, from the point of view of latent thoughts, belong to other persons or objects.

In [[reality]], if we go by Freud's text in ''[[The Interpretation of Dreams]]'',<ref>1900a</ref> [[condensation]], like [[displacement]], does not proceed directly by modifying the content of a [[representation]].

All [[dream]]s are made up of [[latent]] dream thoughts, each of which corresponds to one or several chains of associations, with each link being initially charged with a psychic intensity.

[[Dream Work|Dream work]] consists in changing the location of these fragmentary intensities without either increasing or reducing their global value.

In [[displacement]], one assigns to link A in a chain of associations the intensity initially associated with link B.

[[Condensation]], in contrast, operates by bringing intensities together.

When two chains of association intersect, it assigns to the common link the sum of the intensities of the two intersecting chains.

This nevertheless indirectly alters the [[representation]] because, in the [[manifest content]] of the [[dream]], a link will not figure if it does not retain an intensity.

By displacing the intensities of several chains to their common link, [[condensation]] makes it possible to represent all of the chains by a single link.

Hence, there is an economy of means that contributes to [[censorship]].

As a result, when one link takes the place of several chains, this makes it more difficult to read through to the wish corresponding to those chains.

[[Condensation]] thus has an indirect effect on the figural content of representations.

It does not create chimeras that bring together in one element the attributes of others.

Nor does it engage in [[metonymy]], in which one of the links represents one or several chains of association.

It is a process that operates by displacing intensity, but when the intensity of several chains is brought to bear on their common link, [[condensation]] seeks to represent them all.

When explaining the effect of condensation, [[Freud]] used the [[metaphor]] of italics.

A representative link whose intensity has been reinforced by condensation has a status comparable to that of a word in italics in a text.

Typographical emphasis is an invitation to abandon linearity and search for the dreamer's associations.

The notion of intensity is complex.

The term indicates the psychic interest of a particular idea.

But we may well ask whether this interest should not be extended to the affect associated with each chain of associations or the instinct that determines each association.

Although [[Freud]] studied [[condensation]] particularly in relation to [[dream]]s, especially in ''[[The Interpretation of Dreams]]'', he also describes the effect of this process in other manifestations of [[primary process|primary-process]] thinking, such as [[jokes]], forgetting names, [[slips of the tongue]], and [[symptom]]s.

In these latter domains, however, it is sometimes quite difficult to distinguish between [[condensation]] and [[overdetermination]].

But whereas condensation can be viewed as a sum of intensities relative to forces acting in the same direction, overdetermination appears more as an appropriation of content by [[heterogeneity|heterogeneous]] if not [[antagonism|antagonistic forces]].

In fact, the content of an overdetermined representation acts as a fulcrum for opposing logics and conflicting systems (such as the [[preconscious]] and the [[unconscious]]).

A [[thought content]] (or [[representation]]) resulting from the interaction of forces pushing for the fulfillment of an [[unconscious]] [[wish]] and forces opposing it (the [[censorship|censor]]) is a good example of [[overdetermination]] but not of [[condensation]], since the censor is not part of the latent dream thoughts.

[[Category:Concepts]]

[[Category:Psychoanalysis]]