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Latent [[dream ]] [[thoughts ]] (latent [[content]]) are the [[meanings ]] [[psychoanalytic ]] [[interpretation ]] discovers in the [[manifest ]] dream (the [[narrative ]] the dreamer constructs of his dream).

[[Freud ]] introduced the contrast between manifest and latent in The Interpretation of [[Dreams ]] (1900a), and he never abandoned this [[distinction]], as [[witness ]] An [[Outline ]] of [[Psychoanalysis ]] (1940a [1938]).

Latent thoughts (also called by Freud "dream thoughts" or "latent content") are primary; they are the motor of the dream. They are comprised of [[infantile ]] memories—of "egoistic," [[sexual]], or incestuous contents—which because of their [[moral ]] unacceptability are rejected by the [[censorship]]. They are marked by the primary [[processes ]] ([[condensation]], [[displacement]], figurability) and undergo the "distortions" that constitute the "dream [[work]]."

[[Unconscious ]] latent thoughts—the [[demands ]] of the [[drives ]] and their prohibition—are the foundation of the dream and exert an attractive [[power ]] over certain pre-[[conscious ]] [[formations]]. Residues of the day, events of the day before, function as possible jumping-off places for [[associations ]] allowing the dream to be [[interpreted]].

Over [[time]], accumulated [[clinical ]] [[experience ]] and [[theoretical ]] developments nuanced Freud's initial stark distinction between manifest and latent. In the Introductory Lectures on [[Psycho]]-[[Analysis]], Freud conceded that "one manifest element can replace several latent ones or one latent element can be replaced by several manifest ones" (1916-17a [1915-17], p. 125), arguing that [[dream interpretation ]] can be based either on pre-conscious content or on the unconscious. After Freud's introduction of the second [[topography ]] (1920-25), a [[notion ]] even arose of "[[thought]]-[[transference]]" (1933a, p. 40) suggesting [[circulation ]] of [[latent thought ]] between two persons (and not only within a [[mental ]] [[apparatus]]).

In 1933 and 1938 Freud returned to the notion of the latent content of the dream, emphasizing its unconscious [[character]]. In effect it was a "[[primitive ]] [[language ]] without any grammar," in which "only the raw [[material ]] of thought is expressed and abstract [[terms ]] are taken back to the [[concrete ]] ones that are at their basis" (1933a, p. 20), where [[temporal ]] relations are transformed into spatial ones, and "contraries are not kept apart but treated as though they were identical" (1940a [1938], p.169). The latent is fashioned out of a "forgotten [[childhood]]," and of an "archaic heritage, which a [[child ]] brings with him into the [[world]], before any experience of his own, influenced by the experiences of his ancestors" (p. 167). The content of dreams is said to be like that of tales and [[myths]], and "to constitute a source of [[human ]] [[prehistory]]."

Freud reported noticing the latent functioning of psyches in treatments handled by colleagues: Helene Deutsch observed a "thought transference," a phenomenon also recorded by Dorothy Burlingham between a [[mother ]] and a son who were both undergoing [[psychotherapy]].

In [[present]]-day [[theory]], the "latent" may describe an unconscious [[psychic ]] [[communication ]] between the [[analyst ]] and the [[analysand]]: the transference is intertwined with the [[counter-transference]], the unconscious of the analyst as important to the outcome as that of the analysand, and the analyst's interpretation may also have a "latent" aspect (Jean-[[Paul ]] Valabrega). This approach takes as its starting point Freud's remark that there is a "[[secret ]] language" created "secret language" created "between two [[people ]] who see a lot of each [[other]]" (1933a, p. 49).

Within the [[treatment]], an analyst's dream of the [[patient ]] in [[session ]] may [[represent ]] the latent [[fantasy ]] functioning of the two psyches, and perhaps the starting point of an essential [[working ]] through (André Missenard). An analogous function can be served by a "chimera" (Michel de M'Uzan), or by "co-[[thinking]]" (Daniel Widlöcher). [[Outside ]] the treatment, in certain group situations with analyst(s) (small groups, combined therapies, families in psychotherapy) a latent fantasy [[system ]] is said to underlie a shared psychic functioning.

Manifest and latent were notions introduced by Freud in connection with theories of the dream and of the mental approaches. Like other [[concepts]], they were the product of his [[self]]-analysis. Since 1900, the use and the [[meaning ]] of the [[idea ]] of the latent has greatly evolved, as witness the specific [[place ]] and strict meaning accorded to it currently in the theory of psychic functioning during treatment, as well as its broader and more descriptive application in clinical thinking to latent [[homosexuality]], latent [[depression]], latent [[perversion]], and so on.

See also: Clinging [[instinct]]; Condensation; Dream; [[On Dreams]]; Fantasy; [[Five Lectures on Psycho-Analysis]]; Homosexuality; Interpretation; [[Interpretation of dreams ]] (analytical [[psychology]]); [[Interpretation of Dreams]], The; Latent dream thoughts; Manifest; Primary [[process]]/secondary process; Representability; Thought; [[Wish ]] fulfillment.