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A hypocritical [[dream ]] is one that in which the dream's [[wish ]] is distorted (most often by the [[reversal ]] of [[affect]]) such that it cannot be discerned in the [[manifest ]] dream [[thoughts]]. Thus the wish is expressed "hypocritically," in disguise.

[[Freud ]] referred to hypocritical [[dreams ]] in several passages of The [[Interpretation ]] of Dreams (1900a). He first used the term in connection with a dream in which he felt a great affection towards his friend R. But the [[analysis ]] of the dream showed that in fact the [[latent ]] wish was to portray R. as a simpleton (1900a, pp. 137 ff.). Freud also referred to a dream [[about ]] a reconciliation with a friend in which the latent wish was to free himself from this friend completely (p. 145n.). He returned to the topic later in the book, [[writing ]] that "There is one [[class ]] of dreams which have a [[particular ]] [[claim ]] to be described as 'hypocritical' and which offer a hard [[test ]] to the [[theory ]] of wish-fulfillment" (p. 473). [[Witness ]] the [[repetitive ]] dream of the poet Rosegger in which he found himself each night back in the unfortunate [[situation ]] of a apprentice tailor ill-suited for his craft (pp. 473-75).

Freud referred to a similar dream of his own in which he found himself back in a laboratory where he had once worked in his younger days, ill-suited to the chemical [[analyses ]] he was required to perform. This was, Freud says, a "[[punishment ]] dream" (p. 476) that followed upon his daytime thoughts of [[being ]] too proud of the success of his psychoanalyses. Such a punishment dream, he goes on, is [[nothing ]] but the inverted expression of a wish. He modified this theory considerably in his [[theoretical ]] revisions of the twenties (1920g, 1923b, 1924c). And the question of hypocritical dreams was, for Freud, closely linked to that of repetitive dreams.

The term "hypocritical dream" is not frequently used in [[present]]-day [[psychoanalysis]]. However, the question that Freud posed under this rubric remains essential: Is every dream the realization of a wish?

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