ABSTRACT
Freud speaks of 'the dream-wish' in one of way to refer specifically to a wish originating from the unconscious and to refer to a compromise wish constructed from the unconscious wish and the preconscious dream thoughts by the dream work. In 'A Metapsychological Supplement to the Theory of Dreams' Freud used the term 'dream-wish' mainly in the second sense noted above: that of a compromise formation. In sleep the systems unconscious and preconscious are not entirely emptied of cathexis even though the wish to sleep requires a complete withdrawal of cathexis, because the unconscious resists this demand. These recent and indifferent elements are much more likely to escape censorship than the unconscious wish. This dream-wish must be sharply distinguished from the day's residues; it need not have existed in waking life and it may already display the irrational character possessed by everything that is unconscious when translate it into the conscious.
