Kanttekeningen

De Huron-amerindianen en Sigmund Freud: een zoektocht naar de interpretatie van dromen

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Abstract

The Huron-Amerindians and Sigmund Freud. In search of the interpretation of dreams - The majority of human beings share a curiosity about one of the most common and yet probably most fascinating experiences: the dream. From anthropological perspectives it seems that a majority of cultures have attributed significance to the dream. The dream is perceived as significant if it is interpreted as meaningful experience. This paper aims to describe the theory and practice, relative to dreams, reported by the Jesuit missionaries among the 17th century ,,Iroquois”-Amerindians. The ideas discussed here are so strikingly similar to some that are believed to have originated in Vienna a century ago that one wonders if the Huron ideas could have influenced European thinking on the subject. Indeed, the Hurons believed in the unconscious mind! How had they acquired or developed the idea that unconscious thoughts, emotions, or feelings might cause diseases of many kinds ? How did they come to have this idea that was to be popularized some centuries later by Freud and his disciples? Had the idea arisen ‘de novo’, or had it been borrowed? They believed also that dreams are the products of deep-seated needs or wishes in the dreamer. Their theory is basically psychoanalytic. The Hurons recognized conscious and unconscious parts of the mind. They knew the great force of unconscious desires, and were aware that the frustration of these desires could cause mental or physical illness. They had noted the distinction between the manifest and latent content of dreams, and employed what sounds like the technique of free association to uncover latent meaning. It is evident that the intellectuals of the periods considered, i.e. of the 17th, 18th and 19th centuries, had read about the Hurons. Did these readers include psychologists? The answer is probably yes! Did some of these readers— Freud for instance— accept and use the Huron ideas, perhaps without knowing or without mentioning their source? The answer can only be a tentative yes..., although we cannot prove it.

How to Cite:

Wymeersch, P., (1986) “De Huron-amerindianen en Sigmund Freud: een zoektocht naar de interpretatie van dromen”, Tijdschrift voor Sociale Wetenschappen 31(3), 229–235. doi: https://doi.org/10.21825/tvsw.94931