<p>In response to comments by @BryanKrause in <a href="https://psychology.meta.stackexchange.com/a/2248">my answer in meta</a>, backed up with many citations, I pointed out that Freud did take a scientific approach, and his resulting work was not guesswork. It's just that it was not scientific in the pure sense, just like pretty much any psychology, for good reason, as you can find out in the answer linked.</p>
<p>Freud talks of Distortion in the sense that dream wishes are distorted in dreams by a &quot;censor&quot;. That <a href="https://www.freud.org.uk/education/resources/the-interpretation-of-dreams/dream-distortion/" rel="nofollow noreferrer">a dream is the <em>disguised</em> fulfilment of a <em>repressed</em> wish.</a> So, when Freud said that children's dreams aren't distorted, he was saying that children's dreams were not distorted because they don't have any repressed wishes.</p>
<p>One thing I will say is that dream analysis is definitely not accurate and is just a tool to work out possible areas for discussion etc. after careful examination with the client. An example of dream interpretation in a Freudian sense can be seen in my meta answer.</p>
<p>I voted to close this question, because while I am a defender of Freudian and Neo-Freudian psychology, I would have to concede that dream analysis is pseudoscientific because the theories are not accurate and only serve as estimates.</p>
<p>It would be different if the question was along the lines of &quot;How did Freud determine....?&quot; as that can be answered more correctly than the question you posed.</p>

CC BY-SA 4.0
2022-01-19T18:32:40.457Z
The question is about whether or not children's dreams are distorted...?
Arnon Weinberg
CC BY-SA 4.0
2022-01-19T18:50:04.177Z
And to answer that @ArnonWeinberg you would need to interpret the dreams of children which cannot be done accurately
Chris Rogers
CC BY-SA 4.0
2022-01-19T19:05:06.607Z
Not really, no: https://dreams.ucsc.edu/Library/fmid5.html - according to early research at least, there is a slight decline in distortion with age (opposite of Freud's assertion).  As I'm not up on recent research in this field, I don't know if this result held up, but it can certainly be studied without interpreting dreams.
Arnon Weinberg
CC BY-SA 4.0
2022-01-19T19:57:00.427Z
@ArnonWeinberg hmmm I was not aware of this research. Maybe you could write up an answer based on this?
Chris Rogers
CC BY-SA 4.0
2022-01-20T08:52:08.277Z
@ArnonWeinberg - I read the section you linked and found the [paper it was referring to](https://doi.org/10.2190/41GU-P50Q-FAQA-XUJ1). Distortion in the sense written is different to Freud's definition of Distortion. The paper defines Distortion as bizarreness but Freud talks of Distortion in the sense that dream wishes are distorted in dreams by a "censor". (a dream is the *disguised* fulfilment of a *repressed* wish.) https://www.freud.org.uk/education/resources/the-interpretation-of-dreams/dream-distortion/
Chris Rogers
CC BY-SA 4.0
2022-01-20T21:21:33.053Z
actually i think this part of the book is referring to bizarreness, of course later on he start talking about this disguised fulfilment
Mauricio Cortazar
CC BY-SA 4.0
2022-01-20T21:26:07.583Z
but originally i wanted to ask about bizarreness, thank you for the paper :)
Mauricio Cortazar
CC BY-SA 4.0
2022-01-19T12:01:27.540Z
2022-01-20T09:05:26.977Z
2022-01-20T09:05:26.977Z
Chris Rogers
<p>I'm reading a general introduction to Psychoanalysis and in the eight lecture Freud starts saying that children dreams aren't distorted so they are easier to analyze. Do all children dreams are straightforward? and also why they don't distort the dreams like adults do.</p>

CC BY-SA 4.0
2022-01-19T01:16:43.437Z
Note that Freud did not take a scientific approach; he mostly just wrote down his guesses. He's famous because some of his thinking was still useful and influential, but it's not good to take everything he said as meaningful.
Bryan Krause
CC BY-SA 4.0
2022-01-19T12:02:31.837Z
Done @AliceD - My vote still stands though 
Chris Rogers
CC BY-SA 4.0
2022-01-19T12:10:45.063Z
@ChrisRogers yeah,  it's a difficult one. I would carefully opt to leave it open, because a question based on false premises can still be worth answering by debunking the underlying motivations
AliceD
<dreams>
Why children dreams aren't distorted?
Mauricio Cortazar
# Why children dreams aren't distorted?

(Asked by: username_0 on 2022-01-18)

I'm reading a general introduction to Psychoanalysis and in the eight lecture Freud starts saying that children dreams aren't distorted so they are easier to analyze. Do all children dreams are straightforward? and also why they don't distort the dreams like adults do.

**Tags:** dreams

> **Comments:**
> **username_1**: Note that Freud did not take a scientific approach; he mostly just wrote down his guesses. He's famous because some of his thinking was still useful and influential, but it's not good to take everything he said as meaningful.  
> **username_2**: Done @username_3 - My vote still stands though   
> **username_3**: @ChrisRogers yeah,  it's a difficult one. I would carefully opt to leave it open, because a question based on false premises can still be worth answering by debunking the underlying motivations  

---

## 1 answers

### Answer by username_2 on 2022-01-19. Score: 2 | Accepted answer

In response to comments by @BryanKrause in [my answer in meta](https://psychology.meta.stackexchange.com/a/2248), backed up with many citations, I pointed out that Freud did take a scientific approach, and his resulting work was not guesswork. It's just that it was not scientific in the pure sense, just like pretty much any psychology, for good reason, as you can find out in the answer linked.

Freud talks of Distortion in the sense that dream wishes are distorted in dreams by a "censor". That [a dream is the *disguised* fulfilment of a *repressed* wish.](https://www.freud.org.uk/education/resources/the-interpretation-of-dreams/dream-distortion/) So, when Freud said that children's dreams aren't distorted, he was saying that children's dreams were not distorted because they don't have any repressed wishes.

One thing I will say is that dream analysis is definitely not accurate and is just a tool to work out possible areas for discussion etc. after careful examination with the client. An example of dream interpretation in a Freudian sense can be seen in my meta answer.

I voted to close this question, because while I am a defender of Freudian and Neo-Freudian psychology, I would have to concede that dream analysis is pseudoscientific because the theories are not accurate and only serve as estimates.

It would be different if the question was along the lines of "How did Freud determine....?" as that can be answered more correctly than the question you posed.

> **Comments:**
> **username_4**: The question is about whether or not children's dreams are distorted...?  
> **username_2**: And to answer that @ArnonWeinberg you would need to interpret the dreams of children which cannot be done accurately  
> **username_4**: Not really, no: https://dreams.ucsc.edu/Library/fmid5.html - according to early research at least, there is a slight decline in distortion with age (opposite of Freud's assertion).  As I'm not up on recent research in this field, I don't know if this result held up, but it can certainly be studied without interpreting dreams.  
> **username_2**: @ArnonWeinberg hmmm I was not aware of this research. Maybe you could write up an answer based on this?  
> **username_2**: @ArnonWeinberg - I read the section you linked and found the [paper it was referring to](https://doi.org/10.2190/41GU-P50Q-FAQA-XUJ1). Distortion in the sense written is different to Freud's definition of Distortion. The paper defines Distortion as bizarreness but Freud talks of Distortion in the sense that dream wishes are distorted in dreams by a "censor". (a dream is the *disguised* fulfilment of a *repressed* wish.) https://www.freud.org.uk/education/resources/the-interpretation-of-dreams/dream-distortion/  
> **username_0**: actually i think this part of the book is referring to bizarreness, of course later on he start talking about this disguised fulfilment  
> **username_0**: but originally i wanted to ask about bizarreness, thank you for the paper :)  

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