Chapter 4, Questions 1-7

1. Why does Freud asserth that "no" doesn't exist in dreams?
The word "no" does not exist in dreams because Freud argues that dreams "reduce two opposites to a unity or to represent them as one thing". There can not be "no" in dreams because it will just do the opposite. For example, often there are dreams where a person is flying. Your mind will never say "no" to flying, it will do the opposite and let you fly.

2. How can a word have two meanings that are the opposite of one another?
Because we always associate the opposite with that word. In the book, it uses the example of dark and light. There can not be one without the other and we know that it is not dark when it is light, so we think the opposite of what that word means.

3. Freud says "conceptions arise through comparisons". Is that what Saussure argued?
Saussure argued something similiar saying, "in language there are only differences"

4. Do you think the iceberg model does justice to Freud's theories on the unconscious?
I do see how that model makes sense. About 90% of the iceberg is underwater and "in the dark" and in relating it to the unconscious we can visualize exactly how much of that is in our minds that we do not use. And this large chunck shapes what we do and our behaviors. So in visualizing all that I think the iceberg model works. But I don't know if it does justice because when I think of icebergs I think of melting and when associating that to my mind, it makes me think that my mind will eventually melt away.

5. What is meant by "reaction formation"?
Like in dreams, we dream opposites, the same goes for emotions. The reaction formation is a defense mechanism is when we express an emotion by feeling the opposite feeling. The example given in the book deals with "love" and "hate".
Which is where I think that is where they got the saying, "love/hate relationships", you feel one thing and show the other.

6. Are most people in the United States dominated by their ids or superegos? Defend your answer.
I think that most people are dominated by their ids. The id represents desire and lust. People by nature are very lustful, they see somthing they want and they go after it without thinking at first the consequence of their actions. Another example could be that many people desire to be successful and go up the work chain, so they use that, and it sometimes takes over how they think.

7. When is a cigar only a cigar?
When people do not see it as a sexual reference and see it as somthing that people smoke from. It is a cigar when you think it is and is not when you do not.