Simpsons and Freudian Dream Theory

Secondary Revision

     The logical structure of dreams is discussed heavily by Freud.  He calls the mechanism underlying dreams "the Dreamwork", and its aims are two-fold--part physiological, part psychological. Physiologically, the Dreamwork functions as a way to keep a person asleep.  Physical stimuli that might wake a person up are incorporated into the dream.  (For example, a man might dream that the sound of his alarm clock is the whistle of a train that he's traveling on, and thus sleep through it.)  Psychologically, the Dreamwork aims to fulfill a person's wishes, both conscious and unconscious.  
     Secondary Revision is one way that the Dreamwork fulfills wishes.  It is characterized by repetition of sequences of events.  This is typically the repetition of a real-life event, where a person dreams of being in the same situation he was in previously but which works out differently.  Secondary revision can also apply within dreams themselves, where a person dreams of the same situation happening in several different ways.