A young man dreams of pulling a pistol from his waistband and aiming at a target, while his wife watches.The pistol repeatedly fails to discharge, and the man's wife laughs at him.A Freudian psychoanalyst might see the symbolic meaning of this dream to mean that the young man is suffering from repressed feelings of sexual impotence.This symbolic meaning of a dream is known as __________ content.

Question

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The symbolic meaning of a dream is known as latent content. In this case, the failure of the pistol to discharge could represent a perceived inability to perform sexually. The wife's laughter may indicate a feeling of humiliation or emasculation. These underlying meanings are not immediately apparent in the manifest content (the literal events of the dream). Therefore, the dreamer would need to explore their subconscious associations and emotions to uncover the latent content.

A Young Man Dreams of Pulling a Pistol from His