Which term describes the hidden meaning of a dream?

• A. Literal content
• B. Symbolic content
• C. Manifest content
• D. Latent content

Answer: (D)

In Freudian dream analysis, the hidden meaning of a dream is called latent content. This is the unconscious wishes, urges, and conflicts that the dream expresses, but not in a literal, obvious way. The dream’s surface imagery—the part you remember when you wake up—is the manifest content. The mind disguises the latent content through dream-work, using symbols and other transformations so the underlying meaning can be shown while avoiding direct expression of forbidden wishes. The actual events you recall are the literal, surface storyline, not the deeper meaning. Symbols in the dream are the mechanism by which latent content is encoded, but the term for the hidden meaning itself is latent content.