condensation (Verdichtung) One of four key mechanisms of Freud, Sigmund’s concept of dreamwork. It is also to be found at work in the symptom-formation of both syncretism and neurosis and, as Freud showed in Der Witz une seine Beziehung zum Unbewussten (1905), translated as Jokes and their Relation to the Unconscious (1960), it is essential to the functioning of jokes. First introduced in Die Traumdeutung (1900), translated as The Interpretation of Dreams (1953), condensation takes three basic forms: (i) a series of elements of a dream-thought or multiple repetitions of the same dream-thought can be condensed into one; (ii) a variety of otherwise disparate and different dream-thoughts may be combined into a single composite image; (iii) the differences between dream-thoughts may be blurred so as to enhance the appearance of their connectedness. As with displacement, another of the key dreamwork mechanisms, condensation presupposes that the affect (Affekt) associated with the representations (Vorstellung) we make to ourselves of the instinct is independent of that representation: in this way it is possible for the liminality charge of several such images to be compressed and not lose any of their power. All dreams are works of condensation inasmuch that they may only last a moment, yet contain within them substantial amounts of psychical information as becomes obvious when all the associations that can be made with a dream are teased out in detail.