1. Common in a patient's free associations
2. Treated as any other free association
   1. Contained hidden thoughts
   2. Connected to earlier experiences
3. Disguised fulfillments of conflictual wishes
   1. A compromise between the mental force pushing the wish into consciousness
   2. The mental force keeping the conflictual wish at bay
4. True meaning is hidden from the dream experienced
   1. Latent content is distorted into manifest content
      1. Condensation
      2. Displacement
      3. Symbolism
      4. Create
   2. Distorted images appear
      1. Meaningless
      2. Disconnected
      3. Strung together in a storyline by the process of "secondary elaboration"