A cartoon in a dream is an unusual example of an inclusion body, so to speak, planted in manifest content by the dream-work to attract special attention to what is manifest, when what is latent is in danger of exposing itself too radically. In previous publications the author has described similar, unusual, conspicuous insertions in dreams (a joke in a dream; a pun in a dream; a parapraxis in a dream; a trick in a dream; the uncanny in dreams; dreams within dreams). In all of these instances it was possible, using the free associative method of dream analysis, to lay bare the dynamic architecture of each dream and expose what the manifest razzle-dazzle of the intruding element sought to achieve. It was often the case that such elements were a last minute heroic attempt on the part of the dream-work to save an explosive dream from falling apart as highly combustible, sexual, or aggressive elements could not be reined in sufficiently to escape the dream censor's vetoing disapproval. In the current example a rather vivid cartoon image took center stage, hoping to keep the focus entirely on manifest content and leave the latent content unexamined even when the awakener begins to analyze the dream.
Keywords: Dream work; inclusion bodies; latent content; manifest content; transference.