The essay Dream Children: A Reverie presents a unique combination of nostalgia, imagination, and psychological depth. This study explores the essay through the Freudian psychoanalytic theory of Sigmund Freud, focusing on the internal conflict between id, ego, and superego. Freud's id, ego, and superego are three parts of the mind that he believed shape how we think, feel, and act. The id drives our basic impulses, the ego deals with reality, and the superego guides us to act morally. In his essay Dream Children, he expresses a tension between his hidden supressed desire to live a happy family life (ID), his logical awareness of the reality (EGO) and his moral and social responsibilities (SUPEREGO). This paper argues that Lamb's reverie reveals a deep psychological conflict between desire and duty, transforming a nostalgic essay into a powerful representation of unconscious emotional struggle.
Rupa Jha (2026) studied this question.