While Vi, tafalk! is quite easy to analyze, in the same article (p. 1290) the authors demonstrate how the associative paths leading to the complex neologism nsens (in dream specimen no. 107 of Kraepelin's first corpus) can be reconstructed from its origin Firmenschild (= "company sign").
Nsens derives from the English word "nonsense", once the letters of the word "one" have been deleted. Literally nsens is nonsense - one. This in its turn links to "crap a ace" ("crap" meaning "nonsense", Greek prefix a meaning "without" and "ace" meaning "one" in dice games). "Crap a ace" is derived from a metathesis of "carapace", a typical Kraepelin-word for German Schild in Firmenschild. In short four association steps link Schild to nsens:
Schild= (1) carapace - (2) crap a ace= (3) nonsense without one - (4) nsens.
The chain shows an alternation of conceptual associations (e.g. synonyms) and word form associations (character and sound associations).
(1) and (3) are conceptual associations, (2) and (4) are word form associations.
Kraepelin himself — ignorant of the code governing his dream speech — termed nsens an example of "syllable combinations jumbled in a completely arbitrary way." He thinks nsens is Russian. Kraepelin's false assertion, according to the authors, originates from the associative network in his dreaming brain during the production of nsens. It is Russian krapkea, meaning "firm" and so an association to the first part of Firmenschild, that provokes the transformation of "carapace" to "crap a ace". Krapkea as well as "crap" are Kraepelin-words.
In terms of cryptography (1) and (3) are code-type associations, emphasizing meaning, whereas (2) and (4) are cipher-type associations, emphasizing characters (cf. Pincock & Fary, 2007, p. 13).
Read more about this topic: Dream Speech, The Other Kraepelin, Two Examples