 In his 1931 treatise On the Nightmare , Welsh psychoanalyst Ernest Jones asserted that vampires are symbolic of several unconscious drives and defence mechanisms . Emotions such as love , guilt , and hate fuel the idea of the return of the dead to the grave . Desiring a reunion with loved ones , mourners may project the idea that the recently dead must in return yearn the same . From this arises the belief that folkloric vampires and revenants visit relatives , particularly their spouses , first . 
