Title

Freud: ‘The Interpretation of Dreams’

Authors

Files

Description

A brief commentary prepared by Andrew Slade, PhD, Associate Professor, English, on the following work:

Sigmund Freud
Die Traumdeutung (The Interpretation of Dreams)
Leipzig, 1900; first edition; presentation copy

Comments

In The Interpretation of Dreams, Freud teaches us that we can trace the things we do—those things we control and those we sometimes lose control of (what he calls “symptoms”)—to our most intimate and ancient wishes.These most ancient and intimate wishes—what he calls “unconscious”—animate our thoughts and behaving. Often, our secret lives are secret even to ourselves. In listening to his patients and looking at their dreams, Freud was able help them to see their own secret thoughts and feelings, desires, and motivations.The Dream book, as Freud often called it in his letters, is the first major work of psychoanalysis and a work that lay the theoretical and practical groundwork for psychoanalysts worldwide. The brilliance of the book is simple—it takes seriously what most people would ignore.

Permission Statement

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Streaming Media

Contents of Streaming Media

Andrew Slade, chair of the English department, explains the importance of Sigmund Freud’s exploration of dreams for the field of psychoanalysis.