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Cancel Save settings. Bestselling Series. Harry Potter. Books By Language. Books in Spanish. Free delivery worldwide. Write a review Rate this item: 1 2 3 4 5. Preview this item Preview this item. Delving into theories of manifest and latent dream content, the special language of dreams, dreams as wish fulfillments, the significance of childhood experiences, and much more, Freud, widely considered the "father of psychoanalysis," thoroughly and thoughtfully examines dream psychology.
Encompassing dozens of case histories and detailed analyses of actual dreams, this landmark text presents Freud's legendary work as a tool for comprehending our sleeping experiences. Read more Allow this favorite library to be seen by others Keep this favorite library private. Save Cancel. Find a copy in the library Finding libraries that hold this item Freud considers why we dream and what it means in the larger picture of our psychological lives.
Reviews User-contributed reviews Add a review and share your thoughts with other readers. Be the first. Add a review and share your thoughts with other readers. Tags Add tags for "The interpretation of dreams". Similar Items Related Subjects: 2 Dreams. Freud invited his patients to say whatever came to mind in relation to each element of the dream. Read More. Shop now. Please donate and help us to preserve the legacy of Sigmund and Anna Freud.
Every gift, large or small, will help us build a bright future. The Interpretation of Dreams A guide to Sigmund Freud's theory of dreams and his method for dream interpretation.
Unusually for a scientific monograph, The Interpretation of Dreams is a deeply personal book. From this sensation proceeds the desire to drink, and dream shows me this desire fulfilled. In so doing, it serves a function—which I soon detect. I am a sound sleeper, not accustomed to being woken by a need. If I succeed in quelling my thirst by dreaming that I am drinking, I do not have to wake up in order to satisfy it. In other words, it is a comfort dream.
If I now consult my own experience with regard to the origin of the elements appearing in dream-content, I must first advance the claim that in every dream it is possible to trace a link to the experiences of the day that has just passed. On the basis of many similar experiences I must advance the proposition that dream-work is under a kind of impulsion to combine, in dream, all available sources of dream-stimulus into a single entity.
The deeper one allows oneself to become in analysing dreams, the more often one is out on the track of childhood experiences that play a part, as dream-sources, in the latent dream-content. My collection, of course, has an overabundance of such dreams of patients, analysis of which leads back to dimly remembered or wholly forgotten impressions of childhood, often of the first three years of life,.
However, it would be unfortunate if, from them, we were to draw conclusions assumed to apply to dream in general; for the most part, after all, these are neurotic and in particular hysteric people, and the role assigned to childhood scenes in their dreams might be governed by the nature of their neurosis rather than by the essence of dream.
The old physiologist Burdach [] proves to us that even in sleep the mind is quite capable of correctly interpreting the sense impressions that reach it and in reacting in accordance with the correct interpretation. He does so by setting out how certain sense impressions that seem important to the individual can be exempted from neglect during sleep and by showing that a person is far more likely to be woken by his own name than by any old auditory impression, which presupposes that even in sleep the mind distinguishes between sensations.
Such corporeal stimuli are present all the time, and the general consensus is that the mind is more accessible too them during sleep than in the waking state.
So one fails to understand why the mind does not dream continuously throughout the night, every night, about every single organ. Quite different are the dreams in which the death of a loved relative is portrayed and painful emotion is experienced. Such dreams signify what their content suggests, namely the wish that the person concerned should die, and since I can expect at this point that the feelings of every reader and of every person wh has dreams something similar will rebel against my explanation, I must strive to prove the point on the broadest possible basis.
When someone dreams, with expressions of pain, that his father or mother or brother or sister is diadem I never use that dream as proof that he wishes them dead now. The theory of dream is not so exigently; it is content to conclude that the dreamer did wish them dead at some time in childhood. I owe further elucidation the examination dream to a comment made by a learned colleague during a scientific discussion once,. He said on that occasion that, son ar as he is aware, the Matura-dream occurs only in persons who passed the examination, never in those who failed it.
This would be a very striking example of the dream-content being misunderstood by the waking mind. To put it another way: if dream-work itself inserts a particular event into a dream, it implies the most decisive confirmation of the reality of that event, the strongest possible approval of it. Dream-work is using dreaming itself as a form of rejection, thus attesting the conclusion that dreams are wish-fulfilment. Here is the flower dream, recounted by a female patient of mine, that I announced earlier.
In the account, I put in contrasting type everything that calls for a sexual interpretation. It is a lovely dream, but once it has been interpreted the dreamer said she no longer liked it. Playing with a small child, slapping a small child, etc. Moreover, the second dream points to the infantile sexual theory that little girls are made from boys by castration.
Apparently, dream-symbolism has already received direct experimental corroboration. In encouraged by H. Swoboda, Dr K. When the suggestion instructed the person to dream of normal or abnormal sexual intercourse, dream carried out such instructions by replacing sexual material with the symbols familiar to us from psychoanalytical dream-interpretation.
Allegedly, the woman dreaming had never been told anything about symbolism in dreams and dream-interpretation. People who frequently dream of swimming are usually former bed-wetters repeating in dream a pleasure from which they long ago earned to abstain.
The more time one spends in resolving dreams, the more readily one has to accept that most adult dreams deal with sexual material and voice erotic wishes. Only someone who truly analyses dreams, penetrating from the manifest content of the same through to the latent dream-thoughts, can form an opinion about them, never someone who is content simply to record the manifest content. Let us be clear from the outset that this fact does not in any way surprise us; rather, it accords completely with our principles of dream-elucidation.
No other drive has, since childhood, had to undergo so much suppression as the sex drive in its many components; none has left unresolved so many powerful unconscious wishes that now, in the sleeping state, generate dreams. Never, in connection with interpreting dreams, should the importance of sexual complexes be overlooked—but neither of course, should it be exaggerated to the point of excluding all else.
The claim that all dreams call for a sexual interpretation, against which a tireless polemic is being inducted in the literature, has no place in my Interpreting Dreams. In fact, it is nowhere to be found in seven editions of this book, and it stands in tangible contradiction to other things contained therein.
Only once has an obsessional neurotic embarrassed me by recounting a dream in which, so he said, he was visiting a flat where he had already been on two occasions. On the other hand, there are people who very obviously cling, at night, to the knowledge that they are asleep and dreaming—and who appear, therefore, to be possessed of a conscious ability to direct their dream-life.
When I became a student, there developed non me a marked predilection for collecting and owning books. The female breast is where love and hunger meet. I prefer to be an ancestor, a forbear, myself. I was surrounded by art objects; in my stylish bookcase stood my timeless Homer, my towering Dante.
I felt as if I was discovering this idyllic sweetness, this peaceful, metic, brightly cerebral existence in which I had experienced such tranquil human bliss so often and so deeply—I felt as if I was discovering it all over again.
Sep 10, Schaza Askar rated it really liked it. The Interpretation of Dreams stands as a unique and classic work in the history of psychology. Dreams, he suggested, are our unconscious wishes, especially sexual ones, in disguise.
Freud's analysis of patients led him to the belief th The Interpretation of Dreams stands as a unique and classic work in the history of psychology. Freud's analysis of patients led him to the belief that neuroses evolved from repressed sexual desires, usually going back to distant childhood.
He also discussed Sophocles' play 'Oedipus Rex' and the 'Electra complex' to support his idea of a universal tendency of a child to be sexually attracted to one parent, and to want to defeat the other - was later termed the 'Oedipus complex'.
Dreams, in Freud's view, are all forms of "wish fulfillment" — But Freud wondered, why is the wish so wrapped up in strange symbols and images? Why should it need to avoid the obvious?
The answer is that many of our wishes are repressed, and may only have a chance of reaching our consciousness if they are somewhat disguised. A dream could seem like the opposite of what we wished for, because many of our wishes we may be defensive about or wish to cover up, so the only way a dream can make an issue known is by raising it in its opposite sense.
With dreams, if our psyche wants to give us a message, by showing it plainly , or by dressing it up as something else. The reason why we so easily forget dreams is that the conscious self wants to reduce the impact of the unconscious upon its waking life. It is no surprise that as the day proceeds we are more and more likely to forget what we dreamt. One of Freud's key points is that dreams are always self-centered.
When other people appear in a dream, often they are merely symbols of ourselves or symbolized what another person means to us.
View all 5 comments. This is the only reason why I refrain from giving this book a total of five stars. It is said that Freud wrote this elephantine book just look at how long it is mostly for himself, which would explain the major flaws of this book: the manner in which he expresses his theories, the poor arrangement of the book, how he likes to keep the reader in the dark, and leaving off his explanations for literally hundreds of pages.
You see, the length of Interpreting Dreams has nothing to do with the difficulty of this book; it is only the actual presentation of his theory that causes our frustration at failing to comprehend certain aspects of it. Nonetheless, The Interpretation of Dream is a phenomenal book. Following the previous attempts by different philosophers to interpret the phenomenon of dream, Freud developed the simple theory that dream is nothing other than wish-fulfillment for the individual's unconscious He provides complicated arguments and theories to sustain his belief, countless examples of dreams including those of the author , and analyses of said dreams.
Initially, Freud appears to cover every aspect and type of dream within these pages, judging by the length of his book. This, however, doesn't prove to be the case. In order to understand absolutely everything on Freud's theory, one has to know all the functions and origins of the human psyche, as the author explains.
Only after one is familiar with the relations and purposes of consciousness, the pre- and the unconscious; the id, the ego and the superego; his self-developed "psychical apparatus"; the origins of arousal and psychical charges; etc. The Interpretation of Dream is far from complete, as it excludes thankfully a lot information about the psyche that Freud would only later voice in subsequent publications. Which leads me to my main point. The highlight of The Interpretation of Dream is not, strangely enough, the phenomenon of dream itself; this book is amazing due to the light it has shed on the human psyche as a whole.
As a matter of fact, when I finished Freud's "masterpiece", it felt like the author merely used the dream as a macguffin in order to give us the perfect introduction of the human mind and its functions see also The Joke and its Relation to the Unconscious. Freud was able to explain the phenomenon of dream via observations on his hysterical and neurotic patients believe it or not , and it is indeed amazing how clearly hysteria and dream relate to each other.
You could say that dream is in fact a variation of hysteria or vice versa, I'm not sure. Via dream and neurosis, Freud was able to penetrate the workings of thought, and give the reader a more comprehensible view not only on the mind, but also on many other philosophical problems. The Interpretation of Dream is thus the perfect introduction to Freud's works, despite its length.
Not only does he give us a rough albeit complicated draft on the workings of our minds; he also introduces certain theories for the first time notably the infamous Oedipus Complex , and gives us a foretaste of his subsequent works.
Yes, it is a difficult read, and it deserves many re-reads to be fully understood especially the seventh and last chapter, "On the Psychology of Dream-Processes. This book will, however, change your perspectives not only on dreams, but also, more importantly, on your actions, thoughts, social relations, mind and self. This is a book which will, if its theory does prove true, give you a better understanding of yourself.
Sep 06, Kolagani Paramahamsa rated it it was amazing. This one took me more time than any other book, notwithstanding the fact it is not one of the large books I have read; took me around 4 months reading only a couple of books in the meantime. Yet, this was one of those books where I wanted to read very slowly in the end, just to extend my time with the book.
Written in archaic language, complicated sentence formation with intense content in each and every one. This is more close to a scientific publication than a novel. Although I knew that psycho This one took me more time than any other book, notwithstanding the fact it is not one of the large books I have read; took me around 4 months reading only a couple of books in the meantime.
Although I knew that psychology is a branch of science, I was of the assumption that it was more of a non-exact science, more of calculated predictions, of combination of chances, but was surprised to learn from this book how much of an exact it is, the way Freud zeroed in some certainties deducing from empirical studies. The more complicated a theory looked, the more time it took to grasp the paragraph, there was more hidden in it to learn, to revel.
From a writing perspective, it was interesting to read it like reading a scientific paper which has a tinge of storytelling, filled with case studies at appropriate places.
There was very less redundancy despite highly intense content in each and every sentence of the more than page book. Since when first writing this book Freud wrote it for himself, it has condensed ideas, and took me to reread several times to grasp what I was reading; loved this since I would prefer rereading than reading ideas spread out into several pages.
Looking in a different way, the book doesn't assume the reader to be naive person, there is some level of inherent respect that the reader is treated with. Also, as I went on reading the book, the rate of reading didn't improve like it happens with every other book, since here although you one gets to feel the author's writing style, the level of ideas keep on increasing, so the speed of reading essentially remains the same. Consequently, the rate of rereading also remained the same. It should be mentioned that to read this book one doesn't need to know anything about the field of psychology, but one would need a taste for analytical thinking.
On the negative side I was irritated somewhere in the middle of the book when Freud tries to illustrate the significance of symbols in the dreams, he seemed to have consumed a good number of pages which it didn't deserve, and adding to that the over-generalization in it when the point has already been adequately illustrated. Later, I learned that this part of the book was added later after the first edition, probably when he was not in his prime.
Like Freud emphasizes in this book, we would do better to analyze our own dreams than to follow the book blindly, it was amazing when I tried that, I am trying that every once in a while, thanks to the help from this book which makes one dwell into the beautiful world of dreams, the royal road to Ucs Freudian Unconscious. Where to begin with Interpreting Dreams? The first hundred pages scrutinizing contemporary scientific literature on dreams is kind of a slog.
The underlying logic of the text begins here and if nothing else, it demonstr Where to begin with Interpreting Dreams? And as a writer, his sentences are an admirable balance of felicitous, pellucid and sophisticated, never sacrificing style in favor of rigor; nor, astonishingly, the other way round.
They're less punctilious than the Vintage Classics standard editions, more creative and literary. And where they lack in scrupulousness, these more indulgently stylized translations capture the spirit of Freud as a writer much better. But if you prefer a fussy transplant of his syntax, go Vintage. After the initial survey, things get weird.
A cocaine addict besieged by a reactionary pessimism about the mind as a profane snake pit. There is at least a grain of truth to each of these vituperations, but none discredit his project or come close to telling the whole story. He was trying to heal something that was not, and is not, well understood.
This unenviable situation required a method that was hybrid and experimental, with a theoretical animus equally so. But Freud proceeded anyway, abandoning the dominant Cartesian dispositionalist approach to mind which was impossible to square with evidence from his clinical practice. The strangeness of our dreams is an encrypted profundity.
This is where free association comes in. Our own perspective on our dreams, the particular language we are compelled toward, the associations, affects and memories our dreams spontaneously conjure, will, under the guiding hand of a skilled analyst, produce a strong picture of our unconscious preoccupations, repressions and disturbances.
There is much more here than vapid sexual determinism born from century-old analysis of hysterical rich ladies. This book should incite all its readers to begin keeping a dream diary. It did to me. So is it true? Does it meet the criteria of epistemic naturalism? Can it be legitimated beyond the murky subjectivity of hermeneutics and talking therapy? Look up Mark Solms. But it does seem to be important to people; everyone wants to credit or discredit Freud by materialist standards.
Knock yourselves out, I guess. Whatever your vantage point, we still have so much to learn from Freud. No matter how many times you read him, he is always dead interesting. Aug 01, Tariq Fadel rated it it was amazing.
A landmark discovery in the history of mankind, this book is very important and influential. It is so profound that any and all explanations of it will be a gross oversimplification.
The remarkable thing about Freud's books -either this one or civilization and it's discontent- is it is understandable by the general public and explained using common language and numerous simple analogies.
Using examples from his own dreams, Freud shows that dreams represent a suppressed wish fulfillment. And he go A landmark discovery in the history of mankind, this book is very important and influential. And he goes on to construct an elaborate psychic scheme that explains this peculiarity of dreams.
Probably the most astonishing thing that Freud proves is the existence of the unconscious. Not only in dreams but also during waking life, we are constantly having the most complex thoughts that we are unaware of. Written more like a memoiristic novel than a scientific paper, pretty ridiculous at times, constantly self-editing, this book really does the most.
It's very entertaining in its examinations, and it's wild to see how much our contemporary dialogue around dreams really does stem from this one book. It's also strange to actually see the origin of the Oedipal complex. It's way too long though, but my boredom is probably more a fault of my reading it significantly after the book's ideas have found t Written more like a memoiristic novel than a scientific paper, pretty ridiculous at times, constantly self-editing, this book really does the most.
It's way too long though, but my boredom is probably more a fault of my reading it significantly after the book's ideas have found their way into the framework of our culture. Oh well. Some notes I don't want to lose: Dreams happen in the mind; they are "psychical acts" just as important as other psychical acts.
All dreams are motivated by the desire to fulfill one or more wishes.
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