Interpretation of Dreams was one of the most important books of the 20th century. First published in 1900, it provides a groundbreaking theory of dreams and an innovative method for interpreting them that captivates readers to this day. The book represents Freud’s first major attempt to set out his theory of a dynamic unconscious, created in childhood, which operates continuously in every human mind.
For Freud, dreaming is a mental activity that follows its own logic. By identifying its mechanisms, Freud also shed new light on the workings of the unconscious and its powerful role in human life.
Freud called dream interpretation the ‘royal road’ to the unconscious. It is the ‘King’s highway’ along which everyone can travel to discover the truth of unconscious processes for themselves.
Everybody dreams, and because of this it is one of the best ways to grasp Freud’s theory of psychoanalysis in a practical way. Freud was so confident in his discovery that he jokingly wrote to his friend Wilhelm Fliess: “Do you think that one day there will be a marble tablet on the house, saying: ‘In this house on July 24, 1895, the Secret of Dreams was revealed to Dr. Sigmund Freud’?”
Today, there is indeed a commemorative plaque marking the spot where Freud began writing the book. Many of the dreams discussed in it are Freud’s own – although he also discusses hundreds of his patients’ dreams. We glimpse in Freud’s dreams the impact of significant life events on his inner world.
The death of his father, his marriage to Martha Bernays and the birth of their children all feature prominently, as does the decaying political situation in Vienna and the rise of antisemitism.
In his dreams, details of these experiences combine in unexpected ways with memories going back to his earliest childhood. Because of this, the book is arguably also the invention of a new literary genre: a life in dreams!
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