The Interpretation of Dreams

The Interpretation of Dreams [] Read

Freud’s Revolutionary Theory This ground-breaking work, which Freud considered his most valuable, forever changed the way we think.

Now, in this definitive and bestselling translation by James Strachey, Freud’s timeless exploration of the unconscious through the dream world is clearly and precisely rendered.

The Interpretation of Dreams [] Read Now

Freud believed the function of dreams is to preserve sleep by representing as fulfilled wishes that which would otherwise awaken the dreamer.

In Freud’s theory dreams are instigated by the daily occurrences and thoughts of everyday life. In what Freud called the “dream-work”, these “secondary process” thoughts (“word presentations”), governed by the rules of language and the reality principle, become subject to the “primary process” of unconscious thought (“thing presentations”) governed by the pleasure principle, wish gratification and the repressed sexual scenarios of childhood.

Because of the disturbing nature of the latter and other repressed thoughts and desires which may have become linked to them, the dream-work operates a censorship function, disguising by distortion, displacement, and condensation the repressed thoughts to preserve sleep.

In the clinical setting, Freud encouraged association to the dream’s manifest content, as recounted in the dream narrative, to facilitate interpretative work on its latent content – the repressed thoughts and fantasies – and also on the underlying mechanisms and structures operative in the dream-work. As Freud developed his theoretical work on dreams he went beyond his theory of dreams as wish-fulfillments to arrive at an emphasis on dreams as “nothing other than a particular form of thinking. It is the dream work that creates that form, and it alone is the essence of dreaming

Including dozens of case histories and detailed analyses of actual dreams, The Interpretation of Dreams remains an invaluable tool in helping us all discover the truth about ourselves.