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The Interpretation of Dreams

Freud's foundational work on dream interpretation and the unconscious.

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Sigmund Freud's 1899 book introduces his theory of the unconscious through dream interpretation and discusses what would become the Oedipus complex.[1] Freud stated that "the interpretation of dreams is the royal road to a knowledge of the unconscious activities of the mind".[2] The work was first published in an edition of 600 copies, which took eight years to sell out.[3]

Making and release

Freud began the inception of the book during the summer of 1895 at Schloss Bellevue near Grinzing in Austria.[4] The book was dated 1900 and first published in an edition of 600 copies.[3] "On Dreams" was translated into Russian in 1904, the first work of Freud to be translated into another language.[5] The first authorized English translation, by A. A. Brill, appeared in 1913 and was based on the 3rd German edition.[6]

During his stay at Schloss Bellevue, Freud experienced the "Irma's injection" dream, which he interpreted as revealing a subconscious desire to be cleared of blame for incorrectly managing a patient's care in 1895.[4] The third edition of the book saw Freud incorporate a lengthy, literal treatment of dream symbolism, a change prompted by Wilhelm Stekel's influence, and overall the text underwent at least eight revisions.[1] During Freud's lifetime, the work saw seven subsequent editions, with the final one appearing in 1929.[3] J. A. Underwood's 2006 translation, bearing the title "Interpreting Dreams," came out as part of Penguin's New Penguin Freud series.[7]

What the cited sources add

The Penguin 2006 edition describes the book as discovering a radical new way of exploring the unconscious through dreaming.[8] That edition states that through his insights about dreams, Freud revised his methods for treating neurotic patients and developed his theories of the Oedipus Complex and infantile life.[8] They charged Freud with selectively citing some authors on dreams while ignoring others and avoiding passages that came closest to his own theories.[9] E. James Lieberman and Robert Kramer wrote that Otto Rank was impressed by the book in 1905 and wrote a critical reanalysis of one of Freud's own dreams.[10]

According to Mikkel Borch-Jacobsen and Sonu Shamdasani, in 1905 the Swiss psychiatrist Eugen Bleuler communicated to Freud by letter that upon first reading The Interpretation of Dreams, he was certain of its accuracy.[9]

References

  1. Wikipedia, "The Interpretation of Dreams" (CC BY-SA 4.0), which cites: SE iv. p. xxiii (original not read by us) en.wikipedia.org
  2. Wikipedia, "The Interpretation of Dreams" (CC BY-SA 4.0), which cites: Freud, Sigmund, "The interpretation of dreams", Basic Books A Member of the Perseus Books Group, 2010, p. 407; Freud, Sigmund, "The interpretation of dreams", Basic Books A Member of the Perseus Books Group, 2010, p. 604 (original not read by us) en.wikipedia.org
  3. Wikipedia, "The Interpretation of Dreams" (CC BY-SA 4.0), which cites: "Freud's book, "The Interpretation of Dreams" released 1900", A Science Odyssey: People and Discoveries, 1998 (original not read by us) en.wikipedia.org
  4. Wikipedia, "The Interpretation of Dreams" (CC BY-SA 4.0), which cites: Storr, "Freud: A Very Short Introduction", Oxford University Press, 1989, p. 41 (original not read by us) en.wikipedia.org
  5. Wikipedia, "The Interpretation of Dreams" (CC BY-SA 4.0), which cites: Seidman, Naomi, "Translating the Jewish Freud: Psychoanalysis in Hebrew and Yiddish", Stanford University Press, 2024, p. 186 (original not read by us) en.wikipedia.org
  6. Wikipedia, "The Interpretation of Dreams" (CC BY-SA 4.0), which cites: Freud, "The Interpretation of Dreams [Third Edition (Completely revised in accordance with the eighth german edition)]", 1932; Publication history bibliography can be found in Vol.4 pp.xi ff. of the Standard Edition.; Freud, "The Interpretation of Dreams", Flame Tree Publishing, 2024; Freud wrote to his nephew, Edward L. Bernays, on September 14, 1923, that Brill's translations were "not good", especially in comparison with the newer ones com; Freud, "The Interpretation of Dreams", Barnes and Noble Classics, 2005; Section " en.wikipedia.org
  7. Wikipedia, "The Interpretation of Dreams" (CC BY-SA 4.0), which cites: "German – Schlegel-Tieck Prize", The Society of Authors; Freud, "Interpreting Dreams", Penguin, 2006; Phillips, "After Strachey", London Review of Books, 4 October 2007 (we also read that source) en.wikipedia.org
  8. Freud, "Interpreting Dreams", Penguin, 2006. facts only, no text reused. penguin.co.uk
  9. Wikipedia, "The Interpretation of Dreams" (CC BY-SA 4.0), which cites: "The Freud Files: An Inquiry into the History of Psychoanalysis", Cambridge University Press, 2012, p. 43, 111 (we also read that source) en.wikipedia.org
  10. Wikipedia, "The Interpretation of Dreams" (CC BY-SA 4.0), which cites: "The Letters of Sigmund Freud & Otto Rank: Inside Psychoanalysis", The Johns Hopkins University Press, 2012, p. 1–2, 4; Buchloh, "On The Burning Child: A Conversation with Joseph Koerner", October, 2018, p. 5–44; Pegg, "The Complete David Bowie", 2016, p. 440–50 (we also read that source) en.wikipedia.org

Each numbered sentence above was checked against the source it cites before publication. Sentences citing Wikipedia adapt text from the English Wikipedia article The Interpretation of Dreams (contributors), used under CC BY-SA 4.0; this entry is available under the same licence. Other sources were used for facts only; no text or images are copied from them.

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Compiled from Wikipedia and the sources listed below. Text from Wikipedia is available under CC BY-SA 4.0; this entry is adapted from it.

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