To the day he died Freud believed that his book The Interpretation of Dreams was his masterpiece. It is a long, complex work. In it he felt he had discovered the "royal road to the unconscious". The image of dreams was to mark Freud's self portrayal throughout his long life. He saw himself as Joseph, both the "dreamer" and the "interpreter of dreams". He also liked to accuses himself of "troubling the sleep of the world" with his dark and ruthlessly honest dream interpretations.
Much of his book focuses on extended examples and interpretations of Freud's own dreams, a remarkable display of vulnerability on his part. His most famous dream was about one of his patients, the classic "Irma Dream". To a large extent it was through his self-analysis of this dream that Freud demonstrated to his own satisfaction that dreams could be decoded. In a letter to his "Other", Fliess on June 12, 1900, Freud gushed excitedly "Do you suppose that some day a marble tablet will be placed on the house {where he dreamt his Irma dream}, inscribed with these words?:
Read Freud's summary of his theory of interpretation (FR: pp. 24-30) and the Preface, preamble, narrative and summary interpretation of Freud's "Irma Dream", dreamt in the early morning hours of July 24, 1895. (FR: pp. 129-132; pp. 140-142).
Autobiographical Statement (FR: pp. 24-30)
1. Freud defines psychoanalysis as an "art of interpretation". But
first the analyst must elicit the material to be interpreted. What is the
Freud's basic technique, what method did it replace, and in what two ways
does resistance manifest itself?
2. What is transference, what is its role in psychoanalysis, and what does it result in?
3. What is a dream, according to Freud? Distinguish between the manifest and latent content of a dream.
4. Why does the mind produce manifest dreams? Describe the process of "dreamwork". (Note also Freud's disclaimer on p. 29).
5. What, according to Freud, constituted the truly "enormous importance" of his discovery that dreams (and "symptomatic actions") have meaning?
The Interpretation of Dreams (FR: pp.
129-132; 140-142)
6. Without reading Freud's detailed analysis, can you come to any
meaningful interpretation of the "Irma Dream"?
7. Freud concludes his treatment of the Irma dream with his now famous dictum "we perceive that a dream is the fulfillment of a wish". Yet Freud admits that "I will not pretend that I have completely uncovered the meaning of this dream, or that its interpretation is without a gap... I myself know the points from which further trains of thought could be followed." Speculate as to what unfollowed trains of thought might lie in the interpretation of this dream, and what unfulfilled wishes even Freud might have not had the courage to speak about.