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5 Comments THE INTERPRETATION OF DREAMS
Whether we love or hate Sigmund Freud, we all have to admit that he revolutionized the way we think about ourselves. Much of this revolution can be traced to The Interpretation of Dreams, the turn-of-the-century tour de force that outlined his theory of unconscious forces in the context of dream analysis. Introducing the id, the superego, and their problem child, the ego, Freud advanced scientific understanding of the mind immeasurably by exposing motivations normally invisible to our consciousness. While there’s no question that his own biases and neuroses influenced his observations, the details are less important than the paradigm shift as a whole. After Freud, our interior lives became richer and vastly more mysterious.
These mysteries clearly bothered him–he went to great (often absurd) lengths to explain dream imagery in terms of childhood sexual trauma, a component of his theory jettisoned mid-century, though now popular among recovered-memory therapists. His dispassionate analyses of his own dreams are excellent studies for cognitive scientists wishing to learn how to sacrifice their vanities for the cause of learning. Freud said of the work contained in The Interpretation of Dreams, “Insight such as this falls to one’s lot but once in a lifetime.” One would have to feel quite fortunate to shake the world even once. –Rob Lightner
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Freud’s seminal work ‘The Interpretation of Dreams. This is probably Freud’s most popular work and, if we maintain Freud’s own logic that what is remembered is most important, it perhaps also his most important work. Freud presents numerous case studies of patient’s dreams and takes the reader through his process of interpretation. The work not only suggests how we might interpret dreams themselves but also reveals Freud’s fundamental understanding of the structure and functioning of the psyche; the primary processes of condensation, distortion, and representation and figurability as well as secondary revision. These processes not only affect dreams but all memory and experience.
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Freud’s investigations into the question of motivation in our lives form the basis of much of psychopathology today and this book provides a readable introduction to his theories about dreams and what they can tell us about our waking lives. Each chapter has several dreams (including Freud’s own) and detailed analyses of them to demonstrate how we are more affected by thoughts and concerns than we like to admit to ourselves. Not only is it an interesting read, but it’s quite accessible, the reader doesn’t need to be familiar with any of Freud’s more complicated concepts in order to be able to understand what he’s writing about. His style is thorough and thought-provoking, even if you don’t find yourself agreeing with everything he writes. It’s easy to criticise his theories without knowing too much about them, so this book provides a welcome introduction.
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reading this volume will stir your own dreams, and make them more significant for you – Freud’s journey into his own psyche is compelling reading and full of saucy and dark elements that will resonate with any reader who is honest with themselves – a bestseller once it was recognised in its time (in the first year it sold maybe 100 copies), it is strong narrative and Freud succeeds in shaping the book so we start before he recognises that dreams and their interpretation can provide insights into the human personality – a page-turner, and not technical – written early in his career, he had not developed the specialist language of his later writings. He won prizes for literature, and this is one sample of his deftness. highly recommended.
Review by Dannington for THE INTERPRETATION OF DREAMS
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Everything anyone who is inetersted in psychology particularly this area that you would need. Not an easy read but great to referance and to understand the area more clearly.
Review by Salman Jaffer for THE INTERPRETATION OF DREAMS
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Interesting Reading. Think the evidence is blindly biased at times. But worthwhile to see it from Freud’s POV
Also apparently he was a trail blazer so good to know what he thought before everyone else did.