The Interpretation of Dreams by Sigmund Freud

The educated layman, of course, knows even less of the matter. The reader will find, in the works listed at the end of this work, many stimulating observations, and plenty of interesting material relating to our subject, but little or nothing that concerns the true nature of the dream, or that solves definitely any of its enigmas. This fact has been so universally acknowledged by previous writers on the subject that it seems hardly necessary to quote individual opinions. In spite of thousands of years of endeavour, little progress has been made in the scientific understanding of dreams. I shall begin by giving a short account of the views of earlier writers on this subject, and of the status of the dream-problem in contemporary science since in the course of this treatise I shall not often have occasion to refer to either. This done, my investigation will terminate, as it will have reached the point where the problem of the dream merges into more comprehensive problems, and to solve these we must have recourse to material of a different kind. Further, I shall endeavour to elucidate the processes which underlie the strangeness and obscurity of dreams, and to deduce from these processes the nature of the psychic forces whose conflict or cooperation is responsible for our dreams. CHAPTER 1 THE SCIENTIFIC LITERATURE OF DREAM-PROBLEMS (UP TO 1900) In the following pages I shall demonstrate that there is a psychological technique which makes it possible to interpret dreams, and that on the application of this technique every dream will reveal itself as a psychological structure, full of significance, and one which may be assigned to a specific place in the psychic activities of the waking state.

The Interpretation of Dreams by Sigmund Freud