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Sigmund Freud? s The Interpretation of Dreams by Jackie Zee Sigmund Freud? s The Interpretation of Dreams was originally published in 1900. The era was one of prudish Victorians.
It was also the age of the continued Enlightenment. The New Formula of science, along with the legacy of Comte? s Positivism, had a firm hold on the burgeoning discipline of psychology. Freud was groomed as both scientist and Romantic, but his life?
s work reflected conflict of the two backgrounds and a reaction against each one. It is my opinion that The Interpretation of Dreams was not simply written as a methodology of deconstructing dreams and assigning them meaning, but its latent content (as it were) was a critique of science? s New Formula, and was designed to question, and even undermine, the possibility of objective methodology in psychology, and indeed in the sciences as a whole. The importance of his innovations were wholly unappreciated; Freud was an anomaly. Many of his contemporaries rejected his work on the grounds of invalid methodology and inconsistency.
Neurologists and psychiatrists today still continue to discount his theories. The point of Freud? s subversion of contemporary mental science, was, however, quite missed, and many critics and reviewers continue to systemically assail his work, utterly oblivious to the inclusive meaning of his theories, rather than the meanings of his words themselves. Clinical studies convinced Freud that hysterical symptoms could be analyzed and deconstructed to understandable statements expressive of some underlying and utterly logical thought. From this interest, Freud embarked on a comprehensive study of dreams, and in the process, created a theory that drew meaningful attention to the unconscious, a previously unaddressed part of the human psyche. Freud?
s dreambook presented a new psychology for the times, as well as a new understanding of dreams. The implications of this novel understanding spilled over into the budding field of humanistic psychology, as well as into many new theoretical writings spanning areas from social sciences to fine arts. Freud? s work made interesting contributions to general psychology because, in offering the idea that dreams have meaning that could be comprehended and interpreted, he was taking the side of the ignorant and the superstitious against the positivist philosophy of early science psychology. Thus, the text can be read not only in the context of social and intellectual traditions impinging on fin-de-since culture, but more generally in relation to a broader framework of changing western conceptions of the nature and importance of dreams. Freud?
s writings on dreams provide an ideal psychology of modern life, and this is especially clear if his work is viewed in the context of the major transformations in the understanding of dreams that have characterized different periods of development within psychology. For Freud, the possibility of dream interpretation is contingent on the premise that their puzzling and seemingly nonsensical elements actually contain a series of clues from which their originating ideas can be deduced. Dreams are, in some sense, designated to conceal events / emotions that would be too painful for a person to recall, but nonetheless do so in such a way as to still communicate those very events or emotions in a disguised and indirect form. Freud distinguishes between latent (hidden) and manifest (surface) contents of dreams. There is a complex process of partial concealment, both the function and method of which require elaboration. Freud began to analyze his own dreams, and was quite excited by the analytic insight which he believed his first dream interpretation produced.
This dream specifically became known as the dream of Irma? s Injection, and serves as the? specimen dream? that Freud uses for the starting point of The Interpretation of Dreams. The interpretation of this dream, as of any other, depends on the spontaneous association of the dreamer to each of its elements. It is the dreamer, and not the analyst, who provides the interpretation.
Therefore, in this case, Freud begins the analysis with his own immediate reactions to the dream. It comes to light that dreams are organized in terms of relationships between events and emotions concerning these events. The dream also clearly makes sense in the context of the dreamer? s current waking preoccupations and activities.
The dream-thoughts appear absorbed in characteristically mundane themes, yet, considering what initially appears to be incidental elements in this dream, Freud is compelled to recall events from a more remote past. Thus, distant events are connected with incidents from the previous day through an unpredictable series of links. The dream-thoughts are consistent and logical, it is only the complexity of the allusions through which they are expressed that give rise to the appearance of over-complication and arbitrariness. So-called?
indifferent material? in the dream can serve as a useful bridge between two sets of events on the day previous to a dream. It is also characteristic, Freud claims, for each element of the dream? s content to be? overdetermined? , i.
e. , to be over-represented in the dream-thoughts. Though Freud occasionally refers to the? ultimate meaning? of a dream, the meaning of a dream consists simply in the dreamer? s articulation of associations to its images.
A problem here is that this process of anatomizing and connecting the elements of the dream with memories of both significant and indifferent events might be continued indefinitely, with no certainty of reaching a definite interpretation. What can be difficult for the reader to understand, is the manner of representation that characterizes the process of dreaming. Freud uses an example of a botanical monograph dream to explicate a few general features of dreams, through which dream-content is related to underlying dream-thoughts. He discusses the problem of connecting the two in terms of a translation: The dream thought and the dream-content are presented to us like two versions of the same subject matter in two different languages. Or, more properly, the dream- content seems like a transcript of the dream thoughts in another mode of expression, whose characters and syntactic laws it is our business to discover by comparing the original and the translation. The dream-thoughts are immediately comprehensible, as soon as we have learnt them.
The dream content, on the other hand, is expressed as it were a pictographic script, the characters of which have to be transposed individually into the language of the dream-thoughts. If we attempted to read these characters according to their pictorial value instead of according to their symbolic relation, we should clearly be led into error (S. Freud, 1971, Vol. 4, p. 277). There is a diversity and richness to the meaningful associations that emerge from what is dreamt as a simple image.
Processes of condensation and displacement of meaning are key elements to the understanding these associations. The most significant relations of associations to emerge in dreams, however, are expressed through variations in sensory intensities among different dream-images, or even entire dreams. While Freud admits that physiological or waking concerns can penetrate the dream state on occasion (such as dreaming of drinking a cool glass of water when you go to bed thirsty), he denies any special prominence to these causes. Nor is the vividness or clarity of dream-images indicative of psychical value between the dream-images and their meanings. All dreams serve the purpose of fulfilling a wish. Often (but not always) these dreams can trace back to sexual or aggressive motives.
For example, the specimen dream of Irma? s Injection is not only interpreted in terms of its associations to which it gives rise, but is analyzed as a wish fulfilment; the dream satisfies a desire on the part of Freud? s to be highly regarded by his colleagues, as well as one to absolve himself of responsibility of misdiagnosis while assigning blame on his physician-friend. Throughout the course of the text, the idea of wishing becomes gradually transformed; it is not simply that more?
dangerous? wishes come to emerge in the interpreted meaning, but that these wishes, with respect to their associations, refer to events (again, often sexual or aggressive) of earlier, especially childhood, events in the life of the dreamer. Events that are normally forgotten and inaccessible to the waking mind. Freud?
s method of interpretation through spontaneous association, and analysis of the mechanism of content representation through a desire for wish fulfilment, is formulated in distinction to what he took to be the commonly-held historical tradition of symbolic understanding. Freud rejects a universal key for symbols in dream interpretation. His own method of interpretation, founded on contextualization of each dream element, cannot support an array of fixed symbolic meanings. However, by the end of the text, Freud finds symbolism to be important because it permits him to translate psychoanalysis into a general cultural science, a manoeuvre he requires in order to have his? new science of the mind? accepted on a broad level.
He maintains that symbols are subject to elements peculiar to the dreamer. ? They [dream symbols] frequently have more than one or even several meanings, and, as with Chinese script, the correct interpretation can only be arrived at one each occasion from the context? (S. Freud, 1968, Vol. 5, p. 353). Nevertheless, he ultimately creates a variety of common examples of fixed symbolic meaning in dreams, usually sexual in nature. This type of universal symbolism is what has become popularly called the typical? Freudian?
method of dream interpretation. A difficulty with the dream theory is that the dreamer must remember the dream in full detail. And since dreams occur in the unconscious, it is likely that at least some aspects of a dream will be either forgotten, erroneous, or both. Freud also notes that the dreamer may unconsciously invent aspects of missing portions of a dream. Addressing these problems, Freud states that the dream must be acceptable as total fact if it is to be interpreted; this seems contrary to his usual tendency to continuously question the validity of patients?
statements. Another difficulty with the theory, more with respect to its reliability, is that there is no standardized diagnoses available for dream analysis. That is, universal key symbols are mentioned, but it is also stated that what an object symbolizes varies for each individual. Also, the analyst must be in possession of significant background information on the dreamer in order to make a genuine and accurate interpretation with respect to symbols. Inaccuracies can again occur because the dreamer is repressing certain events / emotions , rendering them totally inaccessible as the root meanings of certain symbols. The point I am trying to make is that no dream is utterly, truly, objectively, and replica bly interpretable.
Freud himself admits that many obstacles stand in the way of a correct interpretation, though he still proceeds as though his interpretations are true, objective, and replicable. He cites case after case of? successful? dream interpretation. In many of these examples, his attempt to shock and dismay his readers, and the medical community alike, is patent in his use of symbolic sexual imagery within the dreams he discusses. This desire to shock, was also part of Freud?
s subversion of psychology; he sought to shock his readers with blatant sexual references because he wanted an emotional reaction from them, not simply a passive assimilation of his theory. By doing this, he hoped to change the way people thought, causing them to use their emotions, their passions, and not simply their analytic minds. Thus, I propose that the hidden meaning of Freud? s theory itself is likely a critique of the scientific method, a negative view of Positivism, if you will. He offers a methodology, states that it may not be objective, based on certain faulty criteria, then concludes with a valid outcome that is proclaimed scientific and successful. Freud is both appeasing and satirizing his predecessors from the scientific community while remaining loyal to his ideals of romanticism.
Freud? s theory of dream interpretation is both simple and comprehensive. His typical method of interpretation is one in which the motive and dream are introduced, and their contents assigned, by previously accepted criteria. The wish, in contrast, is introduced by hypothesis, or inference to the best explanation. There are several reasons why dream analysis cannot constitute a natural science. Freud himself was well aware of these barriers, yet he nevertheless proceeded with his theory in spite of his acknowledgement of its flaws.
Therefore, on a greater level, we the readers are left to interpret this as Freud? s parody of natural science itself, of an inability to obtain truly objective, utter replicable result, under any condition. Freud sets out to show us that if a painstakingly laid out scientific method, such as his for dream interpretation, can contain contradictions with respect to reliability and objectivity, so can any scientific method concerning any type of material. The biggest implication for Positivism then is one of doubt, because once doubt sets in, confidence is lost.
Nevertheless, The Interpretation of Dreams has made a major contribution to psychology by its introduction of certain concepts, such as depth of mind, latent meanings, wish-fulfilment's, etc. , all of which remain valuable in themselves, in spite of Freud? s parallel objective of crushing positivistic natural science. Freud? s work has provided a paradigm through historical findings and future investigations, leaving him as pioneer of the unconscious through his unmasking of dreams. And lastly, in spite of science and philosophy?
s tendencies to exploit the theory? s weaknesses instead of strengths, the deeper aim of the text, as unmasked of Positivism? s weaknesses, can no longer be ignored in its hermeneutic exploration. Bibliography Reference List Freud, Sigmund. (1971).
The Interpretation of Dreams, Volume IV, 1900. London: The Hogarth Press. Freud, Sigmund. (1968). The Interpretation of Dreams, Volume V. 1900 - 01. London: The Hogarth Press.
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