The Interpretation of Dreams by Sigmund Freud -- Summary

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II. The method of dream interpretation

The analysis of a specimen dream

Freud thinks dreams are a psychic activity, and that they are important and meaningful in the context of the rest of psychic activities. Scientific theories disagree, but lay opinion agrees that dreams have meanings, albeit hidden ones.

Until today there have been two methods of dream interpretation. In one, images in dreams are seen as symbols for other things, depending on the context of the life of the dreamer. This method calls for intuition and ingenuity. This method fails when dreams have a confusing narrative. The other method also calls for symbolic replacement of dream images, but in this case, dream images have a fixed meaning. This makes it easier to decipher jumbled dreams. These methods are both worthless. Freud proposes a scientific method of dream interpretation, despite the resistance of science.

Freud relates how he arrived at his method. In his therapies, he worked to eradicate pathological ideas in his patients by discovering the root of the idea and facing it. He directed his patients to share with him all of their ideas that have to do with a certain theme. The themes surfaced in patients' dreams and this taught Freud of the importance of dreams and their relevance to pathologies. He then set to apply the same method of interpretation of symptoms to dreams.

For therapy to succeed the patient must be encouraged to increase his attentiveness to his thoughts and ideas and to withhold criticism of these thoughts, because all thoughts could prove to be important. Through such a state of mind thoughts – and dreams – can be observed and interpreted. This is achieved for example before falling asleep. Undesired thoughts emerge when we are tired and are translated into dreams (desired ideas).

Many people are resistant to the state of mind in which ideas freely rise because of the undesired thoughts that may surface. This state of mind also occurs during the creative process. Writers are not fruitful when they resist a flow of thoughts because then each thought is isolated from others and doesn’t lead to creative production. However, it isn’t hard to achieve this mindset.

The dream then needs to be dissected into its elements. The patient is asked to associate each dream fragment with other thoughts. In this sense, Freud's method of dream interpretation is similar to the second of the two above, in that elements of the dream are examined and not the dream as a whole. The same images can appear to two people but can mean completely different things in each.

Sick people's dreams point to the source of their neurosis. But Freud wants to show that the method applied to healthy people too. He will then interpret his own dreams. This will serve to both demonstrate healthy person dream interpretation and to explore the effectiveness and extent of self-analysis. Freud does withhold some information.

Preliminary statement to the dream

Freud first provides a preliminary statement so that we will be able to understand the relevance of his dream to his psyche and life. Freud treated Irma, a family friend who was only partially cured. They had a disagreement regarding her treatment and paused treatment during the summer holidays. During this time Otto, a friend of Irma's and Freud's, visited Irma and reported to Freud that Irma was not quite well, in a somewhat accusatory manner. Freud was annoyed by this and that evening wrote up Irma's clinical history to give to Dr. M, a mutual friend of Freud's and Irma's. During the night he had the following dream:

The dream

In Freud's dream, he reprimands Irma for not accepting his solution. Irma complains of physical pain and Freud thinks he must have overlooked a physical illness. He examines her and indeed sees spots and scabs in her mouth. Dr. M confirms the examination. Otto too takes note of her sick state. Dr. M says that it's an infection but it doesn’t matter since soon enough she will get dysentery. His contracting dysentery, they all knew, was caused by Otto having thoughtlessly injected Irma with propionic acid via an infected syringe. The end of the dream was faster-paced than the beginning.

Analysis

Freud now dissects each detail in his dream and studies it, connecting it to events from his life, memories, thoughts, and feelings. He recognizes the setting of the dream as anticipatory to a real event that is scheduled to happen the week after the dream occurred. He recognizes his anxiety not to be blamed for Irma's pains. If their sources are physical Freud, as a mental specialist, cannot be blamed. Freud thinks he exchanged Irma in his dream for other acquaintances of his with an appearance similar to that of Irma's dream character; this reveals Freud's wish that he could receive a patient more receptive to his ideas than Irma. 

Freud goes through the dream sentence-by-sentence but I will not summarize them all.

All of these speculations reveal anxieties that lie at the base of the dream, mostly tied to Freud's regrets of past medical malpractices and fear of future accusations thereof. 

Post-analysis

After the comprehensive analysis, Freud arrives at the meaning of the dream. There are wishes which are realized through the dream. Freud felt guilty for not fully curing Irma and is mad at Otto for implying this; in the dream, her illness becomes Otto's fault. This fulfills the dual purpose of acquitting Freud and turning the blame on Otto. There are levels of his wish fulfillment that I won't expound. 

A whole host of details from his life and thought play into the analysis. The analysis, he says, may not be comprehensive.

We see, then, that dreams possess meanings, contrary to the opinion of science; we also see that dreams serve the purpose of wish fulfillment.

Sigmund Freud

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