THE INTERPRETATION OF DREAMS translated by A. A. Brill ...

1 Page 1 , INTERPRETATION of DREAMS , The - sigmund freud THE INTERPRETATION OF DREAMS by sigmund freud translated by A. A. Brill Flectere si nequeo superos, Acheronta PREFACE TO THE THIRD GERMAN EDITION WHEREAS there was a space of nine years between the first and secondeditions of this book, the need of a third edition was apparent whenlittle more than a year had elapsed. I ought to be gratified by thischange; but if I was unwilling previously to attribute the neglectof my work to its small value, I cannot take the interest which is nowmaking its appearance as proof of its quality.

2 The advance of scientific knowledge has not left TheInterpretation of DREAMS untouched. When I wrote this book in 1899there was as yet no "sexual theory," and the analysis of the morecomplicated forms of the psychoneuroses was still in its INTERPRETATION of DREAMS was intended as an expedient tofacilitate the psychological analysis of the neuroses; but sincethen a profounder understanding of the neuroses has contributedtowards the comprehension of the dream. The doctrine ofdream- INTERPRETATION itself has evolved in a direction which wasinsufficiently emphasized in the first edition of this book. From myown experience, and the works of Stekel and other writers, * I havesince learned to appreciate more accurately the significance ofsymbolism in DREAMS (or rather, in unconscious thought).

3 In the courseof years, a mass of data has accumulated which demandsconsideration. I have endeavored to deal with these innovations byinterpolations in the text and footnotes. If these additions do notalways quite adjust themselves to the framework of the treatise, or ifthe earlier text does not everywhere come up to the standard of ourpresent knowledge, I must beg indulgence for this deficiency, since itis only the result and indication of the increasingly rapid advance ofour science. I will even venture to predict the directions in whichfurther editions of this book- should there be a demand for them-may diverge from previous editions. Dream- INTERPRETATION must seek acloser union with the rich material of poetry, myth, and popularidiom, and it must deal more faithfully than has hitherto beenpossible with the relations of DREAMS to the neuroses and to mentalderangement.

4 Herr Otto Rank has afforded me valuable assistance in theselection of supplementary examples, and has revised the proofs 2 , INTERPRETATION of DREAMS , The - sigmund Freudthis edition. I have to thank him and many other colleagues fortheir contributions and corrections. Vienna, 1911 * Omitted in subsequent PREFACE TO THE SECOND (GERMAN) EDITION THAT there should have been a demand for a second edition of thisbook- a book which cannot be described as easy to read- before thecompletion of its first decade is not to be explained by theinterest of the professional circles to which I was addressing psychiatric colleagues have not, apparently, attempted to lookbeyond the astonishment which may at first have been aroused by mynovel conception of the dream.

5 And the professional philosophers,who are anyhow accustomed to disposing of the dream in a fewsentences- mostly the same- as a supplement to the states ofconsciousness, have evidently failed to realize that precisely in thisconnection it was possible to make all manner of deductions, such asmust lead to a fundamental modification of our psychologicaldoctrines. The attitude of the scientific reviewers was such to leadme to expect that the fate of the book would be to fall into oblivion;and the little flock of faithful adherents, who follow my lead inthe therapeutic application of psycho-analysis, and interpret dreamsby my method, could not have exhausted the first edition of this feel, therefore, that my thanks are due to the wider circle ofcultured and inquiring readers whose sympathy has induced me, afterthe lapse of nine years, once more to take up this difficult work,which has so many fundamental bearings.

6 I am glad to be able to say that I found little in the book thatcalled for alteration. Here and there I have interpolated freshmaterial, or have added opinions based on more extensive experience,or I have sought to elaborate individual points; but the essentialpassages treating of DREAMS and their INTERPRETATION , and thepsychological doctrines to be deduced therefrom, have been leftunaltered; subjectively, at all events, they have stood the test oftime. Those who are acquainted with my other writings (on theaetiology and mechanism of the psychoneuroses) will know that Inever offer unfinished work as finished, and that I have alwaysendeavoured to revise my conclusions in accordance with my maturingopinions; but as regards the subject of the dream-life, I am able tostand by my original text.

7 In my many years' work upon the problems ofthe neuroses I have often hesitated, and I have often gone astray; andthen it was always the INTERPRETATION of DREAMS that restored myself-confidence. My many scientific opponents are actuated by a wiseinstinct when they decline to follow me into the region of oneirology. Even the material of this book, even my own DREAMS , defaced bytime or superseded, by means of which I have demonstrated the rules ofdream- INTERPRETATION , revealed, when I came to revise these pages, acontinuity that resisted revision. For me, of course, this book has anadditional subjective significance, which I did not understand 3 , INTERPRETATION of DREAMS , The - sigmund Freudafter its completion.

8 It reveals itself to me as a piece of myself-analysis, as my reaction to the death of my father, that is, tothe most important event, the most poignant loss in a man's life. OnceI had realized this, I felt that I could not obliterate the tracesof this influence. But to my readers the material from which theylearn to evaluate and interpret DREAMS will be a matter ofindifference. Where an inevitable comment could not be fitted into the oldcontext, I have indicated by square brackets that it does not occur inthe first edition. * Berchtesgaden, 1908 * Omitted in subsequent INTRODUCTORY NOTE IN this volume I have attempted to expound the methods and resultsof dream- INTERPRETATION ; and in so doing I do not think I haveoverstepped the boundary of neuro-pathological science.

9 For thedream proves on psychological investigation to be the first of aseries of abnormal psychic formations, a series whose succeedingmembers- the hysterical phobias, the obsessions, the delusions-must, for practical reasons, claim the attention of the physician. Thedream, as we shall see, has no title to such practical importance, butfor that very reason its theoretical value as a typical formation isall the greater, and the physician who cannot explain the origin ofdream-images will strive in vain to understand the phobias and theobsessive and delusional ideas, or to influence them by therapeuticmethods. But the very context to which our subject owes its importance mustbe held responsible for the deficiencies of the following abundant lacunae in this exposition represent so many points ofcontact at which the problem of dream-formation is linked up withthe more comprehensive problems of psycho-pathology; problems whichcannot be treated in these pages, but which, if time and powerssuffice and if further material presents itself, may be elaboratedelsewhere.

10 The peculiar nature of the material employed to exemplify theinterpretation of DREAMS has made the writing even of this treatisea difficult task. Consideration of the methods of dream-interpretationwill show why the DREAMS recorded in the literature on the subject, orthose collected by persons unknown to me, were useless for my purpose;I had only the choice between my own DREAMS and those of thepatients whom I was treating by psychoanalytic methods. But this latermaterial was inadmissible, since the dream-processes wereundesirably complicated by the intervention of neurotic if I relate my own DREAMS I must inevitably reveal to the gazeof strangers more of the intimacies of my psychic life than isagreeable to me, and more than seems fitting in a writer who is nota poet but a scientific investigator.