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Title: The Interpretation of Dreams (Oxford World's Classics) by Sigmund Freud, Joyce Crick, Ritchie Robertson ISBN: 0-19-282352-3 Publisher: Oxford University Press Pub. Date: 01 December, 2000 Format: Paperback Volumes: 1 List Price(USD): $13.95 |
Average Customer Rating: 4 (26 reviews)
Rating: 4
Summary: Loving and/or Hating Sigmund Freud
Comment: It does not really matter whether we love or hate Sigmund Freud. What is important to acknowledge is that he revolutionized the way we think about ourselves. Some of this revolution can be traced back to The Interpretation of Dreams, the turn of the century masterpiece that outlined his theory of unconscious forces in the context of dream analysis. Joyce Crick's groundbreaking new translation is based on the original text published in November 1899 and it is clearly a more readable and accurate picture of Freud's original work.
It is apparent that Freud concentrates to a larger extent on the use of words in dreams and on the difficulty of deciphering them. Freud's ideas of dreams as wish-fulfillment, his ideas of the retelling of the dream as a continuation, as well as the dream's manifest and latent content, are covered much more clearly than in any of the later editions of the same text. The fact that Joyce Crick's translation is faster-moving and definitively lighter than previous versions enhances the understanding of the material and engages the reader. It established a sense of dialogue with the reader.
While reading Joyce Crick's translation the author of the review remembered her first encounter with Freud's original German version Die Traumdeutung while she was an undergraduate student. The German version was definitely much more difficult to read and caused some confusion for the reader. The author valued Freud's elaboration on the symbols of dreams, but viewed the statement that all psychopathic phenomena derive from the suppression of sexual desires as difficult to comprehend (for an undergraduate student). However when comparing The Interpretation of Dreams with Freud's discussion of dreams in his work Introductory Lectures on Psychoanalysis it has to be pointed out that the latter is probably an easier way of gaining insight into his views about dreams. Dreams are covered in Part II of the Introductory Lectures on Psychoanalysis, which Freud delivered in two successive winter terms (running from October to March) in 1915-16 and 1916-17 at the University of Vienna. The new translation is targeted at the psychoanalytically minded postgraduate student or psychiatric registrar who had previous exposure and an understanding of basic concepts such as the preconscious, unconscious and conscious as well as the id, ego and superego. However some explanation about these concepts is provided at the end of the book.
Freud's work on dreaming has recently regained interest because among many other opportunities, the ability to conduct studies in sleep laboratories and the neuropsychological assessment of brain-injured patients has assisted us in finding some scientific evidence for some of his theories. Neuroscience has proven that dreaming can be switched on or off by a neurochemical pathway whose main function is to "instigate goal-seeking behaviors and an organism's appetitive interaction with the world" (Panksepp, 1985, p. 273). This means that neuroscience has contributed to the evidence of a radical hypothesis that is more than 100 years old (i.e. that dreams are motivated phenomena, driven by our wishes and the dopamigergic mechanisms, the appetitive (i.e. libidinal) 'command system' of the brain (Panksepp, 1985, 1998)). The Interpretation of Dreams edited by Ritchie Robertson is meeting the challenge for psychoanalysis to refresh Freudian theory, "which now has an unpalatable and distinctly post-Victorian flavor for many" (Panksepp, 1999, p.35). It assists in moving psychoanalysis towards a modern and dynamic mode of thought that continues to be rejuvenated by the accumulating evidence in neuroscience, thus consolidating its presence in the twenty-first century.
References Freud, S. (1900). Die Traumdeutung. GW Bd 2-3, 1-642.
Freud, S. (1966). New Introductory Lectures on Psychoanalysis 1933. In Strachey (Ed & Trans). The complete introductory lectures on psychoanalysis (pp. 471-646). New York: Norton. (Original work published in 1933).
Panksepp, J. (1985). Mood changes. In P. Vinken, C Bruyn, H. Klawans (Eds) Handbook of Clinical Neurology, Vol. 45 (pp.271-285). Amsterdam: Elsevier.
Panksepp, J. (1998) Affective Neuroscience. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
Panksepp, J. (1999) Emotions as Viewed by Psychoanalysis and Neuroscience: An Exercise in Consilience, Neuropsychoanalysis, 1,1, 15-37.
Rating: 4
Summary: Freud's 100 years of dreaming
Comment: In a letter to his confidant and friend, Wilhelm Fleiss, the then middle aged neurologist, Sigmund Freud, was in the midst of researching and writing his beloved 'dream book'. He wrote the following:
"Now I have finished and am thinking about the dream book again. I have been looking into the literature and feel like a Celtic imp."Oh, how I am glad that no one, no one knows..." No one suspects that the dream is not nonsense but wish fulfillment."
Indeed, this is the premise of Freud's entire thesis: dreams are no more than repressed unconscious wishes, battling for expression and consummation.
In his own words, Freud had 'dared' to rally against the 'objections of severe science, to take the part of the ancients and of superstition.' In 1900, the official year of the book's publication, its reception, despite its provoctive title, was tepid, and in the course of six years, only sold 351 copies. Freud never gave up hope, and 30 years later, in the preface of the third English edition, he wrote, "It contains, even according to my present day judgement, the most valuable of all the discoveries it has been my good fortune to make. Insight such as this falls to one's lot but once a lifetime.' In present day, one can question any Freud scholar about ~The Interpretation of Dreams~ and they will say the same thing: the book contains everything that 'is' psychoanalysis.
Anyone interested in the history of psychoanalysis and the mind of Sigmund Freud, reading this book is an absolute must. The reading runs along too, quite easily, as Freud was an excellent writer: his unique prose style even shines through some clumsy translations.
If you are interested in the book's process of development, I would suggest reading ~The Complete Letters of Sigmund Freud and Wilhelm Fliess~; another gold mine for understanding the growth of psychoanalysis.
Rating: 4
Summary: Barely Unbeatable Theory
Comment: Freud's "The Interpretation of Dreams" is a unique book. His treatise on human dreams is truly a product of a brilliant mind. But neither the process of creation itself nor not the results and findings it brought out are the true wonders of this book. The great achievement of Freud's theory is its immunity to criticism. In other words, it is virtually impossible to criticize the results and propositions inserted in this book. His main tenet - a dream is a fulfillment of a desire - cannot be attacked in any intelligible way. If one says for instance that an unpleasant dream or a bloody nightmare is clearly not the fulfillment of a desire, Freud would promptly mention masochism or self punishment. Or, if one finally brings forth a dream that is surely not a desire fulfilled, he might nonetheless say there is at least a desire accomplished, viz: the desire to destroy Freud's dream theory.
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Title: The Ego and the Id (The Standard Edition of the Complete Psychological Works of Sigmund Freud) by Sigmund Freud, James Strachey ISBN: 0393001423 Publisher: W. W. Norton & Company Pub. Date: 01 April, 1962 List Price(USD): $10.95 |
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Title: Civilization and Its Discontents by Sigmund Freud, James Strachey, Peter Gay ISBN: 0393301583 Publisher: W. W. Norton & Company Pub. Date: 01 July, 1989 List Price(USD): $10.95 |
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Title: Beyond the Pleasure Principle (Norton Library (Paperback)) by Sigmund Freud ISBN: 0393007693 Publisher: W. W. Norton & Company Pub. Date: 01 February, 1990 List Price(USD): $10.95 |
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Title: On Dreams by Freud ISBN: 039300144X Publisher: W. W. Norton & Company Pub. Date: 01 January, 1990 List Price(USD): $9.95 |
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Title: Sexuality and The Psychology of Love by Sigmund Freud ISBN: 0684838249 Publisher: Touchstone Pub. Date: 01 April, 1997 List Price(USD): $13.00 |
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