Freud's Interpretation of Dreams
A Reappraisal

A flaw in Freud's Interpretation of Dreams prompts reevaluation of his view of the work as his seminal achievement.

Susan Sugarman (Author)

9781009244121, Cambridge University Press

Hardback, published 1 December 2022

200 pages
22.1 x 14.5 x 1.3 cm, 0.37 kg

'Susan Sugarman is puzzled by Freud's claim that dreams must provide a wish fulfillment in order to materialize. This takes her to a fascinating voyage in Freud's Interpretation of Dreams in the course of which she arrives with unexpected yet exacting truths. When a great Freud scholar like Sugarman probes into the most famous of Freud's books, you can be certain that you will be rewarded with a masterpiece in psychoanalytic scholarship and a new way of thinking about Freud's theory.' Aner Govrin, Bar-Ilan University, Israel

Freud always regarded The Interpretation of Dreams, and in particular its thesis that dreams fulfill wishes, as his landmark contribution and the scaffolding of his subsequent work. Susan Sugarman, after carefully examining the text and scrutinizing a range of Freud's other works, shows that the dreams book is not and cannot be that scaffolding. For, not only does his argument on dreams falter, but his reasoning elsewhere – in his case histories, his accounts of phenomena of ordinary waking life, and even his avowedly speculative writing – displays a strength and precision his account of dreams lacks. She concludes by exploring what is then left of the dreams theory and Freud's overall vision of the mind.

Introduction
Part I. The Interpretation of Dreams (1900): A note on Freud's text
1. The interpretation of dreams chapters 1-4: background, method, and the hypothesis of wish-fulfillment
2. The interpretation of dreams chapters 5-6: if dreams fulfill wishes with what material, and how might they form?
3. The interpretation of dreams chapter 7: the psychology of dream processes
4. The interpretation of dreams: a preliminary appraisal
Part II. Freud's Other Works
5. The analysis of psychoneuroses: Elisabeth von R and the 'Wolf Man'
6. Phenomena of ordinary waking life
7. Speculative works
8. Freud on dreams.

Subject Areas: Cognition & cognitive psychology [JMR], Psychology: emotions [JMQ], Psychological theory & schools of thought [JMA], Psychology [JM], Sociology & anthropology [JH]