First published in 1899, ‘The Interpretation of Dreams’ written by Sigmund Freud, presents the theory of the unconscious with respect to dream interpretation and discusses what would later become the theory of the Oedipus complex. Sigmund Freud is an Austrian neurologist and the founding father of psychoanalysis, a method for treating mental illness and also a theory that explains human behavior.
Freud believed that events in our childhood hold a great impact on our adult lives, shaping our personality. In creating psychoanalysis, Freud designed therapeutic techniques such as the use of free association and discovered transference, establishing its central role in the analytic process.
Freud saw that man is at war with himself and often unable to tolerate too much reality. He propounded the theory that dreams are the contraband representations of the beast within man, smuggled into awareness during sleep. In Freudian interpretation, the analysis of dreams is the key to unlocking the secrets of the unconscious mind.
