On Dreams

Finally it was time to read Freud for myself. First I'd been intrigued for awhile after talking with my friend Art who teaches a class in Literature and Psychoanalysis. Then the Great Books discussion group that meets at Skokie Public Library was reading On Dreams for this month's selection. What better excuse to get the book and dive in.

So much of my knowledge of great ideas comes from watered down textbooks and pop culture. It's time to go to the source.

When the source is just 76 pages of a book written for the public, not other psychoanalysists this isn't so hard. Freud explains his theories and insights clearly with a examples from his own dream life and his patients'. I learned about "condensation" i.e. the fact that dream images usally represent multiple concepts and I found it interesting that the more incoherent the dream is the better it is for analysis. Those that seem to make sense have been gussied up to deflect anaysis.

Unfortunately, I wasn't able to get to the Great Books meeting as the car I thought I could use was unavailable. Still I'm glad I read this and would read more. I do think it would make for great discussion. I hope I can make next month's meeting.