Dreams and History : The Interpretation of Dreams From Ancient Greece to Modern Psychoanalysis

What is a dream? Dreams are universal, but their perceived significance and conceptual framework change over time. This book provides new perspectives on the history of dreams and dream interpretation in western culture and thought. Dreams and History contains important new scholarship on Freud's Interpretation of Dreams (1900) and subsequent psychoanalytical approaches from distinguished historians, psychoanalysts, historians of science and anthropologists. This collection celebrates and evaluates Freud's landmark intellectual production, whilst placing it in historical context. A modern view of psychoanalysis, it also discusses the controversial idea of the role of the external world on the shaping of unconscious mental contents. In highly accessible language it proceeds through a series of richly illustrated case studies, providing new source materials and debates about the causes, meanings and consequences of dreams, past and present: from Victorian anthropological exploration of ancient Greek dream sources to peasant interpretation of dream-life in communist Russia; from concepts of the dream in sixteenth-century England to visual images in nineteenth-century symbolist painting in France. Dreams and History will fascinate those interested not only in psychoanalysis and history, but also arts, culture, humanities and literature. How Freud wrote and revised his Interpretation of dreams / by Ilse Grubrich-Simitis ; translated from the German by Arnold J. Pomerans Dreams and desires in ancient and early Christian thought / by Charles Stewart Interpreting dreams in medieval literature / by Hans-Jürgen Bachorski ; translated from the German by Pamela E. Selwyn Women's dreams in early modern England / by Patricia Crawford Samuel Taylor Coleridge and the pains of sleep / by Jennifer Ford The meaning of dream books / by Maureen Perkins Artists and the dream in nineteenth-century Paris : towards a prehistory of surrealism / by Stefanie Heraeus ; translated from the German by Deborah Laurie Cohen Policing dreams : history and the moral uses of the unconscious / by Rhodri Hayward The dreambook in Russia / by Faith Wigzell A nice type of the English scientist : Tansley and Freud / by Laura Cameron and John Forrester Psychoanalysis, dreams, history : an interview with Hanna Segal by Daniel Pick and Lyndal Roper A dream to dream / by Edna O'Shaughnessy The shark behind the sofa : recent developments in the theory of dreams / by Susan Budd Book Cover 1 Title 4 Contents 5 List of figures 8 List of contributors 9 Acknowledgements 12 Introduction 14 How Freud wrote and revised his Interpretation of Dreams: Conflicts around the subjective origins of the book of the century 36 Dreams and desires in ancient and early Christian thought 50 Interpreting dreams in medieval literature 70 Women's dreams in early modern England 104 Samuel Taylor Coleridge and 'The pains of sleep' 118 The meaning of dream books 138 Artists and the dream in nineteenth-century Paris: Towards a prehistory of surrealism 150 Policing dreams: History and the moral uses of the unconscious 172 The dreambook in Russia 191 'A nice type of the English scientist': Tansley and Freud 212 Psychoanalysis, dreams, history: An interview with Hanna Segal 250 A dream to dream 260 The shark behind the sofa: Recent developments in the theory of dreams 266 Index 284 Behavioral Sciences What is a dream? Dreams are universal, but their perceived significance and conceptual framework change over time. A modern view of psychoanalysis, this book provides perspectives on the history of dreams and dream interpretation in western culture and thought In the famous book that launched psychoanalysis in 1900, Freud set out a novel thesis about the scientific potential of dreams.