The standard edition of the complete psychological works of Sigmund Freud. Vol. 15, (1915-1916), Introductory lectures on psycho-analysis (parts 1 and 2)

## LECTURE I would be determined essentially by two considerations: first, that the lecturer had no conceivable motive for assuring you of the reality of something he himself did not think real, and secondly, that all the available history books describe the events in approximately similar terms. If you went on to examine the older sources, you would take the same factors into account the possible motives of the informants and the conformity of the witnesses to one another. The outcome of your examination would undoubtedly be reassuring in the case of Alexander, but would probably be different where figures such as Moses or Nimrod were concerned. Later opportunities will bring to light clearly enough what doubts you may feel about the credibility of your psycho-analytic informant. But you will have a right to ask another question. If there is no objective verification of psycho-analysis, and no possibility of demonstrating it, how can one learn psycho-analysis at all, and convince oneself of the truth of its assertions? It is true that psycho-analysis cannot easily be learnt and there are not many people who have learnt it properly. But of course there is a prac ticable method none the less. One learns psycho-analysis on oneself, by studying one's own personality. This is not quite the same thing as what is called self-observation, but it can, if necessary, be subsumed under it. There are a whole number of very common and generally familiar mental phenomena which, after a little instruction in technique, can be made the subject of analysis upon oneself. In that way one acquires the desired sense of conviction of the reality of the processes described by analysis and of the correctness of its views. Nevertheless, there are definite limits to progress by this method. One advances much further if one is analysed oneself by a practised analyst and experiences the effects of analysis on one's own self, making use of the opportunity of picking up the subtler technique of the process from one's analyst. This excellent method is, of course, applicable only to a single person and never to a whole lecture room of students together. Psycho-analysis is not to be blamed for a second difficulty in your relation to it; I must make you yourselves responsible for it, Ladies and Gentlemen, at least in so far as you have been students of medicine. Your earlier education has given a 1 [Cf. below, p. 178 ff. ] 1 [P.E.L., 59. The example was also used by Freud in one of his very last writings, the unfinished 'Some Elementary Lessons in Psycho Anal ys is' (1940b [1938]).] 8 [In the original: 'as Riedel and Beutel would be to a Viennese'. This last was a well-known outfitter's shop in Vienna. Siemens and Halske were, of course, the great electrical engineers.] CONTENTS INTRODUCTORY LECTURES ON PSYCHO-ANALYSIS (1916-17 [1915-17]) EDITOR'S INTRODUCTION PREFACE [1917] PREFACE TO THE HEBREW TRANSLATION [1930] PART I PARAPRAXES (1916 [1915]) LECTURE I INTRODUCTION LECTURE II PARAPRAXES LECTURE III PARAPRAXES (continued) LECTURE IV PARAPRAXES (concluded) PART II DREAMS (1916 [1915-16]) LECTURE V DIFFICULTIES AND FIRST APPROACHES LECTURE VI THE PREMISSES AND TECHNIQUE OF INTERPRETATION LECTURE VII THE MANIFEST CONTENT OF DREAMS AND THE LATENT DREAM-THOUGHTS LECTURE VIII CHILDREN'S DREAMS LECTURE IX THE CENSORSHIP OF DREAMS LECTURE X SYMBOLISM IN DREAMS LECTURE XI THE DREAM-WORK LECTURE XII SOME ANALYSES OF SAMPLE DREAMS LECTURE XIII THE ARCHAIC FEATURES AND INFANTILISM OF DREAMS LECTURE XIV WISH-FULFILMENT LECTURE XV UNCERTAINTIES AND CRITICISMS Two Case Histories: 'Little Hans' and the 'Rat Man' (1909) This collection of twenty-four volumes is the first full paperback publication of the standard edition of The Complete Psychological Works of Sigmund Freud in English Includes: Analysis of a Phobia in a Five-Year-Old Boy (1909) Notes Upon a Case of Obsessional Neurosis (1909) Introductory Lectures on Psycho-Analysis (Parts I and II) (1915 - 1916)This collection of twenty-four volumes is the first full paperback publication of the standard edition of The Complete Psychological Works of Sigmund Freud in EnglishIncludes:Parapraxes (1915)Dreams (1915-16)