Are All Dreams Freudian?

Sigmund Freud demonstrated his creative genius with the discovery that a dream was a fulfillment of a wish—the vicarious fulfillment of a repressed sexual wish. When examining the first dream immortalized by a systematic analysis, Irma's Injection, one is impressed with the possibilities for additional, complementary interpretations to those given by Freud.

In a letter to his fiancee, Martha, Freud rejoiced that he had confounded his future biographers by destroying his personal papers. Although blocking that path for his biographers, knowledge of him is possible through his associations with his dreams. On July 23, 1895, at a time when his wife was at the end of her fourth month of pregnancy, he recalled the following dream:

A large hall—numerous guests, whom we were receiving—among them was Irma. I at once took her on one side, as though to answer her letter and to reproach her for not having accepted my “solution” yet. I said to her, “if you still get pains, it's really only your fault.” She replied, “If you only knew what pains I've got now in my throat and stomach and abdomen—it's choking me”—I was alarmed and looked at her. She looked pale and puffy. I thought to myself that after all I must be missing some organic trouble. I took her to the window and looked down her throat, and she showed signs of recalcitrance, like women with artifical dentures. I thought to myself that there was really no need for her to do that. She then opened her mouth properly and on the right I found a big white patch; at another place I saw extensive whitish grey scabs upon some remarkable curly structures which were evidently modelled on the turbinal bones of the nose. I at once called in Dr. M., and he repeated the examination and confirmed it … Dr. M. looked quite different from usual; he was very pale, he walked with a limp and his chin was clean-shaven … My friend Otto was now standing beside her as well, and my friend Leopold was percussing her through her bodice and saying, “Sh