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The Classic Status and Worldwide Acclaim of Freud's The Inter-pretation of Dreams (TIOD; 1900) is acknowledged by Dr. Sand in her work, “The Interpretation of Dreams: Freud and the Western Dream Tradition,” and by Drs. Greenberg and Pearlman in their article, “The Interpretation of Dreams: A Classic Revisited.” The question arises as to why TIOD is considered a classic. For Greenberg and Pearlman, “The classic status of Freud's book … is based on its new approach to a universal experience” (i.e., dreaming). Sand is of the opinion that “The great acclaim accorded TIOD is evidenced in the erroneous belief … that the very idea of dream meaning had been unsuspected before Freud arrived on the scene.”
What does it mean to say that a work is classic? If we turn to a dictionary (Costello, 1982) for an answer, we find that classic is defined as “of the highest rank or class, an outstanding representative of its kind; model, well known and typical. Having lasting significance or recognized worth, of lasting historical or literary significance.” To be a classic, the “book, picture, music or theory must be of the best, representative of its type, well known and lasting.”
Freud (1900) was of the opinion that TIOD was a work of inestimable importance. He wrote to Fliess on June 12, 1900, after a visit to Belle Vue, the house where he had had the dream called “Irma's injection,” the dream specimen of psychoanalysis: “Do you suppose … that some day a marble tablet will be placed on the house, inscribed with the words? ‘In This House on July 24, 1895 the Secret of Dreams was Revealed to Dr. Sigm. Freud.' At the moment there seems to be little prospect of it” (p. 121). Freud was concerned that his “dream-child”