The Dream: Introduction to the Psychology of Dreams

This little book on dreams was originally a lecture which Herbert Silberer gave in 1918 in Vienna and then enlarged and published that same year. Silberer's intention was not to give a full-blown theory of dreams and their interpretation. In his preface to the German edition Silberer said that the main stress was on the demonstration of the elementary phenomena and on the starting point of the dream, where the forces governing the dream could easily be analyzed and taken apart for observation. Silberer managed, however, to put much more into his lecture. He gives here his important expansion and modification of Freud's views, anticipating by decades a development of dream theory which has only lately come into its own. Of one of them, the functional phenomena, Freud acknowledges it to be “one of the few supplements to the dream theory, the value of which is indisputable” (In: Introduction of Narcissism). With others Freud did not agree whole-heartedly, but he always accepted them as contributions to be seriously considered. All this justifies this first English translation and edition, after so many years.

We do not endeavor to give a philologically spotless rendition, but rather one which will clearly reflect the bright insights of this brilliant mind, and re-introduce Silberer's original contributions into the general discussion. We felt, therefore, justified in shortening the book. We have omitted the bulk of the examples which Silberer used in the original German edition and bring shorter versions of others. Those omitted are mostly well known in psychoanalytic literature, others depend too much on local Viennese color. The dreams of Erna and their interpretations, which were scattered throughout the book in the German edition, have been gathered together and put at the end of the book, thus giving them the special emphasis they deserve. We also omitted the general expounding of the Freudian psychoanalytical theory and some historical notes as