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Although it would indeed be trite to discuss the historical significance of “Irma's Injection” dream, re-examination from a perspective which will reveal valuable biographical information would be pertinent. Recent biographical publications (1, 10, 18) of Freud make it possible to shed new light on the dream and allow for a new analysis and interpretation, supplementing the well-documented historical data. By means of a re-study of “Irma's Injection” dream we can now demonstrate the repressed constellations which led in part at least to Freud's intuitive feeling concerning need for a self-analysis. While the dream per se could hardly be regarded as the direct reason why, in 1897, he undertook a self-analysis, it will also be shown that the dream served in a teleological capacity for the benefit of the waking ego.
The dream took place in 1895, during a time that Jones (12) described as the “Fliess Period”, extending from 1887 to 1902. Freud's biographer (17) described the self-analysis as a highly courageous step: “The very thing that drove him onward he must have dimly divined (however much he tried to conceal it from himself), could only result in profoundly affecting his relations—perhaps even severing them—with the one being to whom he was so closely bound and who had steadied his mental equilibrium.”
To briefly state the events leading up to Freud's dream: Irma was cured of hysterical anxiety but not of all of her somatic symptoms. Freud had expected her to accept a solution which she rejected. He states, “If I am required to excuse my failure to cure her, I shall perhaps do best to refer to this condition (widowhood), which her admirers would be glad to terminate.” Otto, a younger colleague and intimate friend of Freud, had visited Irma and her family some time after treatment was discontinued. Freud asked him how she was, and he replied, “She is better, but not quite well.” Freud was annoyed by this reply, not being certain whether the words or tone of voice did