Dover Thrift Editions: Psychology

Until the beginning of the twentieth century, most people considered dreams unworthy of serious consideration. Sigmund Freud, however, had noticed that they formed an active part in the analysis of his patients, and he gradually came to believe that they represent struggles by the unconscious to resolve conflicts. In this classic of psychology, Freud explains the dual nature of dreams ― their apparent content and their true, if hidden, meaning ― as well as the concept of wish fulfillment and a universal language for interpreting dreams. This groundbreaking work also contains Freud's introduction of the notion that sexuality plays an important role in childhood, a theory that deeply shocked his contemporaries. Psychological journals rejected the book, and scientific publications ignored it, but the author recognized it as containing his greatest insights. The Interpretation of Dreams eventually helped set the stage for psychoanalytic theory, and it remains Freud's most original work.

In “The Future of an Illusion”, Freud's psychoanalysis of religion is the culmination of a lifelong thought pattern. Freud examines human nature and the role of religion in society, proclaiming that human instincts are destructive to civilization and must be restrained to maintain an orderly society. Religion, viewed as a set of false beliefs based on human desires, manifests as a God-like father figure to a helpless child, whose survival is dependent upon delusional beliefs for independence, security, and incentives for good behavior. Declaring religion and science as mortal enemies, Freud concludes that civilization can only be redeemed through new constructions of existence and ideas motivated by science.