Reading Questions for Freud, The Interpretation of Dreams
Chapter 1 (A-D) and Chapter 2

Chapter 1

1. What does Freud declare that his study of dreams will prove?

2. What distinction does Freud draw between sleep and dream?

3. According to Freud, how does Hildebrandt characterize the relationship between dream and waking life?

4. What is a hypermnesic dream?

5. What is one of the main sources from which dreams derive material, that is commonly lost to waking consciousness?

6. According to the research available to Freud in his day, do dreams typically revive important memories? What does the role of memory in dream demonstrate about human memory itself?

7. What are the four kinds of dream sources? What does Freud make of each of these? Does he seem to privilege one over an other?

8. What are some of the reasons for which we tend to forget our dreams?

Chapter 2

9. In what way does Freud note that the theory of dream he is about to present is radical ?

10. What are the two popular methods of dream interpretation which Freud discredits? Why are they unscientific in his view?

11. How did Freud come to study dreams?

12. What are some of the elements of the Freudian method of dream interpretation? What is the ideal state of the subject reporting the dream? What role does the analyst play?

13. How does Freud interpret his dream of Irma? Pay attention to his method of analysis.

14. What general rule about dreams does Freud derive from his sample dream analysis?