- 01Scientific study of dream interpretation
- 01Dream as continuation of waking life
- 02Dream as isolated from waking consciousness
- 01Memory in the dream and hypermnesic recollection
- 02Dreams draw on trivial recent impressions
- 03Difficulty proving dependence on waking life
- 01Memory traces and dream reproduction
- 02Dream stimuli and sources
- 01External sensory stimuli as dream sources
- 01Objective sensory stimuli and dream illusions
- 02Subjective sensory stimuli and hypnogogic hallucinations
- 01Organic sensations as dream sources
- 02Schopenhauer, Scherner, and Krauss on bodily excitation
- 03Typical dreams and their bodily triggers
- 04Experimental effects of bodily sensation on dream content
- 01Psychic sources and association dreams
- 01Why dreams are forgotten after awakening
- 01Dream memory and reconstruction
- 02Psychological peculiarities of dreams
- 01Psychic strangeness and dream imagery
- 01Credulity toward dream hallucinations
- 01Dream incoherence and impaired higher mental activity
- 02Residual psychic functions in dreaming
- 01Contrasting estimates of dream life
- 02Dream as a higher psychic state
- 01Moral character and responsibility in dreams
- 02Dreams as revelations of hidden impulses
- 03Undesirable presentations in immoral dreams
- 04Contrasting views on moral impulses in dreams
- 05Suppressed desires and immoral dream action
- 01Maury and Stricker on dream consciousness
- 02Dream theories and functions of the dream
- 03Partial waking and physical-process theories
- 01Robert's dream as elimination of unfinished thoughts
- 02Delage's dream material and psychic energy
- 01Dream as refreshment and cure
- 02Scherner’s symbolising dream phantasy
- 03Physical stimuli and dream symbolism
- 01Clinical and etiological relations between dreams and psychoses
- 02Analogies between dream life and insanity
- 01Dream and insanity analogies
- 02Later literature and psychoanalytic confirmations
The Interpretation of Dreams
by Sigmund Freud · 1899 · 8 chapters · 24/7 tutor
Foundational psychoanalytic theory of dreams and mind.
This course was produced by Cavua from a public-domain text.
Skills this course leaves you with.
- Explain Freud’s foundational psychoanalytic theory of dreams
- Differentiate between manifest and latent dream content
- Analyze wish-fulfilment, censorship, and distortion in dream formation
- Identify common dream sources including sensory, somatic, and childhood influences
- Apply the method of dream interpretation to a sample dream
- Discuss the relation between dreams, waking life, and mental illness
The full table of contents.
Every chapter, every lesson, every topic — laid out before you enroll. Click any chapter to expand it.
- Chapters
- 8
- Lessons
- 163
- Topics
- 380
- 01Popular methods of dream interpretation
- 02Psychoanalytic method and patient preparation
- 03Self-observation, critique, and dream fragments
- 04Why use self-analysis
- 05Irma case preliminary statement
- 01Dream narrative of July 23–24, 1895
- 02Initial analysis of the dream elements
- 03Substitutions, associations, and medical memories
- 01Dream elements and their associations
- 02Sexual chemistry and trimethylamin
- 01Wish-fulfilment and the dream's motive
- 02Defensive arguments and displaced blame
- 03Mixed thought material and conscientious concern
- 04Limits of interpretation and final conclusion
- 01Dream as wish fulfilment
- 02Undisguised wish dreams
- 01Convenience dreams and bodily needs
- 02Dreams of laziness and delayed waking
- 03Dream stimulus during sleep
- 01Simple wish-fulfilment dreams in children
- 01Disappointment at the Dachstein excursion
- 02Chocolate bars and adoption wish
- 03Postponed visit to the Hameau
- 01Children’s wish-fulfilling dreams
- 02Colloquial usage and proverbs about dreams
- 01Manifest and latent dream content
- 01Distortion of dreams and the Irma example
- 02Freud’s promotion and the colleague’s complaint
- 01Dream structure of alternating thoughts and images
- 02R. as uncle Joseph and the simpleton comparison
- 03N. as the criminal colleague and professorship wish
- 04Affection for R. and the remaining dream element
- 01Dream disfigurement as dissimulation
- 02Censorship and the two psychic instances
- 01The dream of refusing supper
- 02Identification with the jealous friend
- 01Hysterical imitation and identification
- 02Dreams that reverse a wish
- 03Dreams of impatience and concealed desire
- 01Dreams of infanticide and interrupted coitus
- 02Resistance and the wish to prove Freud wrong
- 03Masochistic counter wish-dreams
- 01Painful dreams as disguised wish-fulfilments
- 02Anxiety dreams and neurotic fear
- 01Recent and indifferent impressions as dream sources
- 01Recent impressions and dream sources
- 02The monograph dream analysis
- 03Dream disfigurement and latent content
- 04Associations linking the monograph to the conversation
- 01Psychic displacement in dream formation
- 02Dream disfigurement and trivial day residues
- 01Sources of dreams and displacement
- 02Dream interpretation through harmless examples
- 01Childhood impressions in manifest dream content
- 02Childhood wishes and ambitions in dream thoughts
- 03Dream associations with Ravenna, Karlsbad, Paris, and Rome
- 04Childhood impressions and the Prague dream
- 05Youthful longing for Rome and classical recollection
- 01Childhood roots of Hannibal and Rome fantasies
- 01Childhood scenes reproduced in dreams
- 02Female patient’s treatment and punishment dream
- 03Male patient’s street scene and childhood sexual curiosity
- 01Childhood memories behind the dream imagery
- 01Recent happenings and childhood memories in dream analysis
- 01Hunger, carpe diem, and sexual censorship
- 02The West Station and Ischl vacation dream
- 03Revolutionary and student-life associations behind the dream
- 04Childhood scenes of urinating and ambition
- 05Recent and infantile material in dream memory
- 01Somatic sources and their limits
- 02Scherner and Volkelt on dream activity
- 01Symbolic representation of bodily organs in dreams
- 01Scherner and Volkelt on dream symbolism
- 02Somatic stimuli within the theory of dreams
- 01Dream under painful bodily stimulation
- 01Dreams as guardians of sleep
- 02Wish to sleep and outer stimuli
- 01Somatic sources in anxiety dreams
- 02Dream of inhibited action on the stairs
- 01Embarrassment dream of nakedness
- 02Childhood origins of exhibition dreams
- 03Poetic parallels in fairy tales and literature
- 01Typical dreams of a relative’s death
- 02Childhood hostility toward brothers and sisters
- 01Hostility toward siblings in childhood
- 02Dreams of siblings flying away
- 03Childhood idea of death
- 01Childhood death wishes and parental rivalry
- 02Dream evidence from neurotic patients
- 01Oedipus legend and the psychoanalytic family complex
- 02Why Oedipus Tyrannus still moves audiences
- 01Typical dream of a relative’s death
- 01Dreams that seem to contradict wish-fulfilment
- 02Examples of disguised ego wishes
- 03Typical dreams and their classes
- 01Anxiety dreams of failing examinations
- 02Examination dreams as consolation
- 03Personal and patient examples
- 01Dreams of missing a train and death symbolism
- 02Dreams of dental irritation and masturbation cravings
- 01Masturbation symbolism in dental irritation dreams
- 02Flying, falling, and hovering dreams from childhood play
- 01Sexual material in adult dreams
- 01Covert sexual wishes in innocent dreams
- 01Parturition dreams and reversed water imagery
- 01Dream symbolism and unconscious thinking
- 02Sexual symbols in dreams
- 03Additional symbols and Stekel's interpretations
- 01Hat as a symbol of the man
- 02The little one as the genital
- 01Representation of the genital by structures, stairways, and shafts
- 01Stairway dream and sexual symbolism
- 01Piano teacher reproach and stairway associations
- 02Chemist’s Grignard reaction dream and analysis
- 01Dream content as translation of dream thoughts
- 02Condensation Work
- 03Multiple determination of dream elements
- 04Claustrophobia dream example
- 01Theatre visit, road-house, and climbing difficulty
- 02Apple tree, bosom, and childhood nurse
- 03Brother upstairs and social inversion
- 01Condensation through inversion and allusion
- 02June bugs dream and analysis
- 01Irma’s injection as a composite dream image
- 02Composite persons and family portraits
- 03Manifold determination of dream elements
- 01Condensation in dream word formations
- 02Dream names and composite words
- 03Dream speech as remembered speech
- 01The displacement of dream content
- 01Manifold determination and over-determination
- 02Dream displacement and the censor
- 01Essential dream thoughts and collaterals
- 01Dreams and logical relations
- 01Logical relations in dream representation
- 02Representing causal relation in dreams
- 03Dreams and the alternative 'either—or'
- 01Dream representation of antithesis and contradiction
- 02Similarity, correspondence, and condensation in dreams
- 01Composition of persons in dreams
- 02Identification, condensation, and censorship
- 01Functions of identification in dreams
- 02Dreams as egotistic and identification of persons
- 03Identification of localities by common features
- 04Composition and phantastic dream-formation
- 01Methods of dream composition
- 02Examples of composite dream images
- 01Inversion as a dream method
- 01Variations in dream vividness
- 01Intensity of dream elements and condensation
- 02Distinctness of whole dreams versus individual elements
- 01Dream obscurity as disguised material
- 02Harmless remarks that conceal dream content
- 03Multiple dreams in one night as a single whole
- 04Pharaoh’s two dreams as one issue
- 01Impeded movement as conflict of will
- 02Dream within the dream as deflection
- 01Verbal displacement and figurative expression in dream formation
- 02Regard for presentability and visual dramatization
- 03Garden boughs, blossoms, and transplanting
- 04Change of residence and lifting clothing
- 05Ready-made symbols in dream formation
- 01Literal speech and concrete wordplay in dreams
- 02Witty dream representations and rebus-like inversions
- 01Numbers and calculations in dreams
- 01Dream numerals and word presentations
- 02Dream speeches as fragmented speech material
- 03The Fleischl dream and the phrase 'Non vixit'
- 04Brutus, Julius Caesar, and childhood associations
- 01Apparent absurdity in dreams of the dead father
- 02Verbal expressions and the wish to appear pure and great
- 01Absurdity as dream-work in the carriage and railway example
- 02Riddles on ancestry and offspring
- 03Absurdity as contradiction and ridicule
- 01Dead father as satirical stand-in
- 02Dream thoughts and the colleague's reproach
- 03Absurdity from juxtaposed dream sentences
- 01Figures, dates, and generational advantage
- 02Goethe’s attack on Mr. M.
- 01The main dream and its absurd word-formation
- 01Critical judgments as dream material
- 02Examples of waking judgments in dreams
- 01Dream satisfaction and latent content
- 02Father’s greatness and the children motif
- 03Judgments retained in the dream
- 01Critical judgments in dream interpretation
- 02Secondary elaboration and dream coherence
- 03Critical activity in cited dreams
- 01Inference in dream content
- 02Dream argumentation and refutation
- 01Astonishment and wish-fulfilment in dream inferences
- 02Dream of bodily preparation and the strange book
- 01Dream interpretation of the Etruscan grave and Rider Haggard allusions
- 02Marburg railway dream and the attempt at explanation
- 03Judgment in dreams and the transition to emotions
- 01Affects and presentation content in dreams
- 02Lion dream and wish concealment
- 03Castle-by-the-sea dream and displaced fright
- 04Transformation of affects in dream content
- 05Suppression of emotion and dream censorship
- 06Disgust dream and self-assertion
- 07Inversion and suppression of dream affects
- 08Dream censor and counter-emotions
- 01Rosegger’s recurring tailor-shop dream
- 01Punitive dreams of the upstart
- 01Suspension, subtraction, and inversion in dream affects
- 01Overdetermined emotions in dreams
- 02The 'Non vixit' dream
- + 3 more topics inside the course.
- + 3 more topics inside the course.
- + 3 more topics inside the course.
- + 1 more topic inside the course.
- + 4 more topics inside the course.
- + 2 more topics inside the course.
- + 2 more topics inside the course.
- + 2 more topics inside the course.
- + 5 more topics inside the course.
- + 3 more topics inside the course.
- + 3 more topics inside the course.
- + 1 more topic inside the course.
- + 3 more topics inside the course.
- + 4 more topics inside the course.
- + 4 more topics inside the course.
- + 1 more topic inside the course.
- + 3 more topics inside the course.
- + 1 more topic inside the course.
- + 3 more topics inside the course.
- + 3 more topics inside the course.
- + 1 more topic inside the course.
- + 2 more topics inside the course.
- + 4 more topics inside the course.
- + 3 more topics inside the course.
- + 1 more topic inside the course.
- + 2 more topics inside the course.
- + 1 more topic inside the course.
- + 1 more topic inside the course.
- + 2 more topics inside the course.
- + 4 more topics inside the course.
- + 6 more topics inside the course.
- + 4 more topics inside the course.
- + 3 more topics inside the course.
- + 1 more topic inside the course.
- + 1 more topic inside the course.
- + 1 more topic inside the course.
- + 5 more topics inside the course.
- + 1 more topic inside the course.
- + 3 more topics inside the course.
- + 1 more topic inside the course.
- + 1 more topic inside the course.
- + 1 more topic inside the course.
- + 1 more topic inside the course.
- + 1 more topic inside the course.
- + 6 more topics inside the course.
- + 6 more topics inside the course.
- + 1 more topic inside the course.
- + 2 more topics inside the course.
- + 1 more topic inside the course.
- + 3 more topics inside the course.
- + 1 more topic inside the course.
- + 4 more topics inside the course.
- + 1 more topic inside the course.
01How many chapters are in the Interpretation of Dreams course?
The Interpretation of Dreams course has 8 chapters, each with its own lessons and topics.
02How many lessons are in the Interpretation of Dreams course?
There are 163 lessons across the course, and you can ask your 24/7 tutor about any of them.
03Can I see what the Interpretation of Dreams course covers before I start?
Yes. The full curriculum is listed on this page, beginning with "The Scientific Literature on the Problems of the Dream".
04Do I get a certificate for the Interpretation of Dreams course?
Yes. Finishing the course earns a personal Cavua certificate of completion.
More in Philosophy.

Cavua Seed Library
The Theory of Moral Sentiments
PhilosophyIntermediate
This course was produced by Cavua from a public-domain text.
With membership
Or preview chapter 1 free
Updated Oct 2026

Cavua Seed Library
Leviathan
PhilosophyIntermediate
This course was produced by Cavua from a public-domain text.
With membership
Or preview chapter 1 free
Updated Oct 2026

Cavua Seed Library
Second Treatise of Government
PhilosophyBeginner
This course was produced by Cavua from a public-domain text.
With membership
Or preview chapter 1 free
Updated Oct 2026

Cavua Seed Library
Republic
PhilosophyIntermediate
This course was produced by Cavua from a public-domain text.
With membership
Or preview chapter 1 free
Updated Oct 2026

Cavua Seed Library
Critique of Pure Reason
PhilosophyAdvanced
This course was produced by Cavua from a public-domain text.
With membership
Or preview chapter 1 free
Updated Oct 2026

Cavua Seed Library
Confessions
PhilosophyAll levels
This course was produced by Cavua from a public-domain text.
With membership
Or preview chapter 1 free
Updated Oct 2026
Ready to start this course?
Create your account to enroll, talk to your 24/7 tutor, and track your progress — across every device.
