Book Review : The Interpretation of Dreams- SIGMUND FREUD
Have you ever had the following dream experience?
' Its a warm summer evening, You and your Sweetheart are sitting on
some faraway beach in Hawai. There is natural beauty everywhere, the
Sun is setting slowly, spreading its soft golden light over that
pretty face You adore so much. The birds are flying overhead, pushing
towards their nests in the trees behind you where you also own a
Sea-facing cottage. Not a single human soul is seen. The whole Island,
with its intact beauty belongs to You,you and only you.
Your Sweetheart touches your hand. Ah! That mesmerising touch !
Something melts inside you, you feel electric current passing through
your whole body. You look at Her ( or Him, as the case maybe !) The
blue eyes sparkle just like the sea in front of you, and you feel the
eternal desire to drown in them. Deep, deep, deeper....... She then
comes closer, Her face, only an inch from your cheeks. She whispers
something, the warmth of her voice spreads on your ears. She starts in
a silken voice like molten butter :"Honey, I Love........." and
pauses, as if teasing your nerves.
You gasp :"You Love- what honey?"
She puts one of her slender fingers on your lips : " Shhh....... I LOVE....
Youuuuuuuu................." she screams in your ear, the voice,
increasing in frequency, rising in pitch, starts to hurt your
eardrums. The "you...." continues like a whistle, but becomes more and
more shrill, Losing all of its bass and becoming more and more like
the tinkling of bells. The sound then starts beating roughly at
intervals, as if Jingling a tune- " Tin tiding, tiding tiding, tin tin
tiding, tiding tin, tin tin tin tiding" rising in a shrill, irritating
crescendo.
You try to understand what the hell has happened to that loving face
which has started to get converted to a grotesque shape resembling a
giant bell, while the sea, and the sunset and the beautiful birds and
the cottage disappear somewhere. Fading slowly, leaving behind shadows
of an old rugged window-curtain, and a patchy dirty wall, a rickety
desk littered with books, and yourself- wrapped in a smelly blanket
cuddling a pillow in your arms. All alone, while the Alarm-clock on
the table demands to be hit on the head solely responsible for all
this screaming.
.
.
.
.
If this has ever happened to you, or something similar, then the great
Psychologist Dr. SIGMUND FREUD comes to your help. This book, an
academically epic tome, first published in 1900 in German language has
been a superhit in the circles concerned with Psychology around the
world. Though written in a heavy, not-easy-to-digest language, it has
much to offer in terms of revelation of how dreams are formed and what
do they signify.
.
I happened to come across this title in our college's Reader's
Paradise. I admit it,that it was one hell of a bore in the start, but
I carried on in a hope that it will live upto its reputation of a
century. And behold ! Interesting did it become! As my train got on
track, this book became Un-put-down-able. I used to read it in the bed
each night, and it cost me scores of hours of lost sleep in my
precious Pre-exam days.
.
But it was a time well spent. The book brought to my attention how the
dreams were presented as a final producted after processing the dream
thought by condensation, displacement, regression, censorship,
symbolization and what not! It showed how our dreams are able to bring
back long forgotten memories from our childhood, infancy or even
intra-uterine fetal life. And how the minute details unnoticed in our
day-to-day life are projected once again in our thoughts with new
meaning and in a new light. The decoding of various common scenes and
objects inside the dreams. And the human mind's marvelous ability to
evade its own censorship were surprising. So surprising was the fact
that the brain, even when asleep is hyper-active to such an extent
that it can produce feats deemed impossible in awaken state.
.
.
.
.
.
Though the writer lost his grip in the last few chapters, where it
became more descriptive than illustrative, he still hadn't lost the
essence of the topic. Each statement, each theory was put forward with
strong scientific foundation of logic, and supported by well examined
and well proven backing of the truth. It was my own pity that I could
not bring myself to enjoy the last few pages due to broken link in the
stream of reading as I was kept away in post-exam celebration and the
internship postings.
.
.
.
.
In the end, I would say If you ever get a chance to pass by a
book-shelf having "SIGMUND FREUD- The Interpretation of Dreams", take
it as your life's opportunity and start reading it at the earliest of
your ability.
' Its a warm summer evening, You and your Sweetheart are sitting on
some faraway beach in Hawai. There is natural beauty everywhere, the
Sun is setting slowly, spreading its soft golden light over that
pretty face You adore so much. The birds are flying overhead, pushing
towards their nests in the trees behind you where you also own a
Sea-facing cottage. Not a single human soul is seen. The whole Island,
with its intact beauty belongs to You,you and only you.
Your Sweetheart touches your hand. Ah! That mesmerising touch !
Something melts inside you, you feel electric current passing through
your whole body. You look at Her ( or Him, as the case maybe !) The
blue eyes sparkle just like the sea in front of you, and you feel the
eternal desire to drown in them. Deep, deep, deeper....... She then
comes closer, Her face, only an inch from your cheeks. She whispers
something, the warmth of her voice spreads on your ears. She starts in
a silken voice like molten butter :"Honey, I Love........." and
pauses, as if teasing your nerves.
You gasp :"You Love- what honey?"
She puts one of her slender fingers on your lips : " Shhh....... I LOVE....
Youuuuuuuu................." she screams in your ear, the voice,
increasing in frequency, rising in pitch, starts to hurt your
eardrums. The "you...." continues like a whistle, but becomes more and
more shrill, Losing all of its bass and becoming more and more like
the tinkling of bells. The sound then starts beating roughly at
intervals, as if Jingling a tune- " Tin tiding, tiding tiding, tin tin
tiding, tiding tin, tin tin tin tiding" rising in a shrill, irritating
crescendo.
You try to understand what the hell has happened to that loving face
which has started to get converted to a grotesque shape resembling a
giant bell, while the sea, and the sunset and the beautiful birds and
the cottage disappear somewhere. Fading slowly, leaving behind shadows
of an old rugged window-curtain, and a patchy dirty wall, a rickety
desk littered with books, and yourself- wrapped in a smelly blanket
cuddling a pillow in your arms. All alone, while the Alarm-clock on
the table demands to be hit on the head solely responsible for all
this screaming.
.
.
.
.
If this has ever happened to you, or something similar, then the great
Psychologist Dr. SIGMUND FREUD comes to your help. This book, an
academically epic tome, first published in 1900 in German language has
been a superhit in the circles concerned with Psychology around the
world. Though written in a heavy, not-easy-to-digest language, it has
much to offer in terms of revelation of how dreams are formed and what
do they signify.
.
I happened to come across this title in our college's Reader's
Paradise. I admit it,that it was one hell of a bore in the start, but
I carried on in a hope that it will live upto its reputation of a
century. And behold ! Interesting did it become! As my train got on
track, this book became Un-put-down-able. I used to read it in the bed
each night, and it cost me scores of hours of lost sleep in my
precious Pre-exam days.
.
But it was a time well spent. The book brought to my attention how the
dreams were presented as a final producted after processing the dream
thought by condensation, displacement, regression, censorship,
symbolization and what not! It showed how our dreams are able to bring
back long forgotten memories from our childhood, infancy or even
intra-uterine fetal life. And how the minute details unnoticed in our
day-to-day life are projected once again in our thoughts with new
meaning and in a new light. The decoding of various common scenes and
objects inside the dreams. And the human mind's marvelous ability to
evade its own censorship were surprising. So surprising was the fact
that the brain, even when asleep is hyper-active to such an extent
that it can produce feats deemed impossible in awaken state.
.
.
.
.
.
Though the writer lost his grip in the last few chapters, where it
became more descriptive than illustrative, he still hadn't lost the
essence of the topic. Each statement, each theory was put forward with
strong scientific foundation of logic, and supported by well examined
and well proven backing of the truth. It was my own pity that I could
not bring myself to enjoy the last few pages due to broken link in the
stream of reading as I was kept away in post-exam celebration and the
internship postings.
.
.
.
.
In the end, I would say If you ever get a chance to pass by a
book-shelf having "SIGMUND FREUD- The Interpretation of Dreams", take
it as your life's opportunity and start reading it at the earliest of
your ability.
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