Freud officially inaugurated the new science and method of psychoanalysis in 1900 with his book on Dreamwork – a revolutionary new approach to the science of dream, fantasy, delusion, and the psychic, at once rigorous and open minded. The innovative approach that differentiated his work from traditional shamanism, spiritual psychology, and comparative psychiatry was indicated by his title Traumdeutung – or dream work – which stresses the creation of the dream and construction of its meaning by the individual subject, as opposed to the deceptive title – Interpretation of Dreams – given to it in English which suggests the traditional passive method of a reading of one’s dream by means of a master text. The explosive interest in the psychic, the spiritual, and the occult at this time kept Freud from publishing key sections on telepathy, thought transference, and the collective unconscious. In this seminar we will revitalize a reading of Freud’s radical text for the future of analysis, psychiatry, and a the future of man.

Texts:

Freud – Interpretation of Dreams (Dreamwork)

Devereux – Psychoanalysis and the Occult (Freud’s Papers on the Occult)