Freud publishes 'The Interpretation of Dreams'

Date

1900 (completed 1899)

Category

Culture, arts & philosophy

Region

Vienna, Austria-Hungary (Central Europe)

Era

Modern

Significance

Sigmund Freud's 'The Interpretation of Dreams' (Die Traumdeutung) was issued by the publisher Franz Deuticke with the date 1900, though it appeared in late 1899 and was post-dated to mark the new century.

In it Freud advanced his theory that dreams are disguised fulfilments of repressed wishes and serve as 'the royal road to the unconscious', laying out concepts including the unconscious mind, dream-work, condensation and displacement, and the seeds of what he later termed the Oedipus complex. Though it sold slowly at first, the book became a foundational text of psychoanalysis, the new discipline Freud pioneered for exploring the mind through free association and the analysis of dreams, slips, and neuroses. Psychoanalysis transformed psychology, psychiatry, and conceptions of human nature, and its influence radiated through literature, art, and 20th-century culture. Freud's emphasis on hidden, irrational drives beneath rational consciousness profoundly reshaped how the modern world understood the self.

Empires active in 1900 (completed 1899)

• French Colonial Empire (Second)
  1830 CE – 1962 CE
• German Empire
  1871 CE – 1918 CE
• Empire of Japan
  1868 CE – 1947 CE
• Russian Empire
  1721 CE – 1917 CE
• British Empire
  1583 CE – 1997 CE
• Qing Dynasty
  1636 CE – 1912 CE

Related culture, arts & philosophy events

• Rabindranath Tagore wins the Nobel Prize in Literature
  1913
• Nietzsche's 'Thus Spoke Zarathustra'
  1883–1885
• Walter Gropius Founds the Bauhaus in Weimar
  April 1919
• First Impressionist Exhibition opens in Paris
  15 April 1874
• The Jazz Singer Inaugurates the Sound Film Era
  6 October 1927
• First FIFA World Cup Held in Uruguay
  13–30 July 1930

Further reading

The Story of Art

The wider story

The Story of Art

E. H. Gombrich

The best-selling art history ever written, from cave paintings to the modern age.

Get it on Amazon →

As an Amazon Associate, Human Saga earns from qualifying purchases.