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Psychoanalysis is the field of psychology that is attributed to Sigmund Freud for its development. The basic concepts of psychoanalysis are centered around interpretation and observation, with the interpretation of dreams being one core principle of the methodology.2 In his work “The interpretation of dreams”, Freud relates the foundation of his principles and beliefs in the interpretation of dreams as they are a core factor in understanding the psychological behaviors and reactions of a patient.

Written in the year 1900, the work is an example of the direction of psychology as it moved forward as a scientific pursuit. The concept of analyzing a patient to find causality was an important theory in moving the scientific research of psychology forward. Freud uses himself as an example in order to make his points about the importance of dreams. He uses the example of eating salty foods late at night in order to promote a thirst, which he says is always preceded by a dream of this type of content.

3 Freud uses himself liberally throughout the work in order to establish this foundation. In order to define his concept of wish fulfillment and the function that dreams have in providing this revelation about the often hidden desires of a man or a woman, he suggests that fulfillment does not always suggest just something that is wanted, but that it might reflect fear, a reflex or even a reproduced memory.4 The intention of the work that Freud does in writing “The interpretation of dreams” is to create a field of psychological study that is centered on dreaming.

He establishes dreams as valid objects of study rather than a presumption of either supernatural flight of the mind or of frivolous thoughts that might have preoccupied traditional thought before this time.5 The intention of Freud to relate his field of study to a defined psychology means of research is relevant to the