Beschreibung:

FREUD, Sigmund. Die Traumdeutung . Leipzig and Vienna: Franz Deuticke, 1900 [i.e., 1899]. 8 o (220 x 145 mm). (Small tear at bottom of title-page, two tiny punctures near Freud's inscription.) Contemporary brown boards, title and author's name gilt-lettered on spine, edges stained greenish-blue (ends of spine a bit chipped, worn along front outer joint, fore-corners slightly worn). Provenance : Wilhelm Fliess (presentation inscription to him from Freud); the Fliess family; Jeffery Masson, editor of The Complete Letters of Sigmund Freud to Wilhelm Fliess: 18887-1904 (1985); acquired from Masson by Haskell F. Norman in 1989. FIRST EDITION of The Interpretation of Dreams , PRESENTED BY FREUD TO WILHELM FLIESS, HIS CLOSEST FRIEND AND CONFIDANT during the preparation of this revolutionary work that Freud considered his greatest achievement; ARGUABLY THE MOST IMPORTANT COPY EXTANT (aside from Freud's own); INSCRIBED BY FREUD at the top of the title-page: "Seinem theuern Wilhelm/z. 24 Okt 1899." "Between 1895 and 1900, when he studied his dreams and pursued self-analysis, Freud confided in Fliess his experiences and his discoveries including the unconscious, the wishfufillment aspects of dreams, the concept of repression, the importance of infantile sexuality, and the Oedipus complex. Although Freud did not dedicate a book again after his disappointment with Breuer (see note to lot 1349), he acknowledged his admiration for Fliess by referring to him as the 'godfather' of Die Traumdeutung and planned to send him a copy as a birthday present in October 1899. That the gift was acknowledged was stated in Freud's letter to Fliess of 27 October 1899: 'Thanks for your kind words in response to my sending you the dream book. I have long since been reconciled to the thing and await its fate in resigned suspense...Incidently, it has not yet been issued; only our two copies have so far seen the light of day.' Freud's inscription in Fliess's copy may be translated, 'For my dear Wilhelm'" (Stanford, p.36). " Die Traumdeutung contains Freud's general theory of the psyche, which he had developed during the past decade. Using his refined understanding of the operation of the unconscious, Freud interpreted dreams on the basis od his wish-fufillment theory and discussed displacement (the appearance in conscious thought of symbols for repressed desires), regression, Oedipal impulses and the erotic nature of dreams...Freud gave an unprecedented precision and force to the idea of the essential similarities of normal and abnormal behavior, opening up the door to the irrational that had been closed to western psychology since the time of Locke [italics added]" (Norman). Although dated 1900 in the imprint, Die Traumdeutung was actually published on 4 November 1899 (Freud having previously received two author's copies) in an edition of 600 copies. The book sold so slowly that a second edition was not needed until 1909; eight German editions, many of them revised and enlarged, appeared during Freud's lifetime. The first edition in English was issued in 1913. "I. Bernard Cohen in his Revolution in Science [Cambridge, Mass., 1985], ranked Freud with Charles Darwin and Karl Marx as one of the three great revolutionary thinkers of the nineteenth century and identified Die Traumdeutung as the manifesto of Freud's revolutionary thought...Cohen also called the Freudian revolution 'The last revolution in science to be made public in a printed book [i.e., Die Traumdeutung ] rather than a paper in a scientific journal or series monograph.'" (Grolier Medicine ). Garrison-Morton 4980; Grinstein 277; Grolier/Horblitt 32; Grolier Medicine 87; Jones I, ch. 16; PMM 389; Standard edition 1900a; Stanford 23; Norman F33.