FREUD, Sigmund (1856-1939). Die Traumdeutung. Leipzig and Vienna: Franz Deuticke, 1900 [i.e., 1899].

FREUD, Sigmund (1856-1939). Die Traumdeutung. Leipzig and Vienna: Franz Deuticke, 1900 [i.e., 1899].

8^o (216 x 143 mm). Contemporary blue half cloth and marbled boards, title and author's name gilt-lettered on spine (some light rubbing to sides); folding case.

FIRST EDITION. Die Traumdeutung (The Interpretation of Dreams) "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 of 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" (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; Norman F33; PMM 389; Stanford 23.