ABSTRACT

In 1900 Sigmund Freud published his seminal work, The Interpretation of Dreams. Freud asserted that not every dream can be interpreted, that dream-passages often have to be left obscure, and that there are tangles of dream-thoughts which cannot be unravelled. The common factor between the actual neuroses and addiction is the element of toxicity. All dreams are wish-fulfilments, but the ultimate causes of the wishes remain unknown to the human psyche. The Freud theory states that the infantile sexual drive is put together from various factors and exists in components and it is only in adulthood that the impulses combine into a unit with a single aim. Freud's hope for the existence of a perfect pleasure principle seems to have been reduced to the case of the relationship between the alcoholic and his alcohol. Mourning and Melancholia is an essential article for understanding mental pain from a Freudian point of view.