ABSTRACT
One night, some time in the 1890s, a Viennese lady had a dream about smoked salmon, Sunday closing and shopping by phone. She might never have remembered it, much less mentioned it, but this lady happened to be seeing a doctor who had some ideas about dreams. So it was that this one went down in the epic that Freud published in 1900, and has continued to make itself felt and heard throughout the twentieth century. This is the text of the dream:
I wanted to give a supper-party, but I had nothing in the house but a little smoked salmon. I thought I would go out and buy something, but remembered then that it was Sunday afternoon and all the shops would be shut. Next I tried to ring up some caterers, but the telephone was out of order. So I had to abandon my wish to give a supper-party.1
