ABSTRACT
Until Freud's Interpretation of Dreams, there had never been a truly scientific approach to the understanding of dreams. Freud's classic work provided an assessment of earlier contributions to dream theory and focused on wish fulfillment as the motivating force behind dreaming. Freud explored the way the unconscious realm of people's lives is reflected in their dreams. He used the technique of free association to get at the thoughts behind the dream images. According to Freud repressed impulses are aroused during sleep by a recent experience and seek release. Freud elaborated on the manifold and ingeniously artful ways in which the dreamer expresses meaning in imagery. He turned dreams into powerful therapeutic instruments by his emphasis on their links to people's past and their preoccupation with tensions and conflicts that linger on from childhood. Popular writers often take one or another of the remarkable qualities of dreams and package it for public consumption in a one-sided way.
