The Interpretation of Dreams by Sigmund Freud deals with how persons dream, why they dream, what they dream, and what the dreams they have mean. The meaning of dreams is the real substance of the book, which is mainly structured around the distinction between dream content that is either latent or manifest. The manifest content of dreams refers to "what happens" in a dream, as in (say), "I dreamed I rode a bicycle." The latent content of dreams, which is more important to Freud, is of course at the heart of interpretation of dreams, because it has significance that "far surpasses that of the manifest dream-content" (Freud, 1978, p. 70). Thus for example, the manifest content of riding a bicycle might have the latent content of going on a journey--perhaps to the next town, perhaps through life.
The perspective from which Freud examines and interprets the manifest content of dreams to arrive at their latent meaning is that of the professional psychologist and clinical observer who is looking for a way to describe how the mind works and how the psychology of the individual functions. Freud bases his work on clinical experience; thus the clinical neurosis of the subjects of his interpretations is to be presumed. But the conclusions that he draws from observing patients and interpreting their dreams are generalized to the human condition as a whole.
Dreams have some basis in reality, because their manifest content may include so-called day residue, or actual events that may be distorted by dream imagery. The metaphorical, symbolic, distorted, surreal character of dreams argues that the dream world belongs to a different category of reality than the waking world. But the purpose of dreams has to do more with the latent content, which has real-world psychological relevance, concealed by the symbols and imagery. What becomes clear in The Interpretation of Dreams is that dreams can be used to explain psychological life. T
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