Rating: 
Summary: masterpiece
Review: The best translation available is by J. Strachey. Don't get the one by Brill. This books is no light reading, even for those accustomed to reading serious books. Freud's style presents no difficulties, but moral courage is needed. Nevertheless for those courageous enough there is also enormous entertainment here. Personally I find it extremely difficult to read it often. It's too dense and challenging. And much of it is also deeply flawed because the author was overly confident. Despite all this, this may well be the greatest book of the 20th century, and those who want to take the challenge ought to try it. My pragmatic advice is to skip the first chapter, which is a rather dated review of literature.
Rating: 
Summary: the hidden meaning of dreams
Review: The science of interpretting the hidden meaning of one's dreams is the key to unlocking the door to our unconscious psychic life. Sigmund Freud was the one who discovered that through our dreams we can explore our unconscious, which means that if we can unravel what our dreams mean, we can find out what our mind secretly wants and desires. These wants and desires are otherwise hidden and suppressed by our conscious mind because of our moral and social inhibitions and tensions. In fact, Sigmund Freud theories invented a whole new branch of treatment for neurosis. Freud's "Interprettation of Dreams" has its flaws, and his theories have been constantly modified and improved upon in accordance with new discoveries in contemporary psychology, but it was Freud who first put the wheels in spin. David Rehak
author of "Love and Madness"
Rating:
Summary: Good to Own
Review: The value of this book as a reference can not be overstated, as it has consistantly been a help to me as an academic aid, in addition to a personally interesting read. Though much Freudian Theory has, to my knowledge, been cast in a fair amount of doubt since publication, there is still merit in the contents of this book. Given the impact of this work, regardless of its accuracy, it is important for any scholar to be familiar with it. In addition, many of the individual interpretations are quick, engaging reading material, if one does not wish to undertake the task of reading the entirety of the work from beginning to end (which, as I understand it, was not the intended procedure, anyway).
Rating:
Summary: Life is like a dream
Review: This book changed my life in a profound way. Freud taught me that everything is connected. He used dreams to illustrate this. During the few weeks I was reading this book, I began looking at everything around me as possibly symbolic and/or connected. It is amazing what is available when you are receptive to this information. Freud can teach you to see the meaning in your dreams, but these lessons apply to all of life. Freud also has such a disarming way of writing that I felt as if I knew the man as a friend once I was done reading.
Rating:
Summary: If life is a dream, then don't wake me up
Review: This book is a watershed in human intellectual history. In it Freud undermines the picture of mankind as primarily a being of reason, and presents the idea that we are all creatures of our wishes, our inner unconscious lives. Dreams are not nothing, and they are not in Freud's eyes rare religious gifts, but rather to the key to our own mental life. Freud in this book presents a vast world of examples and interpretations .
I am not a psychologist and do not consider myself competent to really judge how much of what Freud presents here is valid or even capable of scientific testing. I do know that this work is one which like a great literary masterpiece has inspired countless interpretations and reinterpretations.
Understanding human Intellectual History is now impossible without knowing this work.
Rating: 
Summary: Melancholy views and interpretations
Review: This book, was far too long, and was not at all appealing. The length of the book, bored me to tears, and was too hard for people unfamiliar with his work (i am though somewhat familiar but still his theories made no sense to me and lacked relevance in my life). The book went into painstaking great detail describing dreams and interpretations. His theories and interpretations were intriguing, and informative, but lacked any research to back up his theories.
Rating:
Summary: Good edition of the Book.
Review: This edition of "Interpretation of Dreams" hits all the marks-it has extensive introductory notes, bibliography, and a more than adequate index. Moreover, specific dreams in the text are referenced in a separate index. They also have the English translations of the foreign-language footnotes, which is always helful for those of us who only speak three and not seven languages. The editors understand all facets of "user friendly," which means that this book not only friendly to the user, but friendly for use. It has every bell and whistle that any student, scholar, or savant could want in a book, which is a rare thing. Moreover, the cover art is very eye catching, since the blurred water-color profiles have a dream-like quality about them, reinforcing, but not distracting from the books subject and contents. In many ways, the book is the cover. I admire the heavy secondary research Freud put into his book. Keeping in mind Freud's ideas were gestating in the late 1800's, when there was none of the perfected scientific research and research methods that we have today. Like Darwin, Galileo, or Newton, Freud did so much with so little in the way of technological gizmos. This adds even a greater luster to his genius. However, there are two issues I have with Dr. Freud's methodology. First, his has a very odd universe of sampling, namely himself and his neurotic patients (136, 138). First of all, relying on his own dreams for analysis tends to make his research solipsistic, which is to say we may be looking more at Freud than his research and conclusions. Moreover, relying on neurotic patients does not yield statistically balanced data. His skewed sampling leads to a skewed conclusion. Secondly, Freud comes to the reductionist conclusion that all dreams are wish fulfillment. Keeping in mind the strange and limited universe of sampling, it is no wonder that Freud came to this rather odd conclusion. Part of the problem is that Freud completely ignored the creativity aspect of dreams. The classic example of the creativity in dreams is Elias Howe's invention of the sewing machine needle. He was an English inventor trying to invent the sewing machine. He had all the parts in place expect the needle, which was giving him problems. He fell asleep at his inventor's table and dreamt cannibals were chasing him, whose spears that had holes in the tops. He woke up and put the hole in the top of the machine needle, and presto! A new industry. I recognize that this book is an essential the historical literature of psychology. And I have no qualms about typical and ubiquitous Freudian sexology. Sex, or better yet reproduction, is a power drive in humanity, although I do not concede that it is the one and only drive.
Rating:
Summary: Good edition of the Book.
Review: This edition of "Interpretation of Dreams" hits all the marks-it has extensive introductory notes, bibliography, and a more than adequate index. Moreover, specific dreams in the text are referenced in a separate index. They also have the English translations of the foreign-language footnotes, which is always helful for those of us who only speak three and not seven languages. The editors understand all facets of "user friendly," which means that this book not only friendly to the user, but friendly for use. It has every bell and whistle that any student, scholar, or savant could want in a book, which is a rare thing. Moreover, the cover art is very eye catching, since the blurred water-color profiles have a dream-like quality about them, reinforcing, but not distracting from the books subject and contents. In many ways, the book is the cover. I admire the heavy secondary research Freud put into his book. Keeping in mind Freud's ideas were gestating in the late 1800's, when there was none of the perfected scientific research and research methods that we have today. Like Darwin, Galileo, or Newton, Freud did so much with so little in the way of technological gizmos. This adds even a greater luster to his genius. However, there are two issues I have with Dr. Freud's methodology. First, his has a very odd universe of sampling, namely himself and his neurotic patients (136, 138). First of all, relying on his own dreams for analysis tends to make his research solipsistic, which is to say we may be looking more at Freud than his research and conclusions. Moreover, relying on neurotic patients does not yield statistically balanced data. His skewed sampling leads to a skewed conclusion. Secondly, Freud comes to the reductionist conclusion that all dreams are wish fulfillment. Keeping in mind the strange and limited universe of sampling, it is no wonder that Freud came to this rather odd conclusion. Part of the problem is that Freud completely ignored the creativity aspect of dreams. The classic example of the creativity in dreams is Elias Howe's invention of the sewing machine needle. He was an English inventor trying to invent the sewing machine. He had all the parts in place expect the needle, which was giving him problems. He fell asleep at his inventor's table and dreamt cannibals were chasing him, whose spears that had holes in the tops. He woke up and put the hole in the top of the machine needle, and presto! A new industry. I recognize that this book is an essential the historical literature of psychology. And I have no qualms about typical and ubiquitous Freudian sexology. Sex, or better yet reproduction, is a power drive in humanity, although I do not concede that it is the one and only drive.
Rating:
Summary: great sci classic, perhaps to be seen as copernicus someday
Review: This is the book that started the revolution in our view of human psychology: it uncovered the (always disputed) existence of the unconscious mind as well as created an entirely new mode of thinking about the human psyche. Strangely enough, it is also a fun and very informative read: there are great case studies of patients, charming autobiographical asides, and a rigorous snapshot of the science of dreams at the time. It is also beautifully written: ironically, though never the recipient of the Nobel prize, Freud did win the Goethe prize in Germany for his writing style. As Walter Kaufman said so eloquently, with his rich ironies and attention to the individual, Freud offered a way to reintroduce poetry into science. Certainly, much of what Freud thought is now disputed and discredited. Like Copernicus, whose model of our solar system failed in many respects, Freud also made fundamental errors, in particular his notorious over-emphasis of sexuality and the phallus. But we do not blame Copernicus for not seeing what Kepler, Newton, and later Einstein discovered: we value him as a step towards the unknown, as a pioneer, however timid. Freud will come to be seen the same way, as the discoverer of the unconscious mind. Warmly recommended.
Rating:
Summary: Stimulating and important
Review: This is the most important book published in the last century; further, it is fascinating and brilliantly written. Emotionally unstable readers should avoid it, however; their need to deny their own problems often leads them to attack the messenger: read through the other reviews to see what I mean.
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