The first edition of The Interpretation of Dreams is much shorter than its subsequent editions; each time the text was reissued, from 1909 onwards, Freud added to it. The most significant, and in many ways the most unfortunate addition, is a 50-page section devoted to the kind of mechanical reading of dream symbolism that has gained popular currency and has partially obscured Freud's more profound insights into dreams. In the original version presented here, Freud's emphasis falls more clearly on the use of words in dreams and on the difficulty of deciphering them. Thus readers will find here a clearer development of Freud's central ideas -- of dream as wish fulfillment, of the dream's manifest and latent content, of the retelling of dreams as a continuation of dreamwork, and much more. Joyce Crick's translation is lighter and more nimble than previous versions, enhancing Freud's dialogue with the reader and allowing us to follow the evolution of Freud's theory through his complex case studies, his apparently intractable counterexamples, and the fascinating analyses of his own dreams.

The restoration of Freud's classic is a major event, giving us in a sense a new work by one of this century's most startling, original, and influential thinkers.