This
book of
Sigmund Freud's was his
first truly
great achievement in
studies of the the
unconscious and
subconscious operations of the
mind. Prior to his
publication of
"The Interpretation of Dreams,",
dreams were regarded as a
topic of
mild philosophical interest, with no
real psychological or
medical significance.
Freud used his own dreams as case studies. A landmark dream of his that he analyzed was about a patient named "Irma," which revealed a great deal about his own anxieties about his relationship with Wilhelm Fliess and the progress of his own career.
As for Irma, she has my sympathy. I would not want to be Freud's patient, let alone one that he shared with Fliess.