Symbolism

Abstract

From a cursory reading of The Interpretation of Dreams it is clear that there are two different modes of analysis being employed in the interpretation of individual dreams. The variorum edition produced by James Strachey makes it clear that the largest additions to the later editions of the book are to the sections on symbolism. Not only are there these textual additions but their character is markedly different from the sections written for the first edition. The two different interpretative methods seem to correspond to these two different times of writing.¹

Freud mentions various symbols: top hats are regularly phallic symbols, wooden things like tables are women, etc. His historical explanations of these symbols is absurd. We might say it is not needed anyway: it is the most natural thing in the world that a table should be that sort of symbol. (Wittgenstein, 1967, pp. 43–4)