"Sigmund Freud's Interpretation of Dreams" Documentary Review

Sigmund Freud: Image via Internet Encyclopedia of Philosophy (For more on Freud)

Sigmund Freud's Interpretation of Dreams, was an excellent short documentary film on the The Interpretation of Dreams, a book written by psychoanalyst Sigmund Freud and published in 1899. The documentary touched upon Freud's theories in the book and how he was both, "damned and praised" for these thoughts. 


Freud's emphasis on sexuality in daily life and dreaming was highly criticized and Freud's view of women is considered unacceptable and offensive by today's standards. Despite these qualities that some may argue ruin his credibility, he is still considered to be very influential in the field of psychoanalysis and dreams.   


Throughout the documentary not only do we follow the life of Freud and his various ideas, we hear the thought-provoking dreams of different people as well. This allows for the viewer to not get bogged down by all the somewhat heavy information, not that the dreams these people are sharing are light, but these little anecdotes are needed to break up the stream of hard knowledge pouring into the brain.   


One of my favorite parts of the documentary was the discussion on the id, ego, and superego. The id being the primitive side of us, the ego being the rational, and the superego thoughts mirroring the pressures of society, almost an extreme rationality. These according to Freud are always in constant conflict with each other. One of Freud's concerns being that if the ego and/or superego became too powerful compared to the id that emotional feeling would be repressed, which he believed was extremely detrimental to the human being. I found this all terribly fascinating along with the general line of Freud's life and his influential ideas. Freud had a massive cultural impact and I encourage everyone to take a bit of time to watch this short documentary and just absorb everything for your mind to process. 


I highly recommend this documentary to anyone. I did not have a whole lot of prior knowledge of Freud before watching this but being interested in dreaming and the theories behind dreaming, Sigmund Freud's Interpretation of Dreams was highly enlightening. 


You can watch the documentary in four parts on Youtube. Here's the first: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lig53eW2ptg&feature=related


Works Cited: 
Sigmund Freud's Interpretation of Dreams. Dir. Clark Bunting. Discovery Communications, Inc. Film.