Does dream interpretation have any limits? An evaluation of interpretations of the dream of "Irma's Injection."

Abstract

Dream interpretative efforts appear unconstrained by methodological standards, An examination of the re-interpretations of Freud's dream of "Irma's Injection," the dream specimen of psychoanalysis, illustrates the undisciplined nature of dream interpretation, Reading" in" from presumed day residues or infantile experiences rather than "out" from the dream report per se lies at the heart of the problem. The failure to spell out inferences, to link inferences to the dream text, to explain and maintain the relationships in the dream report, and to offer a substitute text for the entire dream text all contribute to the inadequacies of dream interpreatation.

Autorreferencia y acto en el sueño paradigmático de Freud

“…Como dijimos, este famoso sueño ha sido objeto de numerosos trabajos. Milton Kramer (2000) realizó una compilación y revisión crítica de las múltiples lecturas de autores post-freudianos, reseñando los desarrollos de Anzieu, Hartman, Erikson, Feldman, Caire, Eissler, Greenberg, Pearlman, Leavitt, May, Pletsch y Blum, entre muchos otros, que se abocaron al mencionado sueño de Freud y extrajeron una multiplicidad de interpretaciones llegando a un punto en que todo parece posible. Finalmente, concluye: "(...) podría argumentarse que la polisemia de los sueños, al igual que lo que sucede con otros textos, lleva a una excesiva laxitud en la interpretación de los mismos" 4 (Kramer, 2000, p. 164).…”

Drømme Og Videnskabsteori

“…Ud fra dette materiale er drømmen blevet undersøgt og genfortolket i over halvtreds videnskabelige artikler, hvoraf nogle er skrevet af kapaciteter som Erik Eriksson, Robert Bosnak, Didier Anzieu mfl. og samlet evalueret af Milton Kramer (Kramer 2000).…”

A method for recognizing and describing the links among dream sources.

“…The recognition of word root recurrences is a basic tool in the automatic text analysis and has been applied often for the study of literary texts. In a book chapter warning against interpretation methods "unconstrained by methodological standards," Kramer (2000) indicated the "approaches to textual analysis offered by various schools of literary criticism" as providing "disciplined and potentially illuminating avenues for dream interpretation" (p. 176). For different purposes, the recognition of recurring words has been applied to dream studies (see, e.g., Maggiolini, Azzone, Provantini, Vigano `, & Freni, 2003).…”