Schopenhauer, Heine, Freud: Dreams and Dream-Theories in Nineteenth-century Germany

Abstract

There is a long-standing distinction between trivial and significant (often prophetic) dreams, which Freud annuls. For him, all dreams are meaningful but what they signify is bodily desire. This approach to dreams goes back to the Enlightenment and was developed by Heine, whose importance for Freud's theory of dreams is argued here. The other approach, crediting at least some dreams with the power of revelation, was favoured in various versions, by the Romantics and by Schopenhauer. Despite Freud's scepticism about the truth-content of dreams, he restores their imaginative fascination through his own interpretations, as is demonstrated from the Dream of the Three Fates.