and that this was not his fault. Freud's dream theory Freud came to a conclusion about the meaning and intention of the dream using his analysis. He believed that the dream fulfilled several wishes and that it represented a particular situation that he might have wished to exist in. Freud concluded that the motive of the dream was a wish and the content of the dream was a wish fulfillment. Freud eventually concluded that all dreams represent some sort of wish fulfillment. He analyzed his patients' dreams as well as his own using free-association and found that in nearly every case, the latent content included wishes, even if the manifest content seemed to be the opposite of a wish fulfillment. Freud believed that every dream contained manifest and latent content. He believed that the manifest content was the consciously experienced aspect of the dream, while the latent content was the hidden inspiration of the dream that could only be remembered after free-association. Freud concluded that in cases where only the latent content of the dream contained a wish, the manifest content was helping to hide the embarrassing aspects of the latent content. Other interpretations Since its publication, the dream of Irma's injection "has received more attention than any other dream in the history of psychoanalysis". Numerous interpretations of the dream have been proposed, often with reference to what is known of its real-world context. For example, it has been suggested that aspects of the dream reflect Freud's concerns about his own health problems, his wife's pregnancy, or the process of developing his new psychoanalytical techniques. The dream has also been seen as an expression of Freud's suppressed sexual desires. Max Schur, Freud's friend and physician, argued that the dream was heavily influenced by an incident involving one of Freud's patients, Emma Eckstein. Two months prior to the dream, Freud had referred Eckstein to Wilhelm Fliess for nasal surgery, the consequences of which were almost fatal for Eckstein and left her permanently disfigured. Schur believed that Freud's dream represented an attempt to shift the blame for this situation onto Eckstein, and thus absolve both Fliess and himself from responsibility. However, the real person whom Freud conceals behind the name of "Irma" is probably not Emma Eckstein; it is more likely to be a family friend of his, Anna Lichtheim. See also Rat man Sergei Pankejeff (The "Wolf Man") References Further reading