Narrative Voice

Freud made a bold move in choosing to write The Interpretation of Dreams, a "scientific" treatise, in the first person narrative voice—meaning that he inserts himself into the text as an individual, using the pronoun "I." Freud's theoretical insights, which he puts forth in The Interpretation of Dreams, are a direct result of several years of intensive self-analysis; thus, he analyses his own dreams as examples to prove his theory of dream interpretation. He explains that to demonstrate his theory, he found that his own dreams provided "an abundant and convenient fund of material coming from a more-or-less normal person and relating to a variety of occasions in daily life," in part due to the fact that "the conditions for self-observation are more favourable than the conditions for the observation of others." He acknowledges at several points throughout the book the personal risk and embarrassment involved...