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Ambition
Throughout The Interpretation of Dreams, Freud tends to play down his ambition. As smartypants scholars have noted, though, Freud's ambition is just about everywhere in the book. Just think of it: this dude's argument is that a deeper knowledge of dreaming "will lead us to a knowledge of man's archaic heritage, of what is physically innate in him" (7.3.33). The guy is practically announcing that his theory of dreams will unlock the door to human nature. If that's not an ambitious goal to set for a course of study, we don't know what is.
There's no question that The Interpretation of Dreams was an ambitious project. Not only did Freud set out to develop a comprehensive theory of dreaming, but he also set out to advance an original model of the human mind itself.
At one point in The Interpretation of Dreams, Freud suggests that he never considered himself an ambitious man (4.1.7). However, Freud's own analyses of his dreams reveal that he did come to recognize his powerful ambitions—and to see that they had been part of him since his early youth.
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