In his
Interpretation of Dreams(1900) Freud argued that because dream-thoughts were over-determined dreams might need to be interpreted several times in order to be understood. Each act of interpretation might produce a reading which was only partially consistent with other interpretations, since the dream-thoughts were themselves the products of condensation, displacement and over-determination. Freud.s theory of dream interpretation thus comes close to the fact of literary interpretation where it seems culturally and individually necessary to produce reading after reading of texts, and where each successive reading does not necessarily invalidate former readings. The aim of such reading is clearly to fulfil some individual need to .make sense., perhaps to recuperate something that…
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Citation: Editors, Litencyc. "Overinterpretation [Überdeutung]". The Literary Encyclopedia. First published 22 October 2005 [https://www.litencyc.com/php/stopics.php?rec=true&UID=803, accessed 19 December 2024.]
