The Interpretation of Dreams Allusions & Cultural References

Freud was a dude who liked to give credit where credit was due. The Standard Edition of the Complete Psychological Works of Sigmund Freud includes a huge bibliography that lists all of the authors, researchers, and texts that Freud quotes throughout The Interpretation of Dreams. The grand total clocks in at 200+ shout-outs—and that's not even counting the literary, historical, and cultural figures whose names he drops from time to time.

Check out Volume 5 of The Standard Edition if you want the full nitty-gritty on Freud's scholarly references, 'cause here, we're gonna stick to the names that might actually ring a bell.

Literary and Philosophical Figures and References

• Aristotle (1.1.5)
• Friedrich Wilhelm Joseph Schelling (1.1.10)
• I. H. Fichte (1.2.1)
• J. G. E. Maass (1.2.3)
• Lucretius (1.2.5)
• Cicero (1.2.6)
• Havelock Ellis (1.3.28)
• Jonathan Swift, Gulliver's Travels (1.4.30)
• Arthur Schopenhauer (1.4.42)
• William Shakespeare, Hamlet (1.6.34), Henry IV (5.3.30), Henry VI (5.3.40), Timon of Athens (5.5.48), and A Midsummer Night's Dream (6.9.7)
• Immanuel Kant (1.7.9)
• Anatole France (1.10.1)
• Wilhelm Jensen, Gradiva (2.1.3)
• Friedrich Schiller (2.1.10)
• Fritz Reuter, Ut mine Stromtid (2.1.27)
• Alphonse Daudet (3.1.8)
• Paul Bourget (3.1.8)
• Marcel Prévost (3.1.8)
• Plotinus (4.1.1)
• Geoffrey Chaucer (4.1.4)
• John Milton (4.1.4)
• Johann Wolfgang von Goethe, Faust (4.1.19)
• Gotthold Ephraim Lessing (5.2.18)
• Louis Adolphe Thiers, History of the Consulate and the Empire of France Under Napoleon (5.3.12)
• Johann Gottfried von Herder (5.3.31)
• Alfred, Lord Tennyson (5.3.39)
• Emile Zola, Germinal (5.3.41), La terre (5.3.45), and L'oeuvre (6.2.55)
• François Rabelais, Gargantua and Pantagruel (5.3.43)
• Franz Grillparzer, Des Meeres und der Liebe Wellen (5.3.42)
• Felix Dahn, Odin's Consolation (5.3.45)
• Oskar Panizza, Das Liebeskonzil (5.3.45)
• Hans Christian Andersen, "The Emperor's New Clothes" (5.5.6)
• Ludwig Fulda, Der Talisman (5.5.6)
• Homer, The Odyssey (5.5.13)
• Jean-Jacques Rousseau (5.5.60)
• Alphonse Daudet, Sappho (6.2.18) and La Nabab (6.2.31)
• Ludwig Uhland, Wanderlieder (6.2.20)
• George Eliot, Adam Bede (6.2.28)
• Guy de Maupassant (6.2.31)
• Heinrich von Kleist, Kätchen von Heilbronn (6.2.32) and Penthesilea (6.2.32)
• Henrik Ibsen, The Wild Duck (6.2.48) and A Doll's House (6.2.48)
• Josef Popper-Lynkeus, Phantasien eines Realisten (6.3.4)
• Herodotus (6.6.118)
• Gottfried Keller, Der Grüne Heinrich (6.7.9)
• Heinrich Heine (6.8.16)
• M. Rider Haggard, She (6.8.47) and Heart of the World (6.8.47)
• Conrad Ferdinand Meyer, "Die Leiden eines Knaben" (6.8.25)
• The Brothers Grimm, "The Little Tailor, or Seven at a Blow" (6.9.40)
• The Nibelungenlied (7.2.7)
• Albertus Magnus (7.3.21)
• Thomas Hobbes, Leviathan (7.3.21)
• Friedrich Nietzsche (7.3.33)
• Virgil, The Aeneid (7.6.41)

Historical Figures

• Macrobius (1.1.8)
• Artemidorus (1.1.8)
• Xerxes (1.2.4)
• Napoleon Bonaparte (1.2.7)
• Maximilien Robespierre (1.4.23)
• Jean-Paul Marat (1.4.23)
• Antoine Quentin Fouquier-Tinville (1.4.23)
• Charles XII (1.6.25)
• Aristander (2.1.4)
• Alexander the Great (2.1.4)
• Herophilus (3.1.18)
• Ptolemy (3.1.18)
• Francis Galton (4.1.15)
• Girolamo Savonarola (5.2.3)
• Johann Joachim Winckelmann (5.3.11)
• Hannibal Barca (5.3.11)
• Hamilcar Barca (5.3.12)
• Hasdrubal Barca (5.3.12)
• Henry VIII (5.3.40)
• Lucrezia Borgia (5.3.45)
• Ferdinand Lasalle (6.2.54)
• Eduard Lasker (6.2.54)
• Otto von Bismarck (6.6.68)
• Moses (6.6.70)
• Julius Caesar (6.6.118)
• Brutus (6.6.118)
• Koloman Széll (6.8.7)
• Maria Theresa of Austria (6.8.7)
• Giuseppe Garibaldi (6.8.7)
• Oliver Cromwell (6.8.39)
• Georges Jacques Danton (6.10.12)
• Marcus Licinius Crassus (7.4.29)
• Marie-Jean-Léon, Marquis d'Hervey de Saint-Denys (7.4.32)
• Virgil(7.6.41)
• Plato (7.7.16)

Legendary and Mythological Figures

• Achilles (3.1.15)
• Apollo (5.2.40)
• Pallas (5.2.40)
• The Three Fates (5.3.29)
• Oedipus (5.5.46)
• Adonis (6.6.125)
• Osiris (6.6.125)
• Bacchus (6.6.125)
• Hercules (6.9.22)

Scriptural References

• 1 John 3:15 (1.7.15)
• Matthew 15:19 (1.7.15)
• Genesis 41 (2.1.3)
• Isaiah 24:8 (3.1.4)
• Song of Solomon (6.5.11)
• Numbers 20:11-12 (6.6.70)
• Psalm 137 (6.8.28)

Medical Mentors and Colleagues

• Josef Breuer, whom Alexander Grinstein also identifies as the "Dr. M." who appears in the Dream of Irma's Injection (2.1.7)
• Otto Rank (2.1.10)
• Oskar Rie, whom Alexander Grinstein also identifies as the "Otto" who appears in the Dream of Irma's Injection (2.1.15-16)
• Ludwig Rosenberg, whom Alexander Grinstein also identifies as the "Leopold" who appears in the Dream of Irma's Injection (2.1.16)
• Ernst Fleischl von Marxow (2.1.24)
• Wilhelm Fliess (2.1.39)
• Carl Jung (3.1.17)
• Carl Koller (5.2.10)
• Leopold Königstein (5.2.10)
• Ernst Wilhelm von Brücke (6.7.50)
• Josef Paneth, who appears as "P." in Freud's "Non Vixit" dream (6.7.50)
• Theodor Meynert (6.8.20)

References to Music and Opera

• Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, The Marriage of Figaro (5.3.33) and The Magic Flute (6.2.32)
• Richard Wagner (6.5.5)
• Ignaz Moscheles, Études (6.6.44)
• Muzio Clementi, Gradus ad Parnassum (6.6.44)
• Ludwig van Beethoven, Fidelio (6.6.86) and "Choral Symphony" (6.6.86)
• Carl Maria von Weber, Der Freischütz (6.7.44)
• Jacques Offenbach, La belle Hélène (6.10.1)
• Giuseppe Tartini (7.7.5)