Der Wahn und die Träume in W. Jensens »Gradiva«

Delving into the tangled relationship between imagination and the sleeping mind, this essay invites listeners to follow a scholarly debate that began over a century ago. Set against the backdrop of early‑20th‑century Viennese academia, it records Professor Sigmund Freud’s curious foray into the dreams that never occurred—those conjured by poets for their fictional heroes. By tracing how these invented nocturnal visions are presented, the work asks whether a dream can ever be reduced to mere physiological noise.

The author balances the skeptical stance of contemporary science, which dismisses dreaming as a simple brain twitch, with the reverent belief of poets and folk traditions that treat dreams as fulfilled wishes or prophetic insights. Drawing on Freud’s own wish‑fulfillment theory, the discussion highlights how literary dreams may reveal hidden emotional currents that elude empirical measurement. Listeners will come away with a richer understanding of how the mind continues its story‑telling even in sleep, and why that matters for both psychology and literature.