Karl Albert Scherner

The Life of the Dream

Web edition, version 1.0, 9 October 2026

42 parts · 176,978 words · about 12 hr 49 min to read

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The Title Page and A Brief Introduction and Introduction to the Discoveries in General are free to read. The rest is for Club members: create a free account before January 1, 2027 and confirm your email, and you are a Charter Member, with every part, for good. Join the Club.

Das Leben des Traums is the first book of Karl Albert Scherner’s Entdeckungen auf dem Gebiete der Seele (Discoveries in the Realm of the Soul), first published in Berlin in 1861. In three sections it takes the dream-life by its universal manifestation, by its inner organization, and by the wealth of its forms, in genus and species.

The edition
Karl Albert Scherner, Entdeckungen auf dem Gebiete der Seele. Erstes Buch: Das Leben des Traums. Berlin, 1861.
The text
Translated for the first time into English from the original German by B. C. P. Statema, principally from the Austrian National Library’s digitized copy of the Berlin edition. This web edition is set from the translator’s finished master: his Brief Introduction, Scherner’s two introductions and thirty-seven sections, and Appendix A, The Roots of Analytical Psychology & Psychoanalysis.
Rights
Scherner’s German text is in the public domain. The translation, the introduction, the notes and the appendix are the translator’s own.
Copyright
Translation © 2026 B. C. P. Statema. The Thinking Press, Kenosha, Wisconsin. All rights reserved.

Contents

  1. The Title PageFree to readErstes Buch: Das Leben des Traums1 min
  2. A Brief IntroductionFree to read2 min
  3. Introduction to the Discoveries in GeneralFree to read13 min
  4. Introduction to the Life of the DreamMembers6 min
  5. § 1. The Pliant Nature of the DreamMembers8 min
  6. § 2. The Dream World-RealmMembers10 min
  7. § 3. The Life-Current in the DreamMembers6 min
  8. § 4. Nature-Reflections in the DreamMembers12 min
  9. § 5. The Dream Combat-GamesMembers17 min
  10. § 6. The Reproductive Power of the DreamMembers17 min
  11. § 7. The Originality of Dream-PaintingMembers13 min
  12. § 8. The Epochs of the DreamMembers20 min
  13. § 9. The Transformation of Waking Consciousness in the DreamMembers3 min
  14. § 10. The Narrow Periphery of the Dream-SphereMembers3 min
  15. § 11. The Life-Substance in the Dream-SphereMembers5 min
  16. § 12. The Decentralization of the Life-Movement in the DreamMembers4 min
  17. § 13. The Faculty of Cognition in the State of DecentralizationMembers9 min
  18. § 14. The Effect of Decentralization upon FeelingMembers12 min
  19. § 15. The Decline of the Will through DecentralizationMembers12 min
  20. § 16. The Life of Representation Following from Decentralization and the Narrow Confinement of the Dream-SphereMembers14 min
  21. § 17. The Re-Emergence of Reason in the Dream-Sphere, in Plastic TransformationMembers12 min
  22. § 18. The Imagination in the Dream-SphereMembers12 min
  23. § 19. The Symbolic Mode of Representation of the Dream-Imagination According to Its General FormMembers8 min
  24. § 20. The Vivification of Symbolic Representation Through the Action of the ImaginationMembers13 min
  25. § 21. The Symbolic Basic Formation for Bodily StimuliMembers17 min
  26. § 22. The Symbolic Basic Formation for Spiritual StimuliMembers8 min
  27. § 23. The Origin of the Holding-for-Real of Dream-ImagesMembers3 min
  28. § 24. Cause of the Rapid Forgetting of Dream-ImagesMembers5 min
  29. § 25. Observation and Treatment of the Dream-FormationsMembers10 min
  30. § 26. Concept and Classification of the Dream-FormationsMembers3 min
  31. § 27. First Principal Group (Genus): The Template-DreamsMembers7 min
  32. § 28. Second Principal Group: The Association-DreamsMembers23 min
  33. § 29. Third Principal Group: The Marked DreamsMembers8 min
  34. § 30. Fourth Principal Group: The Nerve-Stimulus DreamsMembers1 hr 58 min
  35. § 31. Fifth Principal Group: The Sense-DreamsMembers20 min
  36. § 32. Sixth Principal Group: The Mood-DreamsMembers13 min
  37. § 33. Seventh Principal Group: The Affect-DreamsMembers21 min
  38. § 34. Eighth Principal Group: The Imagination-DreamsMembers1 hr 27 min
  39. § 35. Ninth Principal Group: The Reflective, or Thought-DreamsMembers13 min
  40. § 36. Tenth Principal Group: The Acting, or Will-DreamsMembers25 min
  41. § 37. Eleventh Principal Group: The Presentiment-DreamsMembers1 hr 36 min
  42. Appendix A: The Roots of Analytical Psychology & PsychoanalysisMembers1 hr 1 min

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Revisions

  • 1.0, 9 October 2026. First publication on the web: the whole book, from the translator’s finished master.