Why we still need Freud’s couch

Only tedious people share their dreams, but I beg your indulgence. In a recent dream — a nightmare, really — I visited the home of a friend with whom I also have a professional relationship. Only, this was nothing like his home in waking life. It was more like a town designed by M.C. Escher, with numerous side alleys and illogically placed staircases, bridges to nowhere and mysterious tunnels, all haunted by shadowy, menacing figures. I had to find my friend. The search seemed to go on for a long time, now marked by frightful incidents, now by moments of relief and even inexplicable humor. When I finally did come across him, my friend was in his lair at the center of this labyrinth, holding court before servants and sycophants, who were the shadowy figures from earlier. He had a hard-to-pl