[1] The Dream was written in 1918, a time in which Europe had suffered from World War I for nearly four years already when it was finally about to come to an end.

Furthermore, it originates from a period in which the field of psychology was greatly influenced by psychoanalytic theories of Sigmund Freud and like-minded psychologists.

Therefore, he began to give public lectures on fundamental knowledge about dreams as well as his specific findings in this field in Vienna.

[1] Here, he builds up on his explorations and findings on limit states (Grenzustände) between sleep and wakefulness, also called hypnagogic states, which had encouraged him to write one of his first publications Report on a Method of Eliciting and Observing Certain Symbolic Hallucination-Phenomena (Bericht über eine Methode, gewisse symbolische Halluzinations-Erscheinungen hervorzurufen und zu beobachten) in 1909.

[3] Silberer's work on hypnagogic states, which is also discussed in the first part of The Dream, grasped the attention of Sigmund Freud, who advised C. G. Jung to arrange its publication in the Jahrbuch für psychoanalytische und psychopathologische Forschungen in 1909.

In 1910, Silberer joined the circle around Freud, called the Vienna Psychoanalytic Society (Wiener Psychoanalytische Vereinigung (WPV)).

In his work Mysterium Conjunctionis [5] Jung wrote: "Herbert Silberer has the merit of being the first to discover the secret threads that lead from alchemy to the psychology of the unconscious".

Here, he depicted the Freudian analysis as too superficial, not going far enough into interpreting the inner psychological and spiritual meanings of dreams or mental processes.

[6] Following these growing discrepancies in terms of professional opinions, as well as increasing public tensions, Freud finally expressed his rejection of Silberer in a refusing letter, stating that he does not wish to stay in further contact.

It is believed that Silberer had long been suffering from loneliness, even though he was married, which eventually led to the development of a suicidal depression.

Each subpart introduces a fundamental characteristic of dreams, followed by an example that has been either experienced by Silberer himself or by one of his clients.

He concludes that, in contrast to the common view at that time, a dream does not actually possess increased capabilities regarding memory, unconscious operations, humour or spirit.