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Chadwik
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GMAT Focus 1: 655 Q87 V81 DI79
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Freud's professional frustrations, and their political background in t 26 May 2025, 10:08
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Question 1:

According to the passage, Freud’s suppressed wish in the Dream of the Uncle with the Yellow Beard was to:

A) eliminate his Jewish rivals
B) escape from political censorship
C) reverse the rise of Austrian anti-Semitism
D) secure an academic promotion
E) free himself from the effects of anti-Semitism

⸻

Find the Direct Evidence in the Passage:

“His analysis of that dream reveals a political wish to free himself from the fate of the Jews. This wish is disguised as a desire to ‘step into the minister’s shoes,’ and by so doing eliminate his Jewish rivals and grant himself a promotion to a professorship.”

This gives us two levels:
• Surface wish: Step into the minister’s shoes → eliminate rivals + gain promotion
• Deeper (suppressed) wish: Free himself from the fate of the Jews (i.e., the oppression caused by anti-Semitism)

⸻
• (Opinion): Author explains Freud’s dream shows personal ambition and political frustration.
• (Contradiction): Freud’s dream presents a disguised wish — not straightforward.
• (Tone): Neutral, analytical.
• (Awareness): The real suppressed wish was to escape a political fate tied to anti-Semitism.
• (Avoid): Eliminate answers focusing only on surface-level dream imagery.
• (A) = Part of the disguise, not the real wish
• (D) = Also part of the disguise
• (E) = YES — matches the deeper suppressed wish
•(Eliminate):
• A, D → only refer to the manifest content, not the latent wish
• B, C → out of scope or too broad

⸻
Correct Answer: E

“Free himself from the effects of anti-Semitism.”

This matches exactly what the passage describes as Freud’s true suppressed wish, while A and D describe the disguise (the dream’s manifest content).

coreyander
Freud's professional frustrations, and their political background in the growing anti-Semitism of Vienna in the Nineties, are reflected throughout his pivotal work, The Interpretation of Dreams . Political references abound both in the analyses of his own dreams that he used for illustrative purposes and in analogies he introduced to explain the dream work. To illustrate his principle that "a dream is a disguised fulfillment of a suppressed wish," Freud chose his Dream of the Uncle with the Yellow Beard. His analysis of that dream reveals a political wish to free himself from the fate of the Jews. This wish is disguised as a desire to "step into the minister's shoes," and by so doing eliminate his Jewish rivals and grant himself a promotion to a professorship. In the course of his analysis of the dream, Freud introduced a political analogy in order to explain the general principle of distortion, or disguise, of the wish in the dream work. The dream thought, or wish, confronts a "censor" in the dreamer's psyche, in the manner of "the political writer who has disagreeable truths to tell those in authority."

1. According to the passage, Freud's suppressed wish in the Dream of the Uncle With the Yellow Beard was to

A) eliminate his Jewish rivals
B) escape from political censorship
C) reverse the rise of Austrian anti-Semitism
D) secure an academic promotion
E) free himself from the effects of anti-Semitism

2. The author's references to The Interpretation of Dreams support all of the following conclusions EXCEPT that

A) politics can become the covert content of dreams
B) dreams may express unacknowledged desires in a symbolic form
C) Freud's understanding of his own dreams was subject to inevitable limitations
D) the work played a crucial role in Freud's professional career
E) Freud's writings reflect some of the political concerns of their time

3. Which of the following statements best expresses the main idea of the passage?

A) Freud's writings reflect a concern with politics.
B) Freud's central work is The Interpretation of Dreams .
C) Freud wished to escape the effects of anti-Semitism.
D) Freud wished to be promoted over his rivals to a professorship.
E) Freud compared the dream thought with a political writer.


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