The Interpretation of Dreams over others (including Jean-Martin Charcot, Pierre Janet, and Richard von Krafft-Ebing) in silence, and with systematically avoiding "citing the passages in the works of his predecessors which came closest to his own theories." Neuropsychoanalyst Mark Blechner maintains that even if one does not agree with Freud's theories that all dreams are wish-fulfillments and that the strangeness of dreams is due to mental disguise, "The Interpretation of Dreams" remains an extraordinary scientific record of dream texts and an analysis of the mental operations that dreams demonstrate. The first translation from German into English was completed by A. A. Brill, a Freudian
Dream interpretation waking beliefs and desires. The ancient Sumerians in Mesopotamia have left evidence of dream interpretation dating back to at least 3100 BC. Throughout Mesopotamian history, dreams were always held to be extremely important for divination and Mesopotamian kings paid close attention to them. Gudea, the king of the Sumerian city-state of Lagash (reigned 2144–2124 BC), rebuilt the temple of Ningirsu as the result of a dream in which he was told to do so. The standard Akkadian "Epic of Gilgamesh" contains numerous accounts of the prophetic power of dreams. First, Gilgamesh himself has two dreams foretelling the arrival of Enkidu.