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'''[[Irma]]'s injection''' is the [[name ]] [[Sigmund Freud]] gave to a [[dream]] of his. It is the dream with which he opens his seminal [[work ]] ''[[The Interpretation of Dreams]]'', and which forms the lynchpin of the [[analysis ]] in that book. It is the dream with which [[Freud ]] introduces the [[process ]] of dream [[interpretation ]] and, in a way, [[psychoanalytic ]] [[technique ]] as well. It is described in the second chapter of The Interpretation of [[Dreams]], "The Method of [[Interpreting ]] Dreams," and was [[reinterpreted ]] many [[times ]] by Freud's successors and biographers.

Early in the morning of July 24, 1895, Freud, then on vacation at the Hôtel Bellevue, near [[Vienna]], had a dream [[about ]] one of his [[patients]], whom he called Irma. The [[manifest ]] [[content ]] of the dream can be summarized as thus:

A large hall - numerous guests, whom we were receiving. - Among [[them ]] was Irma. I at once took her to one side, as though to answer her [[letter ]] and to reproach her for not having accepted my 'solution' yet. I said to her: 'If you still get pains, it's really only your fault.' She replies: 'If you only knew what pains I've got now in my throat and stomach and abdomen - it's choking me.' - I was alarmed and looked at her. She looked pale and puffy. I [[thought ]] to myself that after all I must be [[missing ]] some [[organic ]] trouble. I took her to the window and looked down her throat, and she showed [[signs ]] of recalcitrance, like [[women ]] with artificial dentures. I thought to myself that there was really no [[need ]] for her to do that. - She then opened her mouth properly and on the [[right ]] I found a big white patch; at [[another ]] [[place ]] I saw extensive whitish grey scabs upon some remarkable curly [[structures ]] which were evidently modelled on the turbinal bones of the nose. - I at once called in Dr M, and he repeated the examination and confirmed it .... Dr M looked quite different from usual; he was very pale, he walked with a limp and his chin was clean-shaven .... My friend Otto was now standing beside her as well, and my friend Leopold was percussing her through her bodice and saying: 'She has a dull area low down on the [[left]].' He also indicated that a portion of the skin on her left shoulder was infiltrated. (I noticed this, just as he did, in spite of her dress.) .... M said: 'There's no [[doubt ]] it's an infection, but no matter; dysentery will supervene and the toxin will be eliminated. .... We were directly aware, too, of the origin of the infection. Not long before, when she was [[feeling ]] unwell, my friend Otto had given her an injection of a preparation of propyl, propyls .... propionic acid .... trimethylamin (and I saw before me the [[formula ]] for this printed in heavy type) .... Injections of this sort ought not to be given so thoughtlessly .... And probably the syringe had not been clean.