Interpretation of Dreams

Abstract

Ever since Freud’s seminal study, the interpretation of dreams has been the most popular area of psychoanalytic theory and technique. The analyst’s interpretations of dreams are as dependent on his conception of the function of dreaming as they are on his theory of the genesis of the dream and on the modification of the dream up to the moment of the manifest dream report. What dreams a patient remembers, the way in which he relates them, and the point at which he relates them in the particular session and in the framework of the analysis as a whole are all factors contributing to the interpretation. Not least, both the interest in dreams and the (sometimes more, sometimes less productive) way they are dealt with during treatment are critical for the interpretation of the dreams themselves and for the conduct of treatment in general.