A New Approach to Dream Interpretation

The hypothesis which is offered in this communication is that solutions are attempted in dreams. For this idea, I am indebted to Dr. Horney. This is a first attempt at an exploration of the possibilities offered by this hypothesis, hence, the statements made should be regarded as of a tentative nature. Although the idea of solution in dream interpretation has been mentioned before, it did not have the significances alluded to it in this paper, nor was it used in the context to be presented.

Although this paper is concerned with solution and dream interpretation, to me, its major purpose is to elucidate the meaning of solution in general. When solution in general is better understood, solution in specific, i.e., in dream interpretation, will be clearer. To develop the hypothesis “attempt at solution,” the method of feeling and thinking must be clarified, a number of terms defined and the moral values in the author's philosophy stated.

The method of feeling and thinking in this paper is dialectic. It is hoped that you will have moved closer to a feeling for and possibly an intellectual understanding of what is meant by dialectical thinking. The theory of dialectics has often been clearly formulated but, without a feeling for it, an intellectual appreciation of it is sterile. If you have a feeling for and about dialectics only then will the theory have meaning.

Dreaming is a piece of living. Analysis is a piece of living in life. To understand dreaming we can best do so in the context of an analysis which is in the total context of living. We are concentrating our attention on dreams, but, we are not isolating the problem of dreams. Nothing that happens in living can be investigated out of context. In the analytic situation, the analyst is no mirror with a so-called unbiased objectivity. He is not out of the context of the situation he is examining. He is as much a part of the analytic situation as is the patient. Both are functioning dynamic processes within the process