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From his introductory quotation taken from the Talmud, “A Dream which is not explained is like a letter which has not been read,” to his concluding chapter “Working with Dreams in the Therapeutic Sessions,” Dr. Bonime has presented us with a stimulating and enlightening account of his views on the dreaming process. Montague Ullman, who wrote the foreword, calls it the first systematic and detailed clinical exposition of the analysis of dreams from a basically non-Freudian point of view. One might find it profitable to compare this book with the section on dreams in The Process in Psychoanalysis by Harold Kelman.
In the preface, Bonime pays specific tribute to Bernard S. Robbins and Karen Horney for their contributions to his growth as an individual in general and in the evolving of his views on the dreaming process in particular. Throughout the book he validates his main thesis that “the interchange between patient and analyst is the heart of the therapeutic endeavor,” and that in this exchange the use of dreams is important both academically, as a rich source of data, and clinically, as a means of engaging the patient in the basic mutuality of the total therapeutic process.
For purposes of correlating and integrating his material he presents as a frame of reference three approaches: 1) the consideration of the dream through classification of its elements into four categories—action, individuals, surroundings and feelings; 2) the consideration of associative activity; and 3) the consideration of interpretive activity.
He uses one-hundred-fifteen dreams, some repeatedly in various contexts, to illustrate his points. He writes that “Emphasis has been placed throughout upon process and reciprocity in the therapeutic endeavor through the constant juxtaposition of the activities of the patient and the analyst.” The topics covered include symbolism, feeling, introductory dreams, sexuality, anxiety, resistance, interpretive activity, evidence of evolving health, occurrence of