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THE EFFECT OF STRESS ON DREAMS. By Louis Breger, Ian Hunter & Ron W. Lane. Psychological Issues, Monograph 27. New York: International Universities Press, 1972, 213 pp., $8.50.
In order to study their problem, the authors attempted to avoid strictly laboratory conditions by investigating the effects of stressful situations occurring in group therapy and in individuals awaiting surgery. They found that "it is affect-related or emotionally arousing information of personal relevance that one dreams about." Subjects reacted to the same or similar experience in significantly different ways. Their data consistently revealed the persisting effects of early experiences, particularly the relationships within the family. "… personality characteristics are embodied in … memory systems and determine perception … (… determine the particular course of fantasy, thought, and dreams); and guide action and interchange with the environment." The REM state is one of a number which facilitate access to these memory systems. The impact of contemporary events upon these systems serves to facilitate solutions to problems brought into focus by stress, but only if the data are analyzed and interpreted. Merely dreaming does not solve problems.
NEW HORIZON FOR PSYCHOTHERAPY: AUTONOMY AS A PROFESSION. Edited by Robert R. Holt. New York: International Universities Press, 1971, 418 pp., $15.00.
The central problem of discussion in this book is whether psychotherapy should be recognized as a distinct profession, with specific standards and methods of teaching and training and recognition as an autonomous discipline, neither medical nor psychological as such, but combining the most desirable features of both. Ancillary problems taken up are: should the emphasis be on producing large numbers of psychotherapists, with necessarily less training or smaller numbers of more highly skilled ones; nature of the curriculum; use of existing facilities or establishment of entirely new ones; the q