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This book on dreams, in a second edition with little change from the first, is a small volume dedicated to an interest in dreams as of special value for the psychoanalytic process. For the beginner, it can be stimulating and provoke both questions and uncertainties. For the more experienced analyst, it can serve as a forum for discussion of the question, What is the place of the dream in the psychoanalyst's armamentarium of analytic tools? The book could also have been titled "A Handbook of Psychoanalytic Technique" (with special reference to the dream) or "A Dream Notebook" (with special reference to technique of dream interpretation).
The book contains within its fabric a plea for renewed interest in and emphasis on the dream. Altman speculates on why there might be insufficient activity in working with the dream and outlines his approach to various kinds of dreams. He opens with a review of dream theory, and explains that his categorization of the dreams he tells us about is a necessary expedient for presentation.
He feels that the emphasis on ego psychology has had a detrimental effect regarding dream appreciation and that it is possible that, in current times, candidates could graduate from institutes with little or no work with the dream—their own or their patients'. He concludes his introduction by saying that he does not believe psychoanalysis consists of working only with the dream, and he says as much throughout the entire volume, but at the same time retains his emphasis and devotion to dreams.
I do not believe that the dearth of interest in the dream among younger colleagues is as extensive as Altman seems to indicate, at least not in terms of the candidates I have known. Nor do I believe that any disability with reference to working with the dream on the part of the analyst can be ascribed entirely to the shift in emphasis