Dream Work in Clinical Practice: Guidelines toward a Triangular Situation

Since the publication of Freud's Interpretation of Dreams over a century ago, there has been a surprising dearth of systematic treatment in the psychoanalytic literature on ways to address dream interpretation in practice and in training. It is argued here that dreams remain a royal road to the unconscious and that understanding can be enriched through the application of a methodical approach which incorporates a range of different theories (despite their having generated major rifts in the history of psychoanalysis). In earlier research, I developed a four-part sequential ‘model in theory’ for organizing, comparing and integrating contributions from different theorists to dream interpretation. The present article reports on the model's usefulness for examining case material. Analysis of three case vignettes from experienced clinicians revealed that the model's constructs hold good for examining real-life dream material, which also suggests its applicability as a basis for training. Further work with the vignettes gave rise to a related ‘model in practice’ for understanding dream work in therapy as a triangular situation in which the dream, the patient, and the practitioner have distinct roles. Applying these models to case material, as illustrated in this paper, indicates their potential for further exploration, and to use in the structure, design and practical implementation of learning and training that specifically addresses work with dreams.