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One of the major characteristics of the developmental dream is that it signals a turning point in the analytic treatment. Freud (1912/1958, p. 96) asserted that “the great majority of dreams forged ahead of the analysis.” It seems to me that Dr. Young-Bruehl enthusiastically endorses Freud's idea of the unique position of the dream in psychoanalysis. Although Freud's assertion demonstrated great clinical ingenuity, at the same time it was limited, because he did not back it up by validating clinical material from the analytic process. This task was left for subsequent generations of analysts. The clinical material about the traumatic dream as one type of developmental dream, was necessarily rather condensed. Nevertheless, it provides the opportunity to discuss crucial issues that are at the heart of understanding and interpreting all dreams that are brought to the analytic treatment. Things seldom happen in analysis (or in life) without having been dreamt about first. Is it not a pity that we forget about 95% of our dreams? Those that are remembered must be treasured.
How am I going to enter the discussion of the traumatic dream from the clinical material available to us? I will try to adopt an attitude for this discussion similar to the one I have while listening, understanding, and interpreting dreams in my consulting room. This frame of mind is composed of a curiosity that raises implicit and explicit questions, of exploring together basic dream dimensions, as integrated within the analytic process. My aim is to improve the psychological condition of