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PSYCHOANALYTICALLY ORIENTED CHILD THERAPISTS usually value dreams. As a child learns that the therapist values dreams, the child may report them more often, out of the pleasure of pleasing the analyst and of doing something together with the analyst. There may or may not be the additional pleasure of making connections between the dreams and something significant in the child's life. On the other hand, if the child sees that dreams refer to anxious wishes or fears, the child may ward off the therapist's interest so as not to have to face the anxiety. The child may resent the therapist's interest, ignore it, refuse to cooperate and withhold the dream. Whether the child welcomes or resists the therapist's interest in dreams, an area of interest is being identified which was never so clearly valued before.
The child may take the therapist's interest in other ways as well. The child may simply feel encouraged to look further at the dream. After all, in offering a nonjudgmental, empathic inquiry into dream material, the therapist is a new object for the child, who has never before considered such material so carefully. Alternately, the child may take the therapist's interest in dreams as a chance to tease or provoke the therapist; to test the genuineness of the therapist's interest; or to devalue the therapist's interest.
The child may also take the therapist's interest in understanding