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Robert Langs' Decoding Your Dreams announces itself boldly on the cover as 'A Revolutionary Technique for Understanding Your Dreams'. The claim raises a question that is never quite adequately answered in the text. Where, one wonders, will this well established and widely published psychoanalyst locate the revolution? In 1900 Freud published 'The interpretation of dreams'. Its message, that the dream has meaning, can be interpreted, is the 'royal road to a knowledge of the unconscious activities of the mind', has been debated, embraced, and elaborated within the psychoanalytic establishment and without ever since. But Langs makes only a few references to Freud, none to any other psychoanalysts, none to the dream research of the last decades, and meagre reference to the revolutionary volume of nearly a century ago. Apparently Langs' imaginary audience is devoid of historical or scholarly interest, nor is it bothered to know his own intellectual credentials, which are in fact considerable. He seems confident of his book finding readers who come freshly to the idea of dream interpretation, but who would, at least after his enthusiastic and sometimes dazzling introduction, apply themselves earnestly and usefully to the contemplation of their own dreams.
Contrary to the appreciative comments published on the dust jacket, Langs' message is not a straightforward popularization of current psychoanalytic understanding. His theme, that the dreamer is the best interpreter of his own dream, implies that anyone with a wish to fathom its meaning is better off telling no one, friend or professional. Such an approach is only revolutionary within the psychoanalytic establishment, to which Langs does not address himself here. Without quite openly confronting his colleagues, he declares little or no confidence in the dream telling process which has been a cornerstone of psychoanalysis since its beginning. He advises the dreamer to value, remember and analyse his own dreams,