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Dr Grinstein's past scholarly psychoanalytic work is well know to us from his Index of Psychoanalytic Writings and On Sigmund Freud's Dreams. He has now utilized his knowledge about Freud's insight into dreams to give us a systematic approach to rules and suggestions for dream interpretation. He calls on his more than thirty years of teaching and supervision in helping to write this practical book. It actually goes considerably beyond what its title implies; it is also something of a primer for psychotherapists in that the author repeatedly uses the focus of the dream to explicate many issues essential for good treatment. The book thus serves as an instructive volume in aiding students and beginning practioners to use dream material in every therapeutic way possible, e.g. making accurate reconstructions, assessing the strength of the ego, id, superego, and achieving greater insight into the transference and defence mechanisms. Experienced therapists will probably use the book primarily for a review of their use of dream interpretation; analysts who are generally familiar with the literature on dreams and dream interpretation will still profit from the varied clinical examples and the organized approach to the often diffuse documentation of dream material. The book is conveniently presented in the form of chapters on discrete aspects of the role of dreams in clinical work; some of the chapters will be discussed in detail below. There is some overlapping of subject matter, probably unavoidable in a book of this type. There is a satisfactory index and a bibliography suitable for the scope of the book.
In his initial remarks, Grinstein (p. 3) summarizes what the general orientation of the therapist should be in listening to dream material: "We must restrict our work to calling up the substantive ideas for each [dream] element … we must wait till the concealed unconscious material we are in search of emerges of its own accord.' This brief but profound guideline