The Language of Dreams, of Images, and of a Persecuted Child

A Grammar of Dreams, David Foulkes, Basic Books, New York, 1978

The Language of Change, Paul Watzlawick, Basic Books, New York, 1978

Genie — A Psycholinguistic Study of a Modern Day “Wild Child,” Susan Curtiss, Academic, New York, 1977

Language is the house of our being, Heidegger declared. Three modern scientists are exploring this house. David Foulkes ascends from the cellar of the unconscious to a cognitive flat with the language and grammar of dreams. Paul Watzlawick dwells on the right side of the cerebral household, postulating a therapeutic “language of change.” And Susan Curtiss discovers from the attic of her psycholinguistic study that Genie, this pitiable modern day “wild child,” uses right hemisphere language.

Notwithstanding living under the same roof, the three authors, eminent scholars in their fields, are dealing with their topic from different viewpoints. Instead of describing and evaluating each work separately, this reviewer prefers to examine the magna opera of Foulkes, Curtiss, and Watzlawick under summarizing headings as follows:

1. Psychoanalysis as the science of symbolic functioning;

2. Cerebral lateralization;

3. Scientific value and clinical applicability.