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This is an interesting book in several respects. Written by analysts, presumably for analysts, the title is entirely misleading. One expects to find detailed pronouncements about dream interpretation, but not a single actual dream is discussed in this book, and the customary understanding of the word “dream,” as the activity of the mind in sleep, is not employed.
The theme of the book is the accomplishment of happiness with the aid of psychoanalysis. Happiness is defined as first approached through economic and practical success in living, a state of competence to achieve “transcendence” in fulfilling the requirements of the ego ideal. If this degree of competence is acquired it is reflected in one's dreams; if it is not gained, one's dreams are “nightmares” and one lives “daymares.” Having achieved this state of competence in survival procedures, one becomes happy only insofar as one can enter into a state of shared intimacy with a similarly competent other. There is nothing in this with which to disagree. It is a rewording of Freud's thesis that the two important tasks of life are work and love, and the achievement of happiness has been stated in many different ways, but the outline given in this book is quite acceptable. Given the background hypothesis, the remainder of the book is devoted to techniques of overcoming obstacles to competence in the two major areas.
Failure to achieve happiness produces anxiety and the victim has his or her own defensive maneuvers for diminishing this anxiety. The main process employed for this purpose is, according to the authors, to blame others and the main feature of such activity is to enter into sadomasochistic relationships. The analytic task consists of revealing these defensive activities, altering them, and returning the suffering individual to the task of correcting the impaired competence. These steps are described and explained in much detail.
The most valuable feature of the book is the orderly exposition of how to condu