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This new ‘attempt at a critical reflection through clinical experience on the difficulty of interpreting the dream phenomenon’, rooted in Freud's own work, offers much to interest the analytical psychologist. The author, now a pyschoanalyst in Paris, once worked in London with Melanie Klein's group and was analysed by Rosenfeld. Resnik has read widely and deeply and writes out of thoughtful experience of work not only on dreams but in literature and philosophy. Full value is given to the historical and cultural context of his own original contribution. The book itself arose out of an encounter-seminar and reflects that ‘real imaginary labyrinthine adventure’ in its structure and spirit. The reader is warned that the ‘open study’ will not always follow a logical or unambiguous course. Each chapter introduces new material and ideas, but the main themes are constantly reworked.
An impressive feature of the book is its rich clinical illustration, often in series of vividly conveyed dream narratives from the author's own patients. These evoke in the reader a spontaneous, alive engagement with the discussion. The language of the book is often poetic, sometimes densely allusive. Footnotes give some help, but a full reference list would have been welcome. If the reader can relax the demand for clarity and allow the book to speak to him in its own way he may experience for himself something of the approach of the author to working with dreams.