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This is a practical book, well organized and accessible to all readers familiar with Jungian theory. It might be understandable to clinicians who are not familiar with Jung's work, but, as the authors immediately confess, ‘It barely touches on the rich philosophical issues raised by dreaming and fantasy. It does not deal with material on comparative approaches to dream interpretation.… Nor does it deal with the research coming from the laboratories on the necessity and patterns of REM sleep’ (p. 1). It is likely to be used mostly by clinicians already familiar with Jung, especially by candidates in Jungian analytic training programmes. Because there are already two ‘classic’ handbooks aimed at similar audiences (Mattoon 1978/1984; Hall 1977/1991), I wondered what unique contribution this volume might make. I found it to be especially insightful about transferential issues in clients’ dreams and particularly sensitive to the ‘object and subject levels’ in general. I believe the object level of dreams, especially for dreams taking place in analysis or analytic psychotherapy, has been given short shrift in many Jungian texts, but not in this one.
I like the organization of the book, introducing its major conceptual framework (Working with the Dream in Clinical Practice), followed by particulars (The Language of Dreams, Association—Explanation—Amplification, Mythological Motifs, and others), and finishing up with ‘technical points’, prognosis, and dreams about the therapist. The premises of the authors are clearly laid out in the first chapters and then applied in many dream interpretations. All dreams are presented within their specific clinical and life contexts. Almost all dream interpretations are ‘context near’, and hence grounded in the dreamer's life or therapy, rather than floating freely without adequate moorings.
As a co-authored book, the textual voice is smooth and unified. Obviously the authors primarily agree on their approaches to dreams and their meanings.