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This is a passionate and personal book; it is also an ambitious one, embracing, as it does, 1) the history of oneirology, that is, the study and interpretation of dreams, 2) a comprehensive overview of the evolution of the human brain and of the crossspecies research which has been, and is being, done on the activity of dreaming, 3) the presentation and exploration of dozens of dreams, ‘big’ and ‘little’, past and present, dreamt by famous people and by ordinary people over the centuries, 4) the elucidation of a practical approach to dreamwork for anybody interested in exploring their own dreams further, with or without the help of a therapist, 5) a highly personal plea - stated in terms of great urgency, reminiscent of Jung - for the committed development of greater consciousness through an enlightened and committed approach to the age—old wisdom residing in all of us which speaks to us through our dreams. In fact, the title of his final chapter could well serve to express the scope of Stevens's book - ‘Science and the soul’. To summarize such a book is well—nigh impossible; however, I would like to attempt to give a flavour of the book by quoting Stevens fairly extensively and by focusing on the question of how convincingly he realizes two objectives which he sets himself in the opening chapter. Stevens writes:
One ambition that has inspired me throughout my professional life is the wish to contribute to the development of a coherent theory of human nature. Under Bowlby's influence I came to see that use of the comparative method— bringing together the data of depth psychology, evolutionary biology, social science, and anthropology - is indispensable to formulating such a theory. The comparative
Page 442study of dreams is of central importance to this objective, because, as I hope to show, dreams relate us directly to the age—old concerns of humanity.
The over—riding purpose that has guided me throughout this book is to give my readers a feel for dreams, by initiating the