Prelogical Experience. An Inquiry Into Dreams and Other Creative Processes: By Edward S. Tauber, M.D. and Maurice R. Green, M.D. New York: Basic Books, Inc., 1959. 196 pp.

It is not quite clear for whom this book is written. There is some nagging peripheral criticism of Freud's dream interpretation, but no penetrating struggle with the deeper issues of psychoanalytic technique. The authors state, '… it is our intention now to re-examine something of the foundations of symbolic theory and to consider the possibilities of a more effective approach in this field. Specifically, we shall explore aspects of symbolism in relation to the vast continuum of more or less diffuse referential processes that operate at the margin of awareness and come to the edge of focal attention rather than being divulged through the logical formulations of the conscious mind.' This leads into a formulation of '… the human paradox of separateness and togetherness'. Perhaps the most hopeful idea in this book is the authors' thesis that dreams and other prelogical experiences indicate that men know intuitively more about the unconscious than they recognize. For this reason men are more creative than they usually take credit for. The authors also advocate 'free interchange and interaction' in psychotherapy; they do not succeed too well in establishing such communication with their readers.