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Norman MacKenzie, a sociologist and former editor, has here written an informative, readable account of man's concern from
earliest history to the present time with the meaning of his dreams. His book is in three parts, the first dealing with the dream from antiquity to the time of Freud, the second with the discoveries of Freud and his contemporaries, the third with recent physiological and pharmacological researches into sleep, dreaming, and the use of drugs.
In his early history of the dream Dr. MacKenzie has condensed many contributions of philosophers, scientists, writers, and historians into a meaningful unity. Of special interest is the reference to Aristotle's essay on Sleep and Dreams and the discussion of the writings of MacNish and Abercrombie,—two prefreudian writers to whom Freud gave very little recognition.
In the section on Freud and his contemporaries much consideration is given to the work of Jung and Stekel. MacKenzie emphasizes the similarities in technique and interpretative method of Freud and his contemporaries, which he feels did not justify the sharp theoretical conflicts that developed between them. The use of dreams in psychotherapy is discussed with clinical illustrations drawn mostly from Bonime's book on The Clinical Use of Dreams and, in the same chapter, the author reviews the use of empathy in dream interpretation and the problem-solving function of the dream as described by French and Fromm. The section on physiological investigations covers the field well though significant researches have been reported since this book was published.
In the concluding section the author propounds his own theory of dreaming. He relates the dream to a biochemical mechanism which includes hallucinogenic elements as well as elements that have an arousing effect. When the biochemical substance accumulates to a certain level, arousal may occur if this is adaptatively desirable, but if not the mechanism can be channeled with the aid of the hallucino