Richardson engages the issue of how a psychoanalytic therapy based on under- standings derived from dream analysis, transference phenomena, and the recovery of memories can transform the pathological sequelae of incest. She locates her work

within the contemporary relational, self-psychological, and feminist psychoanalytic traditions and emphasizes the positive developmental impact of the relationship between patient and therapist. Her main thesis is that memories of trauma which emerge prior to the restoration of damaged psychic functioning pose a threat of retraumatization. Dreams can be understood as records of mastery of the trauma as they contain indications of the emergence of new representations. When the analytic work, via the transference, has effected new structures, only then will the recovery of memories prove to be beneficial as part of the repair of the damage inflicted by the trauma. A clinical illustration containing dreams of trauma before and after memories of the trauma is offered.