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This is the fifth volume in a series designed to provide periodic surveys of developments in self psychology. One finds repeated contributions in this series by a core group of writers who might be considered Kohut's disciples—close collaborators who now carry forward his ideas. Is there some risk of a stultifying orthodoxy enveloping self psychology based on the needs of disciples to see themselves as true defenders of the faith? Fortunately, this does not appear to be a real danger. Several of the papers in this volume suggest a willingness on the part of the editor to consider contributions that offer theoretical revisions of Kohut's ideas while remaining within the basic framework of self psychology.
The work of Robert Stolorow, whose ideas represent the cutting edge of self-psychologically inspired theorizing, is presented in the opening section on dreams. Stolorow has demonstrated a unique capacity to distill the best of Kohut's ideas and to blend these concepts with classic psychoanalytic concepts. He is the discussant of papers by James Fosshage, Harry Fiss, and Ramon Greenberg. All three authors emphasize the importance of the self in dream formation and, in the case of Fosshage and Fiss, the particular function of the dream in fostering the development, maintenance, and restoration of the self. Stolorow critiques the deemphasis of defense and disguise in the three papers. He expresses the fear that these authors “are all in danger of throwing out Freud's clinical dream baby with its metapsychological bathwater” (p. 36). Stolorow sees a need for far-reaching revisions in psychoanalytic theory made necessary by the shift away from the motivational primacy of drives. He outlines his own theory of dreaming with its emphasis on the use of concrete perceptual images that symbolize abstract thoughts, feelings, and subjective states. These concrete symbols serve the vital purpose of affirming