Problems in the Psychology of Dreaming: A Review of the Work of Richard Jones

The accumulation of extensive neurophysiological data on processes of dreaming has made possible a thorough reconsideration of Freud's contributions to the psychology of dreams. The most complete effort at such a re-examination is undoubtedly that by Richard Jones, who in his recent book, The New Psychology of Dreaming (1970), offers an extensive review of both the physiological and the purely psychological aspects of dreaming and the modifications they suggest for Freudian theory. Throughout a series of papers and books dating from 1962 (1962a, 1962b, 1964, 1965, 1968, 1969, 1970, manuscript), Jones has thoughtfully argued for certain distinctive refinements in the theory of dreaming that, first, would separate a purely psychological view of dreams from the mechanics of a nineteenth-century metapsychology which has proved unnecessary and even incompatible with recent physiological data, and, second, would permit an extensive participation of ego processes in dreaming activity. It was his hope that consideration of ego processes would also make possible the systematic study of the dream as an integral and predictable event in the growth and development of personality.

In the present review I shall discuss some basic distinctions Jones makes in how one should explore the processes of dreaming and how these distinctions, in turn, make it possible to describe certain ego functions that are themselves a key to systematic studies of personality development. Beyond this, the reader must turn to