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All days are nights to see till I see thee,
And nights bright days when dreams do show thee me.
The title of this book is quite apt as it pertains to research that is clinically useful and a significant contribution to our understanding of dream research, especially applied to clinical practice, and has certainly achieved this goal. Twenty-two dream researchers have written 17 chapters indicating their potential value in the treatment of emotionally
troubled patients. The work is a combination of up-to-date scientific principles, both regarding psychotherapy and the process of sleep and dreaming.
Chapter 1 describes evidence that a dream exists in an orderly fashion and describes a method called dream translation, treating the dream as a figure of speech, and assuming a strict determinism in approaching the dream report: the interpersonal, the intrapsychic, and the self-psychological. The dream translator assumes that the dream is a metaphor and the meaning other than what a literal reading would yield. Chapters 2, 3, and 4 focus on interviewing techniques in collecting the dream report, leading to the ultimate meaning of a dream. All information used to interpret the dream comes exclusively from the dreamer and, importantly, the interviewing role is facilitated by taking the perspective of an outsider and collaborating and exploring with the dreamer rather than making assumptions. This includes the dream narrative as well as facts, thoughts, and actions in the dream from start to finish. Dreaming, as a mental activity during sleep is not directly measurable as the person has to wake up and remember the subjective experiences that occurred during sleep, and these cannot be explained by physiology. The authors discuss the continuity hypothesis, noting that overt and covert behavior in waking life are continuous with dreaming, thus utilizing Freud's concept of the day-residue. Dreams of the second part of the night comprise elements of the distan