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A study such as this demands a high and well-defined purpose, a broadly comprehensive attitude and a fearless readiness to enter into the uttermost recesses of the human mind. Dr. Stekel has prepared this work in such a spirit and with a striking insight into psychoneurotic mental life. The unconscious lies before him an open book and from it he has gathered this extensive material in his practical work with patients, through which he has brought them to a healing understanding and readjustment of their far-reaching complexes and which he here presents in its manifold manifestations for the instruction and guidance of his fellow workers and students in the sphere of mental life.
Beginning with a general consideration of symbolism in dreams the author treats in detail, always through presentation and analysis of concrete examples, this symbolism as it appears utilized by the prolifically active neurosis in distinctively individual fashion or following certain representative pathways common to the human mind. Through these analyses are brought to light in striking manner the mechanisms of dream distortion and transformation in dreams; the place of the affect; special symbolisms, those of animals, plant, children in dreams and so on; the peculiar employment of language in speech or individual words; dreams of birth, of the mother's body, of water, of fire, dreams of flying, the many typical phantasies which appear in the manifest content to be traced out in the latent dream thoughts. There is always emphasized the manifold determination of the dream necessitating a manifold interpretation of the same. Marked simplicity and clearness characterize the presentation of the many phases of the dream life in spite of the manifoldness and complexity of the material.
The discussion of “telepathic dreams” suggests a rather surprisingly unscientific attitude in the mention of a “telepathic fluid” yet the phenomenon is left to future research with some suggestions as to possible