Hadfield, J. A. Dreams and Nightmares. London, Baltimore:  Penguin Books, 1954.  235 pp.

So far as the reviewer knows, most books dealing with the subject of dreams manifest an unfortunate tendency to concern themselves almost exclusively with interpretative processes as seen from a single point of view; e.g., the Freudian or the Jungian. This regrettable circumstance has been corrected, at long last, with the appearance of Had-field's Dreams and Nightmares. This excellent volume is, to the reviewer's best knowledge, the first truly eclectic study in its own field, and a book that is as refreshing as it is valuable.

The author, whose most recent work is entitled Psychology and Mental Health, has long been widely respected for the sane and well-balanced views he has held on psychology, psychiatry, and psychotherapy. It is therefore gratifying to record that his approach to the difficult and somewhat controversial questions posed by the subjects of dreams and dream-interpretation is characterized by the same calm rationality and the same scientific broad-mindedness that have pervaded his earlier writings. He admits, for instance, that some dreams can be most logically interpreted in Freudian terms, whereas others seem to demand a Jungian or Adlerian technique. Indeed, one can readily agree with him when he writes: “A consideration of these popular and philosophic theories of dreams will, I think, permit us to conclude that none of them, as we have seen, is adequate as a complete explanation.” The author's own theory of dreams is lucidly and admirably set forth in Part Two, entitled “The Biological Theory.” In introducing this theory to his readers, the author writes: “According to what we shall call the Biological Theory of dreams, the function of dreams is that by means of reproducing the unsolved experiences of life, they work towards a solution of these problems. It is not claimed that this theory is entirely new, as it is based on the theories already described, the popular as well as the scientific, but it gives to dreams a new orientation and in part