New Research Results in Practical Dream Interpretation*

In the following sections a number of new research results in therapeutic dream interpretation are presented. Each discussed point is a self-contained problem of psychoanalytic practice, but the discerning reader will recognize that the different sections supplement the lesson of each other. The common trend that runs through these discussions is the goal of increased rationality in this field, achieved through the demonstrable character of interpretations. This is bound to improve the subjective certainty with which the analyst offers his explanations and objectively to afford a surer foundation to his procedure. Admittedly, adherence to the principles demonstrated here must be felt to apply the brake to freewheeling analytic techniques that are unassociated with continual self-criticism. The pressures of daily practice favor reliance on a few adopted rules supplemented with psychological imagination. The latter is, however, not quite the same as psychological intuition, which derives its credentials from corroboration.

From the beginning of my psychoanalytic training I was encouraged to conjecture, with the aid of dreams, identifiable events and mental experiences. But the principle of “unconscious” sources and stimuli