Progress In Clinical Psychology. Volume  VIII: Dreams and Dreaming. Lawrence E. Abt and Bernard F. Riess (Eds.). New York:  Grune & Stratton, 1968.  189 pp. The Kris Study Group Of The New York Psychoanalytic Institute. Monograph III. The Mechanism of Denial and The Manifest Content of the Dream. Bernard D. Fine, Edward D. Joseph, and Herbert F. Waldhorn (Eds.). New York:  International Universities Press, 1969.  113 pp. The Dream In Psychoanalysis. Leon L. Altman. New York:  International Universities Press, 1969.  227 pp.

Of these three books, Volume VIII of Progress in Clinical Psychology offers the most vital and original contributions in that the entire volume is devoted to recent sleep and dream research and their clinical implications. Most notable is the chapter by Helen B. Lewis. She deals with repression and the forgetting of dreams, effect of stress and neutral films upon dream content, and differences in transference and dream symbolization found between two groups of perceptually different patients who have been studied. Other notable chapters in this book are “The Experimental Manipulation of Dreams” by C. Scott Moss, and “The Phenomena of Dream Recall” by Donald R. Goodenough. The chapter dealing with drugs and dreaming emphasizes the chronic suppressive effects of sedatives on dreaming and their interference with the therapeutic function of dreaming.

The Kris Study Group Monograph offers a very comprehensive theoretical and clinical discussion of the mechanism of denial. The study of the manifest content of the dream describes the importance of the role of defense mechanisms, the role of masturbation fantasies, and the nature of object relations. The two types of specific dreams considered are: 1) those where the manifest content contains overt references to incestuous, sadistic, or immoral wishes; and 2) those where a traumatic childhood scene is portrayed in the manifest content. Dr. Steward feels that clinical results invite a reevaluation of the role of those forces which