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We were fortunate in having the book begin with Dr. Rangell's clear, concise, yet comprehensive critical review not just of the history of dream interpretation but of the crucial psychoanalytic concepts which underlie the appropriate clinical approach to and use of dreams. Those concepts provide the basis for both the understanding of dreams and how that understanding can be applied in our work with patients. Just as there is no technique of therapy, there is no technique of dream interpretation. We do have theories of psychoanalytic and psychotherapeutic technique, and similarly we have theories of dream interpretation; and those theories derive from the wide array of psychoanalytic concepts which Dr. Rangell so very effectively summarizes. And although not all contributors to the book would share or interpret those concepts in an identical manner, all of them do appear to subscribe to those basic principles. Each of the contributors approached dream analysis in essentially the same way even though their theoretical orientation might lead to differing formulations, interpretations, and emphases.
Starting with Dr. Rothstein's “Introduction,” no one disagrees with the central thesis that the analysis of a dream cannot be treated as a discrete operation separate from the rest of the therapeutic work (except for research purposes). As was enunciated in a number of different ways, our purpose is to analyze the person not the dream.
There has always been, even within the profession, a good deal