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DREAM POWER by Ann Faraday

DREAM POWER

By

Pub Date: Jan. 14th, 1971
Publisher: Coward, McCann & Geoghegan

Perchance to-- do well, certainly better than Stewart & Freeman's Secret of a Dream (to follow), this is an English psychologist's discussion of the dream as a means of ""greater self-knowledge without expert help."" Many people are justifiably put off by this kind of claimer and when all has been said about how it's done, it is not that easy. However Miss Faraday's book is quite serious and sensible in explaining the scientific REM and NREM findings and the different types of dreams produced; in her discussion of Freud's contribution but distortion of dream materiel (she went through Freudian analysis); in her resume of Jung's reversal so that the dream reveals rather than conceals, followed up by Calvin Hall (Director of Dream Research, Univ. of Calif.) and Fritz Perls (Gestalt) where the dream becomes symbolic picture language. In application, she discusses the dreams which are usually triggered by externals versus the more deeply revealing ones (the four most important images -- people, animals, houses and vehicles) and she interprets her own dreams as well as those of people with whom she has worked. The referrals (both Jung and Perls) give it a contemporary appeal although there is nothing faddish here, nor presumptuous beyond the fact that many people won't be as well equipped to handle their ""inner life"" as she assumes or they probably think.