Conflict and Dream

This is Volume XXV of twenty-eight in a collection on Psychoanalysis. Originally published in 1932, the aim of this book is to give a sane interpretation of the significance of dreams based upon a thorough investigation of the incidents of each dream recorded and of the circumstances under which it occurred. Dr Rivers especially calls attention (<I>a</I>) to the inadequacy of Freud's theory of wish-fulfilment as an explanation of dreams; (<I>b</I>) to the exaggerated importance assigned by the psycho-analytic school to incidents in the dreamer's early life to the neglect of recent conflicts, which he regards as more important as causal agents; and (<I>c</I>) especially to the fallacies of Freudian interpretations of symbolism, and particularly of sexual motives and symbols, which have been responsible for most of the opposition to Freud's teaching.