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 (a) to the inadequacy of Freud's theory of wish-fulfilment as an explanation of dreams; (b) 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 (c) 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.