The Dream is a law to itself; and as well quarrel with a rainbow for showing, or for not showing, a secondary arch. The Dream knows best, and the Dream, I say again, is the responsible party.—De Quincey
THERE is a timely need for the revision of dream theory along the following lines: (1) away from metapsychological speculation about dream origins, functions, form, and structure; (2) toward seeing the dream as an aspect of a total behavioral response; (3) toward examining the formal characteristics of dream thought in their intimate association with the altered level of brain function occurring at the time; (4) toward an examination of content as derivative of a social existence that in turn has unknown as well as known dimensions; and (5) toward the development and application of techniques for translating the dream metaphor that are not derived from or limited by