ABSTRACT
This introduction presents an overview of the key concepts discussed in the subsequent chapters of this book. The book illustrates similarities between the conceptualization of the dream space and that of the analyst's function as a container of the patient's projections. It suggests that in the early stages of many analyses some patients' dreams are "predictive" of the future course of the analysis. The book also illustrates the way that patients may project on to the analyst a dilemma which they are unable to dream about, so that the analyst's functioning may transform the dilemma into one that can be thought and dreamt about. It contains some modern contributions to the understanding and interpretation of dreams developed by contemporary psychoanalysts in the British Society. At its core is an exploration of the connections between dreaming and thinking, and the way in which dreams may provide the analysts' best clues to their patients' states of mind.
