ABSTRACT
Dreams have multiple functions and are looked at from different angles according to different theories. The developmental, organizational, and regulatory processes that Fosshage posits are all viewed as directly (manifestly) observable in dreams. Dreams reveal the dreamer's immediate concerns through affects, metaphors, and themes. Dream images need to be assessed clinically for what they reveal metaphorically and thematically, not for what they conceal. Dream images are appreciated for their communicative value within the structure of the dream drama. Male analysts reported more on erotic/sexual content, whereas female analysts had a higher frequency of dreams in the manifest content of which the analysand intrudes on the analyst's private space. Lester explains these differences in the light of object-relations and wish-fulfilment theories. Myers (1986) characterizes these dreams as being of inestimable importance in helping the analyst resolve countertransference responses.
