ABSTRACT
Dreams are ambiguous. They are an amalgam of repetitions from the past and new experiences in the present, fantasy and reality, construction and discovery. Dream interpretations in therapy are not an archeological dig or a library search for symbols, but a creative process between two collaborators searching for meaning in the present. Traumatized patients guard against the emergence of terror in their conscious verbalizations. The regressive thinking implicated in fantasy, daydreams, and dreams allows for a less anxiety-provoking entry into the terror that is at the root of the trauma. The regression in dream work is more temporary, limited, and reversible than when terror is experienced in reality and in the transference.
