ABSTRACT
In Donald Meltzer's theory, dreams are like a theatrical representation of the internal world—in this sense, they are similar to Melanie Klein's unconscious phantasies—but he adds that the dream process is like "a theatre for the generating of meaning". Dream language uses both a symbolic linguistic form and the symbolic plastic form. If dreaming is a form of thinking, Meltzer says, then the type of language through which the dream thought is expressed needs to be defined. In dreams, many images, sensations, and so on appear, each representing a world of possible meanings. The symbolic significance is given by the partial overlapping of one or more of these elements. Furthermore, dream "language" is also visual, and, Meltzer says, sometimes the image is much more effective than words in expressing a meaning. Similar to dreams are those "flashes", during sessions, that interrupt verbal exchange with sudden and vivid visual images, apparently without explanation.
