ABSTRACT
This chapter suggests that in the early stages of many analyses some patients' dreams are predictive of the future course of the analysis. These dreams contain a condensed narrative about the transference relationship and encapsulate a narrative that will unfold as the analysis progresses. The ideas that oracles predicted the future and that the future was often expressed in dreams are not new. In classical Greece, Isis, Osiris, and Serapis delivered their oracles by means of dreams. An important aspect of the sequence narrated in Michael's analysis, lies in the fact that an experience in the consulting room followed by an interpretation, allowed a dream to be dreamt. Dreams that bring knowledge of the past in his formulation may also be interpreted as foretelling the future. S. Freud himself continues: Nevertheless the ancient belief that dreams foretell the future is not wholly devoid of truth.
