The changing roles of dream interpreters in the understanding of dreams

This article describes six major contemporary methods of interpretation, each requiring different behaviors on the part of the interpreter. These methods are the cultural formulation method, the psychotheoretical formulation method, the associative approach, the catharsis method, the personal projection method, and the phenomenological method. Workers with dreams appear frequently to be far more authoritarian than they think themselves to be. A review of ones own work through transcripts can be revealing and beneficial.