STUDIES IN DREAMS.• MRS. ARNOLD-FORSTER'S interesting account of her dreams
and of how she gained mastery over them should prove of great interest to those who are troubled by worries which recur in their sleep. In Dostoievsky's farcical story The Friend of the Family, the favourite foot-boy, poor Fallaley, dreams every night of a white bull to the disgust of the gentle- folk, who ask him why ho cannot dream something genteel, about ladies walking in a garden or driving in a carriage. If Fallaley had read Mrs. Arnold-Forster's book he could have learned how to banish the white bull. But seriously, there aro people to whom their dreams arc a genuine affliction, and to those we thoroughly recommend the book.
It is rather curious that something of a dream sense of proportion still clings about the study. Mrs. Arnold-Forster writes quite seriously about learning to fly. If the reader were -to open her book at random, he might be not a little puzzled by her sentences, for she writes of her dream experiences exactly as though they were real. This, however, probably only shows how immediate was her transcription. A very interesting preface is contributed by Dr. Morton Prince, the author of that entertaining psychological book The Dissociation of a Personality. On the whole Mrs. Arnold- Forster, like Dr. Morton Prince, is inclined to reject the Freudian theory that all dreams are symbolic and usually signify repressed desire, particularly sex wishes. A much simpler explana- tion seems often entirely satisfactory, and she pleads for tho exercise of sober judgment and common sense in our studies of this subject. Surely, in this matter particularly, a good deal depends on the dreamer, and on his or her situation at the particular moment. We can surely all of us recall periods in our own lives in which we have repeatedly experienced wish-fulfilment dreams —sometimes connected with " a beloved object " and some- times of a more pedestrian kind. For example, many women when a child is to be born repeatedly dream stories in which the birth of the child is the principal feature ; at other moments they aro not aware of dreaming wish-fulfilment dreams. The subject is a fascinating one, and Mrs. Arnold-Forster has contributed an interesting volume to its growing literature.
• Studies in Dreams. By Mary Arnold-Forster. London : G. Allen and
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