NEW HOPE INTERNATIONAL REVIEW ON-LINE

Stephanie Clement has written a good, straightforward guide to the understanding and interpretation of dreams. It is backed up by a CD Rom that gives the user an on-screen, interactive notebook in which dreams can be wriiten out, annotated and analysed.

The book falls into two parts. Part one deals with the different types of dreams. Part two is a dictionary of symbols. Clement is a Jungian and believes that the interpretation of dreams is a way to self-knowledge and individuation. She also believes that some kinds of dreams may have a psychic or prophetic content.

Part one is excellent. It shows the reader how to become his or her own dream-analyst.

I am less sure of Part two, the dictionary of symbols. It seems weighted towards the esoteric and away from the mundane. I tested it against a dream of my own, in which the Pope was lying on a bed, and found to my surprise that neither "bed" nor "Pope" was listed. The nearest I could get to "Pope" was "Hierophant" — the name of one of the cards in the Tarot deck. By the same token the alchemical term "lapis" is listed but not its everyday equivalent, "stone".

My feeling is that people familiar with esoteric terms like "Hierophant" and "lapis" are going to be sufficiently at home with symbolism not to need the dictionary. Perhaps the problem is simply that a dictionary of a mere 130 pages is bound to be a hit and miss affair.

The CD Rom offers little an exercise book wouldn't, only the convenience of working on screen and not having to look things up yourself in the dream dictionary.