ABSTRACT
Dream interpretation is the process whereby the latent meaning is arrived at by starting from the manifest content of the dream. This process essentially requires the patient to free-associate to the elements of the dream which includes identifying the day-residues contained in the dream. From these central themes, and together with his own knowledge of the patient's psychopathology and dream-symbols, the analyst can then deduce the repressed unconscious wish usually of an infantile sexual nature. Of the dream symbolism, Freud says 'it is important for the technique of dream interpretation'. A knowledge of dream symbolism will however afford the most valuable assistance to interpretation precisely at those points at which the dream's associations are insufficient or fail altogether. The value of dream interpretation is the information which it yields about the unconscious activities of the mind.
