because  of  a  feeling  that they don't  remember them as
much  as  they  "should."  I  wanted  to  discover  how  the
dream  recall ambitions of  the participants might change
after   a  period   of  systematic  involvement   with  their
dreams.
     But  a  satisfying memory  for  dreams involves  more
than   frequent   and   complete   recall.   Even  when   we
regularly remember our dreams, we may still experience
dream  recall  to  be  something  that happens  to  us  as a
result  of  unknown circumstances.  We  would  be  more
satisfied   if  we  had   some  sense  of  control  over  our
memory  for  dreams.   My  third  concern,  then,  was  to
build  some  foundation   for  overcoming   the  tendency
towards a fatalistic perspective on dream recall.
      I wondered if the participants in our project would be
able  to  become  aware  of  the  various factors affecting
their  dream  recall,  and  if  they might begin to perceive
that  some  of  these factors  were  potentially  within the
realm  of their own control.  A  self-diagnostic checklist
might be helpful so people could see exactly where they
were    fatalistic    and    overlooking   opportunities   for
developing self-control of their dream recall.(2)
      Finally,  the  questions  that  arise  concerning dream
interpretation  are  "What  is  it  that we refer to when we
discuss    the   meaning   of   a   dream?    What   requires
interpretation? What kind of experience satisfies the felt
need to interpret a dream?"  Different  theories of dream
interpretation,  of  course, provide  different  answers to
these  questions.   But  dreamers   themselves  may  have
differing  goals.  I  wanted  to  learn  to  what  extent  the
desire for dream interpretation would  be fulfilled  if the
dreamer   was   able   to  develop   helpful  ideas  about  a
personal  concern  from studying a dream.  I also wanted
to  explore  the  proposition  that  people  are capable of
interpreting  their own dreams.  It  seemed to me that the
most  fruitful approach to this was to observe the quality
and  depth  of  self-understanding  that could be obtained
by  people  when they  were provided with only a general
guide  to  a  process  of  self-discovery using dreams and
journal writing.

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