"When analyzing the elements of a dream we are, as a rule, not satisfied with the patient’s own statement that dream element X stands for experience Y. We strive rather to discern the particular reason or Y having chosen to express itself in terms of X. Through a clarification of the specifics of this choice, we hope for a deeper understanding of those details from which we can then reconstruct the formation and meaning of a symptom. In my opinion, this most circumspect examination of specific determinants must be accepted as one of the many ground rules of analytic work itself."
January 1, 1970