Is the use of dream still actual in clinical practice?

Ever since antiquity, dream has been object of curiosity and interest and still today the attention of people for the meaning and function of dreams, as core points of Freudian both theoretical and clinical proposal, is still alive. Considering the manifold plans and dimensions concerning the debate on the dream, the essay aims to suggest a reflection on the most recent clinical use of the dream. For this purpose, several different vertices of reading are proposed, from the «dreamed dream», namely the dream as an expression of neurobiological functioning, to the «remembered dream», namely the way the dreamer translates or puts in words what he remembers of his own dream; to the «narrated dream» which can be «interpreted» or «understood» within the therapeutic relationship as understanding that given dream, but also as a shared story in a psychotherapy session, which becomes an intersubjective phenomenon, experiential and co-developed with the therapist. Overall, both intrapsychic and interpersonal dimension emerge. In fact, from the discussion, it emerges along with the practice of interpreting dreams, a renewed attention for their manifest appearance by many clinicians, intended as images and narratives that have their own validity, as organizing models of information and affect regulators. This area of interest seems to be a point of convergence for a comparison in the clinical use of the dream between neuroscientific research, contemporary psychoanalysis and cognitivism.