By Stephen Palmquist, D.Phil. (Oxon). Philopsychy Press (P.O. Box 1224, Shatin, Hong Kong), 1997. 291 pages. 43 diagrams/tables. Bibliography. Glossary. Softcover. US$14 (air) or $10 (sea).

Have you ever wondered what (if any) meaning your dreams have? Are they merely the confusing and fragmented hodgepodge of images they appear to be? Or could they veil a deeper, hidden meaning that provides clues to the wholeness we all long to experience in life? In this book Dr. Stephen Palmquist provides compelling evidence for the latter answer, supporting his argument at every step with personal examples from his own life and dreams.

But this is not just another book about dream interpretation. Palmquist's main theme is "personal growth" and how both religion (especially Christian spirituality) and psychology (especially Jungian analysis) can be viewed as working together toward the common goal of shaping the "whole person". Somewhat skeptical of conventional forms of psychotherapy, he focuses special attention on the role of evil in personal growth, and on how friendship can and should be the primary context for overcoming evil's crippling influence. Though it may sound paradoxical, Palmquist asserts that "to be an individual is to love" (p.218).

Although the book can be read profitably by the general reader, it is written in a form that is designed to be used as a textbook for classes on psychology of religion, personal growth, etc., or as a guidebook for small group counseling. The main text is divided into twelve chapters, called "weeks". These are grouped into four "stages", according to a "butterfly" metaphor: (1) the "egg" of "remembering dreams", (2) the "caterpillar" of "interpreting dreams", (3) the "cocoon" of "becoming the dream", and (4) the "butterfly" of "enjoying the dream".

Dr. Stephen Palmquist is an American philosopher with a doctorate from Oxford, who has been teaching philosophy, religion and psychology in Hong Kong for the past ten years. He has published five other books and about forty scholarly articles, mostly developing a new, perspectival interpretation of Immanuel Kant's philosophy. Dreams of Wholeness is a sequel to one of Palmquist's previous books, entitled The Tree of Philosophy (third edition: 1995). Together this pair of books is intended as a two-part course in "philopsychy" (soul-loving, with special emphasis on tools provided by philosophy and psychology).