compare the difference between dreaming and reporting upon one's dream to another person. the report has to be such that another person can follow it, and if we believe that dreams are worth discussing, and interpreting then these processes can only take place on the basis of understandable reports. at the same time, it would be a fundamental error to assume that the report 'is' the dream: our report may state that we were terrified, but in the dream we are terrified; we can laugh at the report of the terror, but the experience of the terror is not funny