Psychoanalytic dream interpretation the main tool of self-analysis, as well as a prominent part of the treatment. Dream understanding and interpretation during that time was influenced heavily by Freud's drive-conflict theory. The therapy was designed to reveal the latent content of the patient's repressed sexuality and unconscious mind. To understand the dream, the therapist had to explore the latent content of the dream via the process of free association. The symbolic method held that dreams had to be considered in their entirety, and therefore are unified in their meanings. This gave way to very narrow interpretations. Individual events in the dreams didn't matter,
The Hill of Dreams of Dreams" was little noticed on its publication in 1907 save in a glowing review by Alfred Douglas. It was actually written between 1895 and 1897 and has elements of the style of the decadent and aesthetic movement of the period, seen through Machen's own mystical preoccupations. Lord Dunsany admired "The Hill of Dreams" and wrote an introduction to a 1954 reprint of the novel. In "Henry and June", Henry Miller tells Anaïs Nin about "The Hill of Dreams". According to the Friends of Arthur Machen website, the novel is The Hill of Dreams The Hill of Dreams is a