Brandell, Jerrold R. "Eighty Years of Dream Sequences: A Cinematic Journey Down Freud's 'Royal Road'." American Imago 61.1 (2004): 59-76.

This paper examines different ways in which dreams have been represented and interpreted in cinematic depictions of psychoanalytic treatment over the past eighty years. Popular film portrayals of psychoanalysis and psychotherapy have often been legitimately criticized for being misleading, distorted, or even pathological. The focus of Brandell's article is on the contribution of dreams and dream interpretation in movies from different historical periods and how they reflect alterations in our understanding of either the treatment process or relationship between analyst and patient and/or both. Brandell also investigates two questions: whether it is possible to identify cultural forces that may have shaped cinematic depictions of dreams and their interpretations; and second, whether technological advances in cinematography have influenced the manner in which dreams are represented in movies. He discusses these topics in context of four movies: Secrets of the Soul (1926), film directed by G. W. Pabst; Hitchcock's suspense thriller, Spellbound (1945); David and Lisa (1962), produced and directed by Frank Perry; and Twelve Monkeys (1995), directed by Terry Gilliam. After analyzing the portrayal of psychoanalysis in each film, Brandell comes to the conclusion that the representations of dream sequences are irrelevant to the technological advances, but rather are influenced by current events and social culture, which dictate these dreams.

Brandell concluded that Spellbound, while remaining firmly entrenched in Freudian representation, suggests that catastrophic events may acquire an importance in shaping psychopathology, a viewpoint likely influenced by the then-recent psychiatric experience with traumatized war veterans of World War II as well as the dominance of ego psychology. Therefore, Ballentine's character was based on culture belief of psychiatry and psychoanalysis of that time rather than based on Dali and surrealism. Like the war veterans, Ballentine witnessed (and also believed to be the cause of) the death of Edwardes. He was cured by Peterson and Alex by psychoanalysis, which including going to the location where the murder happened, destroying the guilt complex from childhood, and getting into the subconscious. This, however, is not usually the case. Psychoanalysis is much more complex, and it is often nearly impossible to know what everything in the dreams symbolize. Thus, psychoanalysis has inaccurately been represented, but may have been purposely done to create hope for the veterans and the people at the time.

Hitchcock did not enjoy working with David Selznick, a producer he was put with for a few of his early Hollywood works. These films included “Spellbound”, “Rebecca”, and “The Paradine Case”. “Spellbound” included a popular topic of the time for Hollywood, psychoanalysis. This topic, tackled in the movie, was something that Hitchcock was not too fond of, but Selznick felt very passionately about discovering the meaning of his dreams and memories. So much so that he brought in his psychoanalyst, Dr. May Romm, to be an advisor on the film. Romm and Hitchcock constantly clashed on set, as Romm did not agree with Hitchcock’s portrayal of the analysis. Hitchcock was known to say, “May, it’s only a movie.” Dr. May Romm was another hindrance on Hitchcock’s creativity that Selznick produced.

One person Hitchcock brought in for the dream sequence of John Ballentyne (Gregory Peck) was Salvador Dali. This was another thing that Hitchcock and Selznick disagreed on, as Selznick did not like Dali’s work. The two were such strong creative beings, that they constantly feuded about what was right for the film.  

Brandell, Jerrold R. “Eighty Years of Dream Sequences: A Cinematic Journey Down
    Freud’s “Royal Road”.” American Imago 61.1 (2004) : 59-76.