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The role of the [[analyst]] in the [[treatment]] is twofold.
The purpose of the [[interpretation]] was to help the [[patient]] become [[conscious]] of [[unconscious]] thoughts.
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The model of [[interpretation]] was set down by [[Freud]] in ''[[The Interpretation of Dreams]]''.<ref>{{F}} 1900a.</ref>
Though only concerned explicitly with [[dreams]], [[Freud]]'s comments on [[interpretation]] in this work apply equally to all the other [[formation]]s of the [[unconscious]] ([[parapraxes]], [[jokes]], [[symptoms]], etc.).
In the second chapter of this work the psychoanalytic method of [[interpretation]] is distinguished from the "decoding" method of [[interpretation]] by the use of the method of [[free association]]: a psychoanalytic [[interpretation]] does not consist in attributing a meaning to a [[dream]] by referring to a pre-existing system of equivalences but by referring to the associations of the dreamer himself.
It ollows that the same image will mean very different things if dreamed by different people.
Even when [[Freud]] later came to recognize the [[existence]] of 'symbolism' in [[dreams]] (i.e. the fact that there are some iamges which have fixed universal meanings in addition to their unique meaning for the individual dreamer), he always maintained thaat [[interpretation]] should focus primarily on the particular meaning and warned against "overestimating the importance of symbols in dream interpretation."<ref>Freud. 1900a. SE V. p.359-60.</ref>
