SUNY series in Dream Studies – serie

Two community mental health centers in the Northeastern United States form the setting for this ethnographic study of dreams, dream telling, and dream interpretation. To gather information about American attitudes toward dreams and dream telling, the author observed and interviewed employees of these centers: social workers, psychologists, nurses, psychiatrists, secretaries, and medical technicians. The issues that emerge from the interviews are analyzed and clarified by exploring Western understandings of the concepts of person and self, and of professional personhood-the capacities and responsibilities ascribed to you by yourself and others in your milieu as professionals. The book also contains a comprehensive literature review of the research on dreams and an appendix of narrative statements made by informants on their dreams, their work, and their relationships.

Many contemporary neuroscientists are skeptical about the belief that dreaming accomplishes anything in the context of human adaptation and this skepticism is widely accepted in the popular press. This book provides answers to that skepticism from experimental and clinical psychologists, psychiatrists, neurologists, and anthropologists. Ranging across the human and life sciences, the authors provide provocative insights into the enduring question of dreaming from the point of view of the brain, the individual, and culture. The Functions of Dreaming contains both new theory and research on the functions of dreaming as well as revisions of older theories dating back to the founder of modern dream psychology, Sigmund Freud. Also explored are the many roles dreaming plays in adaptation to daily living, in human development, and in the context of different cultures: search, integration, identity formation, memory consolidation, the creation of new knowledge, and social communication.

This book partakes of a long tradition of dream interpretation, but, at the same time, is unique in its cross-cultural and interdisciplinary methods and in its mix of theoretical and analytical approaches. It includes a great chronological and geographical range, from ancient Sumeria to eighteenth-century China; medieval Hispanic dream poetry to Italian Renaissance dream theory; Shakespeare to Nerval; and from Dostoevsky, through Emily Brontë, to Henry James. Rupprecht also incorporates various critical orientations including archetypal, comparative, feminist, historicist, linguistic, postmodern, psychoanalytic, religious, reader response, and self-psychology.

This book presents in detail seven contemporary approaches to dream interpretation as they are actually practiced by highly skilled and experienced psychiatrists and psychologists who have worked with dreams for at least a decade. The reader can sample radically different approaches from various schools of interpetation and gain the tools for making meaningful comparisons. The contributors describe their theoretical roots and how they have departed from them when confronted with the real world of real dreamers. Each chapter teaches the reader in practical terms what to do when trying to understand a dream of one's own, or one's friend, colleague, or client. Readers are taken behind the curtain of theory into the consultation room where the work of interpretation takes place.This book provides a variety of contemporary, non-dogmatic, practical ways to work with dreams. Each contributor emphasizes not theory, but interpretive method and practical application of dream interpretation. Contributors to this volume include John E. Beebe, Eric Craig, Gayle Delaney, Loma K. Flowers, Ramon Greenberg, Milton Kramer, Joe Natterson, Chester Arthur Pearlman, Montague Ullman, and Stephen J. Walsh.

This interdisciplinary study of the religious dimensions of dreams shows how modern dream research supports and enriches our understanding of religiously meaningful dreams.The Wilderness of Dreams does four things that no other work on dreams has done. First, it surveys the whole range of modern dream research-not just the work of depth psychologists and neuroscientists, but also the findings of anthropologists, content analysts, cognitive psychologists, creative artists, and lucid dreaming researchers. Second, it draws upon new advances in hermeneutic philosophy in order to clarify basic questions about how to interpret dreams. Third, it develops a careful, well-grounded notion of religious meaning-the "root metaphor" concept-to show that seeking religious meanings in dreams is not mere superstition. And fourth, the book reflects on the question of why modern Westerners are so interested in affirming, or debunking, the idea that dreams have religious meanings.

A comprehensive survey of contemporary approaches to understanding dreams. If you can have only one book on dreams, this is the one to have.Dream Reader is a uniquely comprehensive survey of contemporary approaches to understanding and working with dreams. The general reader interested in exploring the world of dreams could not obtain a better introduction and grounding than from this book. Academic psychologists, therapists, and professional dreamworkers alike will find it to be an incomparable survey and sampling of the growing literature on dreaming.In Part I, Shafton summarizes sleep laboratory discoveries, then considers theories about dream generation and meaning that have arisen from these discoveries. Part II discusses major Euro-American schools of dream interpretation in the twentieth century: Freud, Jung, Existential, Cultural, and Gestalt. Also included are chapters dealing with various topics of interest: the dream styles of people of both genders, and of people with certain psychiatric diagnoses; non-interpretive approaches to dreamwork; dream incubation; lucid dreaming; dream re-entry; dreams of the blind; post-traumatic nightmares; and many more. Dream Reader provides an integrated review of the whole literature of dream psychology-the clinical, academic, and also the serious popular literature. It also presents sizeable extracts from the original sources for the reader's own critical evaluation.

A scientifically sound and thoroughly comprehensible account of what laboratory study has revealed about dreams and dreaming.This book presents an overview of the methods and results of laboratory dream research: the collection of dreams under various conditions; different methods of dream evaluation; physiological and psychological factors of dream recall; memory sources of dreams; and dreams in different sleep stages.The main focus is to describe the phenomenology of dreams. What are the common features of dreaming with regard to images, thoughts, and emotions? Where does the dream take place and who enters the dream "theatre"? In what kinds of scenarios do dreamers find themselves?The authors' evidence is based on dreams collected in their sleep laboratory. Results of analysis of 500 REM dreams are discussed with reference to sex differences, children's dreams, and waking fantasies.

This multidisciplinary volume examines the cultural and social relevance of dream studies, looking at various ways that the field can contribute to the resolution of the modern West's most troubling social issues. The essays offer novel insights on education, sexual abuse, ecology, crime, race, gender, religion, politics, death, and cross-cultural conflict. The contributors argue that the study of dreams can provide valuable resources to regain a vibrant, trustworthy sense of moral and spiritual orientation in life.

A wide-ranging exploration of the spiritual and scientific dimensions of dreaming.This wide-ranging exploration of the spiritual and scientific dimensions of dreaming offers new connections between the ancient wisdom of the world's religious traditions, which have always taught that dreams reveal divine truths, and the recent findings of modern psychological research. Drawing upon philosophy, anthropology, sociology, neurology, literature, and film criticism, the book offers a better understanding of the mysterious complexity and startling creative powers of human dreaming experience. For those interested in gaining new perspectives on dreaming, the powers of the imagination, and the newest frontiers in the dialogue between religion and science, Visions of the Night promises to be a welcome resource.

A wide-ranging exploration of the spiritual and scientific dimensions of dreaming.This wide-ranging exploration of the spiritual and scientific dimensions of dreaming offers new connections between the ancient wisdom of the world's religious traditions, which have always taught that dreams reveal divine truths, and the recent findings of modern psychological research. Drawing upon philosophy, anthropology, sociology, neurology, literature, and film criticism, the book offers a better understanding of the mysterious complexity and startling creative powers of human dreaming experience. For those interested in gaining new perspectives on dreaming, the powers of the imagination, and the newest frontiers in the dialogue between religion and science, Visions of the Night promises to be a welcome resource.

Discusses extraordinary dreams and offers suggestions for interpreting and appreciating your own extraordinary dreams.From visions of a past life to glimpses of the future, history is full of accounts of unusual dreams. This fascinating book explores historical, scientific, and cross-cultural research on these sorts of extraordinary dreams, and offers practical suggestions on how to work with them-either individually or as a member of a dream group-to enhance one's intellectual, emotional, and spiritual health. Each chapter is devoted to a particular type of dream, and presents a summary of research data on their nature. Specific categories of dreams discussed include creative, lucid, out-of-body, pregnancy, healing, collective, telepathic, clairvoyant, precognitive, past-life, initiation, and spiritual visitation dreams, as well as dreams within dreams. Entertaining and instructive, this book points the way to an expanded conception of human potential for the twenty first century.

Offers scientific and philosophical support to the Freudian claim that dreams are meaningful and that their meanings can be discovered through dream interpretation.The Freudian claim that dreams are meaningful and that their meanings can be discovered through dream interpretation has in recent times come under harsh attack from both scientific and hermeneutic-psychoanalytic circles. In a forceful response to these critiques, Rachel Blass demonstrates that while Freud and his followers have thus far failed to provide adequate justification for his dream theory, such justification may now be found through an alternate and legitimate-yet neglected-route, one that establishes both scientifically and philosophically the relationship between the self of the dreamer and that of the awake individual. The implications of this argument are both practical and theoretical: by providing sorely absent scientific and philosophical grounding to the very foundations of dream interpretation, the book clarifies and broadens the possibilities of dream interpretation within the clinical setting, and breaks new ground in the field of psychoanalytic epistemology and the philosophy of the human sciences.

Offers scientific and philosophical support to the Freudian claim that dreams are meaningful and that their meanings can be discovered through dream interpretation.The Freudian claim that dreams are meaningful and that their meanings can be discovered through dream interpretation has in recent times come under harsh attack from both scientific and hermeneutic-psychoanalytic circles. In a forceful response to these critiques, Rachel Blass demonstrates that while Freud and his followers have thus far failed to provide adequate justification for his dream theory, such justification may now be found through an alternate and legitimate-yet neglected-route, one that establishes both scientifically and philosophically the relationship between the self of the dreamer and that of the awake individual. The implications of this argument are both practical and theoretical: by providing sorely absent scientific and philosophical grounding to the very foundations of dream interpretation, the book clarifies and broadens the possibilities of dream interpretation within the clinical setting, and breaks new ground in the field of psychoanalytic epistemology and the philosophy of the human sciences.

Anthropological perspectives on dreams around the world.Drawing upon original fieldwork, cultural theory, and psychological research, Dreaming and the Self offers new approaches to the self-particularly to subjectivity, identity, and emotion. Through an investigation of dreams in various cultures, the contributors explore how people as subjects actually experience cultural life, how they forge identities out of their cultural and historical experiences, how the cultural and historical worlds in which they live shape even their bodily habits and responses, and how the person as agent responds to and imaginatively recreates his or her culture. These essays demonstrate that dreams reflect tellingly on topics of great currency in anthropology, such as how people personally manage postcolonialism, transnationalism, and migration. Actual dreams are examined, including dreams of Samoan young people about race; of a Haitian priestess about vodou deities; of a Pakistani about spiritual teachers; of psychoanalytic clients in Los Angeles and San Diego about cars, witches, and sex; and of a young Balinese mother about a neglected dog.

Anthropological perspectives on dreams around the world.Drawing upon original fieldwork, cultural theory, and psychological research, Dreaming and the Self offers new approaches to the self-particularly to subjectivity, identity, and emotion. Through an investigation of dreams in various cultures, the contributors explore how people as subjects actually experience cultural life, how they forge identities out of their cultural and historical experiences, how the cultural and historical worlds in which they live shape even their bodily habits and responses, and how the person as agent responds to and imaginatively recreates his or her culture. These essays demonstrate that dreams reflect tellingly on topics of great currency in anthropology, such as how people personally manage postcolonialism, transnationalism, and migration. Actual dreams are examined, including dreams of Samoan young people about race; of a Haitian priestess about vodou deities; of a Pakistani about spiritual teachers; of psychoanalytic clients in Los Angeles and San Diego about cars, witches, and sex; and of a young Balinese mother about a neglected dog.

Explores the role of dreams in spiritual work.In Dreaming about the Divine, Bonnelle Lewis Strickling argues that people dream about the divine in forms that fit their current emotional and spiritual condition. Using Jungian psychology and the philosophy of Karl Jaspers, Strickling contends that dreams about the divine occur in the context of existential issues; psychic and emotional crises which open us to the experience of the divine. She concludes that working with dreams of the divine can be spiritually, psychically, and emotionally helpful both to people who are engaged in a spiritual search and also to people who are already committed to a spiritual tradition.

Explores the role of dreams in spiritual work.In Dreaming about the Divine, Bonnelle Lewis Strickling argues that people dream about the divine in forms that fit their current emotional and spiritual condition. Using Jungian psychology and the philosophy of Karl Jaspers, Strickling contends that dreams about the divine occur in the context of existential issues; psychic and emotional crises which open us to the experience of the divine. She concludes that working with dreams of the divine can be spiritually, psychically, and emotionally helpful both to people who are engaged in a spiritual search and also to people who are already committed to a spiritual tradition.

The essential guide on how to teach about dreaming.Dreaming in the Classroom provides teachers from virtually all fields with a uniquely informative guidebook for introducing their students to the universal human phenomenon of dreaming. Although dreaming may not be held in high esteem in mainstream Western society, students at all education levels consistently enjoy learning about dreams and rank classes on dreaming among their favorite, most significant educational experiences. Covering a wide variety of academic disciplines such as psychology, anthropology, humanities, film studies, philosophy, religious studies, the book explains in clear and practical language the most effective methods for teaching accurate, useful information about dreams to students in colleges and university, graduate programs, psychotherapy institutes, seminaries, primary and secondary schools, and non-academic settings. Included are detailed discussions of how to create an appropriate syllabus, integrate material form multiple disciplines, nurture skills in writing and critical reasoning, propose courses to skeptical administrators, and facilitate a responsible process for sharing dreams in a classroom setting. The book draws on interviews with dozens of accomplished teachers, along with the authors' many years of pedagogical practice, to present proven strategies for using this perennially fascinating topic to promote successful student learning.

The essential guide on how to teach about dreaming.Dreaming in the Classroom provides teachers from virtually all fields with a uniquely informative guidebook for introducing their students to the universal human phenomenon of dreaming. Although dreaming may not be held in high esteem in mainstream Western society, students at all education levels consistently enjoy learning about dreams and rank classes on dreaming among their favorite, most significant educational experiences. Covering a wide variety of academic disciplines such as psychology, anthropology, humanities, film studies, philosophy, religious studies, the book explains in clear and practical language the most effective methods for teaching accurate, useful information about dreams to students in colleges and university, graduate programs, psychotherapy institutes, seminaries, primary and secondary schools, and non-academic settings. Included are detailed discussions of how to create an appropriate syllabus, integrate material form multiple disciplines, nurture skills in writing and critical reasoning, propose courses to skeptical administrators, and facilitate a responsible process for sharing dreams in a classroom setting. The book draws on interviews with dozens of accomplished teachers, along with the authors' many years of pedagogical practice, to present proven strategies for using this perennially fascinating topic to promote successful student learning.

A holistic approach to the fascinating, multifaceted world of dreams.This innovative book offers a holistic approach to one of the most fascinating and puzzling aspects of human experience: dreaming. Advocating the broad-ranging vision termed "integral" by thinkers from Aurobindo to Wilber, Fariba Bogzaran and Daniel Deslauriers consider dreams as multifaceted phenomena in an exploration that includes scientific, phenomenological, sociocultural, and subjective knowledge. Drawing from historical, cross-cultural, and contemporary practices, both interpretive and noninterpretive, the authors present Integral Dream Practice, an approach that emphasizes the dreamer's creative participation, reflective capacities, and mindful awareness in working with dreams. Bogzaran and Deslauriers have developed this comprehensive way of approaching dreams over many years and highlight their methods in a chapter that unfolds a single dream, showing how sustained creative exploration over time leads to transformative change.