Supplementary Material for Dream Dharma

 

(primary source references are found in the Source Material chapter; this material constitutes some raw, or working, material at this time; please respect any copyrights- the raw material will be removed and replaced as worked into the text and moved to Source Material as appropriate)

Int J Psychoanal. 2004 Aug;85(Pt 4):857-77. This art of psychoanalysis. Dreaming undreamt dreams and interrupted cries. Ogden TH. Source 306 Laurel St, San Francisco, CA 94118, USA.

Abstract

It is the art of psychoanalysis in the making, a process inventing itself as it goes, that is the subject of this paper. The author articulates succinctly how he conceives of psychoanalysis, and offers a detailed clinical illustration. He suggests that each analysand unconsciously (and ambivalently) is seeking help in dreaming his ‘night terrors’ (his undreamt and undreamable dreams) and his ‘nightmares’ (his dreams that are interrupted when the pain of the emotional experience being dreamt exceeds his capacity for dreaming). Undreamable dreams are understood as manifestations of psychotic and psychically foreclosed aspects of the personality; interrupted dreams are viewed as reflections of neurotic and other non-psychotic parts of the personality. The analyst’s task is to generate conditions that may allow the analysand–with the analyst’s participation–to dream the patient’s previously undreamable and interrupted dreams. A significant part of the analyst’s participation in the patient’s dreaming takes the form of the analyst’s reverie experience. In the course of this conjoint work of dreaming in the analytic setting, the analyst may get to know the analysand sufficiently well for the analyst to be able to say something that is true to what is occurring at an unconscious level in the analytic relationship. The analyst’s use of language contributes significantly to the possibility that the patient will be able to make use of what the analyst has said for purposes of dreaming his own experience, thereby dreaming himself more fully into existence.

 

Int J Psychoanal. 2009 Aug;90(4):733-52. doi: 10.1111/j.1745-8315.2009.00155.x. Dreaming as a ‘curtain of illusion’: revisiting the ‘royal road’ with Bion as our guide. Grotstein JS. Source Psychoanalytic Center of California, Los Angeles, California 90024, USA. jgrotstein@earthlink.net Abstract One of Bion’s most unique contributions to psychoanalysis is his conception of dreaming in which he elaborates, modifies, and extends Freud ‘s ideas. While Freud dealt extensively with dream-work, he showed more interest in dreams themselves and their latent meaning and theorized that dreams ultimately constituted wish-fulfillments originating from the activity of the pleasure principle. Bion, on the other hand, focuses more on the process of dreaming itself and believes that dreaming occurs throughout the day as well as the night and serves the reality principle as well as the pleasure principle. In order for wakeful consciousness to occur, dreaming must absorb (contain) the day residue, and transfer it to System Ucs. from System Cs. for it to be processed (transformed) and then returned to System Cs. through the selectively-permeable contact-barrier. Dreaming, consequently, allows the subject to remain awake by day and asleep by night by its processing of the day’s residue. Bion seems to conceive of dreaming as an ever-present invisible filter that overlays much of our mental life, including perception, as well as attention itself. He further believes that dreaming is a form of thinking that normally involves the collaborative yet oppositional (not conflictual) activity of the reality and pleasure principles as well as the primary and secondary processes. He also conflates Freud ‘s primary and secondary processes into a single ‘binary-oppositional’ structure (Lévi-Strauss, 1958, 1970) that he terms ‘alpha-function’, which constitutes a virtual model that corresponds to the in-vivo activity of dreaming. He further believes that the analyst dreams as he or she listens and interprets and that the analysand likewise dreams while he or she freely associates. PMID: 19709022 [PubMed – indexed for MEDLINE]

 

Psychoanal Q. 2010 Apr;79(2):317-47. On three forms of thinking: magical thinking, dream thinking, and transformative thinking. Ogden TH. Source Psychoanalytic Institute of Northern California, USA. Abstract The author believes that contemporary psychoanalysis has shifted its emphasis from the understanding of the symbolic meaning of dreams, play, and associations to the exploration of the processes of thinking, dreaming, and playing. In this paper, he discusses his understanding of three forms of thinking-magical thinking, dream thinking, and transformative thinking-and provides clinical illustrations in which each of these forms of thinking figures prominently. The author views magical thinking as a form of thinking that subverts genuine thinking and psychological growth by substituting invented psychic reality for disturbing external reality. By contrast, dream thinking–our most profound form of thinking-involves viewing an emotional experience from multiple perspectives simultaneously: for example, the perspectives of primary process and secondary process thinking. In transformative thinking, one creates a new way of ordering experience that allows one to generate types of feeling, forms of object relatedness, and qualities of aliveness that had previously been unimaginable. PMID: 20496835 [PubMed – indexed for MEDLINE]

 

Psychiatr Enfant. 1994;37(2):395-413. [Nightmares–dreams and thought processes]. [Article in French] Golse B. Source Unité de Psychiatrie infantile, Hôpital Saint-Vincent-de-Paul, Paris. Abstract After reviewing the literature concerned with the function of dreaming and especially dreaming in the child, the author presents various theories about the role of dream, with special emphasis on S. R. Palombo’s theory on the relationships between dream and memory. The proposed hypothesis, which is based on various elements (as study of nightmares in children, oniric life of pregnant or post-partum women, occurrence of nightmares in autistic children and counter-transferential drowsiness in the analyst) takes nightmares as a more or less complete failure of the primarization processes of primary significants. The issue of dreams and nightmares is being related here with the now classical distinction of psychic processes in originary, primary and secondary ones. To be sure, this is but a mere metapsychological hypothesis which needs to be developed by further clinical studies. PMID: 7878138 [PubMed – indexed for MEDLINE]

 

Int J Psychoanal. 2005 Dec;86(Pt 6):1543-58. The countertransference dream. Heenen-Wolff S. Source susann.wolff@skynet.be Abstract Can the analyst’s night-dream about his patient be considered as a manifestation of countertransference–and, if so, under what conditions? In what way can such a dream represent more than just the disguised fulfillment of a repressed wish of the analyst? Is there not a risk of the analyst unconsciously taking up and ‘using’ the content of a session or other elements coming from the analytic situation for his own psychic reasons? The author, closely following Freud’s dream theory, shows the mechanisms which can allow us to use the dream content in the analytical situation: preserved from the secondary processes of conscious thinking, other fantasies and affects than in the waking state can emerge in dream thought, following an ‘unconscious perception’. After examining the countertransference elements of Freud’s dream, ‘Irma’s injection’, which leads off The interpretation of dreams, the author presents a dream of her own about a patient and its value for understanding affects and representations which had hitherto remained unrepresented. PMID: 16318936 [PubMed – indexed for MEDLINE]

 

Gesundheitswesen. 1993 Nov;55(11):595-601. [Dreams in the elderly: contents and clinical usefulness]. [Article in German] Strunz F. Abstract This article reviews the literature on the dreams of persons beyond 50 years of age. A reduced dream recall rate, if at all, does not appear to be the result of weakened memory capacities at that age, but may rather be due to a lower rate of current concerns. In a similar way, the changes in contents are not a function of aging per se, but have taken place already between the 20th and 45th year of age. The dreams of the dying can, because of the unusualness of the situation experienced by this group, be of a very particular nature and quality. At any age of life, the dream can become instrumental in healing processes. Dreams seem to be of vital importance in supportive psychotherapy after bereavement and, of course, during the process of dying. PMID: 8286901 [PubMed – indexed for MEDLINE]

 

Int J Aging Hum Dev. 1983-1984;18(4):243-54. How often do adults recall their dreams? Herman S, Shows WD. Abstract The question of age changes in frequency of dream recall was addressed in a questionnaire survey of 295 collage-educated men and women aged seventeen to seventy. Dream recall was found to be maximal for men and women alike during the college years, with a subsequent decline to a much lower level in the forties and beyond. The drop in recall frequency is paralleled by a declining interest in, and valuation of, dreaming among middle-aged and older adults. PMID: 6676331 [PubMed – indexed for MEDLINE]

 

Psychol Neuropsychiatr Vieil. 2010 Jun;8(2):87-96. doi: 10.1684/pnv.2010.0209. [Dreams in normal and pathological aging]. [Article in French] Guénolé F, Marcaggi G, Baleyte JM, Garma L. Source Service de psychiatrie de l’enfant et de l’adolescent, CHU de Caen, Paris. guenole_fabian@yahoo.fr Abstract Although most of scientific knowledge in dream research is based on young adult studies, this article provides a review of the effects of normal and pathological aging on dream psychology. It starts with preliminary comments about epistemological and methodological principles of dream research, its singularities in aged persons, and the modifications of sleep physiology with age. The whole literature agrees that dream recall progressively decreases from the beginning of adulthood – not in old age – and that dream reports become less intense, perceptually and emotionally. This evolution occurs faster in men than women, with gender differences in the content of dreams. The chronological modifications could be explained partly by changes in lifestyle and attitude towards dreams in early adulthood, but mainly by modifications of sleep physiology, particularly the decrease and qualitative changes of rapid eye movement (REM) sleep. Dreams have usually little subjective importance in the mental life of aged persons. However, working with dreams can be a valuable tool for psychotherapy in the aged. According to the few existing data, patients suffering degenerative dementia dream much less than healthy aged persons. In Alzheimer’s disease, this could be linked to the decrease of REM sleep, and atrophy of associative sensory areas of the cerebral cortex. Most studied aspects of dreaming in degenerative cognitive disorders are REM sleep behavior disorders, and nightmares induced by cholinesterase inhibitors. More studies are needed to better characterize the evolution of dreams with age, particularly studies performed in sleep laboratory. PMID: 20525540 [PubMed – indexed for MEDLINE]

 

Sleep. 2009 Sep;32(9):1201-9. Does the circadian modulation of dream recall modify with age? Chellappa SL, Münch M, Blatter K, Knoblauch V, Cajochen C. Source CAPES Foundation/Ministry of Education of Brazil, Brasilia, Brazil. Abstract STUDY OBJECTIVES: The ultradian NREM-REM sleep cycle and the circadian modulation of REM sleep sum to generate dreaming. Here we investigated age-related changes in dream recall, number of dreams, and emotional domain characteristics of dreaming during both NREM and REM sleep. DESIGN: Analysis of dream recall and sleep EEG (NREM/REM sleep) during a 40-h multiple nap protocol (150 min of wakefulness and 75 min of sleep) under constant routine conditions. SETTING: Centre for Chronobiology, Psychiatric Hospital of the University of Basel, Basel, Switzerland. PARTICIPANTS: Seventeen young (20-31 years) and 15 older (57-74 years) healthy volunteers INTERVENTIONS: N/A. MEASUREMENTS AND RESULTS: Dream recall and number of dreams varied significantly across the circadian cycle and between age groups, with older subjects exhibiting fewer dreams (P < 0.05), particularly after naps scheduled during the biological day, closely associated with the circadian rhythm of REM sleep. No significant age differences were observed for the emotional domain of dream content. CONCLUSIONS: Since aging was associated with attenuated amplitude in the circadian modulation of REM sleep, our data suggest that the age-related decrease in dream recall can result from an attenuated circadian modulation of REM sleep.

 

Sleep Med Rev. 2004 Oct;8(5):403-24. Chronobiological features of dream production. Nielsen TA. Source Dream and Nightmare Laboratory, Hôpital Sacré-Coeur, 5400, boul. Gouin Ouest, Montréal, Qué. H4J 1C5, Canada. tore.nielsen@umontreal.ca Abstract A review of the scientific literature clarifies several chronobiological features of dreaming. The literature supports the conclusions that dreaming ‘intensity’ and, to a lesser extent dream-like quality, is modulated by (1) a sinusoidal, 90-min ultradian oscillation, (2) a ‘switch-like’ circadian oscillation, (3) a 12-h circasemidian rhythm, and (4) a 28-day circatrigintan rhythm (for women). Further, access to dream memory sources appears to be modulated by (5) a 7-day circaseptan rhythm. Further study of these rhythmic influences on dreaming may help to explain diverse and often contradictory findings in the dream research literature, to clarify relationships between dreaming and waking cognitive processes, to explain relationships between disturbed phase relationships and dream disturbances and to shed new light on the problems of dreaming’s functions and biological markers. Further chronobiological studies of dreaming will likely enable the development of theoretical models that explain how interactions between and within major levels of oscillation determine the variable characteristics of dreaming. PMID: 15336239 [PubMed – indexed for MEDLINE]

 

Br J Psychiatry. 1983 Mar;142:221-31. Dreaming: The functional state-shift hypothesis. A neuropsychophysiological model. Koukkou M, Lehmann D. Abstract The different brain functional states during sleep and wakefulness are associated with differences in processing strategies, memory stores, and EEG patterns. Shifts of functional state occur spontaneously or as orienting reactions to processed information, and cause the formal characteristics of dreams. Forgetting of dreams is a function of the magnitude of the difference between states during storage and recall. Based on EEG similarities between sleep stages and developmental stages, brain states during sleep in adults are proposed to correspond functionally with waking states during childhood. Repeated functional regressions occur during sleep, with access to earlier memory material and cognitive strategies unavailable during waking life, so that earlier experiences can be used for current problems. This dream work constitutes the biological significance of sleep. PMID: 6860875 [PubMed – indexed for MEDLINE]

 

J Am Psychoanal Assoc. 2004 Spring;52(2):355-84. Another look at dreaming: disentangling Freud’s primary and secondary process theories. Robbins M. Source Boston Psychoanalytic Society, USA. mdrobbinsmd@comcast.net Abstract The Interpretation of Dreams contains Freud’s first and most complete articulation of the primary and secondary mental processes that serve as a framework for the workings of mind, conscious and unconscious. While it is generally believed that Freud proposed a single theory of dreaming, based on the primary process, a number of ambiguities, inconsistencies, and contradictions reflect an incomplete differentiation of the parts played by the two mental processes in dreaming. It is proposed that two radically different hypotheses about dreaming are embedded in Freud’s work. The one implicit in classical dream interpretation is based on the assumption that dreams, like waking language, are representational, and are made up of symbols connected to latent unconscious thoughts. Whereas the symbols that constitute waking language are largely verbal and only partly unconscious, those that constitute dreams are presumably more thoroughly disguised and represented as arcane hallucinated hieroglyphs. From this perspective, both the language of the dream and that of waking life are secondary process manifestations. Interpretation of the dream using the secondary process model involves the assumption of a linear two-way “road” connecting manifest and latent aspects, which in one direction involves the work of dream construction and in the other permits the associative process of decoding and interpretation. Freud’s more revolutionary hypothesis, whose implications he did not fully elaborate, is that dreams are the expression of a primary mental process that differs qualitatively from waking thought and hence are incomprehensible through a secondary process model. This seems more adequately to account for what is now known about dreaming, and is more consistent with the way dream interpretation is ordinarily conducted in clinical practice. Recognition that dreams are qualitatively distinctive expressions of mind may help to restore dreaming to its privileged position as a unique source of mental status information. PMID: 15222432 [PubMed – indexed for MEDLINE]

 

Int J Psychoanal. 2003 Feb;84(Pt 1):17-30. On not being able to dream. Ogden TH. Abstract In this paper, the author explores the phenomenon of not being able to dream (as opposed to not being able to remember one’s dreams) from three different vantage points. First, from the point of view of psychoanalytic theory, he discusses Bion’s idea that the work of dreaming creates the conscious and unconscious mind (and not the other way around). A person who cannot dream is unable to generate differentiable conscious and unconscious experience and, consequently, lives in a psychic state in which he is unable to differentiate waking from sleeping, dreaming from perceiving. The author then approaches the problem of the inability to dream from the perspective achieved by a literary work. He discusses a Borges fiction that creates, in a singularly artful way, the experience of not being able to dream. Finally, the author utilises the vantage point of a detailed account of a clinical experience to explore what it means not to be able to dream. He describes an initial state characterised by the patient’s proliferation of unutilisable ‘psychic noise’ which, over a period of years, led to the analyst’s experiencing ‘reverie-deprivation’ and brief periods of countertransference psychosis. Two analytic sessions are presented and discussed in which psychological work was done that contributed to an enhanced capacity on the part of both patient and analyst for genuine dreaming – both in sleep and in analytic reverie states.

 

http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed?linkname=pubmed_pubmed&from_uid=12639261

 

692 related citations… down the rabbit hole we spiral, and looking for a way up and out full of usable, workable knowledge!

 

 

The Language of Bion: A Dictionary of Concepts   PS (Paulo) Sandler

 

A Clinical Application of Bion’s Concepts: v. 1 Dreaming, Transformation, Containment and Change     PS Sandler

 

This Art of Psychoanalysis: Dreaming Undreamt Dreams and Interrupted Cries (The New Library of Psychoanalysis)   TH Ogden  2005

 

* Creative Readings: Essays on Seminal Analytic Works  TH Ogden  2012

 

Rediscovering Psychoanalysis: Thinking and Dreaming, Learning and Forgetting  TH Ogden 2008

 

The Meaning of the Dream in Psychoanalysis    Rachel B Blass

 

Children’s Dreaming and the Development of Consciousness David Foulkes

 

Conscious Dreaming A Unique Nine-Step Approach to Understanding Dreams Robert Moss E-bok,

 

Conscious Mind, Sleeping Brain – Perspectives on Lucid Dreaming    S Labarge, Jayne Gackenbach

 

Dreams of Awakening – Lucid Dreaming and Mindfulness of Dream and Sleep (häftad) Charlie Morley

(availabilty November 4, 2013)…. hmmm…. ommmm…. ………..

 

Sleep and Dreaming Scientific Advances and Reconsiderations Edward F Pace-Schott

 

The Dreaming Brain   J Allan Hobson

 

Dismissing both Freudian and Jungian dream analysis as unscientific, Hobson claims dreams are the vast maintenance task of the brain . In his physiological theory, sensory and motor signals generated by the brain during sleep are the driving forces behind the dream plot; the sleeper’s past experiences, wishes and attitudes then come into play, shaping the dream material,” reported PW….Required reading for anyone wanting to understand what is now thought about sleep and dreaming. — Francis Crick, Nobel Laureate The definitive biological explanation of dreaming and an excellent piece of popular writing. — Edward O. Wilson, author of Sociobiology

 

The Dream Drugstore: Chemically Altered States of Consciousness   J Allan Hobson

 

Out of Its Mind: Psychiatry in Crisis: A Call for Reform  J Allan Hobson (Author), Jonathan Leonard (Author), Jonathan A. Leonard (Author)

 

Dream Life An Experimental Memoir    J Allan Hobson  2011

 

Dreaming: A Very Short Introduction  J Allan Hobson

 

An Evolutionary Psychology of Sleep and Dreams      Patrick McNamara   2004

 

The New Science of Dreaming Deirdre Barrett, Patrick McNamara  2007

 

The Psychology of Day-Dreams     J Varendonck  1921  (reprinted multiple times e.g. Martino 2009)

 

Understanding Dreams in Clinical Practice   Marcus West 2011