Are dreams merely odd things that happen to us at night, sometimes pleasant, sometimes terrifying, but not to be taken too seriously? Is there any reason to think about them at all, other than in terms of questions such as 'Why should Aunt Sarah turn into a bird and invite us all to dinner in her sycamore tree?"

In this witty and eminently readable book, Bert O. States rethinks both the meaning of dreams and the relationship between dreaming and the telling of stories. Dreams constitute a private literature of the self, he says, that despite their seeming lack of order or structure can help us to understand the very nature of shared literature.

Observers have often pointed out narrative elements that are common to dreams and stories including "cinematic" visual techniques and such plot devices as reversals of fortune and paired villains and antagonists. Drawing on current work in such fields as neurobiology, cognitive psychology, literary theory, and dream theory, States asks whether dreaming and storytelling may share similar psychic processes as well.

He first considers the bizarreness of dreams compared to the expected intelligibility of stories. He then surveys a wide array of stories and reported dreams, focusing on them as narratives with varied beginnings and endings, character functions, cause-and-effect relationships, archetypal structures, even generic constraints. Turning to the question of intentionality, States addresses the perennially intriguing question of whether dreams actually do have meanings, or whether we thrust meaning upon them.

Anyone interested in the poetics of imaginative experience whether approached from the perspective of the literary critic, the psychologist, or the psychoanalyst will want to read Dreaming and Storytelling."

From the Iliad to Aristophanes, from the gospel of Matthew to Augustine, Greek and Latin texts are constellated with descriptive images of dreams. Some are formulaic, others intensely vivid. The best ancient minds Plato, Aristotle, the physician Galen, and others struggled to understand the meaning of dreams.

With "Dreams and Experience in Classical Antiquity" the renowned ancient historian William Harris turns his attention to oneiric matters. This cultural history of dreams in antiquity draws on both contemporary post-Freudian science and careful critiques of the ancient texts. Harris traces the history of characteristic forms of dream-description and relates them both to the ancient experience of dreaming and to literary and religious imperatives. He analyzes the nuances of Greek and Roman belief in the truth-telling potential of dreams, and in a final chapter offers an assessment of ancient attempts to understand dreams naturalistically.

How did dreaming culture evolve from Homer s time to late antiquity? What did these dreams signify? And how do we read and understand ancient dreams through modern eyes? Harris takes an elusive subject and writes about it with rigor and precision, reminding us of specificities, contexts, and changing attitudes through history.

We've nearly all been there at least once - awakened with a pounding heart and the memory of frightening scenes that seemed so real, but were conjured up and existed only in the sleeping mind. Nightmares affect people across countries and cultures, with some 10 percent of the world's population reporting recurrent nightmares. Parents have reported, and science has recorded, nightmares in children as young as 18 months old. Up to 40 percent of children aged 2 to 12 experience nightmares, as do some 35 percent of veterans and 50 percent of adults with chronic illness. With this book, a psychologist widely known in his field shows how nightmares evolved and were useful to ancestral populations, and why nightmares may carry beneficial functional effects even today for people who suffer from the pulse-pumping dreams. McNamara brings us up to date on the biology of nightmares and what, specifically, happens in the brain during the event. He also explains the history and development of nightmares and likely causes, including traumatic events, psychological and physical disorders, and commonly consumed medications.

Rethinking the importance of Sigmund Freud's landmark book "The Interpretation of Dreams" a century after its publication in 1900, this work brings together psychoanalysts, philosophers, cultural theorists, film and visual theorists, and literary critics from several continents in a compilation of the best clinical and theoretical work being done in psychoanalysis today. It is unique in convening both theory and practice in productive dialogue, reflecting on the encounter between psychoanalysis and the tradition of hermeneutics. Collectively the essays argue that Freud's legacy has shaped the way we think about not only psychology and the nature of the self but also our understanding of politics, culture, and even thought itself.
Contributors: Willy Apollon, Gifric; Karyn Ball, U of Alberta, Edmonton; Raymond Bellour, Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique; Patricia Gherovici, Philadelphia Lacan Study Group and Seminar; Judith Feher-Gurewich, New York U; Jonathan Kahana, New York U; A. Kiarina Kordela, Macalester College; Pablo Kovalovsky, Clinica de Borde; Jean Laplanche, U of Lausanne; Laura Marcus, U of Sussex; Andrew McNamara, Queensland U of Technology; Claire Nahon; Yun Peng, U of Minnesota; Gerard Pommier, Nantes U; Jean-Michel Rabate, Princeton U; Laurence A. Rickels, U of California, Santa Barbara; Avital Ronell, New York U; Elke Siegel, Yale U; Rei Terada, U of California, Irvine; Klaus Theweleit, U of Freiburg-im-Breisgau; Paul Verhaege, U of Ghent, Belgium; Silke-Maria Weineck, U of Michigan.
Catherine Liu is associate professor of comparative literature and film and media studies at the University of California, Irvine. John Mowitt is professor and chair ofcultural studies and comparative literature at the University of Minnesota. Thomas Pepper is associate professor of cultural studies and comparative literature at the University of Minnesota. Jakki Spicer received her Ph.D. in cultural studies and comparative literature from the University of Minnesota.

Smashing the myths Michael demonstrates the simplicity of Dream Interpretation. In this well structured book he starts with the basics and gently introduces how dreams give direct guidance on your health. That alone is worth the sticker price but it doesn't stop there With each chapter the arsenal for cracking the code in dreams is advanced until from your dreams you can answer the deeply philosophical questions, ""Why am I here?" and "What is my life purpose?" "

Michael writes from an unashamed spiritual perspective but with his feet firmly on the ground. With this book you can take steps to restore your power and regain control of all aspects of your life.

Your dreams want you to be in loving relationships, healthy, happy and successful. They are an illusion created to help you wake up from other illusions. You would be wise to listen to them.

Michael Sheridan

Reviews
Practical, easy to read and very enlightening. Dreams have never been more cogently presented than in this great book. A welcome and essential addition to the library of human knowledge. Neal Keyes A.W.E.A.C., Former Head Counselor, The Hanly Centre for Alcohol and Drug Addiction, Dublin

All dreams have multiple meanings. Michael's gift is to help us to interpret dreams in a meaningful way - messages from the subconscious regarding our health or our purpose in life. This is a great book, easy to read, and one you will want to refer to again and again. Denis Prone, Ph.D, Transpersonal Psychologist and Researcher.

Michael is an accomplished communicator, who succeeds in bringing simplicity to what are potentially complex and confusing areas of exploration. Paddy McMahon (Patrick Francis), Author, The Grand Design.

With his combination of hard-edged logic and visionary hope, Michael Albert is one of the treasures of the Left. [Barbara Ehrenreich] How does a Marxist talk about gender? How does a feminist talk about class? Progressives use a variety of theories -- feminism, Marxism, environmentalism, multiculturalism -- as conceptual frameworks with which to understand the world and develop a vision for the future. How do social and political theories work, and how do they relate to each other? In Thought Dreams, Michael Albert discusses these questions using many examples and question-and-answer sections that make the book accessible and useful. It will help readers better understand progressive theories and begin to create their own theoretical perspective, one that is consistent with their principles, experiences, and priorities.

We all know what it is to dream, but we also know how difficult it is to describe or interpret dreams, or explain what they actually are. To attempt to articulate a dream is to realize how inadequate our words are to describe the experience. Dreams are beyond words, consisting of much more than what we can say about them.
In "Dreamtelling," Pierre Sorlin does not deal with our nocturnal visions "per se," but rather with what we say regarding them. He explores the influence of dreams on our imaginations, and the various - sometimes inconsistent, always imperfect - theories people have contrived to elucidate them. Sorlin shows how our accounts are built on recurrent patterns, but are also totally and entirely individual. He examines the urge to analyze night visions and why it is that some people have become experts in dream interpretation.
Many books have been published on the nature of dreams, on their psychological or biological origins and on their significance, but this book takes as its premise that all we can allege about nocturnal visions is based on dreamtelling. Sorlin shows how dreams arouse our creativity and how, in turn, our creativity influences our dream accounts. "Dreamtelling" is aimed at all those who not only dream, but are curious about the experience, and wonder why they feel compelled to analyze and recount their night visions.

Translation of an Urdu novel; includes critical appraisals of some of the author's works.

This study shows how in the Bible dreams and visions were seen as powerful ways in which God communicated with his people, in contrast to today's sceptical culture. Looking at a series of Bible dreams and visions, the author draws on his years of pastoral experience to demonstrate how God can use them to bring fresh opportunities for healing and growth.

Advance Praise for Dream-Singers

"You will find a great storehouse of folk and literary treasures in this ambitious book that speaks to anyone who has ever thought about his or her dreams. It’s a wonderful adventure and I highly recommend it."–Clarence Major, author of Configurations and Juba to Jive

Acclaim for Dream Reader
also by Anthony Shafton

"A book so unique in its combination of scholarship, clarity, and down-to-earth feeling about dreams that I find it hard to fully express the excitement and satisfaction I felt on reading it."–Montague Ullman, M.D., Clinical Professor Emeritus of Psychiatry, Albert Einstein College of Medicine, Author of Working with Dreams and Dream Telepathy

"Breathtaking . . . the single most complete and thorough analysis of contemporary dream theories yet written . . . Shafton has a keen sense for what people most want to know about dreams, and an admirable ability to explain difficult concepts without oversimplifying them."–Kelly Bulkeley, Ph.D., Past President, The Association for the Study of Dreams, Author of The Wilderness of Dreams

Offering a unique blend of theory and practise, the 10 new titles in this series demystify popular approaches to natural healing and personal insight, revealing simple ways to balance body, mind and spirit.

• Offers an in-depth look into the nature of dreams and shows us the best way to use them to better our lives
• Jargon-free approach makes this subject easy to understand
• Perfect for the new enthusiast, this handy guide is simple to follow yet thorough and authoritative

Our dreams tell us about our lives - past, present and future. Through dreams our unconscious brings new insights and clarity to help us grow and develop, release blocked-off energy and urge us to greater creativity. For women everywhere, the symbol of Venus is a powerful key that helps to unlock these insights. She represents the female psyche in its purest, most uncensored forms - wise woman, devoted mother, protector, innocent victim, stalked prey, devouring vampire, erotic lover - and she is found at some level in all women. 'Venus Dreaming' is an engrossing study of women's dream life, packed with archetypes, dream examples and information on what women's dreams mean. It explains how to use the unique imagery of women's dreams to develop both emotional and spiritual awareness. It also provides women with a powerful awareness of how to understand and direct their personal relationships, sexuality, life cycles, emotional and physical health, their intuitive talents and innate creativity. This is essential and fascinating reading for women interested in their own self-development, and for those with a professional focus on women's health and well being. Other books by Brenda Mallon Dreams, Counselling and Healing.

Dreams are a constant source of self-knowledge, wisdom and understanding, but they cannot always be interpreted literally. This book aims to provide readers with a complete understanding of their dreams, explaining how they can work with their dreams in the pursuit of self-understanding.

According to the poet Elias Canetti, "All the things one has forgotten / scream for help in dreams." To the ancient Egyptians they were prophecies, and in world folklore they have often marked visitations from the dead. For Freud they were expressions of "wish fulfillment," and for Jung, symbolic representations of mythical archetypes. Although there is still much disagreement about the significance and function of dreams, they seem to serve as a barometer of current mind and body states.

In this volume, Deirdre Barrett brings together the study of dreams and the psychology of trauma. She has called on a distinguished group of psychiatrists, psychologists, and social workers--among them Rosalind Cartwright, Robert J. Lifton, and Oliver Sacks--to consider how trauma shapes dreaming and what the dreaming mind might reveal about trauma. The book focuses on catastrophic events, such as combat, political torture, natural disasters, and rape. The lasting effects of childhood trauma, such as sexual abuse or severe burns, on personality formation, the nature of memories of early trauma, and the development of defenses related to amnesia and dissociation are all considered. The book also takes up trauma and adult dreams, including Vietnam veterans and Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder, Holocaust survivors and perpetrators, rape victims, and firestorm survivors. Finally, this volume concludes with a look at the potential "traumas of normal life," such as divorce, bereavement, and life-threatening illness, and the role of dreams in working through normal grief and loss.

Taken together, these diverse perspectives illuminate the universal and the particular effects of traumatic experience. Forphysicians and clinicians, determining the etiology of nightmares offers valuable diagnostic and therapeutic insights for individual treatment. This book provides a way of juxtaposing the research in the separate fields of trauma and dreams, and learning from their discoveries.

Drawing on his clinical practice, his research on sleep and dreaming, and over five thousand of his own dreams, psychiatrist and psychoanalyst Ernest Hartmann proposes a new theory of dreams that shows us how they help us make sense of our emotions and, ultimately, reveal most profoundly who we are. Dreams are meaningful, he argues-and in the process takes on neurobiologists, who believe that dreams are merely random products of the chemistry of the brain, and Freudians, who attribute every dream to the fulfillment of a childhood wish. He shows how dreams, guided by the emotions of the dreamer, make broad connections among our experiences in life. In the end, he concludes, dreaming is immensely useful to the most important psychological task we face-gathering knowledge about ourselves.

With a new foreword by the author. In this book, J. Allan Hobson sets out a compelling -- and controversial -- theory of consciousness. Our brain-mind, as he calls it, is not a fixed identity but a dynamic balancing act between the chemical systems that regulate waking and dreaming. Drawing on his work both as a sleep researcher and as a psychiatrist, Hobson looks in particular at the strikingly similar chemical characteristics of the states of dreaming and psychosis. His underlying theme is that the form of our thoughts, emotions, dreams, and memories derive from specific nerve cells and electrochemical impulses described by neuroscientists. Among the questions Hobson explores are: What are dreams? Do they have any hidden meaning, or are they simply emotionally salient images whose peculiar narrative structure refects the unique neurophysiology of sleep? And what is the relationship between the delirium of our dream life and psychosis?

Originally published by Little, Brown under the title "The Chemistry of Conscious States."

Taking a refreshing approach to the act of dreaming, this book allows you to explore your full potential through the very control of your dreams. It teaches the reader how to construct dreams that will improve reality, and demonstrates how such dreams directly affect our lives. Presented is the most up-to-date information about dreaming, plus a number of essential techniques for harnessing the resources of dreams. This is a book that will appeal to all those interested in the power of dreams. It provides an alternative path for those interested in seeking inner peace, making it a new and intriguing program of personal development.

Why do we sleep? How much sleep do we really need? What causes sleep apnea, narcolepsy, and insomnia-and what can be done about these sleep disorders? Why do older people have more trouble sleeping than young people? We have all puzzled over-or been plagued by-the mysteries of sleep. Now a leading researcher on sleep provides an engaging and informative introduction to the subject that answers many of our questions. Peretz Lavie surveys the entire field of sleep research and sleep medicine-from the structure of sleep stages and the brain centers involved in sleep regulation to the reasons for and significance of dreams, the importance of sleep in maintaining good health, and the function of biological rhythms-interweaving facts with fascinating case histories, anecdotes, and personal reflections. We learn, for example, about: *development of sleep patterns from infancy to adulthood and in the aged; *the wide variety of sleep habits in animals; *dreams of Holocaust survivors; *sleep under the threat of Scud missile attacks; *how melatonin influences sleep; *the story of the "Acrobat's Leap" sleep-deprivation experiments in the Israeli army; *how to treat insomnia; *what to do with a baby who refuses to go to sleep; and much more. Originally published in Hebrew to great acclaim, this book will enlighten and entertain everyone interested in how and why we sleep.

In this examination of the facts and folklore of sleep, Stanley Coren provides evidence that we are becoming an increasingly sleep-deprived society, and that this condition is seriously affecting our work, posing a danger to ourselves and to others. He argues that the "Exxon Valdez" oil spill and the space-shuttle "Challenger" disaster were associated with people suffering from sleep deprivation. He also looks at some of the more subtle and insidious effects of sleep loss on our physical and mental health. Coren asks questions such as: do fish sleep?; are there really "morning" and "night" people?; do some people really only need four hours' sleep a night? There are stories about sleep oddities, such as people who commit murder in their sleep, and descriptions of strange sleep disorders that affect a large number of people and might even be involved in unexplained infant deaths. Finally, the book describes specific techniques to improve the quality and efficiency of your own sleep.

These collected essays by the distinguished psychoanalyst Marie-Louise von Franz offer fascinating insights into the study of dreams, not only psychologically, but also from historical, religious, and philosophical points of view. In the first two chapters, the author offers general explanations of the nature of dreams and their use in analysis. She examines how dreams can be used in the development of self-knowledge and describes how C. G. Jung worked with his own dreams, and the fateful ways in which they were entwined with the course of his life.
The rest of the book records and interprets dreams of historical personages: Socrates, Descartes, Themistocles and Hannibal, and the mothers of Saint Augustine, Saint Bernard of Clairvaux, and Saint Dominic. Connections are revealed between the personal and family histories of the dreamers and individual and collective mores of their times. "Dreams" includes writings long out of print or never before available in English translation.

This text is a one-stop resource on modern dream psychology, from the pioneering theories of Sigmund Freud and Carl Jung to the revolutionary findings of the sleep laboratory.

An introduction to the 20th century's major psychological theories about dreams and dreaming, this work offers a detailed historical overview of how these theories have developed from 1900 to the present. To help readers understand the many different approaches modern psychologists have taken, the book examines each approach in terms of three basic questions: How are dreams formed? What functions do dreams serve? How can dreams be interpreted?

The book begins with a brief historical review of the most important ideas about dreams proposed in Western antiquity. It then presents comprehensive descriptions of the dream theories of Sigmund Freud, Carl Jung, and other clinical psychologists. It further discusses the revolutionary discoveries of the modern sleep laboratory and the most important research findings of experimental psychologists. The book concludes with an examination of dreams in contemporary popular psychology, a multifaceted analysis of a sample dream, and an extensive bibliography on dream research.

The Mechanism-Physical, Etheric, and Astral; The Ego; The Condition of Sleep; Dream Visions; Symbolic, Prophetic, True, Vivid, and Confused Dreams; Experiments.

Every night we enter a mythic realm, a dark, primordial world of fear and desire. What this world offers, Anthony Stevens suggests, may well be the key to understanding our waking mysteries--ourselves, our society, and our history. A prominent psychiatrist and practicing Jungian analyst, Stevens views dreaming from both psychological and neurological perspectives to show how dreams owe their origins as much to our evolutionary history as a species as to our personal history as individuals. A work rich in symbolic and scientific insight, Private Myths traverses the course of dream interpretation from distant hunter-gatherer times to the present. This analysis is as authoritative as it is wide-ranging, including discussions of the biology of dreaming and the discovery of REM sleep, elaboration of the latest neuroscientific techniques in sleep research, and an assessment of the century-long legacy of analytic practice to dream interpretation. In a close look at the actual processes of dream formation, Stevens relates "dream work" to other creative capacities such as language, poetry, storytelling, memory, play, symptom-formation, magic, and ritual. He draws on his many years of experience to analyze key historical dreams, such as Freud's dream of Irma's injection and Hitler's dream of being buried alive, and enriches this discussion with analyses of his own and his patients' dreams. Remarkable in its breadth, Private Myths makes the principles of dream interpretation accessible to scientists, the findings of dream science accessible to analysts, and the discoveries of both available to anyone intrigued by the mysteries of dreams and dreaming.

In The Dream Seekers, Lee Irwin demonstrates the central importance of visionary dreams as sources of empowerment and innovation in Plains Indian religion. He examines 350 dreams from 150 years of published and unpublished sources to describe the shared features of cosmology for twenty-three groups of Plains Indians.

Irwin describes the different means of acquiring visions, including stress, illness, social conflict, and mourning and the spontaneous vision experience common among Plains Indian women. He also explores the stages of the structured male vision quest, unsuccessful or abandoned quests, and threshold experiences during a vision. His conclusion is that dreams not only strengthen the group's experience of a shared religious world view but also confer the right to enact new patterns of individual and collective behavior.

"The Dream Seekers offers new and genuine insights into the dream experience of the Plains Indians....(and) offers original comments on the dream experience itself -- the receiving of the dream and the transference of the dream's inherent power". -- American Indian Culture and Research Journal.

"No library -- private, professional, public, or academic, with any interest in Native American culture -- should be without this book". -- Western Historical Quarterly.

"Anyone with a particular interest in American Indian studies, anthropology, sociology, or religion will find this volume invaluable". -- Rapport.

As children, most of us are scared of the dark. Although we may put that fear behind us, it remains nonetheless buried deep in places where we prefer not to look. It is a terror-as old as the human race-that survives in spite of the magic of electricity, which disguises but can never erase the differences between night and day. In this powerfully written book, A. Alvarez examines night in all its aspects. How do we light it? How do we inhabit it and make it safe? In what "languages" do we dream? The search moves from the neon-lit brilliance of Las Vegas to the shadowy underworld patrolled by the police. We visit a sleep laboratory, where scientists try to understand what happens to our bodies and in our brains when sleep claims us. Alvarez shows how "night horrors" inspired and terrified Coleridge, how dreams liberated the minds of Stevenson and the Surrealists, and how his own childhood fears provided a gateway to the secret world of the unconscious. And through a highly original and accessible account of the thoughts of Freud, Jung, and their modern-day counterparts, Alvarez reveals how deeply dreams and the unconscious color and fashion our waking lives. Like his bestseller The Savage God, Night is a remarkable, eloquent combination of ideas and personal experience; it is a literary feast, a journey of discovery, and a perfect initiation into the mysteries of the dark.