Wide-ranging essay on the importance of dreams by a Jungian analyst
who maintains that they are the "only natural oases of spirituality
left to us." Stevens (Archetypes: A Natural History of the Self,
1982, etc.) sees dreams as having the function of myths and
religion, that is, the integration of old wisdom with new
knowledge. Through dream work, he explains, we can get in touch
with the primordial self - what Jung called the archetypal reality
- and develop our capacity for consciousness. Stevens traces the
development of theories about dreams from ancient writings to
current work in neurobiology. Jung's theory of archetypes, which he
discusses here at some length, is "remarkably compatible" with
modern neuroscientific findings, especially in connection with the
dreams of young children, which are full of archetypal
implications. He discusses the capacity for the human psyche to
fabricate images in a chapter on symbolism and describes his own
three-stage approach to dream analysis (looking at the personal,
cultural, and archetypal contexts) in a chapter on dreams in
therapy. For those inspired to try their own hand, he offers
practical advice and recommended readings. Besides relating his own
dreams and those of his patients, he touches on the probable
functions and origins of such common experiences as anxiety dreams,
dreams of falling or flying, and sexual dreams, and he analyzes
some famous dreams by Freud, Hitler, and Descartes. To Stevens, the
findings of psychology, analysis, ethology, and neuroscience have
now come together to produce the most exciting period in the
history of the study of dreams. The enthusiasm that Stevens has for
his fascinating subject is infectious. Not everyone will be
persuaded that dreams and dreaming hold the key to the future of
our planet, but it is an intriguing idea. Erudite and engaging.
(Kirkus Reviews)
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.
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