Dreams,Morality and the Waking World

Is it ever wrong to cheat in a dream? It has been argued that the conjunction of reasonable claims about dreams with Evaluational Internalism (the view that moral evaluation is determined by factors ‘internal’ to agency, such as intentions) entails a positive answer. This implausible result seemingly provides reason to favour an alternative theory of moral evaluation. I here argue that a wide range of Evaluational Externalist views (which base moral evaluation on factors ‘external’ to agency, such as harms produced) are similarly committed to morality in dreams. I end by identifying implications for theorising about dreams and morality.     

The use of color for the secondary elaboration of the dream

Freud's term sekund?re Bearbeitung has been translated as both "secondary revision" and "secondary elaboration." In keeping with a distinction made by Silber (1973), the term secondary elaboration is used in this paper to indicate the process by which further dream modification occurs after dream recall in order to deepen the disguise of the manifest content for the analyst. Clinical cases are presented in an attempt to demonstrate the sole use of color for the alteration of dreams subsequent to their initial recall. Secondary elaboration in these cases is attributed to resistance to transference. Further, the clinical material indicates that the secondary elaboration simultaneously serves a communicative function.     

Dreams,psychoanalysis and virtuality: the ancient mind in the modern world

The modern psyche is being shaped by the technological revolution involving the development of a virtual electronic environment in replacement of the natural world. Through the lens of the dream, as it has been valued and devalued in various cultures (including psychoanalysis), we can explore changes in the status of inner life. Psychoanalysis at first celebrated, now ignores dreams. This development runs parallel to the high value of dreams in pre‐industrial cultures and their demotion in contemporary post‐industrial Western culture. Despite official disregard for dreams, dreams as the original virtual experience, serve as the basic model from nature for the electronic virtual world displayed on the external screen. Also, dreams reappear in a technological transformation as film, video, TV and computer imagery. The ancient importance of dreams has been transferred to the powerful influence of life on the external screen. But dreams as dreams are like “the canary in the mind,” warning of a continuing demotion of inner life in modern “post‐human” culture. A rebellious re‐engagement with dreams, in clinical and theoretical psychoanalysis, is advocated.     

Earth, Dream, and Healing: The Integration of Materia and Psyche in the Ancient World

Influenced by the methods and practices of Hippocrates, the Asclepius cult used herbal formulae and medicinal applications intricately connected with Asclepius cult rituals and worship. An understanding of the types of herb and medical applications surrounding their use by the cult aids understanding of the inner world and symbolism of ancient dreams.Jeffrey B. Pettis teaches in the field of New Testament Studies at Fordham University, New York City. His focus is the interpretation and use of ancient dreams in early Christianity and the Greco-Roman world. He has lived and traveled in Greece, Egypt and Turkey, studying the design and culture of ancient temples and the sanctuaries of Asclepius, the deity of the ancient dream cult. He received his Ph.D. from Union Seminary in 2004.     

Memory in dreams1

In this paper the author discusses a specific type of dreams encountered in her clinical experience, which in her view provide an opportunity of reconstructing the traumatic emotional events of the patient’s past. In 1900, Freud described a category of dreams – which he called ‘biographical dreams’– that reflect historical infantile experience without the typical defensive function. Many authors agree that some traumatic dreams perform a function of recovery and working through. Bion contributed to the amplification of dream theory by linking it to the theory of thought and emphasizing the element of communication in dreams as well as their defensive aspect. The central hypothesis of this paper is that the predominant aspect of such dreams is the communication of an experience which the dreamer has in the dream but does not understand. It is often possible to reconstruct, and to help the patient to comprehend and make sense of, the emotional truth of the patient’s internal world, which stems from past emotional experience with primary objects. The author includes some clinical examples and references to various psychoanalytic and neuroscientific conceptions of trauma and memory. She discusses a particular clinical approach to such dreams and how the analyst should listen to them.     

Questioning Hermeneutics with Freud: How to interpret dreams and mute-speech in Sikh scripture

This paper begins to question the interpretive endeavor when it is applied to the Adi Granth. The text itself expresses a view that the ‘world is a dream’ and that there is real difficulty in communicating the truth about reality, since it is like a mute person who enjoys, but is unable to express, the taste of his sweet; that is the sweetness of the mystic experience. I raise the question: what is hermeneutics to this situation? How is one to interpret a dream and a text that is the ‘speech’ of a mute person? Traditional hermeneutic theories (conservative, moderate and critical) do not seem to cater for this problematic since they do not concern themselves with the unconscious, the sub-text, the dreams underlying waking thought. I thus turn to Freud to gain clues about the interpretation of dreams, and thus attempt a preliminary radicalization of hermeneutic theory. It is suggested that perhaps a reversal is required where dreams precede worldly reality, and interpretation is a sign of delusion, obviously locating and implicating this very text within the very problematic it attempts to illuminate. Beyond this ironic tautology I ask: could there be a self that does not dream and does not interpret?     

Dreams,Katharsis and Anxiety

Over the centuries, the importance and the nature of the relationship of “inside” and “outside” in human experience have shifted, with consequences for notions of mind and body. This paper begins with dreams and healing in the Asklepian tradition. It continues with Aristotle’s notions of psuche and how these influenced his conception of katharsis and tragedy. Jumping then to the 17th century, we will consider Descartes’ focus on dreams in his theories of thinking. Finally, we will turn explicitly to Freud’s use of dreams in relation to his theories of anxiety, of psychic processes and of the Oedipus Complex.     

Memories,or attempts to dream undreamt traumas? Souvenirs dormants (Sleeping memories) by Patrick Modiano,under the gaze of Thomas Ogden

Abstract

In “Sleeping memories”(2017), French writer Patrick Modiano confronts the past and his memories in a different way compared with his previous novels, as he keeps trying to revisit and reprocess them. In this book he adds a new method, the dreaming revision of memories, especially traumatic ones, turning to the work of Marquis d’Hervey de Saint-Denys, “Les rêves et les moyens de les diriger: Observations pratiques.” I would suggest that in this way he dreams undreamt traumas, thereby transforming them. In doing so, Modiano meets Thomas Ogden’s art of psychoanalysis.     

G. C. Lichtenberg: dreams, jokes, and the unconscious in eighteenth-century Germany.

The German physicist and writer Lichtenberg (1742-1799) was well known during the nineteenth century as a humorist, thinker, and psychologist. He was also a favorite author of Freud, who read him beginning in his teens, quoted him frequently, and called him a "remarkable psychologist." Despite this, he has been ignored by psychoanalysts and historians of psychiatry alike, and most of his writing is still unavailable in English. An introduction to Lichtenberg as a psychologist is provided, stressing material dealing with dream analysis, association theory, and drives. Relevant excerpts are translated into English. Lichtenberg is shown to have insisted upon the need for a systematic and rationalistic study of dreams, to have analyzed individual dreams (describing them as dramatized representations of thoughts, associations, and even conflicts from his own waking life), and to have emphasized the functional link between dreams and daydreams. His remarks on drives and commentary on eighteenth-century association theory represent a significant practical application, and thus refinement, of Enlightenment rationalistic psychology. These achievements are assessed in light of Freud's early fascination with him; it is argued that Lichtenberg is an example of the relevance of the historical and cultural background of psychoanalysis to clinical practice.     

From the dreams of a generation to the theory of dreams: Freud's Roman dreams

In The Interpretation of Dreams, Freud's interpretation of oedipal desires does not occur at the expense of historical and personal desires, which are always there as a backdrop. In the relentless examination of his own dreams that Freud makes in order to show the mechanisms inherent in all oneiric deformation, we are also led to another, specifically historical, aspect of the issue of Jewish emancipation, which he experiences at first hand. By analysing his own dreams, Freud not only shows us the mechanisms governing dream formation, but also develops a pointed critique of his contemporary society and its prejudices.     

Resistance in treatment as a means of avoiding inner conflict

It is not commonly known that, in his eighties, Michael Fordham sought the help of Donald Meltzer in what Dr Meltzer described as ‘more a weekly supervision of dreams than an analysis’. Dr Fordham is said to have commented that it was ‘a weekly supervision of my inner world - and you can't get closer to psychoanalysis than that’ He was greatly helped by these ‘supervisions’ and at the end of their work together, Meltzer suggested that Fordham wrote his memoirs. This resulted in The Making of an Analyst: Michael Fordham, published in 1993.

This fascinating account of Fordham's life and work contains much of interest about his personal development. He talks with candour about his confusions and passions in what is at times a surprisingly revealing manner. In particular Fordham talks openly about his closest relationships and how they affected him. The book was published, as he wanted it to be, after careful discussion with James Astor and Karl Figlio.

We are pleased to be able to publish the following contribution from Dr Meltzer about the book which he prompted. It is a mixture of personal responses on reading the book and memories of the man.     

Direct interpretation of dreams: Typology

The dream typology assorts dreams into three major categories: dreams whose origin is endogenous, exogenous, or relational. Dreams of the first type arise from somatic needs, feelings, and states that accompany organismic adjustments to system requirements. Dreams of the second type are initiated by kinetic and dispositional tendencies toward engagement and exploration of the outer world. And dreams of the third type derive from interpersonal dispositions to interaction and relationship with other people. Within each category, dreams may occur at different levels of complexity. The dream typology permits the integration of psychoanalytic observations about the dreams from a variety of perspectives within a common framework. Freud's view that a dream is a wish fulfillment finds its primary niche in endogenous need, wish fulfillment, and convenience dreams. Kohut's observations about self-state dreams and inner regulation (1971, 1977) are accommodated to the middle range of endogenous dreams, and Jung's individuation dreams (1930) occupy the advanced range. Similarly, Bonime's interpersonal approach to dream interpretation (1962) is encompassed by relational dreams of the middle level. In addition, types and modes of dreams that are only infrequently encountered in clinical psychoanalysis are accommodated. The dream typology suggests that different psychoanalytic theories are like the position papers that might have derived from the fabled committee of learned blind who were commissioned to determine the appearance of an elephant. Each individual got a hold on some part, but could not see the whole; so for each, the part became the whole. The psychoanalytic theorist is in exactly an analogous position because, in fact, he is blind to the extent of the unconscious and is constrained to what he can infer. What he can infer depends on cohort, client population, and how he calibrates his observations. The result has been procrustean interpretation, dissention, and a remarkable stasis in the psychoanalytic theory of the unconscious. The theory of the unconscious that arises from the method of direct interpretation reflects a differentiated inner world with variegated landscapes of images and frameworks. The derivatives of the unconscious are determined by complex decision rules, symbol systems, and syntax. Images and dreams possess a primary autonomy from the conscious mind and arise through the configural mind, which serves the construction and synthesis of experience and knowledge. The derivatives emerge out of common human nature conjoined with concrete human experience. For this reason, dreams and images appear universal.(ABSTRACT TRUNCATED AT 400 WORDS)     

‘Clemency on the way to the gallows’: death,dreams and dissociation

The survivor of a decade of childhood sexual trauma and violence, perpetrated by a monstrous father, produced a series of dreams in the final year of a ten‐year analysis. They illuminated the ‘death drive’ beneath a lifelong preoccupation with dying and fantasies of submission to death, perpetuated by the promise of hoped‐for freedom from pain and release from a life of suffering. The initial dream involved the collapse of a team of white horses drawing him in a pillory cart to his own hanging for a crime he did not commit. It signified the collapse of a fragile psychological system based on his role as the ‘sacrificial lamb,’ protecting a (not so) innocent mother. The raw truth was now unconcealed: primal, violent, and terrifying dreams and affects emerged where he was now the murderous aggressor. His dreams would become primary agents for an instinctive, life‐giving authenticity to emerge, offering him clemency from the shattering repetitions of persecution and dissociation.     

Psyche, Matter and Synchronicity

In 1948, and with Pauli s enthusiastic support, Jung began to write down his thoughts on synchronicity. A two-year correspondence ensued, with a focus on psyche and matter, and the importance of acausality within the frameworks of physics and psychology.
This paper traces the improbable interaction between the physicist and the psychologist, as these great scientists enrich and merge their formative views on acausality. Bolstered by his dreams, Pauli draws a correspondence between psychology and atomic physics, centring on the 'psychophysical problem', including synchronicity. Seminal thoughts are discussed, such as the need to broaden the concept of the archetype, and to recognize that the future of analytical psychology is not to be found primarily in therapy but in a 'unified holistic conception of nature and the status of man within it'. Two world pictures were constructed, identifying a non-causal (non-rational) side to reality, as experienced both in physics and the psyche. Pauli discusses his concept of a 'neutral language', the aim being to bridge the gap between psyche and matter, both of which are seen to rest on a common foundation, known to the alchemists as the unus mundus. The collaboration was highlighted with the publication of their book, The Interpretation of Nature and the Psyche (1952), which emphasizes the archetypal influence of archetype on consciousness.     

AN ESSAY ON DREAMING,PSYCHICAL WORKING OUT AND WORKING THROUGH2

In this paper the author attempts to expand the idea put forward by Freud who considered dreams as a special form of unconscious thinking. It is the author's contention that the psychical working‐out function performed by dreams is a form of unconscious thinking, which transforms affects into memories and mental structures. He also attempts to clarify the way in which meaning is built and transformed in mental life. In that respect the unconscious internal world is seen as a form of unconscious thinking, a private theatre where meaning is generated and transformed. He focuses on what happens to feelings in dreams in connection with the meanings as a result of and an expression of the several stages of working through. The dream world is described as the setting where the mind gives expressive pictorial representation to the emotions involved in a conflict: a first step towards thinkability. The dreamwork also constitutes a process through which meaning is apprehended, built on and transformed at an expressive non‐discursive level, based on representation through figurative/pictorial images. The author draws on Meltzer's formulation to conjecture that the working‐through function of dreams, mainly in response to interpretations, is performed by a process of progression in formal qualities of the representations made available by dreaming in the form he has called affective pictograms. It is through progression in formal qualities of the representation that the thinking capabilities of the affective life develop and become part of the process of what is called metaphorically the metabolisation of emotional life. This process takes place through migration of meaning across various levels of mental process. In this perspective the analyst'sinterpretations of dreams effect what linguists call transmutation of the symbolic basis, a process that is necessary to help the mind to improve its capacity to think. Something expressed on the evocative plane and condensed into a pictographic image is then transformed into verbal language that expresses meaning. These conceptions are illustrated by a detailed clinical case.     

Defense,dreams and rationality

Are some mental activities rational but unconscious? Psychopathological symptoms, it is said, have a sense — they are seen as “compromise-formations” which express the “intentions” of agents even though the agents are totally unaware of “bringing about” such symptoms. Philosophers, who often claim that such a conception is simply contradictory or incoherent, have shed little light on the puzzles and apparent paradoxes that surround the issue. It is argued here that Freud's two models of explanation — the mechanistic and the intentionalistic — each fail to provide a basis for an explanatory account of the phenomenon of unconscious defense. An examination of the problem of dream “composition” helps explain why Freud's dependence upon “rational homunculi” is inappropriate and misleading. Finally, an alternative model which depends neither upon Freud's version of mechanism nor upon his lavish anthropormorphism is suggested. Ladies and Gentlemen, — It was discovered one day that the pathological symptoms of certain neurotic patients have a sense. On this discovery the psychoanalytic method of treatment was founded. It happened in the course of the treament that patients, instead of bringing forward their symptoms, brought forward dreams. A suspicion thus arose that the dreams too had a sense.     

God Talks to Me in My Dreams: The occurrence and significance of children's dreams about God

This paper is a summary of research into 9-11 year old's dreams about God. It is a qualitative study of three schools. The research shows that dreaming about God is not uncommon amongst this age group, and is not restricted to believers. The divine dreams are often quite different in essence to ordinary dreams and play a significant role in the spiritual and/or religious lives of the dreamer. A fear of ridicule from peers, and of dismissal from adults in many cases forces the child to keep their dreams and other spiritual experiences within, but a need to share was evident. The number of boys reporting divine dreams was significantly lower compared to girls indicating a possible gender issue which teachers need to be aware of. The subject provides a powerful key to unlock the door to children's expression of their inner world.     

On the countertransference of the patient: Transformations of the psychoanalyst's 'theoretical self' and their possible articulations with the vicissitudes of the analytic relationship

In this paper the author examines one of the many levels of the analyst/analysand relationship: the possible interaction between the analyst's mental routes in relation to theories (also meant, but not only, as internal objects) and the vicissitudes of the psychoanalytic relationships with his patients. The author assumes that an important variable affecting the transformation of certain therapeutic relationships is the change that takes place in the relationship between the analyst and that part of his internal world where his theories find their place. He names this part of his internal world 'theoretical self', and 'precipitates of the analyst's theoretical self' those complex formations, akin to more or less cohesive conglomerates, that are formed by his relationship to theories and to psychoanalytic institutions, and by the various, 'personal' internalised objects. The psychoanalyst will relate to these precipitates in a variety of ways, and he will make use of them mostly at an unconscious level in his analytical work; and his patient is likely to 'react' to them, almost chemically. The author also offers some working indications: the psychoanalyst, despite his knowledge of some aspects of his own countertransference, is in fact lacking in knowledge, unless he constantly does some extra work focusing on how his mental position (i.e. the relationship with the precipitates of his theoretical self) may intervene in any of the therapeutic relationships that he establishes-not necessarily in the same way in each of them. The author also illustrates his reflections and conceptualisations by reporting dreams and excerpts from sessions taken from three psychoanalytic treatments in the course of several years.     

This art of psychoanalysis

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.