Dreams have captivated human imagination throughout the time. However, in the year 1900, dreams also gained an important place in psychotherapy when Sigmund Freud proposed that dreams were the royal road to the unconscious. The following book presents an overview of the history of dreams and discusses the shift from the use of latent content to that of the manifest content during dream analysis. Additionally, various methods of dream interpretation, the functions of dreams, differing schools of thought on the utility of dreams, typical dreams, and the biological challenge to dream theory are discussed. From antiquity, the universal phenomena of dreaming has captivated human imagination, confused human logic, and controlled human endeavors. Dreams have been regarded as very important, as messages from the gods, predictive of the future, expiatory of guilt, and the voice of conscience. Shamans, seers, and saints have used dreams to discern the source of sickness or to set the course of nations. Poets, philosophers, and playwrights have sought to plumb the depths of dreams in order to lure audience or readers into the world of fantasy, to play the strings of the emotions, and to recall the unthinkable. Cognitive, information processing, and neuroscientists find in dreams brain activity that can help understand REM, memory consolidation, and the "unconscious" state.

A Clinician’s Guide to Dream Therapy demystifies the process of working with dreams by providing both a grounding in the current science of dreaming as well as a simple, practical approach to clinical dream work. In addition to a survey of the current science and neuroscience of dreaming, this book includes clinical examples of specific techniques with detailed transcripts and follow-up commentary. Chapters cover how to work with PTSD nightmares and how to use experiential dreamwork techniques drawn from current neuroscience to engender lasting change. Readers will be able to discuss their clients’ dream material with confidence, armed with an approach that helps them collaboratively tap into the inherent power for change found in every dream. Backed by research, common factors analysis and neuroscience, the approaches described in this book provide a clear map for clinicians and others interested in unlocking the healing power inherent in dreams.

This book looks at dreams from a twenty-first century perspective. It takes its inspiration from Freud's insights, but pursues psychoanalytic interest into both neuroscience and the modern psychoanalytic consulting room. The book looks at laboratory research on dreaming alongside the modern clinical use of dreams and links together clinical and empirical research, integrating classical ideas with the plurality of psychoanalytic theoretical constructs available to modern researchers. Psychoanalysts writing about dreams have traditionally represented the cutting edge of clinical and theoretical development, and this book is no exception. Many of the contributions, as well as the epistemological position taken by the writers, represent a kind of radical openness to new ways of thinking about the clinical situation and about theory. In line with the ambition of the editors, this volume represents an integration of theories and disciplines, and a scientific context for modern psychoanalysis. The link between clinical research and extraclinical research via the royal road of dreaming is a theme that runs through all the contributions.

In Dream Work in Therapy: Facilitating Exploration, Insight, and Action, distinguished researchers and clinicians explore Clara E. Hill's cognitive-experiential model for working with dreams. This book discusses the theoretical basis of the model and provides clear instructions for implementing it in practice. Through the use of valuable clinical examples, chapter authors present extensions of the model in specific settings and populations, such as groups, men, the bereaved, and nightmare sufferers. Of particular interest to readers will be the last part of the book, which describes how to train therapists to use the model and provides a detailed review of the model's empirical research. This approach offers therapists and their clients a structured but flexible method for maximizing the therapeutic benefits of working with dreams.

This edited volume shows the relationship between dream research and its usefulness in treating patients. Milton Kramer and Myron Glucksman show that there is support for searching for the meaning of dream as experiences extended in time. Dreaming reflects psychological changes and is actually an orderly process, not a random experience. Several chapters in this book explore interviewing methodologies that will help clients reduce the frequency of their nightmares and thus contribute to successful therapy.

This book presents a simple, effective and illuminating way of understanding and working with dreams in clinical practice. It describes the mechanisms through which the mind/brain processes our experience and forms symbols, which embody a rich network of associations. It demonstrates how the dream and this network of associations can apply on a number of levels and thus shows how the full richness and vital importance of dreams, their meanings and purposes, can be explored. The book also explores the history, theory and science of dreams and dreaming. It reviews the debates between, and contributions from, Freud, Jung and other psychoanalysts, as well as the developments and discoveries from neuroscientists and dream laboratories, bringing the subject right up to date. Whilst the book primarily uses Jungian terminology, and highly values Jung's insights and approach to dreams, it gives a critical, contemporary account of the whole field of dream work and will be useful to practitioners of all theoretical persuasions.