Twentieth Century Dream Theorists- Basic Ideas- Psychology 228

(Summary of Van de Castles Chapter on Twentieth Century theorists)

Alfred Adler

a. Man motivated by innate social drives

b. Dreams illuminate the general life style of the dreamer

c. Lack of dreaming is an indicator of good psychological health

d. Personality is the same in waking or dreaming life

e. Dreams help us solve problems confronting us

Symbols:

Falling- falling socially and suffering loss of prestige

Flying- dreamed by ambitious

Naked- fear of exposure or imperfection

Paralyzed- the present problem is without solution

Traveling- moving through life

Dead person- you haven't buried them or they psychologically still influence you

Spectator- this is the role you play in your waking life

Samuel Lowy-

a. Affect or the physical plays a part in dreaming

b. Dreams regulate the affect, by moving it toward positive currents

c. It is not important to remember dreams, as they have a physical

restorative function

d. Dream images can cause us to feel moody upon awakening due

to the biochemistry of the process.

William Stekel-

a. First dream is important- it reveals life conflicts, guiding lines, and therapeutic resistance areas

b. "Anagogic" trends v.s. "Katagogic" trends- ethics, morality, and idealism v.s. Lower levels, sexual and egotistical impulses and instincts.

c. Get to dream down to its basics like summarizing a story

d. Look for polarities in the dream ( similar to a degree to Jung)

e. A dream may represent physical or mental areas such as:

Museum- where memories are stored

Illness- manifestation of physical ailments

f. The existence of telepathic dreams were "undisputable"

Twentieth Century Dream Theorists- page 2- Psychology 228-

Thomas French-

a. Dreams represent recent problems, which combined with earlier problems, may manifest themselves in the manifest dream content

b. French pays attention to dream series as they show a process of solving over time

c. The purpose of dreaming is to discover solutions to problems

Erik Erikson-

a. Paid attention to the following things in the manifest content of the dream: verbal, sensory, spatial, temporal, somatic, interpersonal, and affective.

b. Did use some of Freud psychosexual conflicts are part of analysis also, but included socialization aspects and other areas from his own theories.

Medard Boss-

a. Dreaming and waking are not separate spheres

b. Forget hypothesis and theories- study the dream itself

c. Dreams are mirrors and like photographs they picture us as we are at that moment

d. Patients have responsibility in the interpretation of their own dreams

e. Prophetic dreams are on a much higher level of importance than everyday dreams

Calvin Hall-

a. Dreams are the embodiment of thoughts, images must be translated into ideas

b. Looking for conceptions within the dreamer such as: conceptions of self; of other people; of the world; of impulses, prohibitions and penalties; and of problems and conflicts

c. From his study of dreams he postulated 5 major conflicts within us: feelings towards mother and father and they toward him, freedom versus security, the conflicts inherent in sex roles, animal nature versus societal control and the forces of life and death.

d. Dreams help us discover the thoughts that precede behavior

e. Did studies on whether telepathic dreaming could be demonstrated in a laboratory setting.

Fritz Perls- ( father of Gestalt Therapy )

a. Explanation of Gestalt Therapy on p. 192, Van de Castle.

b. The dream is a projection of the rejected or disowned parts of the dreamer's personality.

c. The dream is a message of yourself to yourself

d. Tell the dream in the first person ( this is important to the registering of the REALITY

of the dream )

e. Act out the parts

Twentieth Century Dream Theorists- Page 3- Psychology 228

f. Dialogues between parts of the dream, talking to each other.

g. Experiencing the dream leads to discovery, rather than intellectualizing about it.

Eugene Gendlin-

a. Dream interpretation techniques: "What comes to you?", "What are your associations in relationship to this dream?"

b. Ask about associations of feelings in the dream and what happened yesterday.

c. What was the place and the story of the dream and the characters

d. Ask "What part of you is that?" in the dream. ( similar to Gestalt technique)

e. Ask dreamer to be the person in the dream ( also similar to Gestalt )

f. Can the dream continue?

g. What about the symbols in the dream?

h. Do high , low or under symbolize anything in your body?

i. How is the dream related to your childhood, personal growth, sexuality or spirituality?

j. Two stage approach: look for the "aha" experience as you contemplate the dream meaning and secondly, try to sense the growth direction the dream is suggesting.

Montague Ullman-

a. Developed a method of working with dreams in a group setting.

b. Stage one: The dreamer volunteers the details of a dream to the group and they try to grasp it as much as possible.

c. Stage two: Group members assume a stance of "If this were my dream" I would see ( feel, experience, etc) it _____ way.

d. Stage three: Dreamer explains understanding which has come from this process and engage the group in further exploration if desired.

e. Stage four: In between session homework and processing of dream "feedback"

f. Dream interpretation does not "belong" to the experts!

g. Train leaders of dream groups.