The canary in the mind: on the fate of dreams in psychoanalysis and in contemporary culture.
Dreams have been central in the birth and evolution of psychoanalysis. This paper explores the remarkable story of the relationship between dreams and psychoanalysis as a modern version of the long history of dreams in most healing traditions. But psychoanalysis seems to have turned away from dreams as central inspiration in a way parallel to the general culture's turn away from dreams and the reality of inner life. Yet modern postindustrial culture is transfixed by a version of "dream life" in ways just beginning to be understood (e.g., in the transformation of ancient interest in the inner screen to the external screen). Working with dreams in psychoanalytic psychotherapy was a creative and revolutionary act for our forebears. It is even more so today, in ways that are discussed in this paper.
Lippmann
Paul
P
Stock Bridge Dream City, MA, USA. lippmannp@aol.com
D003469:Culture; D004325:Dreams; D006801:Humans; D011573:Psychoanalytic Interpretation; D011575:Psychoanalytic Therapy / Q000379:methods*