Exploring Our Dreams

What do psychology and neuroscience tell us about our dreams? Dream researcher and practicing psychotherapist Paul R. Robbins presents the science in a non-technical Q&A format. Covering the history of dream interpretation—from ancient Assyrian dream books to the theories of Carl Jung—he describes his own successful approach to dream studies: exploring the real-life incidents brought to mind by dreams and probing their meaning to the individual in an objective way.

Paul R. Robbins has held a number of research positions in the Department of Psychiatry at George Washington University Medical School, the National Institute of Mental Health, and the Public Health Service. He has published numerous papers in psychological and psychiatric journals, many books on psychology topics for general readers (and several novels). He lives in Silver Spring, Maryland.

Paul R. Robbins

Format: softcover (6 x 9)
Pages: 220
Bibliographic Info: notes, bibliography, index
Copyright Date: 2018
pISBN: 978-1-4766-7275-5
eISBN: 978-1-4766-3180-6
Imprint: Exposit Books

Acknowledgments vi

Introduction 1

Part I. What Science Tells Us

About Our Dreams

1. The Nature of Dreaming 7

2. Dreaming and the Brain 21

3. Dream Recall, Dreaming in Color and More 30

4. The Sources of Dreams and the Experience of Lucid Dreaming 38

5. The Content of Dreams, Theories About Dreams and Dreams That Recur 48

6. Gender and Age Differences in Dreams 68

7. Bizarre Dreams and Dreams and Mental Illness 74

8. Anxiety Dreams, Nightmares and Night Terrors 81

9. Positive Effects from Dreams on Emotions and Problem Solving 93

10. Message and Predictive Dreams 99

Part II. What Dreams May Tell Us

About Ourselves

11. Comparing Your Dreams with the Dreams of Others 111

12. The Approach to Dream Analysis of Sigmund Freud 127

13. Dream Analysis According to Carl Gustav Jung 135

14. Dream Dictionaries 145

15. The Dream Incident Technique: An Experimental Approach to Using Dream Associations
163

16. Some Final Thoughts About Dreams 190

Notes and Sources 197

Index 209

• “A concise text covering basic concepts, theories, and research findings related to dream psychology…written in an easy to read, conversational tone, this book is easily accessible to the general reader…recommended”—Choice