The Variety of Dream Experience: Expanding Our Ways of Working With Dreams (Suny Series in Dream Studies)

Explores the contributions dreams can make to our private and public lives, and outlines methods for safe and effective dream work.

The versatility of dreams―their intrinsic creativity and their healing potential―extends beyond their clinical usefulness. This versatility comes to life in the way this book’s contributors have succeeded in extending dream work into the public domain―the home, the church, and the educational arena. The various perspectives include literature, creative writing, cultural anthropology, the priesthood, political science, computer science, history, psychosomatic medicine, and individual and group psychotherapy. Taken together they illustrate the far-reaching value of understanding our dreams and how much they can tell us about ourselves.

In this second edition of The Variety of Dream Experience, chapters have been updated and significant changes have been made in the way the group process is structured, making it easier to master and more effective in its application. Three new chapters have been added: one that discusses the importance of dream work in the training of pastoral counselors, another on how the experiential dream group process can be integrated into group psychotherapy, and a third on how the principles and rationale of the dream group process can be of help in individual therapy. Two other chapters have been substantially expanded: one on the role social forces play in the shaping of the dream, and the other on a very moving account of the role a dream played in working through an abusive relationship.