Approaching the dream as a question

A self-analytical exploration on the expressive functions of dreams

Bibliographic Data

ID8971456
AuthorsLuiz Meyer (Brazilian Psychoanalytic Society of São Paulo, São Paulo, Brazil, corresponding author)
Year2020
Volume102
Issue2
Pages258-280
Publication date2020-12-04
Peer ReviewedYes
Open AccessNo
TypeARTICLE
VenueThe International Journal of Psychoanalysis (JOURNAL)
Journal identifiersISSN: 0020-7578 • E-ISSN: 1745-8315
PublisherTaylor & Francis (PUBLISHER • GB)
DOI10.1080/00207578.2020.1820870
PMID33952055
OpenAlexW3110850129
LanguageEN
Citations received1
References cited13

The author suggests that dreams are an expressive means through which the psychic apparatus delineates, construes and communicates an issue it is faced with. It is shown that there are substantial differences between this approach and more classical understandings of the nature and function of dreaming. Instead of laying emphasis on dream work as a defence system or as outlets of unconscious drives, the author highlights two further aspects of dreaming: (1) that in and through dreaming the psychic apparatus has developed a specific capacity to identify and express questions, problems and emotional experiences with which it is confronted, in a complex spiral and vertiginous way, as described in the paper; (2) that dreams encapsulate kernels of experience into "engrams" by constantly searching for ways of addressing and readdressing emotional experience

Cognitive psychology · Cognitive science · Dream · Engram · Epistemology · Function (biology · Psychic · Psychoanalysis · Psychotherapist · Unconscious mind · Philosophy · Psychology · Sleep and Wakefulness Research

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