Memory in dreams

Bibliographic Data

ID9056476
AuthorsGabriella Giustino (Via Monte Bianco 8MilanItaly, corresponding author)
Year2009
Volume90
Issue5
Pages1057-1073
Publication date2009-10-01
Peer ReviewedYes
Open AccessYes
TypeARTICLE
VenueThe International Journal of Psychoanalysis (JOURNAL)
Journal identifiersISSN: 0020-7578 • E-ISSN: 1745-8315
PublisherInforma UK Limited (PUBLISHER • GB)
DOI10.1111/j.1745-8315.2009.00189.x
PMID19821852
OpenAlexW1839913765
LanguageEN
Citations received1
References cited9

In this paper the author discusses a specific type of dreams encountered in her clinical experience, which in her view provide an opportunity of reconstructing the traumatic emotional events of the patient's past. In 1900, Freud described a category of dreams--which he called 'biographical dreams'--that reflect historical infantile experience without the typical defensive function. Many authors agree that some traumatic dreams perform a function of recovery and working through. Bion contributed to the amplification of dream theory by linking it to the theory of thought and emphasizing the element of communication in dreams as well as their defensive aspect. The central hypothesis of this paper is that the predominant aspect of such dreams is the communication of an experience which the dreamer has in the dream but does not understand. It is often possible to reconstruct, and to help the patient to comprehend and make sense of, the emotional truth of the patient's internal world, which stems from past emotional experience with primary objects. The author includes some clinical examples and references to various psychoanalytic and neuroscientific conceptions of trauma and memory. She discusses a particular clinical approach to such dreams and how the analyst should listen to them

Cognitive science · Psychoanalysis · Child Welfare and Adoption · Identity, Memory, and Therapy · Memory, History, Trauma, Identity · Psychology

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