Dreams: A Reader on Religious, Cultural, and Psychological Dimensions of Dreaming.
Edited by Kelly Bulkeley
Palgrave, November 2001
Purchase this Book
This book offers a one-volume compendium of the best contemporary scholarship on the study of dreams, bringing together leading researchers from religious studies, anthropology, and psychology.
Blurbs and Reviews
“A fascinating collection of readings—as rich and diverse as the realm of dreams itself. Bulkeley brings together scholars who explore the science and philosophy of dreams with sophistication, while remaining accessible to readers. A rich array of cultural approaches are represented, and differing western schools receive ample time for a stimulating debate.”
—Deirdre Barrett, Associate Professor of Psychology, Harvard Medical School
“The dream: hieroglyph, psychic map, cultural artifact, random neural discharge? A century after Freud’s contested odyssey into the interpretation of dreams, this rich volume opens multiple portals to the universal otherworld of dreaming and to some of the most important questions in dream research today …a unique new guide to an endless landscape.”
—Kimberley C. Patton, Associate Professor in the Comparative and Historical Study of Religion, Harvard Divinity School
“There is, arguably, no contemporary scholar writing in the field of the psychology of religion who to date has accomplished a more thorough and critical exploration of the cultural, historical, psychodynamic and religious meanings of the dreaming process than Kelly Bulkeley. This remarkable compilation of carefully chosen essays by leading scholars offers both the student and the professional a comprehensive survey of the best scholarship and the sharpest intellectual controversies that dreaming has provoked world wide and historically… This reader is an epic survey of art, religion, psychology, anthropology literature and diverse human cultures as seen thought the peculiar but illuminating lens of ‘The Dream.'”
—John McDargh, Associate Professor, Department of Theology, Boston College
“Whether you are a scientist or a humanist, a rationalist or a poet, Bulkeley’s collection on dreams will both fascinate and entertain you. Bulkeley knows how to get inside of dreams; he also knows how to take the outsider’s point of view. The individual and the collective, the scientific and the poetic, the past and the present are given their due in this wise selection of readings.”
—Don Browning, Alexander Campbell Professor of Ethics and the Social Sciences, University of Chicago
“I know of no other collection that draws together such a wide range of current approaches to dreams and provides such a comprehensive coverage of the present state of research across disciplines. Bulkeley has deftly assembled so many seminal and challenging essays on dreaming, all of which reflect the latest developments in their respective fields. A veritable feast of dream delights for both the novice, and the seasoned dream researcher.”
— Michele Stephen, Ph.D. Senior Lecturer in Anthropology, at La Trobe University, Melbourne, Australia
Table of Contents
Acknowledgments
About the Contributors
Introduction: Contemplating Freud’s Navel
Section I. Traditions
1. The Context of Buddhist Dream Experience and Practice. Serinity Young
2. Through the Looking Glass: Dreams in Ancient Egypt. Kasia Szpakowska
3. Dreams and Dream Interpreters in Mesopotamia and in the Hebrew Bible (Old Testament). Scott Noegel
4. Dreams and Dreaming in Islam. Marcia Hermansen
5. Sending a Voice, Seeking a Place: Visionary Traditions among Native Women of the Plains. Lee Irwin
6. The Role of Dreams in Religious Enculturation among the Asabano of Papua New Guinea. Roger Ivar Lohmann
7. A Content Analysis of Mehinaku Dreams. Thomas Gregor
8. Making Dreams Into Music: Contemporary Songwriters Carry On an Age-Old Dreaming Tradition. Nancy Grace
Section II. Individuals
9. Kagwahiv Mourning: Dreams of a Bereaved Father. Waud Kracke
10. Reflecting on a Dream in Jungian Analytic Practice. Jane White-Lewis
11. Group Work with Dreams: The “Royal Road” to Meaning. Jeremy Taylor
12. Wish, Conflict, and Awareness: Freud and the Problem of the “Dream Book”. Bertram Cohler
13. Penelope as Dreamer: The Perils of Interpretation. Kelly Bulkeley
Section III. Methods
14. Western Dreams About Eastern Dreams. Wendy Doniger
15. The Dream of Scholarship: Some Notes on the Historian of Mysticism as a Dreaming Creative. Jeffrey Kripal
16. The New Anthropology of Dreaming. Barbara Tedlock
17. How Metaphor Structures Dreams: The Theory of Conceptual Metaphor Applied to Dream Analysis. George Lakoff
18. Dreams, Inner Resistance, and Self-Reflection. James DiCenso
19. Turning Away at the Navel of the Dream: Religion and the Body of the Mother at the Beginning and End of Interpretation. Diane Jonte-Pace
20. Using Content Analysis to Study Dreams: Applications and Implications for the Humanities. G. William Domhoff
21. The New Neuropsychology of Sleep: Implications for Psychoanalysis. J. Allan Hobson
22. Consciousness in Dreaming: A Metacognitive Approach. Tracey L. Kahan
23. Dialogue with a Skeptic. Frederick Crews and Kelly Bulkeley
