politics Archives | Kelly Bulkeley

Reflections on Among All These Dreamers (1996)

Kelly Bulkeley — Wed, 02 Apr 2025 22:38:26 +0000

The first time I attended an annual conference of the International Association for the Study of Dreams was in Santa Cruz in 1988. For the next several years (London in 1989, Chicago in 1990 (which I hosted), Charlottesville, Virginia in 1991) these conferences gave me an opportunity to learn more about the various ways in …

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Dreams about Recent Protests Against Racial Injustice

Kelly Bulkeley — Mon, 29 Jun 2020 20:36:04 +0000

In recent weeks, many Americans have been dreaming about police, protestors, and frightening acts of violence and destruction. But the dreams differ dramatically in the focus of their anxiety and distress. A new online survey from YouGov asked nearly 5,000 American adults about their dream recall, insomnia, attitudes toward the Black Lives Matter movement, and …

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Nightmares of a Smart Home

Kelly Bulkeley — Thu, 12 Sep 2019 21:39:16 +0000

Dreams from Germans in the 1930’s highlight the danger of new home technologies. I have always been a strong advocate for the creative potentials of dreaming and its capacity to envision future realities. Now, however, I worry that dreams from an earlier era may have predicted a new technology with frightening potentials for abuse in …

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Dreams and Politics 2020: Preparing for New Research

Kelly Bulkeley — Thu, 29 Aug 2019 00:29:26 +0000

To prepare for a new study of dreams during the 2020 U.S. Presidential election campaign, I am doing a brief review of my previous work in this area, to remind myself of what I have learned so far and what seems most important to investigate next. I have been studying dreams and politics since 1992, …

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Dark Times and the Powers of Dreaming

Kelly Bulkeley — Wed, 06 Sep 2017 21:46:48 +0000

I’ve been thinking a lot recently about a new book, Dreaming in Dark Times: Six Exercises in Political Thought, by Sharon Sliwinski, a professor at the University of Western Ontario in Canada. Sliwinski approaches dreaming as a powerful resource for political theory and action, especially in times when basic human freedoms are most at risk. …

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199 Dreams of Donald Trump

Kelly Bulkeley — Fri, 28 Apr 2017 22:59:11 +0000

A new collection of dreams about the new US President sheds light on his psychological impact in the minds of those who support him and those who oppose him. These dreams were gathered via a website I manage, idreamoftrump.net, which has been active since early 2016. A total of 143 came from people living in …

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Dreams of Hillary Clinton and Donald Trump

Kelly Bulkeley — Thu, 06 Oct 2016 00:19:52 +0000

In several studies over the past 24 years I have explored the various connections between dreaming and electoral politics. One of the recurrent findings has been that political events and activities, like Presidential elections, can impact the content of people’s dreams. Some politicians appear with unusual frequency in people’s dreams, which has led to the …

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Dreams of the 2016 U.S. Presidential Election

Kelly Bulkeley — Sun, 03 Jul 2016 00:52:39 +0000

Psychologists from Sigmund Freud onwards have usually treated dreams as purely egotistical and self-centered, with no relevance outside the personal wishes of the dreamer. Every four years I try to prove that assumption wrong. In response to my quadrennial request about election-related dreams, several colleagues sent me reports of dreams they have experienced relating to …

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Recent Interviews About “Big Dreams”

Kelly Bulkeley — Wed, 06 Apr 2016 20:18:10 +0000

In the past couple of weeks I have spoken several times with journalists about Big Dreams: The Science of Dreaming and the Origins of Religion. It’s a daunting experience to have smart people read what you’ve written and ask sharp questions about how you put together your argument… and all the more intimidating with a tape …

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Donald Trump: The Sleep Deprivation Hypothesis

Kelly Bulkeley — Fri, 11 Mar 2016 22:05:42 +0000

It seems that every pundit on the planet has taken a shot at explaining the phenomenal rise and mercurial character of Donald Trump, currently the leading contender to become the Republican nominee for US President. A recent op-ed piece by Timothy Egan in the New York Times, “A Unified Theory of Trump,” suggested a novel …

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