ABSTRACT

Dreams over the course of recovery from eating disorders.

Roger M. Knudson, Ph. D.
Department of Psychology
Miami University
Oxford, OH 45056
E-mail:  knudsorm@muohio.edu

Matthew Allen
Department of Psychology
Miami University
Oxford, OH 45056

Roger Knudson is Director of Clinical Training in the Ph. D. program in clinical psychology at Miami University and a member of the ASD Board of Directors. He has taught courses on dreams for 25 years at Miami.  After several papers on the on-going significance of significant dreams, his research is now focusing on dreams in relation to eating disorders.

Matthew Allen is a second year graduate student in the Ph.D. program in clinical psychology at Miami University.  He presented his first paper at ASD at the 2002 conference at Tufts.  His research interests include dreams, non-dualistic consciousness, and severe psychopathology.

Summary of Presentation

Research on dreams of individuals diagnosed with eating disorders has been limited.  No studies have examined dreams at different points in the process of developing or recovering from such disorders.  This paper discusses theory and method for such research and presents some examples from the initial stages of our project.

Learning Objectives.

1. To overview the existing literature on dreams in relation to eating disorders.
2. To outline the major elements of archetypal psychology's approach to the dream.
3. To present an archetypal approach to some dreams provided by women in the process of recovery from eating disorders.
   

Evaluation questions:

1. What are the major findings of research to date on dreams of patients with eating disorders?
2. What are the major elements of archetypal psychology's approach to the dream?
3. What new perspective on the dreams of individuals with eating disorders is suggested by the archetypal analysis presented in this paper?
   

Abstract 

Eating disorders, including anorexia nervosa, bulimia nervosa, and binge eating disorder, have been the focus of a rapidly growing body of research.  Nonetheless, as Polivy and Herman (2002) point out in their recent chapter in the Annual Review of Psychology, we are far from a clear understanding of their etiology.   Similarly, recent scholarship (e. g. Reindl, 2001) on the process of recovery from these disorders suggests that we are still rather far from an understanding of the recovery process.

In this burgeoning literature, attention to dreams is rare.  While some studies focusing on dreams have been done (e. g. Brink & Allen, 1992; Dippel, Lauer, Riemann, Majer-Trendes, Krieg, & Berger, 1988; Levitan, 1981; Touyz, Jackson, O'Kearney, Thornton, Russell, & Beumont, 1996), we have found none that examine dreams at different points in the development of or the recovery from such disorders.

In this paper, we discuss an approach to the study of the dreams of individuals with eating disorders grounded theoretically in the archetypal psychology of James Hillman (e. g. Hillman, 1977, 1978, 1979a, 1979b, 1982, 1988; Hillman & McLean, 1997).  Through this theoretical lens, we examine dreams taken from various points in the development of and/or recovery from eating disorders.  At the time of writing this proposal, we have had intensive interviews with 10 participants and have interviews with an 11th underway.  Additional participants are anticipated prior to the ASD conference (see Denzin, 1997, 2001 for details of the interpretive ethnographic approach to interviewing that we employ).

In this first paper based on our research, we will illustrate our approach with dreams from two participants, both of whom present dreams that they associate with what they define as the lowest point of their disorder and the beginning of their process of recovery.  Some of the methodological limitations of our approach will be discussed briefly as well as next steps in our analysis of the interviews done to date. 

References

Brink, S. & Allen, J. A. B.  (1992)  Dreams of anorexic and bulemic women:  A research study.  Journal of Analytical Psychology, 37, 275 - 297.

Denzin, N.  K.  (1997)  Interpretive ethnography:  Ethnographic practice for the 21st century.  Thousand Oaks, CA:  Sage Publications.

Denzin, N. K.  (2001)  Interpretive interactionism, second edition.  Thousand Oaks, CA:  Sage Publications.

Dippel, B., Lauer, C., Riemann, D., Majer_Trendes, K., Krieg, J. & Berger, M.  (1988)  Sleep & dreams in eating disorders.  Psychotherapy and Psychosomatics, 48, 165 - 169.

Hillman, J.  (1977)  An inquiry into image.  Spring 1977, 62 - 88.

Hillman, J.  (1978)  Further notes on images.  Spring 1978, 152 - 182.

Hillman, J.  (1979a)  Image sense.  Spring 1979, 130 - 143.

Hillman, J. (1979b)  The Dream and the Underworld.  NY:  Harper & Row.

Hillman, J.  (1982)  The animal kingdom in the human dream.  Eranos Yearbook, 51, 279 - 334.

Hillman J.  (1983)  Archetypal psychology:  A brief account.  Dallas:  Spring
Publications.

Hillman, J.  (1986)  Egalitarian typologies versus the perception of the unique.
Eranos Lecture Series 4.  Dallas:  Spring Publications.

Hillman, J.  (1988)  Going bugs.  Spring 1988, 40 - 72.

Hillman, J. and McLean, M. (1997)  Dream Animals.  San Francisco:  Chronicle.

Levitan, H. L.  (1981)  Implications of certain dreams reported by patients in a bulemic phase of anorexia nervosa.  Canadian Journal of Psychiatry, 26, 228 - 231.

Polivy, J. & Herman, C. P.  (2002)  Causes of eating disorders.  Annual Review of Psychology, 53, 187 - 213.

Reindl, S.  (2001)  Sensing the Self:  Women's Recovery from Bulemia.  Cambridge, MA:  Harvard University Press.

Touyz, S., Jackson, C., O'Kearney, R., Thorton, C., Russell, J., & Beumont, P.  (1996) The theme of death in dreams of patients with anorexia nervosa:  Four selected contemporaneous case histories.  European Eating Disorders Review, 4, 206 - 216.

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