Ernest Hartmann, M.D., a world renown nightmare expert, will be presenting a systematic study of dreams before and after 9/11/01. He found a significant increase in powerful dream images after 9/11, but no increase in dreams involving towers, airplanes etc. In 880 dreams there was not a single "replay" dream showing the scenes of planes hitting towers which everyone saw many times on television.
Dr Hartmann will present his work on "Boundaries in the Mind" related to dreaming. People who have "thin boundaries" recall far more dreams than others, and their dreams are also more vivid and emotional. Dr Hartmann will also discuss the relationship of dreams to poetry, showing that the powerful Central Image of the dream is similar to the Objective Correlative (emotion-bearing image) of the poem. Dr. Hartmann presents on Saturday, June 30th.
http://www.amazon.com/Dreams-Nightmares-Theory-Origin-Meaning/dp/0306459965/ref=sr_1_1/103-6762902-6547802?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1182955358&sr=8-1
Deirdre Barrett, Ph.D., is the co-Author of the newly released three volume book: The New Science of Dreaming. Dr Barrett presents on July 1st on: Dreams and Creative Problem Solving: An Evolutionary Perspective. What are dreams? In addressing the much broader question “What is Man?,’ Richard Dawkins wrote “There is such a thing as being just plain wrong and that is what before 1859 all answers were.” (This is when Darwin published The Origin of Species). In modern science, an explanation of any behavior needs to be consistent with evolutionary theory, but dream psychology ignored principles of adaptation until very recently. Dr. Barrett examines how dreaming evolved over at least 164 million years of mammalian history and posits that they are thinking or problem solving in a different biochemical state. Her research on problem-solving and creativity helps determine what kinds of problems dreams are fine-tuned to solve.
Click here: Amazon.com: The New Science of Dreaming [Three Volumes]: Books: Deirdre Barrett,Patrick McNamara
Jayne Gackenbach, Ph.D, professor and author of many books and articles on dreams and other topics, will present on the impact of video gaming on dreams. She will present on July 1st. Video Games increase the recognition of dreams in video gamers, but gamer’s dreams are not different than others. We hear so much about video game play and how dangerous it is for our kids from the media, but what about the dreams of hard core gamers? Does all that violence translate into nightmares? As it turns out although gamers show some increases in aggression, for the most part their dreams are more like the dream content norms than different. What is particularly interesting is that gamers may be having more dream control and more lucid dreams—where they become aware they are dreaming. As they play in virtual worlds online they are practicing being in an alternative reality which seems to be translating to recognition of dreams while asleep. Jayne Gackenbach, author and editor of two recent books on online life and several books on dreams, has been exploring the realm of the Virtual Realities of gamers daily lives and how they translate into the alternative realities of their nighttime dreams. Here is the Amazon link: http://www.amazon.com/Cyber-Rules-Really-About-Internet/dp/039370484X/ref=sr_1_1/102-3059231-4578569?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1182824236&sr=1-1
David Kahn, Ph.D. Harvard dream researcher and President of the International Association for the Study of Dreams will present the latest research findings from his laboratory on June 30th and will give a Presidential Address on July 1st. Dr. Kahn stated that “Our finding is that dreams serve as much to reveal general characteristics of the human mind as they do to reveal specific characteristics of any one dreamer. Individual dreamers will, of course, have dreams that contain information that is unique to them, for example, members of their family may appear in their dreams as well as familiar places. But, if these references are removed, the themes, emotions and plots of dreams are as much generic to human consciousness as to individual consciousness. This is an important change in how we look at dreams. In addition to using dreams to learn about an individual; we should look at dreaming to tell us about important common or generic aspects of human consciousness. We are all emotional creatures and when cardinal emotions are activated in sleep our brains react by creating scenarios that integrate those feelings into the brain’s representation of our widely shared social experience.” This is the finding from a recent study by Allan Hobson and David Kahn.
Alan Siegel, Ph.D., is a clinician and dream researcher who specializes in working with patterns of dreams connected to life transitions and crises such as pregnancy, marriage, divorce, grief, and illness. He studied the posttraumatic dreams and nightmares of the Oakland Firestorm of 1991. Repetitive and unchanging nightmares are one of the cardinal symptoms of Posttraumatic Stress Disorder. Frequently trauma survivors dream about painful moments from their past. Re-scripting dreams by creating alternate endings may help ease the nightmares and lead to insights about the impact of the trauma. Dr. Siegel will talk about the promise and perils of working with posttraumatic nightmares. Alan Siegel coordinates the Continuing Education Program at the IASD 2007 conference. A past-President of IASD and Assistant Clinical Professor at U.C. Berkeley, he will talk about posttraumatic nightmares along with other presenters on Friday June 29th and Saturday June 30th. www.dreamwisdom.info
Gayle Delaney, Ph.D., is a US dream educator and author. She is President of Delaney & Flowers Dream Center, in San Francisco and founding President of IASD. She is the creator of the Dream Interview method, www.gdelaney.com. She is also a romance coach, who looks at how our nightly dreams comment on our dating and mating life and offer us insight, urgent warnings, and encouragement. She will present on June 29th and July 1st including a workshop: “Your Dreaming Mind: A Private Dating Coach with Soul.”
Press and Media Contact
IASD Publicity Co-Chairs:
Alan Siegel, Ph.D. Dreamsdr@aol.com and
Karen Bartnicki, M.A. KJ.Bartnicki@verizon.net
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