Robert Van De Castle
![Our Dreaming Mind Robert Van De Castle]( "Our Dreaming Mind Robert Van De Castle")
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By: Ballantine Books
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Subjects -> Health, Mind & Body -> Mental Health -> Dreams
Subjects -> Health, Mind & Body -> Psychology & Counseling -> By Topic -> Consciousness
Subjects -> Health, Mind & Body -> Psychology & Counseling -> By Topic -> Dreams
Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 10
Average rating: 4.0 of 5
Fascinating 4 out of 5 stars.
20 of 21 people found this review helpful.
This book is a compendium of information about dreams, ranging from folklore and ancient beliefs through current scientific research. The book is organized into 6 parts: anecdotes and famous dreams, early dream research from the dawn of history up until Freud, modern dream theorists including Freud and Jung, experimental dream research, scientific dream analysis, and paranormal and lucid dreams. There are also two appendixes that provide contact information for dream networks and organizations, and how to keep a dream diary. The book is extensively documented with endnotes, and there is a 20 page bibliography as well as an index. There is a phenomenal amount of material crammed into this volume- -the pages are extra wide to accommodate two columns of text on each page. The book is illustrated with black-and-white photographs and dream-influenced artwork.The early part of the book seemed almost like an extended literature review for a dissertation or an encyclopedia. The thoughts of dozens, perhaps even hundreds of philosophers, researchers, and other dreamers are briefly summarized in chronological order, from Plato to Artemidorus, from Erik Erikson to Calvin Hall. I found the sections on Freud and Jung particularly illuminating. As someone who has heard a lot about Freud, but never read his works, I found the overview of Freud's work on dreams and his school of psychoanalysis quite informative, especially when it was directly contrasted with Jung's work. The contributions of each of these men to the topic of dream research were presented in great depth, and supplemented with example analyses in their corresponding schools.
I also found the section of the book covering contemporary dream research to be quite fascinating. It would have been better, however, if this section were expanded and brought up to date with the latest laboratory findings. One annoying habit that Van de Castle has is using this book to defend criticisms of his research methodology. In several places in the text, he reports that other researchers disagreed with his findings, and then he launches into in-depth justification of his conclusions. While he is certainly within his rights to defend his views, it makes no sense to do so in a popular work such as this one- -all he needed to do in this text was mention the disagreements (perhaps in an endnote) and briefly explain that he had answered the questions in print elsewhere. By discussing the points in detail here, it makes it appear as if he is defending his research by appealing not to his scientific peers, but to the general public. In contrast, it might have been good to explain the experimental design of his research in a little more detail in this book. From his descriptions here, he makes it sound as if he does dream research by positing that certain elements of dreams are common or absent in a particular group of people, and then checking their dreams to see if this is indeed the case. He never mentions whether this research is conducted using double-blind methods or control populations. If he had mentioned here that he consistently used such methods, his research would sound a lot more credible. (If he actually didn't use such methods, then his research would be dreamy, indeed.)
In any case, I found much of what Van de Castle reports to be consistent with my own experiences. After reading this book, I am even more certain that following one's nightly dreams can be a very illuminating and worthwhile practice. I plan to use the book's extensive bibliography to follow up on the ideas presented here.
Editorial Review:
"When a book appears that is timely, scholarly, comprehensive, and well-written, it stands as a landmark."
MONTAGUE ULLMAN, M.D.
Author of WORKING WITH DREAMS
In this brilliantly researched study, Robert L. Van de Castle, Ph.D., an internationally recognized dream authority, examines the vital role that dreams have played throughout history. OUR DREAMING MIND delves into the most provocative experiments that scientists are conducting on the dreaming mind in this century. Vast in scope and startling in its revelations, here is an invaluable contribution to our understanding of dreams, written with clarity and grace. Dr. Van de Castle shares with all readers the amazing riches he has discovered throughout a lifetime of research and reflection on dreams.
