Children's Dreaming and the Development of Consciousness [Hardcover]

David Foulkes (Author)

Book Description

ISBN-10: 0674116208 | ISBN-13: 978-0674116207 | Publication Date: March 1, 1999

David Foulkes is one of the international leaders in the empirical study of children's dreaming, and a pioneer of sleep laboratory research with children. In this book, which distills a lifetime of study, Foulkes shows that dreaming as we normally understand it--active stories in which the dreamer is an actor--appears relatively late in childhood. This true dreaming begins between the ages of 7 and 9. He argues that this late development of dreaming suggests an equally late development of waking reflective self-awareness.

Foulkes offers a spirited defense of the independence of the psychological realm, and the legitimacy of studying it without either psychoanalytic over-interpretation or neurophysiological reductionism.

Editorial Reviews

Review

Reporting on what is by far the most comprehensive scientific study ever done of dreaming in children, David Foulkes argues convincingly that the appearance of dreams during the preschool and early primary years both depends on and demonstrates the development of essential cognitive processes. With a gift for seeing the deepest implications of his data, Foulkes takes his readers from the data of dream reports and sleep electrophysiology to profound observations on the narrative structure, emotional characteristics, cognitive qualities, and stimulus determinants of dreams. This is the authoritative work on childhood dreaming; it will have no rivals for many years to come. (Allen Rechtschaffen, Director, Sleep Research Laboratory, University of Chicago )

About the Author

David Foulkes, now retired, has directed the dream research laboratories at the University of Wyoming and at the Georgia Mental Health Institute in Atlanta.

Product Details

• Hardcover: 212 pages
• Publisher: Harvard University Press (March 1, 1999)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0674116208
• ISBN-13: 978-0674116207
• Product Dimensions: 8.6 x 5.9 x 0.8 inches
• Shipping Weight: 12 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 4.5 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (2 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #3,449,701 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Fascinating, accessible, February 11, 2007

By 

Jonathan Ichikawa "cool dude" (United States) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Children's Dreaming and the Development of Consciousness (Paperback)

This book questions the very deep assumptions made about dreaming by both psychologists and members of the folk at large. Apparently, according to the best available evidence -- in the form of two very detailed studies of children over decades -- dreaming requires a relatively sophisticated cognitive achievement that takes place gradually and much later than people assume. Four and five year olds, Foulkes finds reason to believe, almost never dream -- and when and if they do, their dreams are much more static and absent of human agency or emotional content than adult dreams are.

"But wait!" you say. "My son or daughter sometimes wakes up from scary dreams!" Maybe. But, and here is the point: your day-to-day activities offer only anecdotal evidence, subject to various interpretations and possible biases; this is a psychological question, and psychological methodologies are those best-equipped to answer it. That's what this book is about.

Foulkes outlines his methodology and results in clear layman's terms; I am not a psychologist, but I found his descriptions and explanations compelling and lucid. Anyone interested in a real understanding of what dreaming is -- and not just what people think it is -- would do well to buy and read this book. Highly recommend.

(I should add one caveat: in addition to the fascinating and plausible conclusions Foulkes draws about dreaming, he also advertises some striking claims about consciousness. These, I think, are much less developed and convincing. But perhaps I merely misunderstood.)

4.0 out of 5 stars Worth reading, November 5, 2011

By 

Pastor JSW (Ohio) - See all my reviews

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: Children's Dreaming and the Development of Consciousness (Paperback)

This book is a fairly detailed summary of the development of consciousness in children and its relationship with dreaming. It is written in language that is easy to understand and yet provides a comprehensive overview of the subject. I enjoyed reading it.