Dreaming Your Real Self [Mass Market Paperback]

Joan Mazza (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: July 1, 1998

Unlike other books that focus on specific symbolism in dream interpretation, Dreaming Your Real Self shows you how to uncover individual dream symbols to find the personal messages behind them. Each night, we send ourselves messages through our dreams. Unlocking the mysterious language of our dreams will enable us to understand ourselves and to live in the world and with others better. Dream expert Joan Mazza shows how to: * unlock the mystery of the strangest dreams * improve dream recall * use dreams to discover hidden talents and power * learn how to work with dreams without an expert * know how to choose a dream partner or group * apply dreams to problem solving * request guidance from the dreaming self * access dreams to stimulate creativity * actuate dreams to improve special skills * understand the meanings of typical dreams: houses, disasters, flying, falling, sexual encounters, attacks, etc. * understand nightmares and recurring dreams

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com Review

"Our emotions are laid bare in our sleep. We see the raw aggression and rage in us, the unchecked and indiscriminate sexuality. The grief we thought was past rises again as do the hurts and wounds of childhood. In dream sleep, we can't stuff down the feelings we do in waking life when we distract ourselves or suppress the feelings with denial, drugs, alcohol, food, sex. People use all kinds of means to keep from letting their feelings be part of their awareness. In dreams, the emotions are all there. The lid is off," says author Joan Mazza, a psychologist who's led dream groups and seminars across the country. With their laid-bare feelings, dreams are a direct pathway to discovering our unconscious thought processes, solving interpersonal problems, and more fully understanding ourselves.

While Sigmund Freud's Interpretation of Dreams may be a classic in this arena, it's pretty proscriptive. A cigar may be a cigar to one dreamer but symbolize something else to another person and yet something different to someone else--differences Ye Olde Psychoanalyst didn't take into account in his book way back in 1900. Dreaming Your Real Self is different. With exercises to improve dream recall in the first place (how can you analyze them if you can't remember them?) and a thorough guide to uncovering the meanings under the various layers of your dreams, it'll turn you into your very own analyst--without the hefty price tag. The book also teaches the art of "dream incubation," the process of literally "sleeping on it," or planting a question in our minds and going to bed to dream for its answer. With analytical exercises from the basic to advanced level, Dreaming Your Real Self is a sure bet for anyone looking to turn the mystery of dreams into a guiding light in your life.

About the Author

Joan Mazza, M.S., is a licensed mental health counselor with a master?s degree in counseling psychology. She conducts ongoing dream groups and leads seminars for mental health professionals nationwide. She has taught classes in journal writing, creativity, intentional relationships, and personal growth.

To visit her web page go to:
http://www.joanmazza.com

Product Details

• Mass Market Paperback: 352 pages
• Publisher: Perigee Trade; 1st edition (July 1, 1998)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0399524142
• ISBN-13: 978-0399524141
• Product Dimensions: 5.3 x 0.7 x 8 inches
• Shipping Weight: 9.6 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.6 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (11 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #2,251,011 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

16 of 16 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A trustworthy and inspiring guide to dream interpreting, August 4, 1999

By A Customer

This review is from: Dreaming Your Real Self (Mass Market Paperback)

I could tell at first glance that Joan Mazza's Dreaming Your Real Self was a credible book about this intriguing topic, that it wasn't one of those silly books that tries to tell you that this means that and no two ways about it. And the further I got into it, the more pleased I was. First of all, she lets readers know that she's only suggesting possible ways to think about their dreams. When it comes to dreams, clearly, what any dream therapist or author claims is only valuable if it helps you understand yourself in some way. Next, I like that her focus is on health and self-knowledge, not merely on diagnosing neuroses or worse. And then, her approach is such a joyful one: she helps us find out how our dreams are very likely making secret rebels of us all.

Dreaming Your Real Self is practical too. For instance, I've been having this recurrent dream about babies (often rather prococious babies), and I checked her section on what this might mean. It began when my nest emptied, so I assumed I had it all figured out. Yet I got some surprising insights, especially that the symbols in the dream relate to what's happening to me NOW, even though my subconscious chose this particular type of dream several years ago. Now I've got something to reflect about and work with. Perhaps I'm actually dreaming of my own untapped potential? The works I haven't yet written that keep nagging at me to be born?

She's got a great section on dreams and creativity too, and since the latter is my own area of expertise (I've written a book called Writing in Flow), I read it extra carefully. Mazza is right on target here too, right down to her descriptions of creative flow, and thus proves herself to me as a trustworthy guide to the realm of dreams.

8 of 8 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Exploring an altered state...., October 26, 2002

By 

Dianne Foster "Di" (USA) - See all my reviews
(HALL OF FAME REVIEWER)   

This review is from: Dreaming Your Real Self (Mass Market Paperback)

In her book DREAMING YOUR REAL SELF Joan Mazza explores the meaning of dreams. Mazza is a psychologist and licensed mental health counselor with a practice involving work with ongoing dream groups. Mazza also leads dream seminars for mental health professionals. To me, Mazza seems like the Dr. Ruth of dreams-incredibly knowledgeable and pragmatic. Her focus seems to be the significance of dreams for individual dreamers, not the neurological underpinnings of synapses. (However, she briefly addresses some ideas on the why of dreams, such as "the meaningless random firing of neurons in the brain..." and "messages from God, guardian angels, the spirit world, the Higher Self, and the Shadow".)

If you've been wondering what a particular dream could mean, this book should provide you with a good place to begin exploring the subject. Mazza has written a "user-friendly" text in which she discusses material she collected from various sources including her own ongoing dream groups. Her approach involves facilitating an interpretation, not providing it. She suggests each dreamer must act as his own interpreter and she provides some tools to do so.

Her work has lead her to formulate some ideas about "Common Dreams and Themes" such as falling, running, being in public with no clothes on, etc. which she includes in a separate section. I have not experienced every one of the topics she discusses, but have had dreams about being paralyzed, falling, flying, traveling long distances, being terrified by an unknown presence, etc. I found the thematic section most useful as Mazza provides suggestions at the end of each segment in a "try this" paragraph.

Although Mazza finds dreams often appear to have common elements just as often they do not. Even when the dream seems common, the individual dreamer will have his own interpretation. Each of us has unique dreams. As I read Mazza's book, I kept thinking of the narrator in "Rebecca" who opens with "Last night I dreamt again of Manderlay..." I myself had a recurring dream from childhood on, that only became clearer to me as an adult in my forties--and I am still exploring it. The dream may have been a childhood memory or it a memory from a past life. I told my mother every time I had the dream and she would say, oh maybe you are another Bridie Murphy (a reincarnate writer).

Maybe, maybe not, but as a result of this and other dreams, exploring the meaning of dreams has become a lifelong habit. On more than one occasion discovering the meaning of a dream has proved incredibly illuminating. I will never forget a dream I had where I was "sitting on a fence" talking to my ex-boss. This dream helped me to understand my suppressed feelings about my boss. I was literally "on the fence" where he was concerned. Meaningless random firings of neurons indeed. Read Joan Mazza's book and get a handle on your own dream life.

6 of 6 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A down-to-earth approach to dreams and their meanings, November 19, 1998

By A Customer

This review is from: Dreaming Your Real Self (Mass Market Paperback)

Believe it or not, this book does not contain a single list of dream symbols or subjects with universal meanings along side.

Far from it.

Anything but Freudian, Joan Mazza makes a convincing case for individual dream meanings.

She gives practical advice not only on interpreting your own dreams but on how to improve dream recall.

This book will convince you that dreams are not the random firings of neurons but instead are important messages from the subconscious to the conscious and that anyone can learn to learn from their dreams.