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Dreams And Nightmares: The Origin And Meaning Of Dreams

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This book presents a summary of one scientist's research on dreams. Hartmann, a clinical psychiatrist and psychiatry professor has been researching dreams for most of his career. In this book, he presents many of his findings, written in language that is accessible for general readers. The book begins with an overview of modern theories driving dream research, particularly those consonant with his own research and neural networks. He then goes on to discuss such topics as emotions and dreams, neural networks and dreams, metaphors and dreams, the function of dreaming, the biology of dreaming, the evolution of dreaming, and personality types and dreams. End material includes a sample personality questionnaire, endnotes, an extensive bibliography and an index.

Hartmann notes how his father was considered to be Freud's academic heir or son, and notes that if so, he himself would be Freud's grandson. Thus, he feels under some obligation to give Freud due respect as one of the early pioneers in dream research. His "familial" connection with Freud makes him feel competent to summarize or restate what Freud meant when commenting on dreams, thus noting that Freud didn't claim that all dreams represented sexual desire, but that was only one interpretation available if other more immediate interpretations weren't obvious. For Hartmann, dreams are primarily expressions of emotional state. He points out that this can be most easily observed with those affected by strong emotions, such as people who have recently undergone traumatic experiences. But Hartmann argues that dreams do more than simply express underlying emotional states. He posits that they are an essential part of the healing process, and that by dreaming, people are able to work with difficult emotions and situations. He suggests that dreaming allows people to role play situations in a safe manner, finding solutions to personal conundrums, and making connections to past experience.

While the book is well written and based on a wide selection of quality scientific research, it clearly follows the views of its author, who, since he is a leader in the field, is not exactly in a position to give an unbiased summary of the main theories driving the research. Thus, Hartmann seems to overstate the conclusiveness of certain of his own findings about the nature of dreams, dream frequency, and personality types. A quick perusal of some of the key research papers cited in his bibliography reveals that there are other competing theories in the literature, and it is not clear yet which account will be shown to be correct. Nonetheless, the book is well worth reading for the ideas that it answers about dreaming, and the references it includes for further research.