Universal Dream Key, The - Softcover

Garfield, Patricia

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0060953640 ISBN 13: 9780060953645

Publisher: HarperOne, 2001

Synopsis

Every night, all over the world, sleepers are dreaming variations of the same twelve dreams. The details differ, of course, but the same themes recur in every culture, as they have throughout recorded history. In The Universal Dream Key, internationally renowned authority Dr. Patricia Garfield shows us how to understand our dreams -- and much about ourselves.

Garfield has spent years researching the dreamworld, leading to her discovery of these twelve archetypes. Even those of us who don't usually remember our dreams remember some of these:

• being chased
• appearing naked in public
• not knowing the answers to a test
• driving a car without brakes
• falling

Garfield moves from a general motifs to the many recognizable variations, illustrating her account with actual examples. Most important, she offers readers a detailed analysis of the possible meanings, creating a skeleton key to the twelve doors of the subconscious.

About this title

About the Author

Cofounder of the Association for the Study of Dreams, Patricia Garfield, PH.D., is one of the wolrd's leading dream experts. She holds a doctorate in clinical psychology and has written six books on dreams, including the bestseller Creative Dreaming. She lives in Tiburon, California.

From Publishers Weekly

Drawing upon the works of psychologist Carl Jung, structuralist Claude L‚vi-Strauss and folklorist Vladimir Propp, Garfield (Creative Dreaming), who cofounded the Association for the Study of Dreams, believes that all dreams despite significant differences in dreamers and their cultures fall into 12 archetypes. Most are common, easily recognizable narratives ("Being Chased or Attacked," "Falling or Drowning" and "Being Lost or Trapped"), though a few may be less familiar to Western readers ("Being Menaced by a Spirit"). Each "negative" dream has a corresponding positive or healing version, such as "Being Well Dressed" instead of "Being Naked in Public or Inappropriately Dressed" or "Fine Performance" rather than "Poor Test or Other Poor Performance." While it may seem reductive to limit dreams to 12 categories, Garfield acknowledges the biological and cultural influences on dream symbolism while taking pains to reiterate how every dream has a personal dimension specific to the dreamer. Most of her insights are commonsensical and unsurprising ("Making love in your dream = Wish to connect with waking person or quality of that person"), though readers who are willing to undertake the dozens of dream exercises Garfield offers will undoubtedly wrest new insights from their subconscious minds. (Mar.) Forecast: Though Garfield's workmanlike style may strip dreams of their magic for some readers, she knows how to reach her core audience (her last book sold 250,000 copies). A 25-city radio tour will help ensure that word spreads about Ms. Sandman's bag of tricks for deciphering dreams.

Copyright 2001 Cahners Business Information, Inc.

Edition details

• Publisher: HarperOne
• Publication date: 2001
• ISBN 10: 0060953640
• ISBN 13: 9780060953645
• Binding: Paperback
• Language: English
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 384