Originally published in 1935, William Archer’s interest in dreams had persisted for over quarter of a century, for ten years of which he kept a careful record of his own dreams. These records alone form a valuable collection of material, of which Archer made good use in the writing of the book on dreams on which he was engaged at the time of his death; large parts of these dream-records are reproduced in this book. He left this book partly finished, partly in draft, and partly in the form of notes. In putting together this material the editor, Theodore Besterman, tries to carry out...

Originally published in 1959, with some corrections in 1962, the author examines the common view at the time that dreams are mental activities or mental occurrences taking place during sleep. He starts off by offering a proof that the sentence ‘I am asleep’ is a senseless form of words and cannot express a judgment. After commenting on various features of the concept of sleep, the author expands his argument to prove that the notion of making any judgment at all while asleep is without sense. He takes the further step of showing that this same conclusion holds for all other mental acts...

Most of us believe that we sleep in order to rest our tired bodies and minds. Originally published in 1977, this centuries-old common-sense view is challenged by Ray Meddis, who describes and argues for a controversial new theory of the nature and function of sleep. The theory seeks to replace the old view with the idea that sleep may no longer serve any important function in modern man. Whereas the sleep instinct helps animals to survive by driving them to hide away for as long as possible each day, this is no longer a valuable asset in civilised surroundings. Nevertheless, as the author...

Sleeping patterns change with age, whether we are growing up, or growing old. While most people are prepared for the rapidly altering sleep patterns of growing children, the evidence suggests that many are unprepared for additional sleep changes in later life, either in themselves or in others. In this book, originally published in 1987, two research disciplines – social gerontology and sleep research – are brought together with the aim of providing a straightforward account of how sleep is changed and disrupted by the biological and social impact of ageing. Attention then focuses on...

Originally published in 1986, the emphasis in this book is on dreaming rather than sleeping. This reflected the recent emergence of interest in dreaming among professionals, in the general public, and across disciplines at the time. Each chapter offers a review of its area with pertinent references. Selected references are annotated. The annotated references represent the cutting edge of the area under review or are classical, historically important pieces or studies that represent a key turning point. Therefore, the number of annotations varies from chapter to chapter. This book gives the...

Originally published in Great Britain in 1972 and distilled from the collective wisdom of the great interpreters of dreams – Freud, Jung, Adler, Stekel and Gutheil, among others – this comprehensive key to the baffling language of dream symbolism is a thought-provoking and invaluable guide to the uncharted country of the mind. Tom Chetwynd has isolated for the first time the rich meanings of over 500 archetypal symbols from the indiscriminate mass of dream material, and rated the likelihoods of the various possible interpretation in each case. Here are the essential clues to...

Originally published in 1950, this title includes instances of dreams in published records from both British and American societies of psychical research, covering six decades. This work had been previously inaccessible to the ordinary reader. Other stories have come from friends and acquaintances of the author and in his introduction he states that: ‘the chief purpose of this collection is to present examples of apparently significant dreams, those that "come true", there will be no effort in these pages to debate possible explanations based on known laws, either of chance or of...

Do your dreams seem to have as much in common with real life as a funhouse mirror? Don’t be misled. Dreams contain extraordinarily reliable commentaries on the conflicts and events of everyday life. Properly interpreted, they not only illuminate your anxieties but actually show you how to alter the course of your life – and very much for the better.

Dreams are so essential to our health and well-being that almost all of us create them in clusters four or five times every night. In this title, originally published in 1989, Dr Robert Langs, a psychoanalyst and dream researcher,...

Originally published in 1979, this is a dream book with an outstanding difference: it takes the interpretation of dreams out of the realm of the professionals and gives it to the ultimate expert – the dreamer. Working with Dreams stresses the uniqueness of every dream and dreamer. With anecdotes and examples from their own dream groups, the authors show how to deal with the intimacy and honesty of a dream; how to explore its meanings without distorting them; how to let a dream tell us about ourselves and add to our understanding.

Dr Ullman and Mrs Zimmerman start with the...