Dreaming and Being Dreamt The Psychoanalytic Function of Dreams

In Dreaming and Being Dreamt, John Schneider illustrates the central concept of all emotional functioning: that we are most alive in our dreaming, and that it is dreaming that brings us to life. Building upon the theoretical foundations of Ogden and Bion, the book explicates the way in which it is the unconscious goal of the patient, and the task of the analyst, to engage in dreaming the patient into existence in a fuller way than the patient has been able to dream. It goes on to develop the idea that all dreams are psychological works in progress, containing aspects of emotional experience that are entirely or partially too disturbing to dream on one’s own. Each chapter of this book offers rich clinical exchanges between patient and analyst in analytic sessions. Schneider clearly shows how he dreams the analytic session with patients and the importance of "talking-as-dreaming" in contemporary psychoanalytic theory and practice. With new insights on theory and rich clinical vignettes, this book will be indispensable for all psychoanalysts and psychoanalytic psychotherapists wanting to engage with the latest thinking on dreamwork.

1. Introduction 2. From Freud's Dreamwork to Bion's Work of Dreaming: The Changing Conception of Dreaming in Psychoanalytic Theory 3. Bion's Thinking About Groups: A Study of Influence and Originality 4. Panic as a Form of Foreclosed Experience 5. Working with Pathological and Healthy Forms of Splitting 6. Experiences in K and -K 7. Janus-Faced Resilience in the Analysis of a Severely Traumatized Patient 8. Eating Disorders, Addictions, and Unconscious Fantasy 9. Signs and Symbols in Dersu Uzala 10. Dreaming the Truth of Experience: Heaven

John A.Schneider is a supervising and personal analyst at the Psychoanalytic Institute of Northern California. He is part of the Centre for the Advanced Study of the Psychoses. Previously, he served as the associate director of the Eating Disorders Program, Department of Psychiatry, Stanford University School of Medicine, and an assistant clinical professor in psychiatry. He was an associate clinical professor in psychiatry, University of California, San Francisco.