AHP Perspective is a magazine published bi-monthly for members of the Association for Humanistic Psychology. It includes interviews, articles, essays, updates on member activities, conference announcements, and book reviews. Members receive the complete AHP Perspective as part of their membership.

AHP PERSPECTIVE February/March 2000 Table of Contents

DREAMSCAPING: New and Creative Ways to Work with Your Dreams, Essential Writings by ...
EDITED BY STANLEY KRIPPNER AND MARK ROBERT WALDMAN Roxbury Park/Lowell House, 1999. Reviewed by John Rowan

This is an anthology of pieces collected from a number of eminent authors from various writings ranging from 1986 to 1999. It is divided into three sections: Personal journeys into the landscape of dreams; Working with your dreams; and Understanding dreams.

In the first section we find such authors as Jeremy Taylor, showing how fragments of dreams can often tell us as much as a full-blown episode. I found this fascinating. Robert Van de Castle tells us about telepathy and dreams. Jane White-Lewis writes about dreams and social responsibility—an absorbing story of work in an inner-city school. Graywolf Swinney has a brief piece on the shamanic approach to dreams. Other pieces are by Bette Ehlert (working with dreams in the criminal justice system), Jenny Davidow, Aaron Rochlen & Clara Hill (a bit formal, I felt), and Richard Russo.

In the second section, we are treated to pieces by Eugene Gendlin and others, including some quite formal rules: Six steps for incubating dreams (Delaney); Fourteen ways to interpret a single dream (Bulkeley); Twenty-three steps for working with your dreams (Slater). We are told about: Active Imagination (Bosnak), Dream lovers (Davidow, very brief); Dead-end dreams (Olsen); Family members (Koch-Sheras & Sheras); Recurring dreams (Sullivan); Working with dreams in therapy (Bogart). There is an interesting but frustratingly brief chapter by Deborah Jay Hillman on creating a dream appreciation group, following the method of Montague Ullman.

And in the third section we have Montague Ullman himself, together with Stanley Krippner, Oliver Sacks, Fraser Boa and other notables. I was particularly interested in the piece by Richard Catlett Wilkerson on dream sharing in cyberspace, which led me to some wonderful sites on the Internet. I also liked Kelly Bulkeley’s chapter on the interpretation of spiritual dreams throughout history. The book ends with a chapter by Iain Edgar on dying and mourning—a fitting close.

This book has been edited for the ordinary reader, rather than for the specialist, and the references have been eliminated from those papers which originally had them. However, the reference is given to the original publication, and there is a good index. For me, the pieces tended to be too short, and often felt hurried; but there is a lot of relevant and sometimes inspiring material here for the person who wants to know more about dreams.

JOHN ROWAN has been a member of AHP since 1970. He works in London as a psychotherapist and teaches at the Ministre Centre.

AHP PERSPECTIVE February/March 2000 Table of Contents

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