Product Description

Until now, why we dream has remained a mystery to science. But, by piecing together the most recent scientific findings and psychological understandings, and adding groundbreaking discoveries of his own, Joe Griffin has revealed what turns out to be a strikingly simple and satisfying explanation for why we dream and why the content of our dreams is so very often bizarre. He and co-author Ivan Tyrrell convincingly show that dreaming is vital for mental health (even though remembering dreams is not) and that the sleep state we associate with dreaming (the REM state) also has crucial importance when we are awake. Indeed, this understanding of the REM state explains not only how our brains construct a model of reality in our minds, but also hypnosis, creativity, and why we develop mental illnesses such as depression and psychosis. Full of fascinating real life stories and dream case histories, "Dreaming Reality" gives readers the key to understanding their own remembered dreams, explains why day-dreaming was, and is, crucial to human development, and why stories and metaphors have universal appeal. It is a book that will change lives.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #84700 in Books
• Published on: 2006-12-01
• Original language: English
• Binding: Paperback
• 272 pages

Review
"The conclusions arrived at in Dreaming Reality are breathtaking, and considering the freedom the reader has to apply them to his or herself, they prove to be astonishing. This book gives such rational explanations that the culminative effect is like turning a light on in a room of shadows." MENTAL HEALTH PRACTICE "One of the most important scientific breakthroughs of the last hundred years." DR FAROUK OKHAI "Joe Griffin's key insight...[means that] weekly excavation of your painful past in an attempt to understand your present depression has never seemed so foolish. There is a new king in the sacred grove [of psychology.]" FINANCIAL TIMES "This book on dreaming is revolutionary in more than one way. Past and sometimes overlooked research is re-evaluated, and a persuasive theory emerges... long overdue, to my mind... an intriguing guidebook." DORIS LESSING "A remarkable book that makes compelling reading. Griffin and Tyrrell's adroitly written text challenges traditional views on our knowledge and understanding of the mystifying covert world of human dreams." PROFESSOR TONY CHARLTON "A wonderfully fresh and stimulating view of dreaming, evolution and human functioning." Arthur J. Deikman, MD."

Doris Lessing, March 2004
Revolutionary in more than one way... a persuasive theory emerges... long overdue, to my mind... an intriguing guidebook.

Dr Farouk Okhai, March 2004
One of the most important scientific breakthroughs of the last hundred years.

Customer Reviews

Give the man a medal!
I've just finished this book and found myself yelling, 'Yes!' It's the first book about the mind I've read in ages that really has something new and profound to say.

Since I was a child I have wanted to know why we dream and whether my dreams are as significant as they often feel. I've read Jung, Freud, Jouvet, Hobson and I've looked at dream symbol dictionaries to try and make sense of dreams. But they never got close. So 'Dreaming Reality' was a revelation. Not only do my dreams now make sense to me, it also shows how dreaming takes place in the REM state, but is separate from it. It explains the role the REM state plays in constructing our internal model of reality and why our dreams are so often weird and surreal. (This is because every element in a dream has to be a metaphor.)

I think Joe Griffin really has done what someone wrote on the cover and made "one of the most important scientific breakthroughs of the last hundred years." But what really surprised me was the authors' findings about the workaday role dreams play in keeping us sane. For example, they offer the first clear explanation for the symptoms of psychosis, something I have not found yet in the many other books I've read about the subject.

Revolutionary light on dreaming
For anyone who has speculated on the meaning and purpose of dreaming, Griffin and Tyrrell's astounding insights light up the dark corners of the mind. Not since 1964 when Carl Jung's book Man and his Symbols was published has anyone set out to write so conclusively on dreaming for a wide audience.

Jung proposed a compensatory role for dreams to re-establish 'the total psychic equilibrium'. Griffin and Tyrrell leap ahead of this to the notion that dreaming functions to cleanse the undischarged emotional arousals of the day and they explain how this happens through metaphorical pattern-matching. From this one sets off on the journey to understanding the true causes (and routes to healing) of depression.

In a moment which ranks with the most stunning in scientific discovery, they observed a patient undergoing a psychotic episode. Their linking of this to the REM state will undoubtedly provide the breakthrough to real understanding and lasting healing of psychoses.

This book is revolutionary in thought, revelatory in content and will be established as the most important twenty-first century milestone on the road to accessible mental health treatment for all. It's a must for all who live with mental illness or work for its relief.

psychology for the man or woman in the street
This book outlines the origins and principles behind the Human Givens theory and philosophy. I found the first half of the book rather uninspiring to read but it's well worth keeping going because a light really does seem to come on about half way through. Joe Griffin discovered a few years ago that our dreams are the outworking of unexpressed emotions from the previous waking day and as such the brain's "recovery time". If there are too many unexpressed emotions we spend too much of our sleep time in dreaming and not enough time in non-dream sleep which is when the body achieves the physical restoration needed for good health. Simplistically put, this in turn leads to depression and increased worrying (which is an unexpressed or unfulfilled emotion in itself) and potentially other more serious mental health problems. The book also summarises the Human Givens principle in that as humans we all have a number of resources and needs ('givens') that need to be met in order to achieve positive mental and physical health. This is psychology that the man and woman in the street can understand.