Description:
"Our emotions are laid bare in our sleep. We see the raw aggression and rage in us, the unchecked and indiscriminate sexuality. The grief we thought was past rises again as do the hurts and wounds of childhood. In dream sleep, we can't stuff down the feelings we do in waking life when we distract ourselves or suppress the feelings with denial, drugs, alcohol, food, sex. People use all kinds of means to keep from letting their feelings be part of their awareness. In dreams, the emotions are all there. The lid is off," says author Joan Mazza, a psychologist who's led dream groups and seminars across the country. With their laid-bare feelings, dreams are a direct pathway to discovering our unconscious thought processes, solving interpersonal problems, and more fully understanding ourselves. While Sigmund Freud's Interpretation of Dreams may be a classic in this arena, it's pretty proscriptive. A cigar may be a cigar to one dreamer but symbolize something else to another person and yet something different to someone else--differences Ye Olde Psychoanalyst didn't take into account in his book way back in 1900. Dreaming Your Real Self is different. With exercises to improve dream recall in the first place (how can you analyze them if you can't remember them?) and a thorough guide to uncovering the meanings under the various layers of your dreams, it'll turn you into your very own analyst--without the hefty price tag. The book also teaches the art of "dream incubation," the process of literally "sleeping on it," or planting a question in our minds and going to bed to dream for its answer. With analytical exercises from the basic to advanced level, Dreaming Your Real Self is a sure bet for anyone looking to turn the mystery of dreams into a guiding light in your life.
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