Routledge Library Editions Sleep And Dreams

Routledge Library Editions: Sleep and Dreams (9 Volumes) brings together as one set, or individual volumes, a small series of previously out-of-print titles, originally published between 1935 and 1988. An eclectic mix, the set looks at sleep and dreams from a number of different perspectives, including philosophy, psychoanalysis and science. It includes a sourcebook, which reviews areas of sleep and dream research, and a dictionary to help people interpret their own dreams.

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 reader a basic grounding in what we know about the sleep state and then details sleep mentation or dreaming. Although this book is not totally comprehensive, it will give the reader a good look at the basic sleep phenomena and a more detailed look at contemporary work on dreaming.

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 and mental occurrences, with the exception of dreams.

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 Archer’s intentions as closely as possible, and believed that he represented the book as he would have wished it to appear. It was unquestionably an important contribution to a difficult subject at the time, the result of many years’ study and reflection.

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, goes far beyond standard interpretation in showing how your dreams tap the wisdom of the deep unconscious part of your mind. Through his unique and groundbreaking technique of trigger decoding, you will learn what your dreams are saying about your life, about the events you must deal with, about the problems you are trying to resolve. Dreams can be a kind of emotional camouflage, difficult and often uncomfortable to interpret. Trigger decoding not only exposes our emotional wounds, it also provides the balm for healing those wounds. In the proper decoding of dreams, there is revealed an intelligence, power, and beauty of mind that is unheard of in direct and conscious experience. Decoding Your Dreams opens a revolutionary new door to self-understanding and self-improvement.

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 the personal and clinical response to these changes. The use of sleeping drugs among elderly people is critically examined, and effective alternatives, including self-help practices and psychological therapies, are described. The influence of ageing on the recall and content of dreams is also considered. In the final chapter, the author comments on current styles of responding to sleep problems in old age and discusses the need and the scope for change. This book deals with topics of universal interest and provides valuable information for those professionally as well as personally concerned with sleep quality in later life, including health professionals (nurses, doctors, psychologists etc.) working with elderly people, gerontologists, and sleep researchers.

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 psychology. Readers are able to exercise their own ingenuity to this end. The material is offered here simply as evidence of a striking phenomenon in human consciousness, which, instead of being brushed aside as superstition, calls for serious study. It may have a profound bearing on the riddle of human personality.’