Restoring Faith in Dreaming: A Response to Kelly Bulkeley’s Big Dreams

The purpose of this paper is to respond to Bulkeley’s ( 2016 ) book Big Dreams by highlighting his significant contributions to the study of sleep and dreaming and, most importantly, to the study of psychology and religion. The bulk of this paper raises questions regarding both methodology and conte...

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Bibliographic Details
Published inPastoral psychology Vol. 66; no. 5; pp. 709 - 713
Main Author Cooper-White, Pamela
Format Journal Article
LanguageEnglish
Published New York Springer US 01.10.2017
Springer Nature B.V
Subjects
Appreciation
Behavioral Science and Psychology
Brain
Clinical Psychology
Cognitive psychology
Cross Cultural Psychology
Dreaming
Dreams
Meaning
Memories
Psychoanalysis
Psychology
Religion & psychology
Religious Studies
Scientific evidence
Sleep
Sociology
Neuroscience
Sleep
Psychoanalysis
Freud
Evolutionary psychology
Dream interpretation
Dreams
Cognitive science of religion
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Summary:The purpose of this paper is to respond to Bulkeley’s ( 2016 ) book Big Dreams by highlighting his significant contributions to the study of sleep and dreaming and, most importantly, to the study of psychology and religion. The bulk of this paper raises questions regarding both methodology and content to extend the conversation and provoke discussion. The paper concludes with a note of appreciation (from my own psychoanalytic perspective) to Bulkeley for rebutting the trend in scientific psychology to reject dream content as meaningless byproducts of the brain’s nocturnal consolidation of memories and for offering sound scientific evidence for the continued appreciation of the meaning—including the spiritual and religious meaning—of dreams, restoring my faith (in dreams)!
ISSN:0031-2789
1573-6679
DOI:10.1007/s11089-016-0748-7