The Dream Experience provides the mental health professional with a systematic scientific basis for understanding the dream as a psychological event. Milton Kramer’s extensive research, along with the findings of others, establishes that dreams are structured, not random, and linked meaningfully to conscious events in daily life and past memories. The book explores this link between dreams and consciousness, providing a review of information about normative dreaming, typical or repetitive dreams, and nightmares, while also showing how mental health professionals can use dream content in therapy with clients. Kramer’s book is an illuminating description of dreaming for dreamers, therapists and neuroscientists.
1. Introduction
2. Do Dreams Exist?
3. The Recall and Collection of Dreams
4. The Measurement of Dreams
5. Dreams and Psychological Differences
6. Normative Dreams, Typical Dreams, Repetitive Dreams, Nightmares and Dreams in Psychopathologic Conditions
7. The Reactive Nature of Dreaming
8. Dreams and Waking Thought
9. Dream Meaning
10. The Functions of Dreams
11. The Biology of Dream Formation
12. Journey’s End? No, A Time for Assessment
Biography
Milton Kramer
"If you thought that you knew everything important there was to know about dreams and dreaming, guess again! Milton Kramer's The Dream Experience provides new data and insights that you will find nowhere else."
- Stanley Krippner, Ph.D., co-author of Extraordinary Dreams, and Professor of Psychology, Saybrook Graduate School
"Milton Kramer is a remarkable blend of a scientist attempting to ensnare something as elusive as a dream and a sensitive and talented clinician. The book is a comprehensive text that will set a standard for a long time to come for a deeper grasp of the vicissitudes and varieties of the dreams we dream."
- Montague Ullman, M.D., author of Appreciating Dreams
"The Dream Experience should be easy for laypersons as well as researchers and clinicians to understand. Dr. Kramer uses his own amazingly broad work to answer or approach many of the basic questions we all have about dreams."
- Ernest Hartmann M.D., first Editor-in-Chief of the journal Dreaming and author, Dreams and Nightmares
"Milton Kramer, one of the founders of modern sleep and dreams research, has written one of the most authoritative and comprehensive books on the science of dreams. This book is a must for anyone who has an interest in dreams and dreaming."
- Peretz Lavie, Ph.D., Andre Ballard Professor of Biological Psychiatry, Technion-Israel Institute of Technology
"This is an excellent research resource for anyone wishing to deepen their understanding of dreams and nightmares and to better appreciate Dr. Kramer’s groundbreaking theory of how dreaming regulates emotions."
- Tore Nielsen, Ph.D., Professor of Psychiatry, Université de Montréal
"Milton Kramer's book is a comprehensive assessment of dream research over the past fifty years, including his own remarkable number of studies on dreaming. In my opinion, Kramer's book is the most complete, research-oriented, thoughtful review of the dream process published so far. It is essential reading for anyone who is interested in learning about the dream experience."
-Myron Glucksman, M.D., in The Journal of the American Academy of Psychoanalysis and Dynamic Psychiatry
"This book by an exceptional scientist and clinician is based on 46 years of productive work in the field of dream research and sleep medicine... Milton Kramer is one of the 'fathers' of this research field... Most of the theories he outlines in the book are backed up by his own research, a fact that is astonishing... The book is a journey into the basic findings of dream research gathered so far, the style is precise... Milton Kramer's book is a comprehensive overview of dream research over the last 50 years and I recommend it to anyone who is interested in pursuing this field of research."
-Michael Schredl, PhD, in Dreaming
