June 21, 1999
Contact:
Jennifer McNulty
(831) 459-2495; [email protected]
UC SANTA CRUZ TO HOST 16TH ANNUAL INTERNATIONAL DREAM CONFERENCE JULY 7-10
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
SANTA CRUZ, CA--Columbine High School student Grant Taylor survived the mayhem without injury, but he was haunted by nightmares. That first night, he dreamed he was a wounded hero, pulling others to safety. The next night, coping with feelings of guilt, he dreamed that he was wounded and dying.
For crime victims, as well as for survivors of accidents and natural disasters, nightmares provide a map of the process of emotional recovery. "Grant Taylor's dreams are an example of what trauma survivors go through," said Alan Siegel, president-elect of the Association for the Study of Dreams, which is holding its 16th Annual International Conference July 7-10 at the University of California, Santa Cruz. "New research shows the therapeutic value and the limits of using dreams in diagnosing and healing the impact of traumatic life events."
This year's conference will include a special symposium on July 9, "Nightmare and Dream Therapies for Crime Victims," featuring the work of Barry Krakow, whose research is funded by the National Institute of Mental Health, and Deirdre Barrett, a clinical psychologist at Harvard Medical School and editor of the book Trauma and Dreams. In addition, a two-day seminar will feature the latest research and clinical techniques for helping survivors of violence, abuse, and war who suffer from recurring nightmares as part of Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder.
"A century after Freud, contemporary psychotherapists still view dreams as the royal road to the unconscious, and dream exploration techniques are increasingly being used as a vehicle for therapy and emotional healing," said Siegel.
The four-day conference features more than 100 events, including presentations by academic researchers and clinicians, workshops, seminars, and dream-sharing groups. Among the highlights:
--The keynote address by leading sleep and dream researcher William C. Dement, a professor of psychiatry at Stanford University, who will discuss the modern era of sleep and dream research following the observations of rapid-eye movements during sleep, in a talk entitled, "Two Kinds of Sleep? Two Kinds of Dreams?"
--Dreams and the Internet is another focus of the conference. Panel discussions will cover topics such as dream sharing on the Internet, online vs. offline ethics and practices of dream sharing, dream research and experimentation on the Internet, and commercialization on the Internet. In addition, a "Computer Cafe" will offer an ongoing drop-in place where conference attendees can participate in dream-related activities on the Internet, including dream chat rooms, software demonstrations, remote presentations, resource centers, and more.
--A session on children's dreams and nightmares will be chaired by Siegel, coauthor of the new book Dreamcatching: Every Parent's Guide to Exploring and Understanding Children's Dreams and Nightmares. Panelists will discuss dreams as distress signals in a child's life and gender differences in children's dreams.
--Other session topics include Coping with Trauma and Loss; Death and Transformation; and Dreams of Special Populations, including the elderly and the depressed.
--Dreaming and the creative process will be examined during several sessions, including a workshop led by Veronica Tonay, a lecturer in psychology at UCSC. The author of The Creative Dreamer, Tonay will lead a session about using dreams in psychotherapy with creative people. Workshops on dreams and creative writing will also be offered, including one by Naomi Epel, author of Writers Dreaming, which features the dreams of well-known contemporary authors, including Stephen King, Anne Rice, and William Styron.
--Another session will feature comparative interpretations of a dream series with panelists representing different schools of dream interpretation. Ernest Hartmann, author of Dreams and Nightmares, will represent the psychoanalytic approach; Jungian analyst Jane White-Lewis will represent the Jungian view; and G. William Domhoff, professor emeritus of psychology at UCSC and author of Finding Meaning in Dreams: A Quantitative Approach, will represent the content-analysis approach. Domhoff is a leading advocate of this scientific technique, which has been developed to study the nature and meaning of dreams. He will also lead a workshop entitled "The Joys of Content Analysis."
The Association for the Study of Dreams, based in Vienna, Virginia, is an international organization dedicated to the investigation of dreams. Its members represent a variety of dream-related activities, including academic research, clinical practice, and individual study.
For conference fee information or a complete schedule of events, please visit the association's Web site at www.asdreams.org or call the association's toll-free number at 1-877-DREAMSS.
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Editor's Note: The conference is open to the public on a space-available basis. Reporters are welcome to cover presentations, but media access to workshops will be determined by workshop leaders.
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This release is available electronically at www.ucsc.edu/news_events/press_releases.
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