The Mysteries of Dreaming
Thursday 6 December, 19.00-20.30 BSL interpreted event
Modern science still struggles to understand the mysteries of dreaming. Despite major advances in understanding of brain structure and psychology, we still don't know if dreaming has a biological function. How do psychologists study dreams? Can dreams provide us with a real insight into the unconscious, or are they just our brain's way of processing information for the next day?
While remaining mysteries to modern science, dreams continue to be important to many different cultures. Freud interpreted dreams as a path to the unconscious world but for many cultures they are pathways to something external. Australian Aborigines hold the story of their creation through 'Dreamtime', while Shamans believe dreams can be a major spiritual encounter.
This event will bring together perspectives from cultural history, psychology and social anthropology to explore the mysteries of dreaming.
Speakers
• Mark Blagrove, dream researcher, Swansea University
• Iain Edgar, social anthropologist, Durham University
• Daniel Pick, historian, Birkbeck College, University of London
Facilitator
• Sue Nelson, writer and broadcaster
Mark Blagrove
I studied Natural Sciences at the University of Cambridge, after which I researched the relationships between waking life and dream content for my PhD. I am now Reader in Psychology at Swansea University, where I run the sleep laboratory and conduct research into the psychology of dreaming, the aetiology of nightmares and the hypothesised memory consolidation function of sleep. I am consulting editor of the journal 'Dreaming', which is published by the American Psychological Association, and the 'Journal of Sleep Research'.
Iain Edgar
I am a Senior Lecturer in Social Anthropology at the University of Durham. My PhD study was of meaning-making in dreamwork groups. I have studied the relationship between night dreams, culture, politics and identity for 25 years and published extensively in these fields. My most recent study has been of the 'true' dream in Islam and particularly its role in apparently inspiring and guiding militant Islamic leaders and followers, such as Osama bin Laden and the Taliban leader, Mullah Omar.
Daniel Pick
My interests lie within the field of European culture, thought and the human sciences, particularly in England, France and Italy. I have written on various aspects of: the history of psychoanalysis, psychology and psychiatry; the historiography of war, trauma and group conflict; cultural attitudes to the Victorian city, crime, madness and sexuality; the politics of Darwinism and degeneration theory; the ideology of nationalism; and the relationship of psychoanalysis to historiography. Together with Professor Jacqueline Rose of the English Department at Queen Mary, University of London, I organise a graduate forum, 'Psychoanalytic Thought, History and Political Life'.
