Page 12 - Boca ViewPointe - November '21

Page 12, Viewpointe November 2021

Book Review

Dreams as the Royal Road to behavior of his psychotic patients and the suggestion that
their unconscious drives are less subject to the constraints
the Unconscious of the super-ego than so-called normal people who are
influenced to by-pass these restraints when angry or
Sigmund Freud. The Interpretation of Dreams (1900), revised under the influence of drugs and alcohol. The action of
edition. trans. A.A. Brill, New York: Dawn Hudson, 2009. dream is condensation of experience, displacement and
Sidarta Ribeiro. The Oracle of Night: The History and restructuring of memories, with ameliorative physiological
Science of Dreams. New York: Pantheon Books, 2021. as well as psychological benefits. As ancillary, he points
“All I want to do is dream, dream, dream, dream.” Everly to the role of the unconscious in ordinary life and fantasy,
Brothers and initiated the branch of psychological literary criticism
“We are such stuff as dreams are made on.” Shakespeare’s introducing the significant role of his renowned Oedipus
Prospero Complex in such iconic literary works as Oedipus Rex,
Hamlet and Henry IV.
By Dr. Ronald J. Meyers with ancestors and spiritual, and figure in the collective In explaining the science of dreams, Dr. Ribeiro
unconscious of homo sapiens who have the unique ability presents graphs of the effects of dreams in different
Dreams likely evolved to verbalize and describe this relationship. Prehistoric locations in the brain. He outlines the neural relationship
in animal species even cave paintings are thought to relate uncommon emphases between the hippocampus and cerebral cortex, and
long before homo sapiens to the role of dreams in their experience, in the animals distinguishes between the slow wave sleep and initiation
some hundred million they dreamt of confronting and slaying. of dreams and the later deeper REM sleep; as well
years ago, according to Dreams underlie the aboriginal belief of communicating as distinguishing the content of childhood dreams,
Sidarto Ribeiro. In his with and guidance from ancestors. Even today Dr. Ribeiro likely devoid of autobiographical narrative, and later
comprehensive, engaging notes the tribes of the Amazon and north American Indians autobiographical stories drawing upon memories,
study, The Oracle of seek organizational communion as guide for behavior to be frustrations and doubts, and the functionality of
Night, the Brazilian Indian consulted before battle and to provide strategic guidance. detoxifying and organizing memories for guidance and
scholar, who pursued Similarly Buddhist monks as well as Muslim Sufis seek survival.
advanced research at New York Rockefeller Institute, access to the dream state for insight and revelation. Could anyone have put it more poetically, more
has presented the results of thirty years undertaking, Dr. Ribeiro acknowledges his significant debt to beautifully than Shakespeare’s Prospero in conflating
the history, science, philosophy, and psychology of Sigmund Freud’s pioneering study, The Interpretation of make believe, art, and dreamwork?
dreams; traced from the pre-historic past to our modern Dreams, first published in 1900. Freud in his meticulously We are such stuff as dreams are made on, And our
scientific understanding. Where the dreamer’s wishes documented studies of hundreds of the dreams of his little life is rounded with a sleep.
and nightmares projected the innermost desires of our patients and his own self-reflection uncovered the existence
pre-historic ancestors and were seen as inferences from of the force of the subconscious and created a coherent Dr. Ronald J. Meyers, a resident of La Paz, is an
their dead relatives even before the notion of God took theory of its impact and effect. It was most obvious in the Emeritus Professor of English. rmeyers@esu.edu. 
hold. After the notion of God (or the God gene) took
effect, dreams could be seen as direct communication,
or interfaced by prophets and shamans as revelations.
Dreaming occurred with the evolution of the brain
and nervous systems adapting the capability of recalling,
forming memories that survived the circadian rhythm of
day, and merged into the images of sleep; and one of the
purposes of dreams was and still is the organizing and
cataloguing of memories. Dr. Ribeiro asserts that dreams
are universal in the animal kingdom, dinosaurs, lions, and
frogs, birds, fish, and land animals all are likely to have
evolved the capacity to dream. In a recent Book Review
on the brain, I noted the suggestion that the denial of
sensory experience of vision that occurs at night led to
the intensification and compensation of imagination and
memory in the dark. Dr. Ribeiro stresses the significance
of this for the survival of our species even before stone
tools, weapons, writing, and advanced civilized society;
dreams were the foundation of civilization that offered
communion with the world of night, ancestors, and spirits,
and guided decision making. The first dreams among
prehistoric humans were their desires and nightmares
for survival and still are; they are the basis of myths
for the beginning of the world and make-believe. They
influenced religion before the belief or acknowledgement
of the divinity of God. Carl Jung posited that the sharing
of dreams was the cohesive force of the collective
unconscious in the adaptation of the group. It allowed
for a perceived communication with the dead, which led
to religion and spirituality.
The Dream of Dumuzid from 5,000 years ago, is
contained in Cuneiform characters carved on clay tablets
and the Dream stele contained between the front legs of Scott Cohen is Here to Help!
the Great Sphinx at Giza might be the earliest historical
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Freudian narrative. A pesky brother recounts his dreams
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of another dimension, whether oracular, connection