Trauma and Dreams

Beginning of article

DIERDRA Br, ED.: Trauma and Dreams. Harvard University Press, Cambridge, MA, 1996, 272 pp., $36.50, ISBN 0-674-9055-20.

A group of experts explores dreams in a particular context, namely, their association with trauma. The book is divided into three sections. Part 1 deals with dreams after childhood trauma; Part 2 is concerned with nightmares following adult trauma in wars and national disasters; and Part 3 concerns trauma of so-called normal living.

The authors reach some interesting conclusions about the nature of traumatic dreams. For example, at first, children dream of the actual trauma and later as they gradually recover from its effects, their dreams become less …