CHAPTER TITLE
CHILDREN’S DREAMS: FROM FREUD’S OBSERVATIONS TO MODERN DREAM RESEARCH
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CHILDREN’S DREAMS: FROM FREUD’S OBSERVATIONS TO MODERN DREAM RESEARCH Claudio Colace
First published in 2010 by Karnac Books Ltd 118 Finchley Road, London NW3 5HT
Copyright © 2010 to Claudio Colace The right of Claudio Colace to be identified as the author of this work has been asserted in accordance with §§ 77 and 78 of the Copyright Design and Patents Act 1988. All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or otherwise, without the prior written permission of the publisher.
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A C.I.P. for this book is available from the British Library ISBN 978 1 85575 636 6
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CONTENTS
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS ABOUT THE AUTHOR INTRODUCTION: FREUD’S DREAM THEORY AND MODERN DREAM RESEARCH PART I: AN ATTEMPT TO SYSTEMATICALLY DESCRIBE FREUD’S OBSERVATIONS ON CHILDREN’S DREAMS CHAPTER ONE An overview of Freud’s writings on children’s dreams
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CHAPTER TWO How Freud studied children’s dreams: method and samples
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CHAPTER THREE The characteristics of children’s dreams described by Freud
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CONTENTS
CHAPTER FOUR Are Freud’s hypotheses on children’s dreams empirically testable? PART II: EMPIRICAL EVALUATION OF FREUD’S OBSERVATIONS ON CHILDREN’S DREAMS CHAPTER FIVE Dream research in children: general and methodological aspects CHAPTER SIX Four studies on children’s dreams
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CHAPTER SEVEN Formal characteristics of children’s dreams
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CHAPTER EIGHT Bizarreness in children’s dreams and the development of superego functions
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CHAPTER NINE Wish-fulfilment in children’s dreams
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CHAPTER TEN Child dream development: a longitudinal observation
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CHAPTER ELEVEN Implications for dream research and theory
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REFERENCES
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INDEX
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ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
Permission to use copyrighted material: Extracts from the Standard Edition of Complete Psychological Works of Sigmund Freud reproduced by permission of Paterson Marsh Ltd, London. This book describes the results of the studies on children's dreams I conducted in the decade 1989–1999. For various reasons, the analysis of the most important part of extensive materials collected and the writing of this book took a very long time. During this period, various people have contributed to the achievement of my studies and, indirectly, to the possibility of my producing this book. I would like to thank Professor Cristiano Violani (University of Rome, “La Sapienza”) for his continuous guidance in terms of methodology and scientific rigour that were of great help to me in taking my first steps in research on sleep and dreams. I remember having to wait for a long time before he could receive me, but I also remember the valuable suggestions that I brought home with me after I left his room. Besides, his genuine “dislike” of the psychovii
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AKNOWLEDGEMENTS
analytic theory of dreams helped me to remain neutral in the opinion I was forming myself about it. The most important part of the studies reported in this book started during my PhD in Psychology at the Department of Psychology of the University of Bologna , during which I always could rely on the authoritative guidance of my tutor, Professor Marino Bosinelli, to whom I feel most grateful. With his competence and sensibility, and his knowledge of the aspects of the psychoanalytic theory of dreams (a rare thing in the academic world), he made a major contribution to solving the various theoretical and methodological doubts that came to my mind while planning my studies. A big thanks goes to Dr Bruna Tuci (a psychologist working with issues related to development age) who has proactively participated in the researches on children's dreams, taking care of the relationships with school managers, teachers, and parents, and who carried out part of the interviews with the children and of the analyses of the materials collected. I also would like to thank all those colleagues, Dr Rita Ferendeles, Giorgio Celani, Silvia Gasparini, Anna Testa, and Bruna Tuci again, who helped in my research on children's dreams based on the use of questionnaires distributed in the schools and completed by parents. Their co-operation made it possible to implement a study on a sizeable sample of children in various cities of central and northern Italy. I found one particular difficulty in my studies, which was obtaining an appropriate enough measure of the indicators of development of the superego functions of personality. In this regard, I remember with pleasure the profitable conversations had with Professor Anna Silvia Bombi, (University of Rome “La Sapienza”), who made available her great competence about the psychology of development age and was of great help to me in the design of projective test stories aimed at evaluating the development of the ability to experience a sense of guilt. I will not forget the kind patience and availability of the managers and teachers of all the schools in which our research took place. I thank all those mothers who, with dedication and patience, together with their children, allowed the research on children's dreams to be carried out in their homes.
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
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My special thanks go to my wife, Monnalisa Angiletti, who always encouraged me in the writing of this book, even when other job commitments made this achievement seem unlikely and distant to me. I would like to thank Professor Vincenzo Natale (University of Bologna), who found the time for a critical reading of the first version of this book and provided me with valuable indications on how to improve it. This book was originally written in Italian. My effort in translating it into English would not have even begun without the certainty of counting on the supervision by Dr Alessandra Maugeri, whom I would like to thank for the commitment and the patience shown.
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