Dreams and the dream image: Using dreams in cognitive therapy

Document Type

Article

Publication Date

2002

Abstract

Dreams have been part of the human experience throughout recorded history and a central focus in psychodynamic therapy. This paper deals with the use of dreams and images in the context of cognitive-behavioral therapy. The therapist trained in cognitive-behavioral therapy is frequently not trained or prepared to work with dreams and may lose valuable opportunities to tap the richness of imagery offered in dreams. The cognitive model sees the dreamer as idiosyncratic and the dream as a dramatization of the patient's view of self, world, and future, subject to the same cognitive distortions as the waking state. Dreams and the understanding of the dreams of the dream content and themes offer an opportunity for the patient to understand his or her cognitions as played out through the imagination and to challenge or dispute those depressogenic or anxiogenic thoughts. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2012 APA, all rights reserved)

Publication Title

Journal of Cognitive Psychotherapy

Volume

16

Issue

1

First Page

39

Last Page

54

Comments

This article was published in Journal of Cognitive Psychotherapy, Volume 16, Issue 1, Pages 39-54 and reprinted in R.I. Rosner, W.J. Lyddon, & A. Freeman (Eds.) Cognitive therapy and dreams. New York: Springer.

The published version is available at http://dx.doi.org/10.1891/jcop.16.1.39.63706.

Copyright © 2002 Springer.

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