“Dreaming permits each and every one of us to be quietly and safely insane every night of our lives.” -William Dement
The average person spends a total of about 6 years dreaming. For about two hours each night images, sounds, emotions and thoughts flit across our sleeping mind, beyond the realms of our conscious awareness, leaving nothing behind but a bare residue. But are these apparently random images, a medium of connection to an ethereal spiritual world, or do they hide the secrets of our very nature?
The belief that the state of dreaming is a lofty form of communication with the divine has persisted throughout history even into present day New Age dogma, as it were. Not only do accounts and stories revolving around dreams or visions account for about one third of the Bible and subsequent Christian doctrine: a prime example being that of St Patrick, who learned through a dream of the boat waiting for him in Wicklow. Classical civilisations such as the Greeks and the Romans used dreams to seek advice and inspiration from their gods, while the Aboriginal faith lies in the Dreamtime – where the past, present and future are all happening simultaneously, and can each be accessed through your dreams. Even now, New Age-ist philosophy places great emphasis on the awareness of dreams, making them a channel for the spiritual and for healing. More contemporarily, theories of this nature have deteriorated in the face of modern thought and the tide of scientific advancement. The 1953 discovery of the REM (Rapid Eye Movement) sleep phase incited a great deal of study into the processes of sleep itself and thus of dreams (known as oneirology), both scientifically and psychologically, eventually leading to the practice of dream interpretation being incorporated into the field of psychoanalysis.
The scientific credibility of psychoanalysis in its own right is to this day hotly-contested: there are so many arguments both for and against its many aspects it’s difficult to know whether the practice is one we can trust. Giving it in essence the benefit of doubt, the question still remains as to whether analysing our dreams will actually prove to be of any benefit to us. When asked, Richard Roche, lecturer in the department of Psychology here, explained from his point of view the theories surrounding the study of dreams:
“Well there’s really two views of the whole issue of dreams – Freud and his followers (including Jung, who later went his own way and became even wackier) would have said that dreams reveal unconscious desires or motivations that you can’t really express consciously. Remarkably, this whole idea seems to have been largely based on a single incident that happened to Freud one night – he was dreaming of being in a hot desert and when he woke up he realised he was thirsty.”
Despite the fact that Freud has become almost an in-joke to the profession –sex, Oedpius, more sex – he was the first to do any significant research into the field of dreams. His book, The Interpretation of Dreams, is still considered by some to be one of the greatest publications in the field of psychology. According to his theories, dreams had to be interpreted through a particular language of symbols, as the disparity between the conscious and unconscious mind meant that ideas could not be transmitted directly and had to be “censored”. A student of Freud, C.G Jung believed his teacher’s views to be somewhat simplistic, that dreams reflected not just unconscious wishes but the entire unconscious, represented by archetypes. This is essentially the basis of modern interpretative thought, however, he ascribed to dreams the ability to contain philosophical truths and even telepathic visions: though it would be derided today by most, it initiated a new school of thought in the study.
Since the now infamous Freud and Jung paved the way for future research, dream theorists have been proposing new concepts almost weekly. Most notable are those of Hall (1953), in which dreams were seen as representations of personal conceptions, and required a parallel mode of thinking and the use of cultural metaphors in interpretation. In 2005, a Biblical theory over 2000 years old was adapted by Alan Harmony, which dictates that it is the associated words and syllables that require analysis, not the images and objects themselves.
However, Richard goes on to explain that as it becomes increasingly necessary for the study of psychology, therapy and analysis to be corroborated by un-falsifiable scientific evidence, these theories are given little credence in practice.
“On a scientific point of view, the contemporary view on dreams is that dreaming is related to memory processes. Various studies have shown that, if you learn new material, your recall of it is better after sleeping compared to people who were tested again after the same interval but didn’t sleep. It’s thought that the process of memory consolidation (strengthening or laying down memories in a long-term trace) happens during sleep and that dreaming may represent a sort of “internal replaying” of the events that happened the previous day.”
And so another belief falls prey to and is massacred by merciless science. Both theoretical and experimental evidence shows that the area of the brain apparently involved in the process of dreaming, known as the hippocampus, is also that responsible for memory. People who have had this “sea-horse shaped” structure removed, or those in which it does not function properly have serious difficulties with memory. Remember the film Momento?
Yet flying in the face of this are psychologists and various types of therapists, reputable or not, certified or not, determined to prove that Freud and Jung were on to something at least. One of these is Paul Bradley, a Kilcock-based psychologist who incorporates the concepts of the original theorists into his practice, and who last week gave a convincing seminar on the subject here in Maynooth. To a room of 23 amateur dream enthusiasts (92% of which were female, interestingly), Paul expounded on not only the virtues of using dream interpretation as a therapy, but explained to the oneirological virgins of the small group the history, concepts and details of dreaming itself.
Although originally very sceptical of the idea, repeated personal insights and many happy clients were enough to convince him that a part of our selves communicates, sometimes directly, sometimes totally obscurely, through the images, ideas and patterns of our dreams: as he himself takes care to highlight “dreams are here to help you! Dreams are useful because they expand the barriers. They are the language of your subconscious mind – and when I refer to your subconscious mind, it’s the same as your psyche, your intuition… ”
“Your attitude to dreams in terms on interpretation…is very important. Let’s say for example that I perceive dreams to be total nonsense, that there’s no relevance: to do that interpretation for someone, it would be very very hard because the dreams would be all mixed up with very little pattern or continuity, as if the dreams are reflecting the attitude. But if you go to the other extreme and say dreams have all the answers: what’ll usually happen is that you’ll get very ambiguous dreams, with no definition. So it’s important to position yourself somewhere in between. And I’ve been in both camps so I know what it’s like. Dreams require your active conscious participation, both in sleeping and awareness of your daily life.”
There are still few psychologists, counsellors or therapists who use dream interpretation as a standard therapy: are they holding on to an outdated concept, or are these the enlightened few? In the mind of most, abstract scientific fact holds less import than the satisfied testimony of real people, and where the practice of dream interpretation may be all but dismissed in one view, it is embraced by many. In the face of a lack of concrete evidence, an inability to see firsthand the inner workings of a dreaming mind (inventors, get thinking), all we have to judge on is our faulty, unscientific personal experience. Which would you rather trust?
Friday, March 16, 2007
International Women's Day by Alison Keogh
From birth to death, in times of peace as well as war, women face discrimination and violence at the hands of the state, the community and the family.
At least one out of every three women has been beaten, coerced into sex, or abused in her lifetime. This figure comes from a study based on 50 surveys from around the world.
More than 60 million women are “missing” from the world today as a result of sex-selective abortions and female infanticide.
Every year, millions of women are raped by partners, relatives, friends and strangers, by employers and colleagues, soldiers and members of armed groups.
Violence in the family is endemic all over the world; the overwhelming majority of victims are women and girls. In the USA, for example, women account for around 85 per cent of the victims of domestic violence. The World Health Organization has reported that up to 70 per cent of female murder victims are killed by their male partners.
Small arms and light weapons are the main tools of almost every conflict. Women and children account for nearly 80% of the casualties, according to the UN Secretary-General.
As long as violence against women is hidden, condoned or ignored by society and authorities, as long as the perpetrators are not punished, violence against women will continue.
March 8th has become an opportunity for women all over the world to focus on the current status of women and demand gender equality under the law, safe and equitable working conditions and freedom from violence in society at large.
International Women's Day has been observed since in the early 1900's, a time of great expansion and turbulence in the industrialized world that saw booming population growth and the rise of radical ideologies.
Great unrest and critical debate was occurring amongst women. Women's oppression and inequality was spurring women to become more vocal and active in campaigning for change. Then in 1908, 15,000 women marched through New York City demanding shorter hours, better pay and voting rights.
Annually on 8 March, thousands of events are held throughout the world to inspire women and celebrate their achievements. While there are many large-scale initiatives, a rich and diverse fabric of local activity connects women from all around the world ranging from political rallies, business conferences, government activities and networking events through to local women's craft markets, theatric performances, fashion parades and more.
There were several events held in Ireland this year:
Including a business presentation and networking evening for women in Mayo;
Talks held by Wealth of Women in Dublin; a public meeting with guest speaker Nadia Harb (Palestinian People's Party) held by the Communist Party of Ireland in Liberty Hall;
A seminar which focused on women and armed conflict held by UCD Women's Education Research and Resource Centre (WERRC) in UCD;
A celebration of women's work from the arts, humanities and sciences followed by a drama performance of statistics on gender equality issues in Trinity College, Dublin.
All of these events were kept low-key, with little to no coverage in the media. In Northern Ireland, on March the 8th the Equality Commission claimed that pregnant women are being forced out of their jobs as part of the worst alleged gender discrimination.
There was no official celebration of International Women’s Day at NUI Maynooth. In a college where the vast majority of the Heads of Departments, and those who sit on Governing Authority and Academic Council etc are men, we have to ask ourselves, is this good enough?
Now, I’m no radical feminist. In fact, I think it’s very sad to see a huge push towards the promotion of the female to the extreme where the male gets left out. I’m all in favour of balance. The truth of the matter is, women around the world are getting a raw deal. Whether it’s receiving lower wages, or to the more extreme areas of being victims of violence, there still lies a huge gap between men and women. A gap that many people in our parents’ generation fought to close. A gap that has not come any closer to closing in the last few decades. March the 8th is the official international day for acknowledging this gap, not just by women, by both sexes, to at least try to form a society of equality and respect. We have to ask ourselves, are we doing enough? Are we closing that gap? Are we going to be proud to tell our children that we made a difference? And if not, what are we willing to do about it?
At least one out of every three women has been beaten, coerced into sex, or abused in her lifetime. This figure comes from a study based on 50 surveys from around the world.
More than 60 million women are “missing” from the world today as a result of sex-selective abortions and female infanticide.
Every year, millions of women are raped by partners, relatives, friends and strangers, by employers and colleagues, soldiers and members of armed groups.
Violence in the family is endemic all over the world; the overwhelming majority of victims are women and girls. In the USA, for example, women account for around 85 per cent of the victims of domestic violence. The World Health Organization has reported that up to 70 per cent of female murder victims are killed by their male partners.
Small arms and light weapons are the main tools of almost every conflict. Women and children account for nearly 80% of the casualties, according to the UN Secretary-General.
As long as violence against women is hidden, condoned or ignored by society and authorities, as long as the perpetrators are not punished, violence against women will continue.
March 8th has become an opportunity for women all over the world to focus on the current status of women and demand gender equality under the law, safe and equitable working conditions and freedom from violence in society at large.
International Women's Day has been observed since in the early 1900's, a time of great expansion and turbulence in the industrialized world that saw booming population growth and the rise of radical ideologies.
Great unrest and critical debate was occurring amongst women. Women's oppression and inequality was spurring women to become more vocal and active in campaigning for change. Then in 1908, 15,000 women marched through New York City demanding shorter hours, better pay and voting rights.
Annually on 8 March, thousands of events are held throughout the world to inspire women and celebrate their achievements. While there are many large-scale initiatives, a rich and diverse fabric of local activity connects women from all around the world ranging from political rallies, business conferences, government activities and networking events through to local women's craft markets, theatric performances, fashion parades and more.
There were several events held in Ireland this year:
Including a business presentation and networking evening for women in Mayo;
Talks held by Wealth of Women in Dublin; a public meeting with guest speaker Nadia Harb (Palestinian People's Party) held by the Communist Party of Ireland in Liberty Hall;
A seminar which focused on women and armed conflict held by UCD Women's Education Research and Resource Centre (WERRC) in UCD;
A celebration of women's work from the arts, humanities and sciences followed by a drama performance of statistics on gender equality issues in Trinity College, Dublin.
All of these events were kept low-key, with little to no coverage in the media. In Northern Ireland, on March the 8th the Equality Commission claimed that pregnant women are being forced out of their jobs as part of the worst alleged gender discrimination.
There was no official celebration of International Women’s Day at NUI Maynooth. In a college where the vast majority of the Heads of Departments, and those who sit on Governing Authority and Academic Council etc are men, we have to ask ourselves, is this good enough?
Now, I’m no radical feminist. In fact, I think it’s very sad to see a huge push towards the promotion of the female to the extreme where the male gets left out. I’m all in favour of balance. The truth of the matter is, women around the world are getting a raw deal. Whether it’s receiving lower wages, or to the more extreme areas of being victims of violence, there still lies a huge gap between men and women. A gap that many people in our parents’ generation fought to close. A gap that has not come any closer to closing in the last few decades. March the 8th is the official international day for acknowledging this gap, not just by women, by both sexes, to at least try to form a society of equality and respect. We have to ask ourselves, are we doing enough? Are we closing that gap? Are we going to be proud to tell our children that we made a difference? And if not, what are we willing to do about it?
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