Contribution à la psychologie du réve

• Published in: Psychological bulletin 1905-01, Vol.2 (1), p.30-30
• Main Author: Walker, M. Edith
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Subjects: Cognitive Psychology; Dream Recall; Dreaming; Memory
• ISSN: 0033-2909; 1939-1455
• DOI: 10.1037/h0066066

Summarizes the article "Contribution à la psychologie du réve" by H. Beaunis (Amer. Jour. of Psych., Vol. XIV., Commemoration Number, p. 7). M. Beaunis has made observations upon his dreams the greater portion of his life. During this period the subjects of his dreams have followed generally his habitual occupations. The dreams that come between sleeping and waking are the only ones that are remembered. In this transition stage impressions come somewhat feebly and vaguely and there is a kind of half conscious torpor in which images appear. Dreams resolve themselves into three classes; those of initial excitement, of memory and of irradiation. Dreams of memory are due to variations in the pressure or composition of the blood, which acts directly upon the cerebral centers. The affective sentiments appear in the dream in an attentuated form. The pleasurable sentiments remain vivid. His dreams keep his actual personality and there is consciousness of self. He maintains that one can in dreams be conscious that he is dreaming, and that reason, judgment and comparison often show themselves, but the will never does. Visions are only dreams prolonged. Dreams have played an important part among both primitive and ancient peoples. Beliefs in survival after death and in a future life had their germs in the dream.