Lifelong Dreamers: Guide for Dream
Study with Seniors
Patricia Garfield, PhD,
leading dream expert, doctorate in clinical psychology, authored
nine books on dreams, and co-founded ASD (President 1998-99). Her
Creative Dreaming, bestseller in print since 1974, appears
in fourteen languages; The Dream Book (2002), for teens,
won two prestigious awards. Instructor OLLI, Dominican University,
San Rafael, California, USA.
Abstract
Dr. Garfield’s talk examines
typical dreams related to senior issues, with special focus on the
areas of: approaching or recent retirement; the loss of a loved
person and subsequent bereavement; and of physical aging in the
dreamer. Using examples from a class of lifelong learners in a
university program for people over the age of fifty years, as well
as examples from seniors in literature and the arts, she
demonstrates the most common features in imagery that appear in
dreams dealing with these important senior issues.
Dr.
Garfield also presents several dream methods that can be used to
support coping with the stressful aspects of seniors’ lives, along
with ways to use their personal dream material as a creative
resource to enhance waking life.
As a
senior herself, aged 71, Dr. Garfield is increasingly aware of the
challenges of the last decades of life. More importantly, these
same issues are becoming a crucial issue for society, since there
are some 76 million seniors, “baby boomers,” reaching age 60 in
the year 2006 in the United States alone. Many universities and
colleges are currently establishing special enrichment programs
for this huge increase in the aging population. So far, very few
courses for seniors address dreams.
Thus,
seniors, in reference to dreamwork, are a large and relatively
neglected population. They need our attention, for we, as
dreamworkers, have invaluable skills to offer. Together, we can
come to a better understanding of the special dream issues
involved for seniors, and develop the best methods of supporting
their emotional health during this latter phase of life.
