The Dream: In Search of a New
Abode
Montague Ullman, MD, is
clinical professor of psychiatry emeritus, Albert Einstein College
of Medicine, Bronx, New York. He has written on dreams from
neurophysiological, clinical, sociological, and parapsychological
points of view. He co-authored Dream Telepathy with S.
Krippner and A. Vaughan, and authored Appreciating Dreams
and The Variety of Dream Experience.
Abstract
The Dream: In Search of a New
Abode
In the first fifty years of the
last century two impressive mansions were built to house our
dreams. For Freud the central feature of the home he built was a
special room to house a dynamic unconscious. In the last fifty
years Jung's views became prominent. His followers built a larger
mansion than Freud, one that included a room big enough to include
the collective unconscious as well as the personal unconscious.
The work of these two pioneers was institutionalized in a way that
led to two limitations. Institutions bring with them a certain
exclusivity. Dreams became the domain of the expert leaving most
dreamers to fend for themselves. That situation has been somewhat
alleviated in the last two decades as dream groups have begun to
appear. Secondly, their theoretical systems did not address the
transcendent domain of our existence, namely, our place in a
universe we did not create. This presentation will focus on an
alternate route to understanding the source of the dream and its
value as a self-healing system. Seeking answers outside the field
of psychiatry led to an analogy between the source of the unique
features of dreams and the still puzzling aspects of quantum
theory. These include such concepts as complementarity, the
measurement problem, and non-locality. Also relevant is the work
of David Bohm which, in seeking a resolution to the incompleteness
of quantum theory, led him to formulate two fundamental orders,
namely, an implicate or enfolded order consisting of all that
exists and out of which all matter unfolds as an explicate order.
From the point of view of dreaming, Bohm's concept of the
implicate order can be viewed as the universal unconscious which
includes the origin of inorganic, organic, and sentient matter.
The dream is, in effect, a relay station between the two orders.
It draws on the generativity and holographic quality of the
implicate order and in turn has the potential to find its place in
the explicate order in the waking life of the dreamer. This holds
the promise of a fresh new abode, one that will house the public
as well as the scientific community.
