Multiple Selves and the Nature of Dreaming

ABSTRACT

This article considers Yadin’s concept of an inner voice in dreams (this issue). It explores ways this voice might be similar to and different from varieties of ordinary thinking. The phenomenon of lucid dreaming is contemplated in order to ascertain the extent to which inner voice dreams can be regarded as lucid. Sterba’s two egos (experiencing and observing) and Yadin’s reflecting/judging/guiding inner voice are merged and expanded to reveal a multitude of selves cooperating under the executive direction of a superordinate self to form a Dream Team that instigates, creates, and benefits from our amazing nocturnal dramas. Implications of a comparative-integrative model of dreaming for understanding whether we are one self and/or many are discussed.

This article refers to:

The Inner Voice in Dreams

View responses to this article:

The Inner Voice in Dreams: Reply to Dr. Brent Willock

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Notes on contributors

Brent Willock

Brent Willock, Ph.D., is Founding President of the Toronto Institute for Contemporary Psychoanalysis. Author of Comparative-Integrative Psychoanalysis, and The Wrongful Conviction of Oscar Pistorius: Science Transforms our Comprehension of Reeva Steenkamp’s Shocking Death, and co-editor of many volumes, he also serves on the Advisory Board of the International Association for Relational Psychoanalysis and Psychotherapy, the Board of Directors of the Canadian Institute for Child and Adolescent Psychoanalytic Psychotherapy, and the Faculty of the Institute for the Advancement of Self Psychology.