Such Stuff As Dreams - by Eugene J Mahon (Paperback)

About the Book

This book is innovative in many ways. It addresses the question of whether dreams still hold an exceptional status in psychoanalytic theory and practice or not.

Book Synopsis

This book is innovative in many ways. It addresses the question of whether dreams still hold an exceptional status in psychoanalytic theory and practice or not. It begins with a chapter on Freud's revolutionary theories. It then considers dreams from a longitudinal perspective, tracing the evolution of dreams in one dreamer whose dreams were studied throughout the first five decades of his life. The continuity of dream themes and conflicts could therefore be studied in depth. The author also focuses on dreams within dreams going beyond Freud's ideas, suggesting that the two portions of a dream within a dream have a dynamic connection with each other which illuminates both portions of the dream in a revelatory way.

Then in a tour de force of innovative scholarship, the author shows how the manifest content of dreams is essentially an "entertainment" designed by the dream work to distract the dreamer and awakener from focusing on the lurid instinctual qualities of the latent content! In a most revelatory manner, manifest content of several dreams is described in which strikingly unusual content (a joke, a cartoon, a parapraxis, the uncanny, a film, a trick, a pun) is shown to be mere razzle dazzle to distract the dreamer from exploring the hidden latent content.

There are also exciting chapters on Shakespeare's uses of dreams, James Joyce's interpretation of his own dreams and others, and his attempt to use the 'esthetic of the dream" as he called it to write his strange masterpiece Finnegans Wake. There is also a chapter on a poem and a dream that shows how the unconscious mysteries of one influence the other. There is a dramatic chapter on Trump Dreams which shows how politics inevitably influence the dreaming process.

The book is written with literary flair and totally without jargon. It will appeal to a wide audience not only of psychoanalysts but of a curious general readership as well.

Review Quotes

It is said that man is a rational animal. True, at times, at least for some men. Less commented upon but true at all times for all men is being an irrational animal. Children, poets and artists draw on their creative irrationality and every one of us spends a major part of life in that universal creative irrational act-dreams.

Eugene Mahon is a psychoanalyst, a poet, a child psychiatrist and a Shakespeare scholar, all roles that bring him in regular contact with dreams, and he is a master teacher of how to understand them and to interpret them. In his brilliant new book he traces the evolution of Freud's discovery of the meaning of dreams, their link to unconscious processes, and how the psychoanalyst approaches them and uses them in treatment.

Mahon unlocks some special dreams strategies, dreams within dreams, films, jokes, puns and cartoons, all revealing how the dreamer's unconscious thinks, portrays and then conceals the dreamer's wishes. Mahon the poet shows how Shakespeare and James Joyce used dreams, while Mahon the child psychiatrist leads us in exploring the dreams of children. Throughout, Mahon the psychoanalyst uses dreams to teach us how the mind works, and how the psychoanalyst goes about exploring and understanding it.--Robert Michels, M.D., Walsh McDermott University Professor of Medicine and Psychiatry Weill Cornell Medicine; Chair, Board of Directors. The Psychoanalytic Quarterly, Former Joint Editor-in-Chief The International Journal of Psychoanalysis

As well as an adult analyst, Eugene Mahon is fully a child psychoanalyst, a child in spirit and an analyst in practice. His thinking unites the wonder of early curiosity with scholarly sophistication rooted in the depth of clinical experience and the breadth of cultural richness - all expressed with the engaging vitality of a gifted poet. This stunning tour de force brings dreams to life, but it also brings life to life. Bountiful in clinical experiences, literature, jokes, even the world of daily politics, the captivating immediacy is entertaining while deepening understanding. I think Ella Freeman Sharpe will be delighted to have Mahon's company on the small shelf of essential works on dreams. Enjoy and learn.--Warren S. Poland, Author Intimacy and Separateness in Psychoanalysis

In this multi-faceted artistic creation, Eugene Mahon captures the elusive beauty of dreaming. Beginning with an innovative account of Freud's use of his own dreams to build the foundations of psychoanalysis, Mahon takes his readers on an imaginative tour of the world of dreams. We encounter a stunning dream within a dream in Shakespeare's Richard III and take a close look at James Joyce's "esthetic of the dream." I was especially moved by Mahon's portrayal of the creative genius at work in the sleeping mind of every human dreamer. In his elegant prose, he brings a contemporary sensibility to Freud's conflict model, elaborating new insights in relation to well-known material. We see the evolution of dreams in a child first seen at age 4 and later at almost 50. Then, in a series of chapters, we see the brilliant magic tricks of typical dreamers who use puns, parapraxes, jokes, cartoons, film, literature, or the uncanny to draw attention to the surface of a dream "the better to keep the audience off the scent of all that the magician is not revealing." Mahon's tour de force generates a feeling of awe about dream-work and dream interpretation, as well as gratitude towards the author.--Charles P. Fisher, Training and Supervising Analyst, San Francisco Center for Psychoanalysis; Personal and Supervising Analyst, Psychoanalytic Institute of Northern California