Table Of ContentThe Mindbrain and Dreams
In The Mindbrain and Dreams: An Exploration of Dreaming, Thinking,
and Artistic Creation, Mark J. Blechner argues that the mind and brain
should be understood as a single unit – the “mindbrain” – that manipu-
lates our raw perceptions of the world and reshapes that world through
dreams, thoughts, and artistic creation.
This book explores how dreams are key to understanding mental pro-
cesses, and how working with dreams clinically with individuals and
groups provides an essential route toward achieving transformation
within the psychoanalytic process. Covering such key topics as know-
ledge, emotion, metaphor, and memory, this book sets out a radical new
agenda for understanding the importance of dreams in human thought
and their clinical importance in psychoanalysis. Blechner builds on his
previous work and takes it much farther, drawing on the latest neurosci-
entific findings to set out a new way of how the mindbrain constructs
reality, while providing guidance on how best to help people understand
their dreams.
The Mindbrain and Dreams: An Exploration of Dreaming, Thinking,
and Artistic Creation will appeal to psychologists, psychoanalysts, philo-
sophers, and cognitive neuroscientists who want new ways to explore
how people think and understand the world.
Mark J. Blechner, Ph.D., is a psychologist and psychoanalyst in New
York City. He is a training and supervising psychoanalyst at William
Alanson White Institute. He has taught at Columbia University, Yale
University, and New York University.
Psychoanalysis in a New Key Book Series
Donnel B. Stern
Series Editor
When music is played in a new key, the melody does not change, but the
notes that make up the composition do: change in the context of con-
tinuity, continuity that perseveres through change. Psychoanalysis in a
New Key publishes books that share the aims psychoanalysts have
always had, but that approach them differently. The books in the series
are not expected to advance any particular theoretical agenda, although to
this date most have been written by analysts from the Interpersonal and
Relational orientations.
The most important contribution of a psychoanalytic book is the com-
munication of something that nudges the reader’s grasp of clinical theory
and practice in an unexpected direction. Psychoanalysis in a New Key
creates a deliberate focus on innovative and unsettling clinical thinking.
Because that kind of thinking is encouraged by exploration of the some-
times surprising contributions to psychoanalysis of ideas and findings
from other fields, Psychoanalysis in a New Key particularly encourages
interdisciplinary studies. Books in the series have married psychoanalysis
with dissociation, trauma theory, sociology, and criminology. The series
is open to the consideration of studies examining the relationship between
psychoanalysis and any other field – for instance, biology, literary and art
criticism, philosophy, systems theory, anthropology, and political theory.
But innovation also takes place within the boundaries of psycho-
analysis, and Psychoanalysis in a New Key therefore also presents work
that reformulates thought and practice without leaving the precincts of
the field. Books in the series focus, for example, on the significance of
personal values in psychoanalytic practice, on the complex interrelation-
ship between the analyst’s clinical work and personal life, on the con-
sequences for the clinical situation when patient and analyst are from
different cultures, and on the need for psychoanalysts to accept the degree
to which they knowingly satisfy their own wishes during treatment hours,
often to the patient’s detriment. A full list of all titles in this series is
available at: www.routledge.com/series/LEAPNKBS
TiTles in This series incluDe:
Vol. 43 The Mindbrain and Dreams
An Exploration of Dreaming, Thinking, and Artistic Creation
Mark J. Blechner
Vol. 42 Further Developments in interpersonal Psychoanalysis,
1980s–2010s
Evolving Interest in the Analyst’s Subjectivity
Edited by Donnel B. Stern and Irwin Hirsch
Vol. 41 understanding the sexual Betrayal of Boys and Men
The Trauma of Sexual Abuse
Edited by Richard B. Gartner
Vol. 40 healing sexually Betrayed Men and Boys
Treatment for Sexual Abuse, Assault, and Trauma
Edited by Richard B. Gartner
Vol. 39 The Voice of the Analyst
Narratives on Developing a Psychoanalytic Identity
Edited by Linda Hillman and Therese Rosenblatt
Vol. 38 interpersonal Psychoanalysis and the enigma of consciousness
Edgar A. Levenson and edited by Alan Slomowitz
The Mindbrain and
Dreams
An Exploration of Dreaming,
Thinking, and Artistic Creation
Mark J. Blechner
First published 2018
by Routledge
2 Park Square, Milton Park, Abingdon, Oxon OX14 4RN
and by Routledge
711 Third Avenue, New York, NY 10017
Routledge is an imprint of the Taylor and Francis Group, an informa business
© 2018 Mark J. Blechner
The right of Mark J. Blechner to be identified as author of this
work has been asserted by him in accordance with sections 77 and
78 of the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988.
All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reprinted or
reproduced or utilized in any form or by any electronic, mechanical,
or other means, now known or hereafter invented, including
photocopying and recording, or in any information storage or
retrieval system, without permission in writing from the publishers.
Trademark notice: Product or corporate names may be trademarks
or registered trademarks, and are used only for identification and
explanation without intent to infringe.
British Library Cataloguing-in-Publication Data
A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Names: Blechner, Mark J., author.
Title: The mindbrain and dreams: an exploration of dreaming,
thinking, and artistic creation / Mark J. Blechner.
Description: New York: Routledge, 2018. | Series: Psychoanalysis
in a new key book series; 43 | Includes bibliographical references
and index.
Identifiers: LCCN 2017052166 (print) | LCCN 2017054664 (ebook)
| ISBN 9781351185677 (Master) | ISBN 9781351185653 (ePUB) |
ISBN 9781351185660 ( Web PDF) | ISBN 9781351185646 (Mobi/
Kindle) | ISBN 9780815394563 (hardback: alk. paper) | ISBN
9780815394570 (pbk.: alk. paper)
Subjects: LCSH: Dreams. | Thought and thinking. | Creative ability.
| Psychoanalysis.
Classification: LCC BF1078 (ebook) | LCC BF1078.B564 2018
(print) | DDC 154.6/3–dc23
LC record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2017052166
ISBN: 978-0-8153-9456-3 (hbk)
ISBN: 978-0-8153-9457-0 (pbk)
ISBN: 978-1-351-18567-7 (ebk)
Typeset in Times New Roman
by Wearset Ltd, Boldon, Tyne and Wear
Ah, but a man’s reach should exceed his grasp, or what’s a heaven for?
Robert Browning, Andrea del Sarto
Contents
List of figures xi
Acknowledgments xii
1 Introduction 1
PART I
How the mindbrain transforms the world 13
2 The mindbrain creates its own version of the world 15
3 Condensation, interobjects, and categories 25
4 Displacement 42
5 Metaphor 45
6 Puns – linguistic and nonlinguistic 100
7 Homoforms and homomelodies 107
8 Metonymy 111
9 Symbols 120
10 Dreams and the mindbrain’s structuring of
experience 134
11 Psychological defenses and dreams 146
Description:In The Mindbrain and Dreams: An Exploration of Dreaming, Thinking, and Artistic Creation, Mark J. Blechner argues that the mind and brain should be understood as a single unit – the "mindbrain" – which manipulates our raw perceptions of the world and reshapes that world through dreams, thoughts,
