Dreaming: A Very Short Introduction

Dreaming: A Very Short Introduction provides an increasingly complete picture of how dreaming is created by the brain. It explores how the new science of dreaming is affecting psychoanalysis theories and how it is helping our understanding of the causes of mental illness. Dreams are investigated to illustrate and explain some of the fascinating discoveries of modern sleep science, while challenging some of the traditionally accepted theories about dream meaning. How dreaming maintains and develops the mind, why we go crazy in our dreams in order to avoid doing so when we are awake, and why sleep is not just good for health, but essential for life is revealed.