The Sociological Interpretation of Dreams

For Freud, dreams were the royal road to the unconscious: through the process of interpretation, the manifest and sometimes bewildering content of dreams can be traced back to the unconscious representations underlying it. But can we understand dreams in another way by considering how the unconscious is structured by our social experiences?  

This is hypothesis that underlies this highly original book by Bernard Lahire, who argues that dreams can be interpreted sociologically by seeing the dream as a nocturnal form of self-to-self communication. Lahire rejects Freud’s view that the manifest dream content is the result of a process of censorship: as a form of self-to-self communication, the dream is the symbolic arena most completely freed from all forms of censorship. In Lahire’s view, the dream is a message which can be understood only by relating it to the social world of the dreamer, and in particular to the problems that concern him or her during waking life. As a form of self-to-self communication, the dream is an intimate private diary, providing us with the elements of a profound and subtle understanding of who and what we are. Studying dreams enables us to discover our most deep-seated and hidden preoccupations, and to understand the thought processes that operate within us, beyond the reach of our volition.  

The study of dreams and dreaming has largely been the preserve of psychoanalysis, psychology and neuroscience. By showing how dreams are connected to the lived experience of individuals in the social world, this highly original book puts dreams and dreaming at the heart of the social sciences.  It will be of great value to students and scholars in sociology, psychology and psychoanalysis and to anyone interested in the nature and meaning of dreams.

“Drawing on many disciplines, on little-known works about dream activity and on discoveries about consciousness and the workings of thought, Bernard Lahire puts forward a bold theory: we replay at night the unconscious schemas and determinisms that structure our personality and underlie our behavior. L'Obs This great theoretical work, which opens up a whole host of questions about what troubles us day and night, about what social structures do to our unconscious and about what the world does to our nocturnal imagination, awaits only its practical application in order to corroborate its stimulating insights. Les Inrocks "With insight and serious thought, Lahire builds a bridge between sociology and psychoanalysis. Across the bridge travel not only empirical and theoretical contributions to each field, but intellectual spurs to new creativity." Craig Calhoun, Arizona State University "Bernard Lahire has established himself as arguably the most creative and insightful French sociologist of his generation. A leading global social psychologist, Lahire reveals how dreams transcend the line between fantasy and daytime reality. This masterwork persuades us that that the chasm between sleep and waking is not as deep as easily imagined. Every sociologist will learn from Lahire and every psychologist should learn from him as well." Gary Alan Fine, Northwestern University”

�Drawing on many disciplines, on little-known works about dream activity and on discoveries about consciousness and the workings of thought, Bernard Lahire puts forward a bold theory: we replay at night the unconscious schemas and determinisms that structure our personality and underlie our behavior.�
L'Obs

�This great theoretical work, which opens up a whole host of questions about what troubles us day and night, about what social structures do to our unconscious and about what the world does to our nocturnal imagination, awaits only its practical application in order to corroborate its stimulating insights.�
Les Inrocks

"With insight and serious thought, Lahire builds a bridge between sociology and psychoanalysis. Across the bridge travel not only empirical and theoretical contributions to each field, but intellectual spurs to new creativity."
Craig Calhoun, Arizona State University

"Bernard Lahire has established himself as arguably the most creative and insightful French sociologist of his generation.  A leading global social psychologist, Lahire reveals how dreams transcend the line between fantasy and daytime reality. This masterwork persuades us that that the chasm between sleep and waking is not as deep as easily imagined. Every sociologist will learn from Lahire and every psychologist should learn from him as well."
Gary Alan Fine, Northwestern University

Bernard Lahire is Professor of Sociology at the École Normale Superieure de Lyon.  He has published over twenty books, including This is Not a Painting and The Plural Actor.

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