On "Telepathic dreams?": an unpublished paper by Robert J. Stoller. 2001

E L Mayer
San Francisco Psychoanalytic Institute, USA. Elmayer@pacbell.net

In 1973 Robert Stoller wrote a paper on a series of dreams-his own and his patients'--that he reluctantly found himself calling "telepathic." He never submitted the paper for publication, though he returned to the topic of unconscious communication and telepathy with increasing fascination in the years before his death. Publication of Stoller's paper seems particularly opportune just now. In it he pleads for open-minded examination of data, however alien to current scientific belief those data seem. In the past, despite numerous published reports of possibly telepathic experiences in analysis, their investigation remained relatively one-sided, since a technical posture of anonymity with patients constrained analysts from revealing that a communication struck them as telepathic. This has limited what analysts have been able to learn about the information actually exchanged, how it was exchanged, and whether the communication was experienced as uncanny by the patient. Recent attention to the intersubjective nature of the analytic situation has led to a deemphasis of anonymity, opening freer dialogue that may facilitate the rigorous investigation Stoller calls for. Such investigation may further analytic understanding of unconscious mental function and communication in the clinical setting, and lend perspective to the growing body of carefully controlled experimental research on anomalous mental phenomena.

UI MeSH Term Description Entries
D011572 Psychoanalysis The separation or resolution of the psyche into its constituent elements. The term has two separate meanings: 1. a procedure devised by Sigmund Freud, for investigating mental processes by means of free association, dream interpretation and interpretation of resistance and transference manifestations; and 2. a theory of psychology developed by Freud from his clinical experience with hysterical patients. (From Campbell, Psychiatric Dictionary, 1996). Psychodynamic Analysis,Analyses, Psychodynamic,Analysis, Psychodynamic,Psychodynamic Analyses
D011573 Psychoanalytic Interpretation Utilization of Freudian theories to explain various psychologic aspects of art, literature, biographical material, etc. Interpretation, Psychoanalytic,Psychoanalytical Interpretation,Interpretation, Psychoanalytical,Interpretations, Psychoanalytic,Interpretations, Psychoanalytical,Psychoanalytic Interpretations,Psychoanalytical Interpretations
D004325 Dreams A series of thoughts, images, or emotions occurring during sleep which are dissociated from the usual stream of consciousness of the waking state. Nightmares,Dream,Nightmare
D006801 Humans Members of the species Homo sapiens. Homo sapiens,Man (Taxonomy),Human,Man, Modern,Modern Man
D013688 Telepathy The knowledge or communication by one person with the mental processes of another through channels other than known physical or perceptual processes.
D049673 History, 20th Century Time period from 1901 through 2000 of the common era. 20th Century History,20th Cent. History (Medicine),20th Cent. History of Medicine,20th Cent. Medicine,Historical Events, 20th Century,History of Medicine, 20th Cent.,History, Twentieth Century,Medical History, 20th Cent.,Medicine, 20th Cent.,20th Cent. Histories (Medicine),20th Century Histories,Cent. Histories, 20th (Medicine),Cent. History, 20th (Medicine),Century Histories, 20th,Century Histories, Twentieth,Century History, 20th,Century History, Twentieth,Histories, 20th Cent. (Medicine),Histories, 20th Century,Histories, Twentieth Century,History, 20th Cent. (Medicine),Twentieth Century Histories,Twentieth Century History

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