Utilization of Awake Dreams for Therapeutic Intervention

Abstract

As a nurse-psychotherapist working in outpatient psychiatry office I have been able to view the process of awake dreaming and harness it's therapeutic potential. I use three biofeedback procedures, temperature training, voluntary muscle training and palm sweat reduction to teach Autogenic Therapy (Schultz & Luthe, 1969). The majority of my patients have various types of atypical depressions (Kernberg, 1984). The self-hypnotic aspect of the autogenic phrases combine with the biofeedback skills to allow the patient to experience a new psychophysiological state of "low" arousal. This different state, the "mezzanine of the mind" connects the patients to their emotional life in a markedly different way. A fascinating paradox of this newly mastered "deep relaxation" can be the spontaneous intrusion of symbolic hallucinatory phenomena classified by W. Luthe as Ideational Autogenic Discharges. However, the autogenicdischarges, or biofeedback side effects, can occur in any organ systems and as a physical discharge. Another aspect of these side effects is that with frequent regularity there occurs a physical manifestation accompanying the most highly charged visual symbolism. These physical disturbances can range from mildly annoying to frightening and/or painful. Luthe had considered all these ideational and physical phenomena or autogenic discharges to indicate an unhappy brain needing to unload (personal communication from Luthe, 1969).