ABOUT THE BOOK

If you've ever woken at dawn (or, ahem, 3am) to scribble wildly in a dream journal, convinced that you've just written the world's most heartbreaking poem or unlocked the secret of perpetual motion, you know how powerfully real your night visions can seem. If by lunchtime that day, however, you realize what you've written is not only drivel but completely incomprehensible, you are not alone.

But take heart: your dreams are not only entertaining (or utterly terrifying), they are vital to your psychological health. Dreams allow us to process traumas, prepare ourselves mentally for tasks, reveal our buried wishes and loves and loathings. Reading Dream Psychology and maybe even Freud's The Interpretation of Dreams (if you're feeling adventurous) can validate the importance of our dreams to our entire mental well-being. While not all of us may have access to a psychoanalyst, we can all trace patterns in our dreams if we are diligent about making a record of them. And if we can find a generous listener, we can express our thoughts about our dreams and incorporate the other person's insights into our idea of ourselves.

MEET THE AUTHOR

Lily is very close to finishing her Ph.D. at the University of Oxford. She also has an utterly non-lucrative Masters of Fine Arts in poetry. “Lily McNeil” is a pseudonym.

EXCERPT FROM THE BOOK

Dream Psychology leads the reader through the important aspects of dream interpretation. In the first chapter

Quicklet On Freud's Dream Psychology (CliffsNotes-like Book Summaries)