Children's Dreams

Claudio Colace is executive Psychologist at the Operational Unit of Psychology of the National Health Service in Italy, where he works in the Outpatient Psychology Department and in the Centre for Drug Addictions at Civita Castellana. He obtained a MD in Psychology at the University of Rome and a PhD in Psychology at the University of Bologna, Italy. After training in sleep research at the Sleep Laboratory of the University of Rome ("La Sapienza"), he carried out empirical studies on children's dreams, dream bizarreness, and on dreaming in states of addiction. He has been a member of the Italian Society of Sleep Research from 1997 to 2009 and is currently a member of the International Neuropsychoanalysis Society. He is the author of scientific contributions published in 'The American Journal on Addictions, Neuropsychoanalysis, Alcohol and Drug Review, Sleep and Hypnosis, Sleep', and 'Sleep Research'. He has recently published 'Children's Dreams: From Freud's Observations to Modern Dream Research'.

Introduction: Freud’s dream theory and modern dream research -- An Attempt to Systematically Describe Freud’s Observations on Children’s Dreams -- An overview of Freud’s writings on children’s dreams -- How Freud studied children’s dreams: method and samples -- The characteristics of children’s dreams described by Freud -- Are Freud’s hypotheses on children’s dreams empirically testable? -- Empirical Evaluation of Freud’s Observations on Children’s Dreams -- Dream research in children: general and methodological aspects -- Four studies on children’s dreams -- Formal characteristics of children’s dreams -- Bizarreness in children’s dreams and the development of superego functions -- Wish-fulfilment in children’s dreams -- Child dream development: a longitudinal observation -- Implications for dream research and theory