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{{nobots}}'''Deirdre Barrett''', Ph.D. is a clinical psychologist and author who teaches at Harvard Medical School. She is known for her research on [[dreams]], [[hypnosis]], and imagery and has written on [[evolutionary psychology]].[[Image:DeirdreBarrett.jpg|thumb|Deirdre Barrett in 2006]] Barrett is a Past President of The International Association for the Study of Dreams and of the American Psychological Association’s Div. 30, The Society for Psychological Hypnosis. She has written three books for the general public: ''The Pregnant Man and other tales from a hypnotherapist’s couch'' (1998), ''The Committee of Sleep'' (2001), and ''Waistland'' (2007). She is the editor of two academic books, ''The New Science of Dreaming'' (2007) and ''Trauma and Dreams'' (1996). She is Editor in Chief of the journal ''Dreaming: The Journal of the Association for the Study of Dreams'' and a Consulting Editor for ''Imagination, Cognition, and Personality'' and ''The International Journal for Clinical and Experimental Hypnosis''.
{{nobots}}'''Deirdre Barrett''', Ph.D. is a clinical psychologist and author who teaches at Harvard Medical School. She is known for her research on [[dreams]], [[hypnosis]], and imagery and has written on [[evolutionary psychology]].[[Image:DeirdreBarrett.jpg|thumb|Deirdre Barrett in 2006]] Barrett is a Past President of The International Association for the Study of Dreams and of the American Psychological Association’s Div. 30, The Society for Psychological Hypnosis. She has written three books for the general public: ''The Pregnant Man and other tales from a hypnotherapist’s couch'' (1998), ''The Committee of Sleep'' (2001), and ''Waistland'' (2007). She is the editor of two academic books, ''The New Science of Dreaming'' (2007) and ''Trauma and Dreams'' (1996). She is Editor in Chief of the journal ''Dreaming: The Journal of the Association for the Study of Dreams'' and a Consulting Editor for ''Imagination, Cognition, and Personality'' and ''The International Journal for Clinical and Experimental Hypnosis''.


Revision as of 17:52, 11 August 2009

Deirdre Barrett, Ph.D. is a clinical psychologist and author who teaches at Harvard Medical School. She is known for her research on dreams, hypnosis, and imagery and has written on evolutionary psychology.

File:DeirdreBarrett.jpg
Deirdre Barrett in 2006

Barrett is a Past President of The International Association for the Study of Dreams and of the American Psychological Association’s Div. 30, The Society for Psychological Hypnosis. She has written three books for the general public: The Pregnant Man and other tales from a hypnotherapist’s couch (1998), The Committee of Sleep (2001), and Waistland (2007). She is the editor of two academic books, The New Science of Dreaming (2007) and Trauma and Dreams (1996). She is Editor in Chief of the journal Dreaming: The Journal of the Association for the Study of Dreams and a Consulting Editor for Imagination, Cognition, and Personality and The International Journal for Clinical and Experimental Hypnosis.

Barrett is best known for her work on dreams and their contributions to creativity and objective problem solving. She interviewed modern artists and scientists about their use of their dreams, documenting dramatic anecdotes including Nobel Prizes and McArthur 'genius grants' whose ideas originated in dreams.[1] She also conducted research asking college students to incubate answers to real-life homework and other objective problems on which they were working, finding that in one week’s time, ½ had dreamed about their topic and ¼ had a dream which provided an answer.[2] Barrett describes dreaming as simply “thinking in different biochemical state”[3] and believes we continue to work on all the same problems—personal and objective—in that state. Her research concludes that while anything—math, musical composition, business dilemmas—may get solved during dreaming, the two areas dreams are especially likely to help are 1) anything where vivid visualization contributes to the solution, whether in artistic design or invention of 3-D technological devices and 2) any problem where the solution lies in “thinking outside the box”—i.e. where the person is stuck because the conventional wisdom on how to approach the problem is wrong.

Barrett has also conducted research on lucid dreams[4][5] and on helping people suffering from PTSD to incubate mastery dreams to change their nightmares[6], and published studies tracking the progression of dreams during bereavement.[7][8] She has also studied characteristics of dreams in various disorders including depression[9] and dissociative disorders[10][11].

Barrett’s studies of hypnosis have focused on different types of high hypnotizables, finding two subgroups which she terms fantasizers and dissociaters. Fantasizers are people who have vivid imaginations, find it easy to block out real-world stimuli, spend much time daydreaming, report imaginary companions as a child and grew up with parents who encouraged imaginary play. Dissociaters usually had a history of childhood abuse or other significant trauma, had learned to escape into numbness, and to forget unpleasant events. Their association to “daydreaming” was often going blank rather than vividly recalled fantasies. Both score equally high on formal scales of hypnotic susceptibility.[12][13][14]

Other research by Barrett focused on the similarities and differences of daydreams and nocturnal dreaming[15] and on the significance of earliest memories as reflecting a microcosm of an individual’s worldview.[16][17] Barrett is interested in film and has written on techniques which films use to represent dreams[18] and on the negative stereotypes of hypnosis in film[19].

Most recently Barrett has written on evolutionary psychology, especially the concept of supernormal stimuli—the idea that technology can create objects which pull an instinct more than what it evolved for. Her book Waistland[20] explores the weight and fitness crisis in terms of supernormal stimuli for food and rest. Her latest research examines the impact of supernormal stimuli on cuteness and the diversion of impulses to nurture, sexuality, romance, territoriality, war, and the entertainment industry’s hijacking of our social instincts.[21]

References

  1. ^ Barrett, Deirdre. The Committee of Sleep: How Artists, Scientists, and Athletes Use their Dreams for Creative Problem Solving—and How You Can Too. NY: Crown Books/Random House, 2001
  2. ^ Barrett, Deirdre. The 'Committee of Sleep': A Study of Dream Incubation for Problem Solving.Dreaming: Journal of the Association for the Study of Dreams, 1993, 3, p. 115-123.
  3. ^ Barrett, Deirdre. An Evolutionary Theory of Dreams and Problem-Solving in Barrett, D. L. & McNamara, P. (Eds.) The New Science of Dreaming, Volume III: Cultural and Theoretical Perspectives on Dreaming NY, NY: Praeger/Greenwood, 2007.
  4. ^ Deirdre. Barrett, Deirdre. Just how lucid are lucid dreams: an empirical study of their cognitive characteristics. Dreaming: The Journal of the Association for the Study of Dreams, 1992, Vol 2., No. 4, p. 221-228.
  5. ^ Barrett, Deirdre. An Empirical Study of The Relationship of Lucidity and Flying Dreams. Dreaming: the Journal of the Association for the Study of Dreams, 1991, Vol 1, No. 2, p. 129 133.
  6. ^ Barrett, Deirdre. (Ed.) Trauma and Dreams. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 1996.
  7. ^ Barrett, Deirdre L. Dreams of Death. OMEGA: the Journal of Death and Dying, 1988, Vol. 19, p. 95 102.
  8. ^ Barrett, Deirdre. Through a glass darkly: the dead appear in dreams. OMEGA: The Journal of Death and Dying, 1991, Vol. 24, p. 97-108.
  9. ^ Barrett, Deirdre and Loeffler, Michael. The effect of depression on the manifest content of the dreams of college students. Psychological Reports, 1992, 70, p. 403-406.
  10. ^ Barrett, Deirdre. Dreams in Dissociative Disorders. Dreaming: J. of the Assoc. for the Study of Dreams, 1994, Vol 4, No. 3, p. 165-177.
  11. ^ Barrett, Deirdre. The Dream Character as a Prototype for the Multiple Personality "Alter". Dissociation, Vol. 8, March 1995, p. 61 68.
  12. ^ Barrett, Deirdre. Deep Trance Subjects: A Schema of Two Distinct Subgroups. Chpt in R. Kunzendorf (Ed.) Imagery: Recent Developments, NY: Plenum Press, 1991, p. 101 112.
  13. ^ Barrett, Deirdre. Fantasizers and Dissociaters: An Empirically based schema of two types of deep trance subjects. Psychological Reports, 1992, 71, p. 1011-1014.
  14. ^ Barrett, Deirdre. Fantasizers and Dissociaters: Two types of High Hypnotizables, Two Imagery Styles. in R. Kuzendorf, N. Spanos, & B. Wallace (Eds.) Hypnosis and Imagination, NY: Baywood, 1996.
  15. ^ Barrett, Deirdre. The Hypnotic Dream: Its Content in Comparison to Nocturnal Dreams and Waking Fantasy. Journal of Abnormal Psychology, 1979, Vol. 88, p. 584 591.
  16. ^ Barrett, Deirdre. The First Memory as a Predictor of Personality Traits. Journal of Individual Psychology, 1980, Vol. 36, p. 136-149.
  17. ^ Barrett, Deirdre. Early Recollections as Predictors of Self Disclosure and Interpersonal Style. Journal of Individual Psychology, 1983, Vol. 39, p. 92-98.
  18. ^ Barrett, Deirdre 'The Dream Videophile' Regular column in Dream Time magazine and posted online at ASD.
  19. ^ Barrett, Deirdre. Hypnosis in Film and Television American Journal of Clinical Hypnosis, Vol. 49, No. 1, July 2006, p. 13-30.
  20. ^ Barrett, Deirdre. Waistland: The R/Evolutionary Science Behind Our Weight and Fitness Crisis. NY NY: W.W. Norton, 2007.
  21. ^ Rimas, Andrew ‘Meet the Minds’ feature about Deirdre Barrett, PhD, Science Section, ‘’The Boston Globe’’, October 22, 2007.

NPR Talk of the Nation interview with Deirdre Barrett June 25, 2007.

‘’US News and World Report’’, Health: Interview with Deirdre Barrett, PhD 6/29/07.

Creative Problem-Solving Through Dreams with Deirdre Barrett, PhD

"The Power of Hypnosis" by Deirdre Barrett in ‘’Psychology Today’’, Jan/Feb 2001

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