About the Author:
Dr. Kelly Bulkeley is a visiting scholar at the Graduate Theological Union and a faculty member in the dream studies program at John F. Kennedy University. A former president of the International Association for the Study of Dreams, he is the author or editor of several books, most recently Dreaming Beyond Death: A Guide to Pre-Death Dreams and Visions, Dreams: A Reader on the Religious, Cultural, and Psychological Dimensions of Dreaming; Dreams of Healing: Transforming Nightmares into Visions of Hope; and The Wondering Brain: Thinking about Religion with and beyond Cognitive Neuroscience.
Review:
No book about dreams could be more timely or more important than Kelly Bulkeley's American Dreamers. Whatever is important in people's waking lives is reflected in their dreams—politics included. American conservatives report different dreams than American liberals. American Democrats report different dreams than American Republicans. Dr. Bulkeley paints his portraits of American dreamers with a palette that reflects his scholarship in both religious studies and dream science; the results are filled with insights that will delight, amuse, and infuriate his readers. American Dreamers provides insight into the country's future, insight that is available from no other (or better) source.—Stanley Krippner, Ph.D., Co-author, Haunted by Combat: Understanding PTSD in War Veterans
"Any political pundit who wants to speak with intelligence and genuine insight about the psychological motivations of American voters across the political spectrum would be well advised to read Kelly Bulkeley’s American Dreamers. Kelly Bulkeley is arguably the most rigorously empirical and psychologically subtle contemporary interpreter of the phenomenon of human dreaming. Over twenty-five years of writing and research is deployed in this urgently relevant, nonpartisan, and broadly sympathetic analysis of the underlying psychological and spiritual concerns that unconsciously organize the political views of ordinary Americans today." —John McDargh, author of Psychoanalytic Object Relations Theory and the Study of Religion and associate professor of the psychology of religion, Boston College
"A beautifully written reminder of the depth of differences, and a dream of how difference might be understood. Bulkeley is on to something profound about us; we would benefit enormously if we could even just glimpse that understanding."—Lawrence Lessig, author of The Future of Ideas
"This story we tell ourselves in our dreams passes the impurities of our waking life through an ethical filter and exposes truths we have not yet acknowledged. American Dreamers is a comprehensive and very readable account of our unconscious adaptation of what is still a hazardous and imperfect waking domain. Bulkeley's professional life has revolved around dreams and what we can learn from them. This book is true to its title. He has opened the door to the sociology of dreams."—Montague Ullman, M.D., author of Appreciating Dreams: A Group Approach and clinical professor of psychiatry emeritus, Yeshiva University
"With an exemplary grasp of dream science built upon thousands of dream accounts, Bulkeley presents a multifaceted and nuanced portrait of the ways our deeply seated ideas, values, virtues, and fears become apparent within our dreams. This groundbreaking and timely work challenges us to develop a greater understanding of and respect for all people across the political spectrum."—Bonnie J. Miller-McLemore, author of In the Midst of Chaos and Let the Children Come
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