The value of eliciting dreams in general psychiatry

Dreams have been described as “an endangered species” in general psychiatry nowadays (Holmes, 1991). Liam Hudson (1985) suggests the danger derives from a society which has embraced a naïvely reductionist, oversimplified understanding of neurophysiology. But Hudson also sees a threat to dreams from the increasing variety of visual imagery available for personal creative adaptation through television, computer programs and video recording. Researching this article, I was unable to find a single reference to dreams in the British Journal of Psychiatry over the past 12 years. Theories about dreams are taught to trainee psychiatrists as historical background. In recent years there has been a revival of psychiatric interest in only one kind of dream –‘flashbacks' of traumatic experiences as a feature of post-traumatic stress disorder.