DREAMING AUTOIMMUNITY
A webpage and a forum dedicated to the dreams of patients suffering from autoimmune diseases
Background
Asclepius was the ancient Greek god of medicine and he was also credited with powers of prophecy. People suffering from various types of ailments were invited to spend a night at his temple and to "wait" for a dream to come. Dreams were indeed thought to be the ancient version of prescriptions and to contain the secrets for an effective therapy and cure.
A great deal of undocumented evidence suggests that patients suffering from autoimmune disorders often experience very vivid dreams during the development of their disease. This highly emotionally charged material is often mislabelled as a transitory ‘reflection’ (or secondary manifestation) of an unstable physical and emotional condition. As a consequence of this ‘bias’, patients find difficult to share or disclose their dream experiences in medical settings. What is even worse is that the dismissal of the patient's dream experience can cause an extra level of burden on the patient's quality of life.
With this project, we propose to test the hypothesis that the emotional discharge associated with dream exploration might provide patients with a better quality of care and an improved support system for the coping with the life-debilitating effects of their diseases. This project will allow us to assess the impact of dream exploration on the patient's wellbeing while gathering new information on the typology of dreams experienced by these people
Asclepius was the ancient Greek god of medicine and he was also credited with powers of prophecy. People suffering from various types of ailments were invited to spend a night at his temple and to "wait" for a dream to come. Dreams were indeed thought to be the ancient version of prescriptions and to contain the secrets for an effective therapy and cure.
A great deal of undocumented evidence suggests that patients suffering from autoimmune disorders often experience very vivid dreams during the development of their disease. This highly emotionally charged material is often mislabelled as a transitory ‘reflection’ (or secondary manifestation) of an unstable physical and emotional condition. As a consequence of this ‘bias’, patients find difficult to share or disclose their dream experiences in medical settings. What is even worse is that the dismissal of the patient's dream experience can cause an extra level of burden on the patient's quality of life.
With this project, we propose to test the hypothesis that the emotional discharge associated with dream exploration might provide patients with a better quality of care and an improved support system for the coping with the life-debilitating effects of their diseases. This project will allow us to assess the impact of dream exploration on the patient's wellbeing while gathering new information on the typology of dreams experienced by these people