Abstract

PITANGA, Artur Vandré  and  VANDENBERGHE, Luc. Possibilities of dream analysis in behavior therapy. Perspectivas [online]. 2010, vol.1, n.2, pp. 86-92. ISSN 2177-3548.

This article discusses the analysis of dreams in behavior therapy and its use for the expansion of the client’s self-knowledge acquisition, as well as the feasibility for this kind of analysis to give the therapist more information about clients’ life conditions for therapeutic purposes. Examples from three cases are given, showing how dream analysis helped identify client behavior related to their complaints and situations they have difficulty coping with. The examples also illustrate how the analysis can help clients understand how their history relates to their problems, how it can lead them to open up for the treatment process, how it can facilitate intense emotional responding in the sessions, and promote commitment to change. Based on these possibilities, the analysis of dreams is argued to be a resource with potentially broad application in treatment.

Keywords : behavior therapy; dreams; interpretation; analysis of contingencies.

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