Working With EEs/EHEs Record Type: Review   ID: 880
Daydreaming: Using Waking Fantasy and Imagery for Self-Knowledge and Creativity Klinger, Eric
This introduction to daydreaming by a leading researcher is aimed at the general reader, especially one who wants to use waking fantasy. He views daydreaming "as one of the central features of human life . . . connected in one way or another to virtually everything about us" (p. xi). Research on daydreaming indicates that "our daydreams are important, they are an essential part of normal functioning, and their role in our lives is overwhelmingly benign. Furthermore, we can harness them to make them even more useful to us than they already are" (p. xiii). He sees daydreams as revealing much about our individuality, and they serve as "extensions of our personalities" (p. 3). The first chapter reviews the characteristics and purposes of daydreams. There follow chapters on why we daydream, what daydreamers are like, daydream styles and personality, sex and daydreams, the imagery of which daydreams are composed, myths and misconceptions about daydreams, "Preoccupation, Worry, and Obsessive Daydreams: What They Tell Us and Ways to Deal With Them," and a chapter on the benefits of daydreaming. Perhaps the most important chapter as regards exceptional human experience is the one entitled "How Our Daydreams Reflect Who We Are: Daydreams, Storytelling and Self-Discovery." It shows how daydreams serve as an information source for managing our lives, a role that also may be played by EHEs. The main difference between EHEs and daydreams may be that the former are completely spontaneous; they are not consciously created. Instead of representing playacting, as daydreams do, EHEs act upon the person who has them. The chapter also deals with guided daydreams, and it could serve as a model for using EHEs to initiate guided daydreaming. Klinger shows how daydreams can lead us into our futures, which is again analogous to the potential role EHEs may play in our lives.
Publisher Information:	Los Angeles, CA: Jeremy P. Tarcher, 1990. 331p. Bibl: 308-318; Index: 319-331

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